Don’t Wanna Teach No White Children: The Journey Into My Pedagogy

Abstract

This article is an autoethnography of one African American female educator. It is the story of her social justice disposition development to teach White students after graduation from a Historically Black University (HBCU). Revealed is the personal journey of her racial identity development before attending the HBCU and the irony of the relational and institutional impact attending one southeastern HBCU had on her preparation to teach. The initial research and inquiry was to explore how attending an HBCU impacted both Black and White education graduates’ social justice disposition development to teach in multicultural classrooms. From this inquiry it became clear that as a faculty member of the HBCU and an instructor in the Education Preparation Program, this African American educator had to first reflect on who she is racially, resurrecting her lived experiences from her family background within her community and the background of her early education preparation in order to make an impact on education graduates’ social justice lens. This article reviews her racial and social justice development before attending the HBCU, during matriculation, and after attending the HBCU. It journals the journey of one African American female’s path to her pedagogy and her level of consciousness to teach students who were different from herself. HBCUs have long been recognized for their mission and rich legacy of providing education for African American students. These Black colleges and universities have been the heart of Black racial identity development with their distinctiveness and unique ability to raise cultural awareness of Black students. The level of awareness has traditionally been for HBCUs to prepare Black students to go out into the Black Fran Bates Oates Taboo, Winter 2019 Fran Bates Oates is the director of the Office of Field and Clinical Experiences at Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her email address is oatesfr@wssu.edu © 2019 by Caddo Gap Press. Don’t Wanna Teach No White Children 66 communities and serve. Examined is how one African American female raised her level of consciousness and cultural awareness of her racial identity to prepare to go into the communities and teach White students.