African American Teachers and Latino Students: Moving Beyond Double Consciousness

'''African American Teachers and Latino Students: Moving Beyond Double Consciousness'''

A Paper Session

Dr. Cedric B. Stewart

Sam Houston State University

1616 Lauder Road |Houston, Texas 77039

Cell: (713) 504-5577 | Fax: (281) 985-6679

Email: stdcbs18@shsu.edu

Descriptors:

African American Teachers

Latino Students

Critical Race Theory

Teachers in this study appear to shift between Afro-centric and Eurocentric frameworks by describing Latino students in stereotypical ways indicative of White racial framing while also trying to maintain their own racial group identity.

 

'''African American Teachers and Latino Students: Moving Beyond Double Consciousness'''

U.S. urban school demographics increasingly are characterized by large populations of Latino Students taught by African American teachers. Yet there is a paucity of research examining the confluence of ethnic/racial incongruence of these two groups. In this paper session, I intend to explore an emergent theory that examines African American teachers’ perceptions and attitudes related to their Latino students. Originally discussed by Dubois (1903) as ''double consciousness'', this new emergent theory uses three innovative frameworks (i.e. Eurocentric, Afrocentric, and Euro/Afrocentric) that were identified in a mixed methodology research project that was used to explore how some African American teachers negotiated their own existing identities and roles within the White hegemonic culture while attempting to maintain their own unique ethnic culture. Characterized under the theme of global issues in education and research, this presentation will address various indigenous and diversity issues by moving the conversation related to the historical educational inequalities that  continues to exist between African American and White students to that of an increased need for understanding the implications resulting from expanding multicultural settings  in today’s schools. In particular, the session participants will be allowed to examine the multiple complexities of compound racial integration as defined using minority-to-minority dynamics that exist between various groups such as African American teachers and their Latino students and the impact of this racially incongruent teacher-student pairing.