African American Male Teachers - By Marvin Lynn

I have been asked to write a paper about two subjects I know quite a bit about: the education of poor African American students and the beliefs and overall characteristics of African American male teachers. As a researcher, I have always been very interested in studying specific approaches and strategies used by teachers who are effective with African American learners. I became deeply immersed in the scholarly literature that constitutes what Michele Foster has called “the scholarship on Black teachers”. In part, I will reflect on this literature because it has much to offer us in the way of thinking about what effective teachers do and how they conceive of their own work. Related to this literature, of course, is the effective schools literature which outlines the characteristics of effective schools for poor African American learners. This literature looms large. As a way to manage the paper, I will not attempt to review all of this literature. However, I will highlight some key studies and discuss some exemplars that have been particularly insightful and useful to me over the years in both my research and teaching. Finally, I will talk about the literature on the work and lives of African American male teachers. I will provide an extensive overview of the literature in this area as well.

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