Critical Perspectives on Black Education : Spirituality, Religion and Social Justice [1 ed.] 9781623967499, 9781623967475

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Critical Perspectives on Black Education Spirituality, Religion, and Social Justice

A volume in New Directions in Educational Leadership: Innovations in Research, Teaching, and Service Noelle Witherspoon Arnold, Series Editor

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Critical Perspectives on Black Education Spirituality, Religion, and Social Justice

edited by

Noelle Witherspoon Arnold University of Missouri

Melanie Brooks University of Idaho

Bruce Makoto Arnold Louisiana State University

INFORMATION AGE PUBLISHING, INC. Charlotte, NC • www.infoagepub.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data   A CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress   http://www.loc.gov ISBN: 978-1-62396-747-5 (Paperback) 978-1-62396-748-2 (Hardcover) 978-1-62396-749-9 (ebook)

Copyright © 2014 Information Age Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements............................................................................... vii Introduction: The Critical Links Among Spirituality, Religion, and Black Education............................................................................. ix 1 Embracing Spirituality: African American Women Leaders Pushing the Evolution of Leadership Practice in Schools.................. 1 Whitney Sherman Newcomb and Irrekka L. Khan 2 The Belief and the Practice: Self-Affirming and Resistance-Based Religion and Spirituality Among Black Students..................................... 31 La Monica Everett-Haynes 3 Black Mormonism as an Example of Model Minority Discourse..... 59 Nicholas Hartlep 4 The Training of Volunteer Adult Sunday School Teachers in the Wisconsin Jurisdiction of the Church of God in Christ......... 87 William C. McCoy 5 Born of Our Necessities: “Muhammad Speaks” Vision of School Reform................................................................................ 109 Khuram Hussein 6 The Assistant Principalship: Racial and Spiritual Dynamics of Educational Leadership................................................................. 141 Lisa Niuwenhuizen

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7 Religion and Spirituality Are My Lifelines: “Religion and Spirituality Among Black Professors at Primary-White Institutions..... 175 Cassandra Chaney 8 “I’m Still Holding On”: Bearing Witness to the Gospel Impulse in an Urban All-Boys School............................................................. 211 Lenny Sanchez, Gerald Campano, and Ted Hall 9 Religiosity and Spirituality in Educational Leadership Programs: Perspectives and Reflections From Black Educators.............................. 231 Brenda Marina and Arline Edwards-Joseph 10 Thoughts on Narrative and Researching Religion and Spirituality...... 251 Noelle Witherspoon Arnold About the Editors............................................................................... 269 About the Contributors...................................................................... 271

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to my sweet husband, Bruce. You are my sunshine. Thank you to my professional colleagues who offer me a rich circle in which to be creative and scholarly: Bruce Arnold, Jeff and Melanie Brooks, Emily Crawford, Sarah Diem, Ty-Ron Douglas, Cosette Grant, Muhummad Khalifa, Dianne Taylor, Roland Mitchell, Azadeh Osanloo, Michael Dumas, Dymaneke Mitchell, Ursula Thomas, Samantha Briggs, Autumn Tooms, and Mark Giles. —Noelle Arnold For my husband Jeff and our delightful children Holland, Bronwyn, Clodagh, and Jürgen. —Melanie Brooks I dedicate this publication to my parents Dale and Tamiko Arnold who served as my earliest examples of equity, equality, and “what’s right.” I also thank my beautiful wife Noelle. I love working and doing life with you. —Bruce Arnold

Critical Perspectives on Black Education, page vii Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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INTRODUCTION The Critical Links Among Spirituality, Religion, and Black Education Melanie Brooks

INTRODUCTION While the rest of the nation engages in debates concerning issues of religion and religious diversity in education, the saliency of religion and spirituality in the Black community and in the education of its children continues to be largely ignored. Historically, religion and spirituality were foundational to the development and understanding of social justice issues, including, but not limited to, issues of protest, community uplift, notions of care, and antioppression. Taking into account the historical significance of religion and spirituality in the Black community, it is essential for education scholars to cultivate these long-standing connections as a means for advancing contemporary struggles for social justice, religiosity in education, and counterhegemonic praxis. The authors of this edited book expand both our thinking and understanding of spirituality and religion as related to the schooling of Blacks in America. Educational scholarship continues to explore the workings of social justice to ameliorate inequities for those who have not been well served in schools. This book adds to the discussion by addressing both the prevalence and silencing of religion, spirituality, and religion in P–20 education Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages ix–xiii Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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in the United States. This collection of research also offers a scaffold that links ordinary everyday acts of justice, religion, and spirituality in education to a dominant culture that continues to systematically and institutionally assault the worth of Black students. Thus, this edited book provides a unique inroad to better understanding these salient issues. Below is a summary of each chapter. CHAPTER OVERVIEW Chapter 1, Embracing Spirituality: African American Women Leaders Pushing the Evolution of Leadership Practice in Schools by Whitney Sherman Newcomb and Irrekka Khan discusses the ways in which spirituality influences female African American school leaders serve their schools and communities through commitment and care while also advocating for social justice. Newcomb and Khan assert that school leaders are motivated by personal values and beliefs, and the work of school leadership cannot be neutral or unbiased (Giroux, 1988). Furthermore, for African American communities, spirituality has combated racism (Stewart, 1999) and served as a means of resiliency to transcend hegemonic marginalization and silencing (Bridges, 2002). Newcomb and Khan focused their inquiry through Black feminist standpoint theory because of its use of narrative to produce stories counter the mainstream and rooted in the belief that knowledge cannot be separated from historical and social conditions in which they live and work (Yonezawa, 2000). Data was gathered through focus group interviews with three African American principals, one being retired. The findings suggest that spirituality is an essential component to their leadership. Themes of the study include leadership as a spiritual calling (that requires patience), divine intervention, leading communities and families, spiritual decisionmaking through and ethic of care, and resiliency through spirituality. Chapter 2, The Belief and the Practice: Self-Affirming and Resistance-Based Religion and Spirituality among Black Students by La Monica Everett-Haynes explores how Black higher education students attending predominately White institutions conceptualize their religious identities and how campus environments do and do not support these identities. Everett-Haynes employs social identity theory focused on Afro-centrism to explore the topic. In Afro-centrism, spirituality is rooted in Black culture and tied to forms of resistance and social justice (Mazama, 2002). Thirteen Black undergraduate and graduate students were interviewed for the study. Findings suggest that rather than create direct supports for Black students who have strong religious or spiritual identities, it is more effective to create indirect supports, such as informed dialogue based interactions in predominately White institutions.

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Chapter 3, Black Mormonism as an Example of Model Minority Discourse by Nicholas D. Hartlep critiques model minority stereotypic discourse as it relates to Black members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Hartlep examined over 240 diverse model minority stereotypic literary documents to support the argument that the myth or stereotype (Lee, 1996) of a model minority, such as Asian Americans, served to socially, politically, and educationally divide minorities. In regards to Mormon discourse, the positive attributes of hard work, loyalty, humility, and frugality frame how the model minority discourse fits this stereotype of minority success. Yet, Hartlep uncovers that hidden within the model discourse is the absence of racist underpinnings, both in the LDS church and American education. Further, he emphasizes the model minority discourses are used to divide and conquer Blacks and Asians, thus maintaining White societal dominance. In chapter 4, The Training of Volunteer Adult Sunday School Teachers in the Wisconsin Jurisdictions of the Church of God in Christ, William C. McCoy discusses the training needs of adult Sunday School teachers, especially when Sunday Schools are experiencing lower enrollments. McCoy questioned what kind of learning occurred in these environments, whether the adult learners were satisfied, and what type of formal training might enhance volunteer teachers’ teaching methods. McCoy presents an overview of the history of The Church of God in Christ and its organizational structure. He discusses the unique needs of adult learners and the importance of relating new knowledge to life experiences. Using both qualitative and quantitative measures, McCoy found a need for a centralized curriculum and systematic training for Sunday School teachers to increase their understanding of pedagogy, and thus maximize their effectiveness. Chapter 5, Born of Our Necessities: Muhammad Speaks’ Vision of School Reform by Khuram Hussain analyzes Muhammad Speaks, a newspaper owned by the Nation of Islam in regards to its demands to improve Black education beginning in the 1970s. The newspaper advocated self-determination for Blacks in regards to their education, emphasizing the unlikelihood of equitable integration. Hussain argues that Muhammad Speaks redefined education for Black students urging an education based in Black culture and history, Black liberation, and accountable to Black communities. Schools, according to this ideology, could become sites for transformation and social justice. Chapter 6, The Assistant Principalship: Racial and Spiritual Dynamics of Educational Leadership by Lisa Nieuwenhuizen inquired into the racial and religious and/or spiritual lives of assistant principals, especially in regards to the challenges they face on the job. Data for this qualitative study was obtained through 22 interviews with assistant principals and Nieuwenhuizen uses a critical race framework to analyze and explore these issues. Her findings suggest female African American assistant principals’ personal

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lives were highly influenced by their deep, personal relationships with God whereas White assistant principals defined their spirituality around organized religions. Assistant principals interviewed spoke of how their ethics, which they viewed as in accord with spiritual teachings, guided their decision-making and the ways in which they worked with teachers and students. Chapter 7, Religion and Spirituality are My Lifelines: Religion and Spirituality Among Black Professors at Primary-White Institutions by Cassandra Chaney focuses on the spirituality and religiosity of Black faculty at primarily White institutions of higher education. Black professors often struggle with isolation, marginalization of their scholarship, and racial hostility (Patton & Catching, 2009). Chaney’s qualitative study focused on seven Black professors’ experiences at primarily White institutions and found that some Black faculty use religious and spiritual beliefs to counteract exclusionary practices. She also found that spirituality was associated with the intersection between the individual, faith community, and their higher power. Religiosity also helped Black professors tackle issues of race in the classroom and provided them with a source of fairness, opportunity for reflection, and continuance of optimism. Lastly, spirituality provided professors a context to critique racism, a place to expand critical thinking, areas to strive for social justice, and a way to bolster inner strength. In chapter 8, “I Am Still Holding On”: Bearing Witness to the Gospel Impulse in an Urban All-Boys School by Lenny Sanchez, Gerald Campano, and Ted Hall discuss the value of an African American boy’s school creating a space to foster individual and community uplift to encourage positive change. This unique space is developed by stressing local knowledge, social critique, and fostering student resilience and academic success. Sanchez, Campano, and Hall’s inquiry explored this through the gospel impulse, an intergenerational pedagogical resource that encompasses culture, spiritual, and historical legacies of African Americans through an individual call and community response technique. They argue that it is through the use of the gospel impulse, that the school is able to employ the cultural and literate resources needed to nurture African American male success. Chapter 9, Religiosity and Spirituality in Educational Leadership Programs: Perspectives and Reflections from Black Educators by Brenda Marina and Arline Edwards-Joseph discuss how religion and spirituality informs the work of Black Caribbean female educators. Their work identified themes that addressed the role religion and/or spirituality played in their personal and professional lives, and how this became the driving force in their work towards social justice in the broader community. The ten women interviewed were committed to seeking equality and advocating for students and professionals. Marina and Edward-Joseph employ the narratives as a tool to move beyond self-awareness and reflect on how ways of being and knowing can improve programs of educational leadership, counseling, and higher

