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This book employs a fiction-based approach to address the revolving door of Black faculty and staff in American colleges and universities as a national crisis that needs to be resolved systematically. Alex-Assensoh coins the acronym SOULS to promote the importance of safety, organizational accountability, unvarnished truth telling, love, and spirituality as the foundational ingredients for reimagining and rebuilding an Academy that harnesses the talents of Black faculty and staff. Chapters feature storytelling to illustrate common cracks in academic structures while interweaving interdisciplinary research to contextualize themes that the fiction-based method reveals. To conclude, the author provides a research-informed call to action within the context of institutional transformation, as well as reflective questions and recommendations for further reading.
Like many black school principals, Ulysses Byas, who served the Gainesville, Georgia, school system in the 1950s and 1960s, was reverently addressed by community members as "Professor." He kept copious notes and records throughout his career, documenting efforts to improve the education of blacks. Through conversations with Byas and access to his extensive archives on his principalship, Vanessa Siddle Walker finds that black principals were well positioned in the community to serve as conduits of ideas, knowledge, and tools to support black resistance to officially sanctioned regressive educational systems in the Jim Crow South. Walker explains that principals participated in local, regional, and national associations, comprising a black educational network through which power structures were formed and ideas were spread to schools across the South. The professor enabled local school empowerment and applied the collective wisdom of the network to pursue common school projects such as pressuring school superintendents for funding, structuring professional development for teachers, and generating local action that was informed by research in academic practice. The professor was uniquely positioned to learn about and deploy resources made available through these networks. Walker's record of the transfer of ideology from black organizations into a local setting illuminates the remembered activities of black schools throughout the South and recalls for a new generation the role of the professor in uplifting black communities.
By presenting discussions on professional development, and emphasizing the challenges and triumphs experienced by Black professors across disciplines, this book provides advice for junior Black scholars on how to navigate academe and tackle the challenges that Black scholars often face.
Since the U.S. Civil Rights era, the racial composition of higher education has changed dramatically, resulting in an increase in the number of African American students and African American faculty in predominantly white institutions (PWI). Nevertheless, the number of African American endowed or distinguished professors remains small. Because it is difficult for African American faculty to attain these prized positions, those who have done so possess invaluable knowledge that may be beneficial to others. Reaching the Mountaintop of the Academy: Personal Narratives, Advice and Strategies from Black Distinguished and Endowed Professors, fills an important niche in the canon of higher education literature. In the autobiographical chapters that follow, numerous distinguished and endowed professors (1) describe their personal journey to the distinguished or endowed professorship; (2) explain important life lessons that they learned during their journey; (3) describe their current professional goals; and (4) offer suggestions and recommendations for graduate students, untenured faculty, tenured faculty, and college/university administrators. At a time when many predominantly white higher education institutions continue to have difficulty attracting and retaining African American faculty, and African American faculty continue to struggle for full inclusion in the academy, this book is timely and needed.
Through candid discussions and personal counter-narrative stories, Black Faculty in the Academy explores the experiences and challenges faced by faculty of color in academe. Black faculty in predominantly White college and university settings must negotiate multiple and competing identities while struggling with issues of marginality, otherness, and invisible barriers. This important book illuminates how faculty can develop a professional identity that leads to success in academe, while at the same time remaining true to cultural and personal identities. Through rich narratives, chapter authors situate race-related encounters at the center of their experience in an effort to deconstruct and challenge commonly held assumptions about life in academe. They also provide key recommendations and strategies to help faculty of color ensure their continued professional success. Framed by critical race theory, these stories show how faculty can successfully maneuver through all stages of a career in academe, including tenure and promotion, publication, mentoring, networking, teaching, and dealing with institutional climate issues. This valuable book is for faculty and administrators seeking to create an environment that nurtures professional growth and fosters success among Black faculty.
The Souls of Black Folk is a classic work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology, and a cornerstone of African-American literary history. To develop this groundbreaking work, Du Bois drew from his own experiences as an African-American in the American society. Outside of its notable relevance in African-American history, The Souls of Black Folk also holds an important place in social science as one of the early works in the field of sociology.
There generally remains a gulf between the way most Black faculty perceive the racial climate at their institutions and the recognition by non-Black faculty and administrators that there are problems and that these perceptions have merit. This book is intended to promote a productive dialogue.This book weaves the authors’ own experiences with the responses of 136 Black faculty to a questionnaire, and a smaller sample who were interviewed, to identify the factors that determine Black faculty’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their jobs and institutions.Recurring themes underscore the importance of a supportive work environment that is built on mutual respect, full inclusion in the decision-making process, and an institutional climate that does not tolerate cultural insensitivity or racism. The qualitative and quantitative information and the authors’ conclusions can help postsecondary institutions improve Black faculty satisfaction levels, and ultimately, retention rates.This book will resonate with any Black faculty who have felt frustrated enough to consider leaving a postsecondary institution and with those who are content at their current institutions. For non-Black faculty and for administrators of all races, the book illuminates the sources of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, explains the reasons their Black colleagues leave or stay, and offers valuable recommendations for change. For anyone, at any level, interested in the issue of the racial climate at his or her institution, this book offers a constructive framework for discussion and action
Over the course of the twentieth century, education was a key site for envisioning opportunities for African Americans, but the very schools they attended sometimes acted as obstacles to black flourishing. Educating Harlem brings together a multidisciplinary group of scholars to provide a broad consideration of the history of schooling in perhaps the nation’s most iconic black community. The volume traces the varied ways that Harlem residents defined and pursued educational justice for their children and community despite consistent neglect and structural oppression. Contributors investigate the individuals, organizations, and initiatives that fostered educational visions, underscoring their breadth, variety, and persistence. Their essays span the century, from the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance through the 1970s fiscal crisis and up to the present. They tell the stories of Harlem residents from a wide variety of social positions and life experiences, from young children to expert researchers to neighborhood mothers and ambitious institution builders who imagined a dynamic array of possibilities from modest improvements to radical reshaping of their schools. Representing many disciplinary perspectives, the chapters examine a range of topics including architecture, literature, film, youth and adult organizing, employment, and city politics. Challenging the conventional rise-and-fall narratives found in many urban histories, the book tells a story of persistent struggle in each phase of the twentieth century. Educating Harlem paints a nuanced portrait of education in a storied community and brings much-needed historical context to one of the most embattled educational spaces today.
W. E. B. Du Bois’s seminal work, The Souls of Black Folk, not only captures the experience of African Americans in the years following the Civil War but also speaks to contemporary conditions. At a time when American public schools are increasingly re-segregating, are increasingly underfunded, and are perhaps nearly as separate and unequal as they were in earlier decades, this classic can help readers grasp links between a slavery past and a dismal present for too many young people of color. Disagreeing with Booker T. Washington, Du Bois analyzes the restrictiveness of education as a simple tool to prepare for work in pursuit of wealth (a trend still very much alive and well, especially in schools serving economically disadvantaged students). He also, however, demonstrates the challenges racism presents to individuals who embrace education as a tool for liberation. Du Bois’s accounts of how racism affected specific individuals allow readers to see philosophical issues in human terms. It can also help them think deeply about what kind of moral, social, educational and economic changes are necessary to provide all of America’s young people the equal opportunity promised to them inside and outside of schools. Perfect for courses in: Social Foundations of Education, Political and Social Foundations of Education, Foundations of American Education, Foundations of Education, Introduction to Education Theory and Policy, Philosophy and Education, History of American Education, and African American Education.