A Portrait of Black Teachers in Science Classrooms.

Abstract Although the body of research that presents the stories of Black teachers is increasing and contributing to a more accurate portrait of their knowledge and practices, few of these studies provide portraits of Black teachers as content-specific experts. Using narrative research methods, this study reports findings of three Black secondary science teachers-two females and one male-and the knowledge gained from their personal experiences in science and characteristics they bring to science teaching for Black students. The study took place in two high schools in a rural, predominantly Black school district in the Southeastern United States. The study highlights additional characteristics of Black science teachers that give attention to content-specific expertise. Introduction Even though, with the number of racially, ethnically, and economically diverse students in public schools increasing, the number of Black teachers is declining (Moss,Townsend, & Tobier, 1997; Young, 2000). For example, Foster (1997) noted several reasons for the decline of Blacks in teacher education, such as alienation caused by desegregation and greater career opportunities in other professions . Additional reasons include increase in testing or scoring requirements where testing requirements do not predict future competency or skills, and where testing bias relates to time constraints and content toward White middle-class experiences. With an emphasis on testing and the passing of tests, these requirements do not capture indispensable teacher qualities, such as sense of humor and adaptability, which unfairly dismisses many potentially good teachers from entering teaching as a profession (Foster, 1997; Su, 1996; Waters, 1989). An additional reason for the decline of Black teachers in education is the teaching context. For example, Texeira and Christian (2002) contend that teachers face racist institutional practices in schools, underfunding of urban schools, crowded classrooms, grave poverty, crumbling neighborhoods, parental apathy often due to substance abuse, one-parent families, and a number of other plights. The weight of these factors may influence teacher development in that rather than professional development opportunities that address teaching of content, teachers receive instruction in dealing with the magnitude of problems that some students live with on a daily basis (Thompson, 2000). Thus, "high levels of poverty in communities, school violence, high dropout and turnover rates , language challenges , and diminishing funding lead to the observation that teaching is one of the most difficult and least-recognized professions in the United States" (Texeira & Christian, 2002, p. 117). Selecting and retaining quality teachers who are asked to teach under adverse social, political, and economic conditions are problems that need to be addressed, in relation to teacher recruitment and retention in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and teaching (Moore, 2007; Hrabowski, & Maton, 1995; Lewis & Collins, 2001; Russell & Atwater, 2005; Shaw, 1996; Su, 1996). For instance, Blank and Langesen (2003) reported that the overall rates of certified teachers of high school science have shown a slightly greater decline than those in mathematics by about ten percentage points from 1990 to 2002. They also indicated that according to the data on schools who reported certification of science teachers; Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas had the greatest shortages of certified high school science teachers. Many researchers have conducted studies of Black teachers which represent a strong knowledge base regarding the characteristics and qualities that these teachers bring to the classroom (; Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2002; Dixson, 2003; Foster, 1989, 1990, 1991 , 1993, 1994, 1997, 2001; Gay, 2000; Howard, 2001; Irvine, 1989; Ladson-Billings, 1994, 1995; Nee-Beham & Dudley, 1997; Stanford, 1998). …