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education administration. Suggestions for programmatic improvement and social change are provided to help teachers, counselors, researchers, and mentors of African ascent address teach about persistent structures of injustice in education and society. CONCLUSION The chapters in this book offer a critical perspective of education and religion as it relates to the education of Blacks. The authors offer tough questions and the topics presented reflect the complexities resulting from the inter-sectionality of gender, class, culture, race, divergent religious (and non-religious) traditions and education. Black spirituality and its influence on education is a dynamic presence in many schools and linked to the ways in which educators and educational leaders approach their work. This is an area of inquiry that must be explored and as you read, we invite you to think about the role (or lack of role) religion and/or spirituality played in your education. It is our hope that this work will spark conversations on a topic that is inextricably joined together—religion, spirituality, race, and education. REFERENCES Bridges, F. (2001). Resurrection song: African American spirituality. New York: Orbis Books. Giroux, H. (1988). Teachers as intellectuals: Toward a critical pedagogy of learning. Granby, MA: Bergin & Garvey. Lee, R. G. (1999). The Model Minority as Gook. In R. G. Lee, Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture (pp. 180–203). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Mazama, M. A. (2002). Afrocentricity and African spirituality. Journal of Black Studies, 33(2), 218–234. Patton, L.D., & Catching, C. (2009). ‘Teaching while Black’: Narratives of African American student affairs faculty. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 22(6), 713–-728. Stewart, C. F. (1999). Black spirituality and Black consciousness. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press. Yonezawa, S. (2000). Unpacking the black box of tracking decisions: Critical tales of families navigating the course placement process. In M.G. Sanders (Ed.), Schooling students placed at risk: Research policy, and practice in the education of poor and minority adolescents. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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CHAPTER 1

EMBRACING SPIRITUALITY African American Women Leaders Pushing the Evolution of Leadership Practice in Schools Whitney Sherman Newcomb and Irrekka L. Khan

ABSTRACT The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify school leaders who lead with a sense of personal belief and spirituality. Because we sought to identify leaders that are not only influenced by their values, but actually articulate their beliefs as platforms (Sergiovanni, 1992) and serve their school communities as social justice advocates, the literature directed us to a particular population of practicing school leaders: African American women. Historically, education has been one of few careers that allows African American women the opportunity to attain leadership roles (Shakeshaft, 1999). An emerging body of scholarship supports the notion that African American women lead with a sense of care and commitment to community that is situated in their reliance on spirituality (Loder, 2005; Sherman & Wrushen, 2009; Simmons & Johnson, 2008; Witherspoon & Arnold, 2010; Witherspoon & Taylor, 2010). Therefore, we conducted a focus group interview with three African American women educational leaders who openly lead their educational environments through Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 1–29 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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2    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN their personal spirituality. Themes that emerged include: Leadership as a Spiritual Calling (That Requires Patience) and Divine Intervention; Leading Schools Means Leading Communities and Families; Spiritual Decision-Making Through an Ethic of Care; and Resiliency Through Spirituality. Findings have implications for leadership preparation and practice.

EMBRACING SPIRITUALITY: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN LEADERS PUSHING THE EVOLUTION OF LEADERSHIP PRACTICE IN SCHOOLS That a question regarding the relationship between spirituality and education is raised and acknowledged in higher education in this historical moment may be testimony to the changes occurring within the academy. Such changes are, in part, the result of the inclusion at the discourse table of those historically excluded—African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Latino Americans and other marginalized groups. As challengers to Eurocentric hegemony in the academy, we have come with alternative offerings of “truth,” of the very conceptualizations of what it means to be human, attempting at multiple levels to demystify the value-free claims of social science. (Dillard, Abdur-Rashid, & Tyson, 2000, p. 447)

Traditionally, leadership preparation and practice has been driven by a prescribed set of standards and skills known to have been effective in many educational settings. However, as we strive to improve leadership development and practice as the position of the principal becomes increasingly complex, there has been a growing movement to understand what some researchers refer to as “nonrational” or emotional aspects of leadership (Begley, 1996; Murphy, 1992). To lead schools and communities locally, particularly those that have been labeled as “failing,” “challenged,” or “atrisk,” one wonders whether leaders whose skills have been developed in isolation from personal beliefs, values, emotions, and spirituality have the foundation to transform schools into socially just learning environments where success is fostered for all students. According to Bottery (2002), the core mission of education includes: fostering students’ critical constructive voice as democratic citizens; empowering students with the belief that they can make a difference when they leave school; enabling students to create personal agendas from an awareness of care, equity, and justice; and encouraging student to reflect on the spiritual to better understand what is fundamental to the human condition. In fact, Bottery suggests that the study of and reflection upon spirituality should be a pressing concern in the movement toward globalization because the reliance upon spirituality for resiliency is a universal experience. In the United States in particular, Black Americans’ religion and spirituality has played a role in

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their survival and activist agendas despite their longstanding exclusion from the dominant culture (Williams, 1993; Witherspoon & Arnold, 2010). Education is a human endeavor; thus, the actions and decisions that leaders make are motivated by cultural experiences and personal beliefs and values. According to Starratt (1996), if we choose not to engage in discussions about moral values, we, essentially, send the message that morality is separate from the daily problem solving of school leaders. We believe, as several educational theorists assert (Giroux, 1988; Foster, 1989), that the actions and practices of school leaders are motivated by personal values and that it is impossible for leaders to act as neutral bureaucrats. However, we also believe that the majority of school leaders have been erroneously taught that they can separate their emotions and beliefs from their leadership practice. To be able to evolve from leading with the purpose of survival (reactive) to leading with the purpose of generativeness (proactive), principals must understand that while action is critical, it must “. . . spring from a reflective territory that includes not only cognition and theory, but body, emotions, and spirit as well” (Kofman &Senge, 1995, p. 17). Therefore, the overarching purpose for this study was to identify school leaders who lead with a sense of personal belief and spirituality (spirituality as defined as such that embraces a wide framework of beliefs and may or may not intersect with formal religion) and to seek those individuals who operate from a spiritual center that has established purpose in their leadership practice (Dantley, 2010). Further, to identify leaders that are not only influenced by their values, but actually articulate their beliefs as platforms (Sergiovanni, 1992) and serve their school communities as social justice advocates, the literature directed us to a particular population of practicing school leaders: African American women. Historically, education has been one of few careers that allows African American women the opportunity to attain leadership roles (Shakeshaft, 1999). An emerging body of scholarship supports the notion that African American women lead with a sense of care and commitment to community that is situated in their reliance on spirituality (Loder, 2005; Sherman & Wrushen, 2009; Simmons & Johnson, 2008; Witherspoon & Arnold, 2010; Witherspoon & Taylor, 2010). SPIRITUALITY, AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP, AND COMMUNITY BUILDING According to Dantley (2010), a person’s spirituality establishes meaning in her life and is “. . . the instrument in our lives through which we build connectivity and community with others” (p. 214). Dantley maintained that while religion is a “space” where spirituality can grow and be nurtured, spirituality actually transforms notions of formalized religion. In essence,

4    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN Spirit animates human life. It is that intangible dimension of ourselves that connects us with something greater than ourselves. It literally becomes the nexus of inspiration, motivation, and meaning-making in our lives. The spirit is that part of humankind that cajoles us to engage in community with others, it establishes and prods our sense of justice and fairness and it constructs for us notions of calling, mission or purpose. The acknowledgement of one’s spiritual self has served as the very bedrock of African American life. (Dantley, 2003, p. 6)

For the Black community, spirituality has not only served as a source of inspiration, but also as a tool to combat racism (Stewart, 1999). African American spirituality has given Black people the resilience to transcend racist barriers of marginalization and silencing imposed by dominant cultures (Bridges, 2001). In their study of Black women principals, Witherspoon and Arnold (2010) explored how women leaders managed hardships through their reliance on spirituality as they led their school communities. For the women participants, spirituality was synonymous with social justice, making the realization of education as a “means for transforming society and promoting democratic principles” (p. 220) possible as they struggled to diminish the effects of poverty on their students and surrounding communities and found ways to participate in creative subordination for the good of the students and families they served. According to Witherspoon and Taylor (2010), “The historic connection of religion and spirituality to women, education, advocacy, and leadership is prevalent in Black American histories in general and the role of the religion and spirit in promoting education and socialization” (p. 133). The longstanding tradition held by the Black church of providing leadership roles to its members afforded opportunities that were, otherwise, not available to African Americans historically due to racism and led to the emergence of Black leaders with both the ability and affinity to lead and provide service to their communities (Witherspoon & Arnold). With the church being the foundation of many African American communities (Williams, 1993), leaders of the congregations often become caregivers to the members of the community and serve not only as spiritual guides, but as counselors, mentors, and activists as well (Lattimore as cited in Witherspoon & Arnold, 2010). Furthermore, studies have shown that spirituality has an influence on health and health care seeking behaviors in African Americans, supporting the notion that spirituality should be a goal for providing holistic care for African Americans (Figueroa, Davis, Baker, & Bunch, 2006; Gillum & Griffith, 2010). Several researchers have studied the effect of culture and community on African American school leadership (Lomotey, 1989; Murtada & Larson, 1999) and have noted that African American leaders place a higher priority

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on community involvement in schools that their White colleagues. Lomotey also found that African American principals have a deep commitment to African American students, perhaps due to the fact that their ethnic identity shapes how they view their leadership roles and plays a significant role in how they shape their missions for schools (Pollard, 1997). According to Perkins (1989), teaching has not only traditionally been highly valued by the African American community, but African American women tend to value this work as an extension of the commitment to uplift their race as well. “In fact, for many African American women, the work of teaching and leading African American children is viewed more as a spiritual calling than as a job” (Loder, 2005, p. 246). Johnson (2007) studied principals’ efforts to involve parents and community members in their schools and found that women worked to create trusting environments through a “tough love” and “no excuses” approach of holding high expectations for students, teachers, and parents alike. “Spirituality in education is education that connects, education that is about building relationships between and across teachers and students, males and females . . .” (Dillard, Abdur-Rashid, & Tyson, 2000, p. 447). Johnson concluded that “Culturally responsive school leaders support academic achievement, work to affirm students’ home cultures, empower parents in culturally and economically diverse neighborhoods, and act as social activists who advocate for societal change to make their communities better places to live” (p. 54). According to Mattis (1997), there is a link between activism in the community, spirituality, and resiliency for African American women who cope with the stress and hardship of marginalization. Using spirituality as a framework for meaning-making empowers women to manage their daily lives as leaders (Harris & Ballenger, 2004). MORAL DECISION-MAKING FROM AN ETHIC OF CARE Greenfield (1993) proposed that principals are moral agents that must ground their decision-making in moral consequences for several reasons. First, schools are moral organizations that serve democratic purposes. Second, because students in K–12 schools are minors, they do not often have decision-making power regarding the content and delivery of their school experiences. Third, principals themselves are moral agents appointed with the authority to make decisions in the best interest of students. And, fourth, because principals are responsible for facilitating equitable learning environments for all students, they must be sensitive to the needs of both students who are a part of the dominant culture and those who are marginalized and “othered.” According to Jones (2010), though it is risky to publicly situate one’s leadership in spirituality, it is essential for leaders

