Moving beyond our progressive lenses: Recognizing and building on the strengths of teachers of color

Philip, Thomas M. (2011). Moving beyond our progressive lenses: Recognizing and building on the strengths of teachers of color. Journal of Teacher Education, 62(4), 356-366.

This was a tough article for me to read. I’m a White middle-class teacher educator in her mid-fifties who embraces a progressive theoretical position. This article pointed out areas where my perceptions of the teaching behaviors of some Black teachers in urban schools may be inherently racist, even though that racism may not be intentional, and though I may believe that by judging these teachers, I am combating a racist “deficit” view. Though reading the article was uncomfortable, even painful, I believe it was an important eye-opener for me, and all teacher educators should read Philip’s account of an African-American teacher who on the surface seemed to be authoritarian and complicit in institutional racism, but who actually cared a great deal about her students’ future success, and thus believed they needed to access and master the “culture of power” as a way of achieving their goals in life.

I did not like reading about how this teacher, “Veronica”, described herself as a “drill sergeant” with her upper elementary students. The progressive educator in me recoiled; I could only see the children in that classroom as resentful and alienated by a teacher who talked to them as Veronica talked to her students. But reading further, I realized that Veronica actually cared deeply for her students and had high expectations of them. She wanted them to know that certain kinds of behavior and speech were not acceptable. She wanted them to take pride in themselves and their work. Particularly telling was Veronica’s story of how she would not accept an assignment from a student if the paper was crumpled or had food stains on it. While the progressive educator in me would say that Veronica is not focusing on what’s really important, the realist in me, when I am being 100% honest with myself, recognizes that in spite of what I may voice as my beliefs about honoring students’ language and backgrounds, I do still make judgments based upon the way individuals present themselves and their work. I do not permit my own students to get away with turning in work that is not grammatically and mechanically correct, and I do not want them to enter classrooms for their field experiences wearing inappropriate clothing or even doing things like calling their students “you guys.” I DO judge on these things. If a young man walks by me, dressed in “bagging and sagging” jeans, and speaks to me unintelligibly, I immediately and involuntarily make a certain set of judgments. Veronica is simply acknowledging the reality of those kinds of perceptions. If a child of any race cannot learn to work within the dominant “culture of power”, his or her opportunities for advancement and achieving full potential are going to be limited. We now have an African-American president in this country, but could he have been elected if he did not speak and dress in a certain way? Look at many of the successful African-American individuals who have distinguished themselves in various fields. Most of them have learned to navigate and master the culture of power. Veronica knows all of the reality of this deeply, because it has been a part of her family’s experience for several generations. Who am I to pass judgment upon her, even if I think I am doing it gently and with good intentions?

Philip writes about “the millennium form of slavery” (p. 363) which does not expect children of color to meet the same expectations as White students, and thus does not insist that they acquire the same knowledge, meet the same standards, or score as well on standardized assessments. It was Veronica’s belief that not holding the same standards for all children is a reproduction of this new form of slavery, and that regardless of whether she disagreed with the standards and the tests that measure them or not, as long as they are “part of the culture of power and used as gatekeepers” (p. 360), she needed to focus on making sure her students were proficient on those standards and scored well on those measures. Focusing on student achievement was the way she saw herself as combating racial inequity.

In pondering this difficult but important article, I find myself wondering what the middle ground is, and I still have unresolved issues about that. I believe Philip’s point is well taken when he insists that we be aware of the lenses we look through when we make judgments about teachers’ professional behaviors, and that we delve beyond the surface and look at WHY teachers do what they do. If someone does something we disagree with, they may have very good reasons for doing so. There are many contexts, and many ways of being an educator within those contexts. I cannot act as if the way that I am most comfortable with is the only way. We have to keep asking questions, and we have to keep listening to the answers and recognizing the factors that underlie those answers, even when they don’t mesh with our own beliefs. I still don’t think teachers really need to be “drill sergeants”, and I still believe we do have to incorporate children’s lives as they live them within the school curriculum if that curriculum is to be truly meaningful to them and not JUST a way to advance in society, though advancement is important. However, all classrooms that do these things need not look like the idealized classrooms that many preservice teachers envision themselves teaching in. Caring for children can take many forms, and Philip’s article serves as an important reminder of that.