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to understand how spirituality impacts leadership because of the ethical nature of their work; once this happens, leaders respond more effectively to others with connectedness and acceptance. Gilligan (1982) proposed that women, in particular, ground their decision making in: (a) the contexts of their histories and realities; and (b) the relationships which they have forged because of how their identities as females are socially constructed. Years later, Noddings (1984) extended the notion of female decision-making in context to that which has been termed “moral decision making through an ethic of care.” Traditionally, the notion of leading and decision-making from an ethic of care has been placed at conflict with leading from a frame or ethic of justice. Not only have the two “ethics” or “frames” been perceived as binaries, the notion of leading from an ethic of care was, historically, deemed as morally deficient (Kohlberg). However, more recent philosophers and developers of moral theories, posit that the most useful frames for decision-making are those that supersede binaries and, instead, recognize that decision-making must come from a center of justice and care alike (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2001; Starratt, 1996). According to Ramirez (2011), principals’ definitions of spirituality is heavily impacted by their experiences early in life. Although the meaning of leading through spirituality differed for participants in her study and was connected to numerous sources, Ramirez found the theme that remained constant for women participants was the recognition, development, and utilization of a spiritual filter. Each of the principals interviewed described utilizing a spiritual filter as a foundation for decision making and as a frame from which to lead. Similarly, Hooper-Atlas (2002) found that spirituality not only influenced African American women principals’ decision-making, but their choice to become principals, their overall work as principals, and their views on leadership as well. FEMINIST RESEARCH According to Blackmore (2006), feminists have provided alternative conceptualizations of educational leadership by identifying fault lines. The accounting of feminist histories, through narratives as counter stories to what we know to be mainstream, uncovers fault lines and offers ways of rethinking leadership for social justice. Feminism, and the use of feminist theory, provide possibilities for identifying ways of knowing that have been silenced by allowing the life histories of women leaders to “test” dominant ideas about educational leadership theory and practice. Lather’s (1991) concept of combining inquiry with praxis and advocacy to both gain knowledge and promote change directed our thinking as we designed the study and planned how we could give participants voice and a forum for utilizing and

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making sense of their positionalities; concepts central to feminist standpoint theory (Harding, 1991). According to Harding (1991), there are many differences in the situations of men and women that are “grounds” for feminist claims (p. 121). For the purposes of this project, we found the following claims to be most prevalent: 1. Women’s lives have been devalued and neglected as starting points for research. Thus, using women’s lives “as grounds to criticize dominant knowledge claims” (p. 121) can decrease gaps in educational leadership knowledge. 2. “Women are valuable ‘strangers’ to the social order (p. 124). Thus, the world of educational leadership is dysfunctional for many women. 3. Women’s perspective is not what is dominant. Thus, research starting from women’s lives can be used to construct more complete pictures of social reality. 4. “Women’s perspective is from everyday life” (p. 128). Thus, “the search for dailiness is a method of work that allows us to take the patterns women create and the meanings women invent and learn from them. If we map what we learn, connecting one meaning or invention to another, we begin to lay out a different way of seeing reality. This way of seeing is what I refer to as women’s standpoint” (Aptheker as cited in Harding, 2001, p. 129). Furthermore, because we placed African American women at the center of this study, we felt it necessary to delve further into feminist theory and feminist standpoint theory and search for a methodology that not only recognized the silencing of gender in traditional leadership knowledge, but also recognized the marginalization of minorities; thus, our particular attention to the lens of Black feminist standpoint theory. BLACK FEMINIST STANDPOINT THEORY African American feminists place emphasis on the inter-sectionalities of oppression based on race, class and gender (Carby, 1987) and explore the experiences of Black women in various contexts that impact their leadership development (Collins, 2000). The historical belief among African Americans that one’s education and advancement should serve to help others in the community and the community itself (Collins)—a notion crucial to the understanding of African American spirituality and the tradition of the Black Church—provided a strong rationale for the use of Black feminist thought in the interpretation of the findings gained from

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this project. Specifically, we chose to situate our findings in Black feminist standpoint theory because of its allowance for the use of stories (i.e., that which might be gained from conducting a focus group interview with several women) and personal experience to produce knowledge alternative to the mainstream. According to Yonezawa (2000), standpoint theory maintains that people gain knowledge through their positions or social locations. Highlighting positionality captures how people’s positions in larger social structure influence what they are aware of and their interpretation of events. Consequently, Black women view the world from discrete perspectives based on their social positions within the confines of larger social structures (Collins, 2000). Assumptions of Black feminist standpoint epistemology include: knowledge cannot be separated from the historical and social conditions that shape it; Black women share certain commonalities; while Black women share similarities, there are also many points of divergence based on class, religion, age, and sexual orientation; and although a Black feminist standpoint theory might exist, not all Black women recognize or accept it (Bloom & Erlandson, 2003). Collins reminds us that no one Black woman’s standpoint exists. Rather, Black women’s standpoints exist; all of which are influenced by a multitude of other descriptors such as class, culture, background, and experience—that intersect to produce singular realties. Thus, our attempt for the purpose of the project reported here, was to utilize Black feminist standpoint theory to help us make meaning of the participants’ experiences as African American women who lead with and through spirituality to develop themes that, though not universal, have important implications for leadership practice in general, for both men and women, and for those of the dominant culture and those who have been marginalized. According to Bloom and Erlandson (2003), listening to African American women speak about their experiences as school leaders helps standpoint theorists have a more comprehensive understanding about the behavior of principals in general. And, as a growing number of African American women find themselves taking on leadership positions in challenging settings, it is helpful to deconstruct their daily lives as leaders to provide direction for future leaders in difficult settings. METHODS Qualitative research is founded on questions that involve human consciousness and subjectivity and that value humans and their experiences (Palmer, 1993). The belief for naturalistic inquirers is that the participants construct reality within their social settings (Creswell, 1998). Thus, we designed a qualitative study that would allow us to study, understand, and

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make meaning of how spirituality impacts the leadership practice of African American women educational leaders. Guidelines for the selection of participants were few: (a) Participants had to be African American women who were practicing principals at the time of the study or who had served as principals, and (b) Participants had to lead through a personal sense of spirituality and be willing to articulate their beliefs and practice during the interview process. We identified five women principals to participate in a focus group interview by utilizing the reputational method (Hunter as cited in Brunner, 2000) or “snowballing” approach (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001) for sampling by contacting two women leaders we knew to publicly embrace their reliance on spirituality as essential to their leadership practice and letting the rest of the sample evolve through recommendations. Only three of the five women identified were able to participate in the focus group. Thus, the findings we report here are based on a focus group interview with three participants. We designed this project around a focus group interviewing technique because of its allowance for communication between groups of people, specifically the participants, to promote self-disclosure (Morgan, 1998; Krueger & Casey, 2000). Focus group interviewing promotes exploration and discovery, context and depth, and interpretation (Morgan, 1998). This technique allowed us to explore the thoughts, ideas, and interests of the African American women leaders (Morgan, 1998) and facilitated depth in the conversations that took place because we, as the researchers, were able to encourage the women to talk among themselves and respond to each other regarding their thoughts and experiences surrounding the focus of the interview (Morgan, 1998). Allowing the women to openly discuss the ways they lead through spirituality gave us a better understanding of how they make sense of their experiences so we were better able to interpret the content (Morgan, 1998). According to Krueger and Casey (2000), focus groups: (a) involve people, (b) are conducted with participants who possess certain characteristics, (c) provide qualitative data, (d) have a focused discussion, and (5) help researchers understand the topic of interest. Due to the nature and intent of our study, we found that focus group interviewing satisfied the requirements we set forth for our study and positioned us well to make sense of the findings gained from the women’s voices. To keep the groups small enough that would be conducive to in-depth discussion, we assembled the women and conducted one focus group interview lasting approximately 120 minutes (see Appendix A for interview protocol). The focus group was conducted in a standardized, open-ended manner to allow for freedom in response (Patton, 1990) and to reduce variation between groups to reduce bias (Rossman & Rallis, 1998). We wrote analytic memos (Maxwell, 1996)

10    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN

and compared them between ourselves to track and establish emerging patterns as we recorded notes and transcribed the interview. Findings reported from the interviews are bound to the women participants themselves because of the context-bound nature of qualitative research. However, despite the limitations of this project, it contributes to the field of educational leadership and to feminist and minority research by extending knowledge of how African American women principals lead with and through their spirituality. DESCRIPTION OF PARTICIPANTS All three participants are African American women who have served or are serving as elementary school principals in a suburban midsize school district in Virginia. Each woman has or is pursuing a doctoral degree in educational leadership. The participants ranged in age from their forties to sixties. All three have worked in Title 1 schools with moderate to high levels of free and reduced lunch students in predominantly lower socioeconomic status neighborhoods. The student population of the schools in which these women have worked consist of more than ninety-five percent African Americans. All three participants are members of historically African American sororities, grew up as active members of their church communities, and continued to attend worship services regularly as adults. One participant was in her early forties at the time of the study. She is an African American woman who is married with children. She was pursuing her Doctorate of Education at the time of the study. She had almost twenty years of experience in education as a classroom teacher, resource teacher, and assistant principal. She was serving in her first year as a principal in a suburban midsize school district in an elementary school with a 98% African American student population with one of the largest low socioeconomic populations in the district. The population was also described transient. This principal noted that religion and spirituality have always been a part of her life since childhood. She participates in daily meditation. Another participant was in her middle forties at the time of the study. She is an African American woman who is married with children. She holds a Doctorate of Philosophy degree in Educational Leadership. At the time of the study, she served as a director of elementary education in a suburban midsize school district and was responsible for working with twenty elementary schools. In the past, she served as a classroom teacher, a high school assistant principal, and a principal at two elementary schools. She was raised as a Catholic who converted to the Baptist Christian tradition while attending college as an undergraduate. Religion has always played a part in her life. She has a Masters of Divinity and proudly wears a cross

Embracing Spirituality    11

necklace to display her religious identity. She mentioned that she keeps her Bible close by and participates in daily meditation. She described herself as a deacon, a minister, and a gospel singer. The third participant was in her early sixties at the time of the study. She is an African American woman who is married with adult children. She retired as a Director of Disciplinary Review in a suburban midsize school district. At the time of the study, she served in a regional director position for an international organization. She previously served as principal of an elementary school within the same district as the other participants. She served as the mentor of one of the participants and was a friend to the other participant. She mentioned her leadership roles began within a religious setting and participates in daily meditation. FINDINGS We collected a significant amount of information from the women participants during the two hour focus group due to their willingness to share and speak openly about their past and present experiences as school principals. Their stories and narratives led us through data analysis and the emergence of themes and responses to interview questions. For the purpose of this chapter, we report the following categories that emerged from the women’s individual and collective standpoints: Leadership as a Spiritual Calling (That Requires Patience) and Divine Intervention, Leading Schools Means Leading Communities and Families, Spiritual Decision-Making Through an Ethic of Care, and Resiliency Through Spirituality. We rely on lengthy, narrative-style quotes to support our thematic findings to honor the storytelling tradition that these women were willing to engage in during the focus group interview. Leadership as a Spiritual Calling (That Requires Patience) and Divine Intervention All three of the women participants recognized their leadership roles as emanating from a spiritual calling. Two of the women aspired to positions in education and, eventually, leadership positions. One of the women did not aspire to a position in education, but changed her major midway through college due to a spiritual calling that she could not fully explain. One of the women talked about the frustration of wanting a leadership position to come to her more quickly than God allowed. She even mentioned having her faith shaken as she watched others move on to principalships while she remained entrenched as an assistant principal. She told the following story:

12    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN I think leaders kind of recognize other people with leadership potential and if they are of an evolutionary mind where they think they can grow leaders, then they tap you. You kind of go where you’re pulled and, I made this quote, y’all can’t have it, but it’s “leadership is the invisible rope that pulls other people to greatness.” You don’t even see yourself going, but the next thing you know somebody is telling you to stand and deliver and you go “OK, I can do this” and the next thing, you’re the assistant principal, and the next thing you know, you’re a principal—it’s kind of an evolution . . . All the while you’re asking, “God, is this truth? Am I supposed to be doing this?” Leadership gets stalled because sometimes you want to move faster than God wants you to move and He will stall you. I spent 5 years at a high school seeing people move up and I said “Well, what has He done?” “What is wrong?” “You told me that this is. . . .” Still in a small voice I heard, “It’s not your time.” As a matter of fact, I will tell you something. I was trying to be the principal of an elementary school and didn’t get the job because I was trying to come from secondary to elementary, which is hard to do once you get situated in a particular level. Didn’t get the job and was crushed and began to question my faith. Through the experience, God gave me a leadership position at another school, which actually fed the high school that I was leaving. So that’s when it becomes good. That’s when it’s good to be spiritual because you can say, “OK God, now I can see why you didn’t want me to go there because this other thing was going to open up.” I got appointed to my first principalship the Thursday prior to the first day of school. I was assistant principal on a Wednesday and on Thursday, I was a principal! So then you begin to believe and know and trust God that—“oh I see, I wasn’t supposed to go there!” You know what I mean? I got to touch eternity as I watched children from the elementary school where I was principal go on to graduate from the high school I had previously served in. You follow me? It is all good. It is all good. I just really think that leadership is—you’re called. It’s often a calling.

For this participant, though she viewed leadership as a spiritual calling, she struggled when she realized it would not happen on her time clock. However, in retrospect, she was adamant that God knew what was best and, despite her frustration and wavering faith, His will happened as it was supposed to. This experience taught her to remember that God has a plan for her and often does not share it until the time is right. When asked about her belief in divine intervention, this participant lit up and said, “Oh my God yes!” She was on the planning committee for a new school and ended up being led to become to the first principal of the school. When she got the call to apply for the principalship, this participant said, “Why would you go somewhere and open up a school when there’s a school right down the street? I prayed and asked, ‘God are you telling me to apply to this school?’ God said go ahead . . . I think that what’s supposed to happen God allows to happen, and what’s not, He doesn’t.”

Embracing Spirituality    13

Another participant described the blind faith she had when changing her major in college from accounting to education despite hesitation from her parents: I didn’t go to school to be a teacher, I actually went to be an accountant and had gone through an accounting program for 2 years and a classmate that was a couple of years older than me, she graduated and she was working for the education department as kind of like a gopher. They told her, “We need somebody to replace you that is dependable” and she recommended me. I started this job, I think it was probably the end of my freshman year/beginning of my sophomore year and it was in the education department. Just started seeing things and just being drawn, again, like that rope that you talk about. I called my parents at the end of my sophomore year and said “I’m switching my major.” They’re like “why are you doing that? Do you know how much teachers make?” I was like “it’s not about that. That is what I am supposed to do. I just—I have to do it.” They’re like “well, whose telling you you’re supposed to do it?” I said “it’s inside of me, it is what I have to do. I can’t control it. I have to do it.” So, for me, I feel like God would say “this is where you are going” and I would just blindly follow. I just tell people, some people would dip their foot in the pool, if the pool was there, and if I felt like if that’s the way He told me to go, I would just go stand in front of the pool and literally fall into it. And that is kind of how I approached being an educator.

This participant never questioned the calling to become an educator because she trusted that God had a plan for her. She went on to describe the specific nature of her calling to become an educator and the call to better lives and change communities: Initially, I wasn’t really sure why, but I was always drawn to children who didn’t have as many advantages as other children. I’m like “OK, I want to work in Title 1 schools—don’t know why, but I do—I just feel like that’s where I need to be. It really kind of hit me as I started moving through leadership because the goal really is to change their lives. It is really to show them that there’s another way to live and there is another way to function in the world. I think a lot of things—you probably see this—or saw this—especially when you’re at schools where you would have several generations involved, the mother lived there, the grandmother lived there. It was like a cycle, and for me it was like, you know, I need to change things for the lives of these students so that they realize this is not the only thing that there is. They need to see compassion and they need to have role models. Something that came to me as I moved into this position is that it is not just about changing the lives of these individual children, it’s about transforming the community at this point. I said to one of my administrators/team members, I said “It just kind of came to me at some point in time, this community will not be what it used to be if we do the work that we are supposed to do while we are here. We are going to enable the families and the children to do more so that they will not be out

14    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN hurting each other and killing each other and the cycle will not continue in the families. They will be able to go out and do more.” It’s not something that I was like “this is what I want to do,” it’s almost like it dropped into my sphere and I realized that’s what I am actually here on this earth for . . . .to transform this community and to transform lives for these children. They are in a situation that has no hope, to some extent, and I feel like that’s what the work is for. That’s what God is telling me to do—almost like to teach them to be fisherman instead of just giving them the fish. I feel like the whole big picture and the reason why I’m here and why I’ve gone through the different levels of frustration is to transform the community.

This participant’s desire for activism and change went beyond her school building and extended to the surrounding community. She felt called on by God to transform not only the school for which she served as principal, but the entire community. Similar to the first participant’s story above, this participant also talked about the frustration of her move into a leadership position not progressing at the pace she desired: I’d applied to be the assistant principal in this building twice! First time, didn’t get it. Got it the second time because it wasn’t the right time the first time. There were some other things that had to happen first. I was very frustrated the first time. I can remember crying and singing a Smokie Norful song . . . I need you now! [laughter]. I just couldn’t understand it. Over time, the pieces started falling into place. God brought other spiritual people here that were a source of strength for me at certain times. When I didn’t get the AP job here, I applied for other schools because I was having some tough times in this building and had to dig deep and really reach and ask God, “What do you want me to do?” He kept me here because he had a bigger plan for the work that He needed done here. I’m just the vessel to do it. Everything is because of Him. I never wanted to be a principal. It’s what He wanted.

For this woman, the pursuit of being an educator and a school leader all emanated from God. She ascribes her leadership trajectory to Him entirely and, just as the first participant described, felt frustration at times when what she felt was her calling seemed to be taking longer than she wanted. But, just as the first participant described, all eventually became clear and she could see God’s plan. This participant’s mentor sat across from her in the focus group and recalled the frustration that her mentee experienced after being called to lead a school and the advice she shared based on her own difficult experience: She was very impatient about it. I said, you know what? It will come, when He knows that you are ready. It took a long time for me to get a building. Not in my wildest dreams did I think it would happen . . . I don’t take it as me, I take

Embracing Spirituality    15 it as a divine force leading me . . . you have to not only know who you are, but WHOSE you are. Who guides your steps every day and prepares you.

Finally, all of the participants described getting their source of strength from the spirit of God and that His calling and support permeate their lives. One participant, who had recently completed a Master’s of Divinity, told the following story about her life: It’s been a calling, a spiritual calling all my life for as long as I can remember. However, I probably did not come willingly to the pastorship. Because I was in another, I’m in a secular profession [education] but, was always guided by spirit, always relationship building. It has always been something that has been in me. I’ve just been that kind of person, even in classes, even as I work with children and families. It’s always been about putting the person before the problem and I think that is a spiritual base that I brought to the table even in this profession . . . I always have been a spiritual person, always have been guided by doing a meditation every day. It’s the way I start my day, every day, and when I don’t start like that I do not feel in touch with what—it seems like I become disheveled. Especially when I have, and sometimes I spend longer times than others, but on the whole I will spend about 20-30 minutes a day in meditation and prayer . . . You know, the work [of a principal] requires a different level of care and sensitivity. When we do our work, we do it based on the human condition. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on in the building, you become everything to everybody as the principal and you gotta have yourself built up. You gotta have a relationship with God to understand that the work touches eternity—it’s not just a job. Even in this role, I have found myself, even though I’ve had to go from place to place, I’ve had to recreate where I could do it [prayer] at work in the mornings by myself, prepare my day, now I have to start at home. I have to do some changing in how I worship because I think that, as spiritual people, we walk in the spirit of worship all day long. Whatever is going on in the day, I try to find a place of worship. Sometimes we find each other, spiritual people, we find each other. We can kind of tell, what’s going on. You might give a glance or a look at somebody and it’s so very telling when you are walking in the spirit of God and when you are talking with people that have a like-mindedness, that they know this work is bigger than us. This is a ministry work. It is a ministry. It is work that we do to promote the human condition. I would always tell my teachers, “you know what, what we’re doing touches eternity.”

The words “ministry” and “eternity” were used often by the participants as they described their calling as school leaders and their roles transforming students and communities. They all started their days in prayer and found ways to meditate and pray throughout the day whether it was at home, alone in their offices, or with other faculty in their school buildings who had spiritual beliefs driving their daily actions. They never spoke of hiding their spirituality, but of sometimes having to “temper it” and “not beating

16    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN

someone upside the head with the Bible.” Instead, they led with the belief that, “The love of God is in you and it’s the way you treat people that they will come to know your spirituality.” Leading Schools Means Leading Communities and Families The women participants spoke in varying ways about their connections as spiritual leaders to their communities and families. One talked about establishing relationships with local churches in the community and attending some of these churches herself to maintain a connection with the community: There are some of the smaller churches that surround the area that have come in. They do volunteer work. We actually have a reverend and his wife that come in and have been reading to students here for 17 years. So that [the church] has been a pretty consistent support system. We have other faithbased groups that come in and adopted grade levels and are supporting them through coming in and reading, they may donate money, and they may come in and do special projects. In particular, I’m thinking about kindergarten and our third grade. They have sponsors that come in that are from the faith organizations. But mainly, we have small churches that have come in to support us. Our families, I see quite a lot of them at one of the larger churches that is nearby. So I do know that there quite a few of our families that do attend church and I do see them on a regular basis when I’m there as well.

Another participant described the crucial help that a local church provided to her school when it was not ready to open at the beginning of the school year due to construction delays: There was a partnership between my school and the local church (while the school was still under construction). The church received access to some of the curriculum so tutors at the church could help students that would attend the new school. Before the school was opened, we were a little delayed in our opening, and the first thing that I did was reach out to the church that was right across the field to see what we could do to partner with them in case we weren’t ready. They allowed us to have classrooms for our teachers to set up in. They provided lunch for our opening week—we did our opening week activities at that church because we still had some last minute things to do to get the school ready. They gave us 20 classrooms and they fed us and they partnered with us and that kind of spring-boarded right into the school year. They came and worked and a lot of their instructional aides came and worked with us. Quite a partnership that just came from our like-mindedness in terms of we needed they help and they were willing to help. That was one

Embracing Spirituality    17 of the big partnerships that we had. Over time, I tried to reach out to the smaller churches, it’s usually the smaller churches that are looking to partner with schools. We didn’t have too many connections with the larger churches, but those small churches in the area, they will always want to know what you need. Usually it’s mentors, reading books, any kind of supplies you can give the kids . . . They would use what we were using (teaching materials).

Without the willingness of a local church to open its doors and wallet to help this participant’s school, her students and faculty would have, literally, had nowhere to go for the first few weeks of the school year. One participant described an evolving relationship with her surrounding community of one that, initially, lacked trust, but transitioned to one where she served as an “othermother” for both students and young parents in the community: I feel like initially the community did not trust the school very much because we were bringing in different leaders all of the time so there was no one who stayed and seemed to be invested in the community or the children. I think they have, over the time, grown with me and have seen me grow so they know that I’m here for kids and that I love their children. I’m not here for myself because I needed to take this step so I could get to the next step. They know that I am invested in the community so I feel like they have developed a relationship of trust with me where they will come and say, “I can’t get him to get up out that bed, what do you think I should do?” I’m like “You’re the mom, this is what you need to do . . .” I kind of guide them that way. I have a lot of young moms that I say to them “Honey, you have to set the boundaries. They want the boundaries, you have to take the television out the room.” I can remember having a conversation with a mom, probably about 6 weeks ago, and I took pictures of her child sleeping in class and I said this is why he is not ready for second grade because he is sleeping so much. She said, “Well I tell him to turn the TV off . . .” I said “Is it in his room?” She said “yes.” I said “Uh-uh. Take that TV right out the room.” She said, “But it’s OK.” I said “No, honey, cause they’re watching after you go to bed.” In a sense I have become a nurturer for my parents as well.

And, another described having to take the “tough love” approach to leading her school on several occasions by forcing high expectations and had the following story to share: . . . When I became a principal, I was the newcomer. I was the person who had to establish trust in that building because they had previously had a principal who had actually opened the building so, of course, they loved her to no end. I came in as a change agent. There was that lack of trust. First of all, nobody knew me. I was coming from a different level and there was that whole notion of “does she know what she’s doing?” One, you talked about mothering and nurturing. There was both that I had to do in that school because I had

18    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN to establish myself as “OK, I do know what I’m doing and you have to trust me on this. We’re going to prove that we’re really not a challenge. And we’re going to prove everyone wrong. We really are a school that’s going to achieve and meet the expectations that people had of us.” But I had to make believers of them so therefore envisioned that we would all grow together. One thing that leading a school, particularly, is that you have to educate not only your children but your staff and your community, which includes your parents. When you walk into a building where their expectations are low, you have to help people understand that we really can reach up here. That was the biggest thing that parents kept saying to me: “It’s too much work. It’s too much work for our children.” What we had to share with our parents and make believers even of my staff is that it’s not too much. I think we’ve been lowering the expectations too much and therefore we’re not getting what the children really can do. You ask me about my faith. In all of that, I didn’t really have to talk. You have to walk because people watch you all the time. It’s not what you say but how you carry yourself; how you treat people and how your deliver your services. It was not so much what I said but me, and how I embraced all of my staff. I think that people will believe you when you are friendly, firm, and fair. I felt that I was all of that. The parents knew that I loved their children. There was not a doubt in their minds that I loved the children dearly. I was like a lioness with the children but the teachers really understood that I loved them too. Every morning, I would walk through the building to, first of all, see how they were doing. Each hallway, “How ARE you this morning?” “How’s your family?” When you ask about family, it takes people aback: “Family? OK. My family’s fine.” “Well how’s your child who was sick yesterday?” “He’s doing better.” It became not a “What are you doing in class.” I wanted to know how YOU were first all because when YOUR’RE, you’re going to be fine with the children in your care. You cannot be a good teacher, a nurturer, if you’re not fine yourself. That was the first thing and that happened the first thing in the morning, walking around before the announcements. The next time I came around it was WHAT are you doing? So then we’re talking about the business at hand. For me it was a matter of how I carried me. How I talk to people. You can’t always share spirituality with everybody because there is a division between church and state. But, people have a tendency to know you are spiritual. Right in that time people would come to my office for a private moment to share a concern that they had either about the children or about their own personal lives, that’s when you can begin to minister to people. They know that you care. That’s when, even the janitor in the building, he and I had a very close relationship because he realized that I was a woman of faith. In the private time that he came to me. Everything can’t be open but it is those moments when people come to you and they understand that what you have to give is more than just being a principal in that building but it becomes a ministry that you have for the entire community. And that’s why we grew, because it was a ministry. I always said that being an elementary principal was my ministry . . . 

Embracing Spirituality    19

For all of the women participants, leading schools also meant leading families and communities by showing their spirituality through their actions, whether as nurturers, “othermothers,” or extenders of “tough love,” and through making connections with local churches and organizations to establish connections that would strengthen the success of the students in their schools. Spiritual Decision-Making Through an Ethic of Care All of the participants described frameworks for decision-making based on spirituality and, in turn, led with an ethic of care for children and families. One woman shared a story about a disciplinary decision she made based on contextual factors that were happening with a student’s family at the time a disciplinary infraction occurred: My last job was my calling because I was dealing with families who were in trouble. Sometimes, through no fault of their own, it’s the children who are in trouble. Sometimes, through no fault of their own, and you have to be sensitive to that. You have to be a good listener. Sometimes, I felt like I wasn’t sensitive to all the needs of the families that I should have been. This principalship allowed to me to be more sensitive. And then there were personal things going on in my own life that aligned me with some of the families who were in trouble. So sitting across that table from me were childrenwho were in trouble. You have a heart for that child’s mother. I will never forget a mother sitting across the table from me, one son [my student], who was about to be expelled from school, and another son, who was on trial for murder. Listening to that mother talking. She was going through so much. She was crying and everything and, in turn, I poured out my own story to her. God gives you people to whom you must tell your story. You don’t tell it to everybody, but I told my story to her. [That] gave her some assurance that even looking at this, it’s going to be alright. So instead of . . . I had decide: does this child come back to school or is this child out of school? Well, what that mother was going through with her other son, no way in the world was I going to say “well, this son also is out.” There is always a trial and you have to rely upon a faith . . . and a sensitivity, and empathy with people to let you know the right thing to do. And it was the right thing to do for me at that moment to help that mother with this son because she was coming to grips with another son, who was, in fact, a murderer. I can’t even fathom that. She had a bigger trial than even what I was going through with my own child. I thought, “We’re going to save this one. I might not be able to save all of them, but we’re going to save this one at least.”

If this principal had chosen to lead from an ethic of justice only, she would have been forced to rely on a zero tolerance framework that required the

20    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN

student to be expelled. However, as a spiritual leader guided in her decision-making through an ethic of care as well, she made the decision to allow the child to remain in school because she felt it was in his best interest if she was to “save him” from a fate like his brother’s. Another participant went on to describe her difficulties trying to make the best decisions for students and teachers when the two seemed to be in opposition as well and the reliance on an ethic of care based on her spirituality. She put it this way: One of the things that has been hard for teachers to understand is that is not just one answer that fits. There’s not always just one solution. One of things that I have shared with them at the very beginning of the school year is that you may not always like the decisions that I make but you always know the reason that I make my decisions: because I want to do what’s right for children. There are so many other factors that go into things and for every child—just like you all would want me to treat you all the same; you want me to be considerate when you’re going through a health crisis or when you’ve lost a parent or when you have a child that is not doing what they need to do—just as you want me to be compassionate for you, we have to lead our children with the same type of understanding. I laid that out at the very beginning because they always complain, “Well, you didn’t do enough about this one” or” “This, this, that and the other child.” I’m like, “No, there is a bigger picture.” You have to always understand that’s what guides me. I’m always going to do my best to support you as their teacher and do what’s right by the child. Helping them to see that and I think my spirituality is what makes me think that way so that I don’t just say, “OK, every child that does this, this is the response.” “Every teacher that does this, this is the response.” Having that human side and knowing that we’re here to build children as well as adults. I had to have a conversation with an adult yesterday to let them know “I’m here to support you but this is what I need you to do. This is where I’m coming from. This is what I see in you but you have to want it. Because if you don’t want it, I’m not going to put the effort into it unless you are willing to come and meet me half way in terms of being able to grow you.” Just being able to see that in someone else and knowing that they need support and they need someone to say to them, “You can do it! But you have to be willing to try.” I think that is all part of my spiritual base as opposed to just writing people off and feeling like you can’t make any headway. To me, there’s no child that you can’t save at some point in time. You may not see them being saved during the time that you are with them but something that you do or some kind of seed that you sow in their life—even if they’re in prison as an adult—may be the piece that saves them so that they say “Somebody does care about me, I need to do better so that I can then reach out and save somebody else.”

For this principal, justice could not be reached without considering a framework of care. And, her framework of care was driven by her spirituality. None of the principals described a desire to operate from the much

Embracing Spirituality    21

easier decision-making framework of zero tolerance because they wanted to make decisions based on individual cases and contextual factors that were occurring at the time. They felt that it was their spiritual duty to lead from an ethic of care because their leadership roles were inherently positions of power that required them to serve as moral agents in their schools. Resilience Through Spirituality While all of the women described difficulties in their pathways to leadership roles and the resiliency that spirituality provided for them through prayer and meditation, one participant spoke about resiliency as the confidence her spirituality had placed in her heart. She said: I would not credit myself as being a very confident person, but I do believe that anything that God puts my on the path to do, he will equip to me to be able to do it. That is what I think allows me or afforded me the facility to be good at doing or being a leader. In and of myself, I’m like “I can’t do that or I can’t do this.” or “I can’t say that.” or “I can’t try that.” but I’m like “Well, he put me here so he must want me to be something so I’m just going to have to move forward in what he has guided me to do.” I think it has built my confidence but it’s not in myself, it’s more so in knowing that he will get me through it. I think that he had definitely shaped me in a tremendous way. Without that belief I don’t think that I would be at all in this position.

For this participant, spirituality gave her the confidence to serve as a leader in the first place. She relied on her spirituality for the very essence of her leadership abilities. Another participant went on to describe overcoming challenges through her foundation of spirituality. She told the following story: I went through some challenges in the building. By my second year as a teacher here, I came into a place where the administrator and I were in conflict with each other. We were working together for, I think it was three and a half years maybe, I kind of lost track of time because it was a brutal time in my life, and the thing that kept me going—because I would often have people come to me and say, “She’s saying this about you.” and “She’s thinking this about you.” and “This is out in the professional world about you.”—I would have to come to work every day and decide how am I going to deal with this? I turned to the Bible and in a sense it was a blessing because that was really when I built a consistent study life. Every morning—that was my armor—I would get up every morning and read the Bible and pray before I came to work because I was like that’s the only way I’m going to make it through this day and not snap on this woman. Or not say something out of character or get myself in trouble or get upset or . . . Over that time period that is what I did and it just kind of started strengthening me and I started knowing that God does

22    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN not mean anything for my demise. He is meaning this for good for me even though it is very painful at this time. He is going to do something through me and I just have to keep pushing through. People would say “Why [do] you let her do that to you?” and I’m like “It’s not about me.” It is about what He has me here to do and this won’t be this way forever. I really view my spirituality as my source of strength . . . It makes me resilient. It makes me be able to sustain being called out at principals’ meetings for a year as being the only school not accredited. I am still able to hold my head up with pride and know that God has got something better for all of us regardless of what they say about us and what papers say and what’s on the news. There is a purpose in this and I am not ashamed and I know that He has something bigger for the students here and I know that he is going to do something amazing. I feel that strength in me but if I didn’t have that source I would have crumbled. I also think about how knowing that there’s more to this helped me to do the right things all the time. There were times when people would say “Well, we need to do this so that we can pass the test.” and I’m like “No, I’m not going to do that.” Or “No. I’m not going to allow children in the testing grade to be the only ones that get support while the babies down here go to the testing grades not knowing how to read because we didn’t given them what they needed.” We’re going to have to take the hit for a few years. We’re going to have to build a foundation and I think that if I didn’t have that spiritual base, I wouldn’t have felt confident about taking that risk because I would have only been focused on the problem as opposed to the children first. I think that helps you to make the hard decisions knowing that in the end, it’s going to work out. You just have to believe and trust that God will bring you to where you need to be. Now we have children K through 5 that can read when we didn’t have that 4 years ago because we weren’t doing the right thing. Spirituality is what gave me the courage to be able to say no to things that weren’t right.

This participant struggled through tough years in direct conflict with an administrator who held power over her and was able to do it only through spiritual guidance through prayer and reading the Bible. Her commitment to rising above adversity during her time as a teacher strengthened her resolve and ability to “do the right thing” for students when she transitioned to a leadership role in the school. She went on to describe her reliance on spirituality to help her through challenges related to gender as well: To some extent, dealing with adversity is part of what strengthens your spirituality. Sometimes having to deal with difficult situations, sometimes dealing with, how can I put it, not being a male figure. I know in this role I have to deal with a lot of men who are in leadership and just being able to get my solid foundation first, pray about how I’m going to approach a situation because they tend to—not always, but sometimes—some males in leadership positions will look at a woman and say “OK, yeah I can kind of push her around and do what I want to do in terms of having my way.” That was one of the interesting things about starting off in this position: I had to go toe-to-toe with an expe-

Embracing Spirituality    23 rienced and veteran principal in the county, a male principal, who was really well known and very popular and he thought he was just going to run over me and I’m like “Lord, please be with me in this thing.” I had to pray over it for a couple of days and was like “Do I just kind of bow out because I am new at this or do I stand my ground because I am doing what is best for my children?”—and just really being prayerful about it.

Regardless of the type of adversity faced, all of the women relied on a spiritual foundation to help them be resilient and remain focused on doing what they felt is best for children. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS We began this project with the goal of identifying school leaders who lead with a sense of personal belief and spirituality; in particular, African American women. We found a small sample of women in one school district in Virginia who fit the criteria set forth in this study and, through a focus group interview, determined that these women used spirituality as a conduit to lead for transformation in their schools and surrounding communities with the ultimate goal of creating socially just environments for those individuals in their care as moral leaders. According to Dantley (2003), African American spirituality might serve as a foundation for the re-visioning of leadership preparation and praxis. For those of us whose research and teaching objectives include the cultivation of skills and knowledges that would enable us to be healers through the very act of education and research, it is imperative to seek models whose lived pedagogy can incite us to attune to our own spiritual reservoirs and draw from them the “know-how” and the “be-how” to foster balance, unity, harmony, and growth in our classrooms. (Dillard, Abdur-Rashid, & Tyson, 2000, p. 448)

We believe the core of our study did just this—sought and identified leaders who “. . . carefully examine the dissonance between what presently happens in schools and perpetuates the status quo and what could happen in schools that would bring about marked change in these institutions” (Dantley, 2005, p. 14). Through the narratives they shared in the focus group interview, the women participants emerged as leaders who served challenged school communities rife with obstacles through leadership strategies that were driven by their personal and spiritual walks with God. The themes that emerged support existing literature on African American women leaders. Our findings confirm Loder’s (2005) assertion that African American women view their leadership roles as principals as a calling and/or

24    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN

ministry. The women in this study used these terms often to describe their work. Furthermore, our findings support research that indicates African American women rely on establishing connections to and with surrounding communities and churches to facilitate greater resources and success for the students in their schools ( Johnson, 2007; Lomotey, 1989; Murtada & Larson, 1999; Witherspoon & Arnold, 2010). Our findings also confirm Mattis’ (1997) assertion that there is a link between community activism, resiliency, and spirituality for African American women leaders. In fact, our findings significantly extend Mattis’ work to specify that African American women principals not only serve as activists within the boundaries of their schools, but make efforts to transform the communities that surround their schools. Furthermore, our findings extend Harris and Ballenger’s (2004) notions that African American women principals utilize spirituality as a framework for decision-making in their schools as a tool for their own empowerment and empowerment for students, teachers, and parents alike. Not only did our findings confirm Harris and Ballenger’s work, they push thinking further as our participants described a specific type of spiritual framework grounded in an ethic of care (Gilligan, 1982; Noddings, 1984). “Spirituality in education is education with purpose, education that is liberatory work, education that is emancipation” (Dillard, Abdur-Rashid, & Tyson, 2000, p. 447). If we are to believe Greenfield’s (1993) assertion that principals are moral agents and, thus, are required to make decisions that have moral consequences, we must push the discussion in leadership preparation and practice to include the “nonrational” and “emotional” aspects of leadership (Begley, 1996; Murphy, 1992). Furthermore, if spirituality drives the process African Americans use to interpret and transform life (Dantley, 2003), then those involved with leadership preparation and K–12 leadership practice would be well served to investigate spirituality as a conduit for teaching transformative leadership skills as greater numbers of ethnic minorities and women find themselves leading challenged school environments. As we grapple with notions of social justice and equity while envisioning how to transform schools and communities, it is important for leaders to understand who they are, what they stand for, and how their values impact their decision-making for students in schools. For the women in this study, knowing their personal values and being firm in their beliefs and reliance on spirituality enabled them to lead from a center of personal empowerment that served for the betterment of their students and school communities—despite obstacles that were placed in their paths.

Embracing Spirituality    25

APPENDIX A INTERVIEW GUIDE Demographics • Briefly describe your school and the surrounding community. Let us know if there are significant descriptors that are most important to understanding your community. • Briefly describe your pathway to the principalship. • How long have you been in education? How long have you been a principal? How long have you been a principal in your current school? Background • Do you consider yourself to be spiritual/religious? Why/How? What is an example? • What is the difference between spirituality and religion? How do you define each? • Were you religious/spiritual as a child? Please share early memories. Were your parents/grandparents religious? Was there a religious/ spiritual tradition in your family? • Why did you become an educator? Why did you become a principal/administrator? • What do you believe is the core mission of education/schooling? • How do you articulate your leadership beliefs? How do you define yourself as a leader? • Do you believe that leaders can separate their emotions, personal beliefs/values, and cultural experiences from leadership practice? Religion/Spirituality and Daily Role of Principal • Do you lead with/through your religion/spirituality? How? Please share examples. • Do you seek spiritual guidance (or prayer for guidance) as you carry out your leadership duties? Please describe. • Do you have any outward displays of your religion/spirituality (i.e., cross necklace, Bible, religious bumper sticker, religious quotes, saying “Amen” or “preach”)? • Have you ever felt the need to hide your spirituality/religion in your work school? Please explain.

26    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN

• How do you identify fellow spiritual leaders? Do you support one another? How? • How do you connect with those in your school communities? • What is your most important task/role as a school leader? Religion/Spirituality and Self • Has your spirituality/religion enhanced your leadership skills? How? • Would you describe yourself as a resilient person? How/Why? Does your spirituality/religion contribute to this? Is religion/spirituality a sustaining force during difficult times? • Does your spirituality/religion contribute to your personal health? How? • Would you describe yourself as an activist? Or, an advocate? Please describe and share examples. • Do you have a leadership agenda for the future? Does it include some type of transformation for your school?

Embracing Spirituality    27

REFERENCES Begley, P. (1996). Cognitive perspectives on values in administration. A quest for coherence and relevance. Educational Administration Quarterly, 32(3), 403–426. Bloom, C. M., & Erlandson, D. A. (2003). African American women principals in urban schools: Realities, (re)constructions, and resolutions. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39(3), 339–369. Bottery, M. (2002). Globalization, spirituality and the management of education. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 7(2), 131–142. Bridges, F. (2001). Resurrection song: African American spirituality. New York: Orbis Books Brunner, C. C., & Peyton-Claire, L. (2000). Seeking representation: Supporting Black female graduates who aspire to the superintendency. Urban Education, 35(5), 532–548. Carby, H. V. (1987). Reconstructing womanhood: The emergence of the Afro-American woman novelist. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought, (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. Creswell, J. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Dantley, M. E. (2010). Successful leadership in urban schools: Principals and critical spirituality, A new approach to reform. The Journal of Negro Education, 79(3), 214–219. Dantley, M. E. (2005). African American spirituality and Cornel West’s notions of prophetic pragmatism: Restructuring educational leadership in American urban schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 41(1), 176–191. Dantley, M. E. (2003). Critical spirituality: Enhancing transformative leadership through critical theory and African American prophetic spirituality. International Journal for Leadership in Education, 6(1), 3–17. Dillard, C. B., Abdur-Rashid, D., Tyson, C. A. (2000). My soul is a witness: Affirming pedagogies of the spirit. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 13(5), 447–462. Figueroa, L. R., Davis, B., Baker, S., & Bunch, J. B. (2006). The influence of spirituality on health care-seeking behaviors among African Americans. The ABNF Journal, (17)2, 82–88. Foster, W. (1989, March). School leaders as transformation intellectuals: A theoretical argument. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, San Francisco. Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Gillum, F., & Griffith, D. M. (2010). Prayer and spiritual practices for health reasons among American adults: The role of race and ethnicity. J Relig Health, 49, 283–295. Giroux, H. (1988). Teachers as intellectuals: Toward a critical pedagogy of learning. Granby, MA: Bergin & Garvey. Greenfield, W. (1993). Articulating values and ethics in administrator preparation. In C. Capper (Ed.), Educational administration in a pluralistic society (pp. 267– 287). New York: State University of New York Press.

28    W. S. NEWCOMB and I. L. KHAN Harding, S. (1991). Whose science? Whose knowledge? Thinking from women’s lives. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Harris, S., & Ballenger, J. (2004). Women leaders and spirituality. Paper presented at the 29th Annual Research on Women and Education Conference, Cleveland, OH. Hooper-Atlas, B. L. (2002). Role of spirituality in the work of African American women principals in urban schools. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin. Johnson, L. (2007) Rethinking successful school leadership in challenging U.S. schools: Culturally responsive practices in school-community relationships. International Studies in Educational Administration, 35(3),49–57. Jones, A. D. (2010). Leadership and spirituality: The indivisible leadership of African American schools administrators as pastors. Dissertation: Iowa State University. Kofman, K., & Senge, P. (1995). Communities of commitment: The heart of learning organizations. In S. Charla & J. Renesch (Eds.), Learning organizations: Developing cultures for tomorrow’s workplace (pp. 15–43). Portland, OR: Productivity. Krueger, R. & Casey, M.A. (2000). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Lather, P. (1991). Getting smart. New York: Routledge. Loder, T. (2005). On deferred dreams, callings, and revolving doors of opportunity: African-American women’s reflections on becoming principals. The Urban Review, 37(3), 243–265. Lomotey, K. (1989). African American principals: School leadership and success. New York: Greenwood Press. Maxwell, J. A. (1996). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Mattis, J. S. (1997). Spirituality and religiosity in the lives of Black women. African American Research Perspectives, 3(2), 56–60. McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2001). Research in Education (5th ed.). New York: Longman. Morgan, D. (1998). The focus group guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Murphy, J. (1992). The landscape of leadership preparation: Reframing the education of school administrators. Newbury Park: Corwin Press. Murtada, K., & Larson, C. (1999, April). Toward a socially critical womanist theory of leadership. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada. Noddings, N. (1984). Caring: A feminism approach to ethics and moral education. Berkeley: University of California Press. Palmer, P. (1993). To know as we are known. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2th ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Perkins, L. M. (1989). The history of Blacks in teaching, In D. Warren (Ed.), American teachers: Histories and personal narratives (pp. 344–369). New York: McMillan. Pollard, D. S. (1997). Race, gender, and educational leadership: Perspectives from African American principals. Educational Policy, 11(3), 353–374. Ramirez, L. R. (2011). Spirituality in the praxis of educational leadership: Four public school principal’s perspectives on leading through spirituality. Lubbock: Texas Tech University.

Embracing Spirituality    29 Rossman, G., & Rallis, S. (1998). Learning in the field: An introduction to qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Sergiovanni, T. (1992). Moral leadership: Getting to the heart of school improvement. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Shakeshaft, C. (1999). The struggle to create a more gender-inclusive profession. In J. Murphy, & K. S. Louis (Eds.), Handbook of research on educational administration (pp. 99–118). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Shapiro, J., & Stefkovich, J. (2001). Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates. Sherman, W. H., & Wrushen, B. (2009). Intersecting leadership knowledge from the field: Diverse women secondary principals. Journal of School Leadership, 19(2), 171–198. Simmons, J. C., & Johnson, W. Y. (2008). African American female superintendents speaking the language of hope: Reconstructing the multi-dimensions of passion. In W. K. Hoy & M. DiPaola (Eds.), Improving schools: Studies in leadership and culture (pp. 223–249). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Starratt, R. J. (1996). Transforming educational administration: Meaning, community, and excellence. New York: McGraw-Hill. Stewart, C. F. (1999). Black spirituality and Black consciousness. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press. Williams, D. (1993). Sisters in the wilderness: The challenge of womanist God-talk. New York: Orbis. Witherspoon, N., & Arnold, B. M. (2010). Pastoral care: Notions of caring and the Black female principal. The Journal of Negro Education, 79(3), 220–232. Witherspoon, N., & Taylor, D. L. (2010). Spiritual weapons: Black female principals and religio-spirituality. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 42(2), 133–158. Yonezawa, S. (2000). Unpacking the black box of tracking decisions: Critical tales of families navigating the course placement process. In M.G. Sanders (Ed.), Schooling students placed at risk: Research policy, and practice in the education of poor and minority adolescents. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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CHAPTER 2

THE BELIEF AND THE PRACTICE Self-Affirming and Resistance-Based Religion and Spirituality Among Black Students La Monica Everett-Haynes

ABSTRACT The present qualitative study considers how spirituality and religion informs the lives of African American and U.S.-born and/or raised African who are all attending a predominately White institution (PWI) in the western region of the United States. The study explores how students define and conceptualize their spiritual and religious identities, considering ways the campus environment supports and/or challenges students’ religious and spiritual identity development. Findings inform on the similar and dissimilar conceptualizations students have about religious and spiritual identities, revealing an intersection with one’s racial or ethnic identity. Findings also provide important insights on students’ experiences attending a PWI, with particular focus on Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 31–58 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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32    L. EVERETT-HAYNES challenges they face and reasons why students opt to engage in social justiceoriented work in ways derived from their religious and spiritual identities. Keywords: African American, African, Black, spirituality, religion, higher education, students, identity

BLACK STUDENTS, RELIGION, AND SPIRITUALITY—AN INTRODUCTION The majority of Black1 students in the United States2 attend predominately White institutions, PWIs, which are colleges and universities whose enrollments are largely comprised of White students. Regarding the academic and social lives of Black students who attend PWIs, much of the literature has provided a stark view. Compared with their White peers, Black students at PWIs have more negative experiences, which can more readily result in adverse effects on personal, emotional, cognitive and, at times, health-related levels. Overall, Black students attending PWIs are also prone to experience lower admissions and degree attainment rates, heightened levels of stress, lower levels of well-being and achievement (Walker & Dixon, 2002; D’Augelli & Hershberger, 1993; Fleming, 1984) when compared to white students at the same institutions. But just as researchers have indicated that Black students, as well as other students of color, experience unique challenges at PWIs, they have found that these students also maintain certain emotional and psychosocial buffers. Such buffers can counteract perceived and actualized barriers. Of note, studies have found benefits derive from parental and familial support, positive socioeconomic factors, precollege readiness and alignment with racial or ethnic values, among other factors that contribute to emotional and psychological well-being (Weaver, 2009; Gayles, 2006; Miller & MacIntosh, 1999; Stevenson, 1995). Findings also suggest that those students of color who are most successful tend to arrive at colleges and universities academically prepared, highly motivated and resilient (Brown & Tylka, 2010; Brown, 2008; Rouse, 2001). Likewise, those students are most likely to thrive when in supportive college environments (Ceja & Solórzano, 2003). Researchers also have investigated what personal characteristics students must possess to buffer hostile environments and experiences, which can lead to stress. Hostilities at PWI may come in the form of racially-motivated tensions, leading to feelings of being stereotyped, alienated, or isolated (Neville, et. al, 2004; Allen, 1992; Loo & Rolison, 1986). As noted earlier, general studies on college students have indicated that active participation in a religious or spiritual practice can buffer such feelings. For example, researchers who conducted a study of a broad range of college and university students found that those who held strong religious and/or spiritual beliefs

The Belief and the Practice     33

also reported heightened levels of satisfaction, personal meaning-making and also integration in life (Astin, Astin, & Lindholm, 2011). But what does this mean for those Black students who attend PWIs and whose racial and religious identities are not only salient, but at times recipients of targeted hostilities? Also, for practitioners of higher education, particularly those at PWIs, what could this mean for improving and supporting the positive development of the student populace? LITERATURE REVIEW Researchers have long attempted to better understand the experience of Black students attending PWIs. In fact, since the 2000s, researchers have begun to more readily contribute to the growing body of literature contextualizing the religious and spiritual experiences of Black students attending PWIs. Faith development research defines faith as a connection with a divine source, which encourages ethics and meaning-making in life (Park, 2005; Fowler, 2004). Faith can lead to personal, emotional, cognitive and moral growth (Fowler, 2004; Krause, 2003), aiding in heightened self-esteem and optimism in life (Steger & Frazier, 2005). Studying Black populations, researchers have found that positive race-based socialization and spiritual teachings and practices each have different positive effects, namely regarding outcomes around stress and cardiovascular health (Bowen-Reid & Harrell, 2002). Also, the relevance religious organizations hold in Black communities is especially important with regard to cultural and religious education (Billingsley & Caldwell, 1991). In another study, on gender differences between 171 African American students, Berkel, Armstrong and Cokley (2004) found significant correlations between religious and spiritual variables. Such a finding had been affirmed by prior literature indicating that overlap can and does exist between religious practices and spiritual beliefs, with religious practices being an extension of the spiritual self (p. 10). Yet Berkel, Armstrong, and Cokley (2004) also found certain delineations between religiosity and spirituality, and that certain aspects of religiosity serve strictly personal or social benefits (p. 10) in ways that were not necessarily connected with students’ individual spirituality. Regarding religion and spirituality, studies have detailed differences in religious participation between African American and other students attending colleges and universities. Findings suggest distinct differences in spiritual and religious participation between African American and European American students, with African Americans more likely to be engaged (Taylor, Chatters & Jackson, 2009; Dennis, et. al., 2005; Walker & Dixon, 2002; Chatters, Taylor, & Lincoln, 1999) in a religious or spiritual practice. Studies have shown that strong benefits emerge when Black students are socialized around religion

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and spirituality and when those students develop a faith-based practice. Among Black college students, religious and spiritual practices are associated with positive academic, emotional, mental, behavioral and health-related outcomes (Wood & Hilton, 2012; Chu, 2007; Greer, 2007; Constantine, Miville, & Warren, et. al., 2006; Doswell, Kouyate, & Taylor, J., 2003; Herdon, 2003). In particular, the frequency in attendance, not merely the belief, can also have a positive effect on some African American students’ adjustments into college life (Phillips, 2000). Involvement in religious organizations can also result in improvements to academic performance and health (Brome, Owens, Allen, & Vevaina, 2000; Blaine & Crocker, 1995) for Black students. Yet, the mere presence of religious or spiritual beliefs and practices do not necessarily immediately negate the negative interactions Black students may have at PWIs. Confounding threats to Black students’ success at PWIs are challenges to spiritual development, which may due to the likelihood of race-based stress, or Black students feeling unwelcome within the institutional environment (Neville, et. al., 2004; Ancis, Sedlacek, & Mohr, 2000). Such feelings and beliefs can result in unnecessary stress, which can have an adverse effect on students’ adjustment into higher education, or result in drops in grades and grade point averages (Neville, et. al., 2004). The issue is concerning, indicating that PWI’s are not adept at supporting the academic and personal development of Black students (Stewart, 2002). Among the remaining concerns is that academia does not adequately acknowledge faith, and spiritual development is not well integrated within higher education (Astin, Astin, & Lindholm, 2011; Love & Talbot, 1999; Palmer, 1993). Also concerning is the dearth of scholarly information in the field of higher education specifically related to the experiences of U.S.-born and/or raised African students attending PWIs. Likewise, studies that simultaneously consider similarities and dissimilarities of religious and spiritual beliefs among African American and U.S.-born and/or raised Africans are rare. Yet migration patterns of Africans into the United States have been on a steady incline since the 1960s.3 Existing studies do suggest that African Americans share some commonalities around religion and spirituality with Blacks living outside of the United States. In a study of African Americans, Caribbean Blacks and nonHispanic whites, both groups of Blacks were more likely than Whites to note that spiritual beliefs held an important place in their lives (Taylor, Chatters and Jackson, 2009). The study also found that no major differences existed between the African Americans and Caribbean Blacks in terms of their connection to spirituality or spiritual practices (Taylor, Chatters and Jackson, 2009). In another study, Anglin and Whaley (2006) examined the racial and ethnic self-labeling practices among African Americans, West Indian/Caribbean and Africans. Anglin and Whaley incorporated an analysis of spiritual coping, finding that African-identified individuals scored higher on the scale than others in the study. The authors attributed the finding to differences in socialization

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rooted in racial experiences (pp. 460–461), suggesting an important intersection between race and spiritual beliefs that the current study also considers. While numerous studies explain Black students’ experiences at PWIs, it is necessary to greatly enhance an understanding of the ways students describe and self-identity around religion and spirituality at PWIs. This is particularly true for U.S.-born and/or raised African students. It is not clear whether those students of immigrant parents do or do not have comparable socialization around religion and spirituality as do Black students whose families have long lived in the United States. Yet, higher education institutions tend not to differentiate either population of students, not in classification or in targeted programming. And given that religion and spirituality are long-standing sectors of power within Black communities—informing individual beliefs, daily practices and social interactions—it is important to better support those Black students whose racial and religious identities are salient. Given the existing literature, certain researchers and practitioners are calling for improved structural and programmatic improvements at PWI’s to better support students of color in general. Likewise, some within the scholarly community are calling for the improved support of Black students in particular (Stewart, 2002). In doing so, researchers have been calling for a new wave of leadership to address long-standing and emergent sociopolitical and cultural issues affecting the Black population and the improved application of spiritual practices, namely those grounded in a social justice (Dantley, 2005) and Afrocentric ideologies. To fill these gaps in the literature, the current study targeted African American students and African students born and/or raised in the United States by immigrant parents. For the purposes of this study, “Black” is an encompassing term to describe both populations of students simultaneously. However, either term—African American and U.S.-born and/or raised Africans—will be used to delineate between the two groups of students. The current study is designed to understand individual perceptions and beliefs Black students hold about religion and spirituality, while simultaneous allowing for a critical examination of internalized beliefs around students’ varying social identities. As such, findings contribute to our understanding of ways Black students in the current study navigate and negotiate perceptions and beliefs around religion and spirituality within the context of attending PWIs, and how those beliefs inform not only their faith, but also their academic, social and professional practice as students. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The current qualitative study is an investigation of how African American and U.S.-born and/or raised African students attending a predominately

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White institution self-identify with a religious or spiritual identity. The study attempts to explain how students’ experiences around religion and spirituality are informed by an intersection of race in an environment perceived to be occasionally, regularly or frequently hostile. The study is informed by social identity theory, coupled with a conceptual basis grounded in Afro-centrism, which acknowledges that spirituality is deeply rooted in Black culture and largely tied to forms of resistance (Mazama, 2002) and social justice (Dantley, 2005), concepts that will be addressed later in the chapter. Afrocentrism To begin with the framing, introducing a conceptual basis around Black spirituality, resistance and social justice are crucial for the current study. This conceptual basis is especially important when involving students for which racial or ethnic identities are salient in an environment and context that is predominately White. As such, Afro-centrism affirms the belief that humans and the spiritual realm coexist, not a duality or oppositional relationship; that “we are an organic part of a whole that includes diverse spiritual and physical entities” (Mazama, 2002, p. 222). Such a worldview precludes cultural values in a community orientation, in spirituality, authenticity and unity which aid in students’ well-being (Wallace & Constantine, 2005; Constantine, et. al., 2003; Jackson & Sears, 1992). Also grounded in Afro-centrism is the understanding that western religion, namely Christianity, is a representation and manifestation of cultural, political and powerbased dynamics whereas spirituality recognizes an individual connection with spiritual forces (Mazama, 2002; Myers, 1993). Here, Afro-centrism is evoked to ground conceptual understandings of the perceptions and lived experiences of the students in the current study. The consideration of Afro-centrism acknowledges that these students may be wrestling with the realities of facing institutionalized and actualized racism and discrimination simply because they are Black. Concurrently, there exists an understanding that even as these students face discrimination, they are likely responding in covert and overt ways that are self-empowering. Self-empowerment comes in the form of resistance to normative or dominant ideologies (Mazama, 2002). In fact, certain students’ engagement in social justice is evidence of self-empowerment. Resistance and social justice are important concepts within Afrocentric thought and teachings. Such efforts are regarded as forms of resistance, resistance to historic and contemporary normative socializing agents. But why, then, does there exist a need for Black students to adopt an Afrocentric worldview and actively engagement in resistance and social justice?

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Scholars affirm that when Blacks—whether in the United States or elsewhere—adopt beliefs, practices and ideologies that are rooted in Black thought, they tend to exhibit heightened concepts of self and stronger racial beliefs (Akbar, Chambers, & Thompson, 2001). Thus, Afro-centricism represents an “emancipatory movement” (Mazama, 2002, p. 219). One common avenue for the shift from mental oppression to empowerment is through spirituality (Mazama, 2002). Social Identity Theory Regarding social identity theory, the framework serves to explain group identity and processes within a group of in individuals, and also why people subscribe to similar beliefs within an organization or a setting. Additionally, social identity theory serves to explain socially constructed group-based identities, such as race and ethnicity, gender, social class, sexual orientation, political, or religious affiliation. The theory advances the understanding that there exists a growing connection between individual beings and social constructs (Tajfel, 1982); that individuals do not exist in isolation, but as members of groups to which values and beliefs are attached. In its more contemporary iteration, social identity theory has widely been used to understand how individuals convene, act and respond as members of a group. Conceivably, then, an individual need not be a direct member of a social identity group to self-identify with that group—the difference being that those with the specific characteristics are in-group members whereas others are deemed out-group members (Stets & Burke, 2000). Indeed, the individual maintains the power to self-identity into specific social identity groups or categories, a process theorists have termed selfcategorization, (Hogg & Abrams, 1988; Turner, et. al., 1987; Tajfel, 1982). Certain scholars are attempting to advance the understanding that individuals may maintain and nurture social group membership not merely because of shared characteristics. Indeed, other reasons for maintaining social group membership may be because of resource or material-based gains, and depending on one’s positionality within a group, expectations associated with negotiating interactions, controlling resources, promoting in-group interactivity and working to subvert stereotypes held against the group (Stets & Burke, 2000; Spears, Ellemers, & Doosje, 1997). Social identity, then, is not merely about the singular cultural characteristic that connects people, but suggests that the categories or groups themselves are each embedded with values, beliefs, expectations, behavioral norms, and the like (Stets & Burke, 2000; Stryker & Burke, 2000), which then dictate individual behaviors.

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Self-Efficacy and Social Identity Theory Social identity theory enables the consideration of how individuals engage in self-selective behaviors; why individuals adopt similar ways of being and believing while dismissing others. Here, the role of self-efficacy is hugely important to consider. The theory, then, does not merely enhance knowledge about the innate connection between individuals and social constructs (Tajfel, 1982), but also ways and reasons why individuals opt to self-identity or separate from specific classifications (Hogg & Abrams, 1988; Turner, et. al., 1987; Tajfel, 1982). Therefore, a social identity is not a singular connection characteristic, but represents a set of values (Stryker & Burke, 2000; Stets & Burke, 2000). Thus, within the frame of social identity theory, it is understood that 1.) An individual need not be a direct member of a social identity group to self-identify with that group and 2.) Individuals are actively involved in a process of self-selection, adopting which identity-based classifications they prefer and dismissing those they do not. However, the theory does not adequately address how and why individuals actively choose to maintain in-group and out-group status simultaneously. For example within the context of the current study, certain students identified as being religiously affiliated, but also rejected certain aspects of their religious identities even when actively participating in those aspects. The challenge, then, is advancing an understanding of ways individuals also connect with conflicting and, at times, contradictory aspects of their social identities and selves. Also necessary is an improved understanding of how individuals connect with their social identities as they are being redefined by in-group and out-group members, much like students in the current study. Stets and Burke (2000) emphasized a merger of social identity and identity theories to understand individuals on a macro and micro level. In doing so, Stets and Burke noted the importance of cognitive processes, such as self-efficacy and self-esteem (p. 224). Thus, while shared values, beliefs, expectations and norms around social identity are important within the context of the current study, so too is evidence of students exhibiting self-efficacy around their religious and spiritual identities and beliefs. As the current study’s findings indicate, individuals adhere to groupbased values and beliefs, but also engage in a renegotiate of the self. For these students, individual perceptions and experiences not only help to define religious and spiritual beliefs and practices, but also greatly inform the self-selection process. Likewise, that process is actualized specifically within the context of lived and shared experiences as a Black person attending a PWI.

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METHODOLOGY Findings are based on semistructured interviews spanning 30 minutes to 1.5 hours with 13 self-identified Black undergraduates and graduate students attending during the 2010–2011, 2011–2012, and 2012–2013 academic years a PWI located in the western region of the United States. The current study served to answer three main research questions: 1. How do Black students define and describe religion and spirituality? a. How do students describe their personal religious and spiritual practices and beliefs? 2. For Black students whose religious or spiritual identities are salient, how does religion and spirituality inform their lives, specifically within the context of higher education? a. How do students interpret the environment at a predominately White institution as being supportive, challenging or otherwise? Student Recruitment Initially, students were recruited through the official university e-mail listservs known to include a sizable number of Black students, including those maintained by cultural centers and student organizations targeting Black students. To access such listservs, the researcher actively contacted the administrators of the lists, asking permission to disseminate a call for participation to students who met the qualifications of the study. This method proved to be useful, as the call for participation was disseminated on numerous listservs. However, only a few students responded to the call, with many later actively or passively choosing not to participate. The initial low response rate raised concerns about trust in the researcher and the research being conducted. Researchers have noted that it is important that scholars greatly detail their study design and justifications (Creswell, 2009; Neuman, 2000) to determine the study’s validity and relevance. A review of the methods indicated that a different approach would have to be employed. Thus, a snowball method or convenience sampling (Noy, 2008; Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2003) was then utilized to recruit students for the study. The use of the snowball method enables an investigation and/or understanding of “social knowledge” and “power knowledge” (Noy, 2008, p. 329). Thus, snowballing allows the researcher to simultaneously investigate power dynamics and, more importantly for the current study, knowledge regimes (Noy, 2008). Therefore, in utilizing the method it not only became easier to connect with students, but the method also informed the researcher around the trust issues student held regarding the

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discussion of religion and spirituality, a topic that many found to be emotionally charged and, at times and for some, challenging to discuss with a stranger. Given the perceived trust issue, additional measures were employed to ensure students’ safety and to protect students’ identities and also to ensure students felt comfortable, confidentiality was strictly maintained, and data was coded to preserve privacy. Likewise, the researcher maintained information about on and off campus resources that students could utilize if they needed emotional support after the interview. It, too, was extremely important to be especially careful not to disclose if and when a contact had been made with students, and also who had been and would be interviewed. To avoid any chance of inadvertently disclosing information about students, I informed each interview participant at the initial point of contact that I would not share their personal information, nor would I disclose the information of others participating in the study. In the three cases over the course of the study during which a person directly asked if I had interviewed a specific student, I informed each of those individuals that I was unable to disclose such information, as doing so could potentially compromise my interview subjects and also the integrity of the research. Likewise, in coding data and detailing findings, each student has been provided a pseudonym to protect each of their identities. Study Sample Among the students who chose to participate in the study, 11 are undergraduate students and two are graduate students with each student having completed at least one semester at the targeted institution. Also, 10 are female and three are male. Three students identify as U.S.-born and/or raised Africans and 10 identify as African American, those whose family has a long lineage living in the United States. It is important to note that one student whose parents were Kenyan did not identify as African American, though she was raised in the United States. She preferred the signifier, “African” over “African American.” Two other students self-identified as both Black and mixed raced; one whose parents are Korean and Jamaican and another whose parents are both Jamaican. Each of those students was born and raised in the United States. International students were not recruited for the purposes of the current study. It is important to offer a recognition that racial/ethnic, cultural, linguistic and social differences can and do exist between African American and African students (Phinney & Onwughalu, 1996). However, Africans born and/or raised in the United States attending higher education institution, namely PWIs, are a largely understudied population. Thus, the current study

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contributes to understandings of the similar and dissimilar issues African American and U.S.-born and/or raised African students can and do face. Interview Protocol Interviews were utilized in order to attain the greatest detail of information about each student’s individual perceptions and beliefs about religion and spirituality. Interview questions probed on childhood religious teachings, religious and spiritual beliefs and practices and campus climate. Also, general demographic information—such as age, national origin, religious or spiritual affiliation, program of study and class standing—was captured to allow from some comparative analysis. The interview protocol was semistructured to allow for a directed discussion, but flexibility in the conversation. Questions included: How do you define religion? How do you define spirituality? Throughout life, what have you been taught about religion and spirituality? How would you describe your current relationship with religion or spirituality? In what ways does your religion or spirituality manifest in your academic and professional work? However, a semistructured interview enabled students to speak about other relevant topics and experiences around religion and spirituality that might not have arose if the interviews had been more structured. Such topics and experiences included, but were not limited to, interpersonal and familial conflicts and challenges around religious or spiritual teachings, individual self-affirming practices outside of traditional religious teachings and sociopolitical issues. Data Analysis Interviews were recorded and then partially transcribed with transcriptions focusing on key themes designated in advance of the analysis. One student declined to have the interview recorded, thus, the notes were taken in an attempt to capture what was spoken verbatim. Open coding was utilized to enable main thematic points to be categorized and recategorized with more selective categories when necessary to allow for deeper, more specific analysis (Creswell, 1998). Main thematic codes did not change over the course of the analysis, and were Definitions, Practices/Beliefs, Internalizations/Rejections (regarding individual connections or dismissals of spirituality or religion), Challenges/Successes, and University Environment. However, open coding also allows for categorization when unexpected themes arose in the data (Creswell, 2009), such as issues that were then coded as Race/Racial Topics, Gender and Social Justice/Awareness. Such a

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method enabled an in-depth understanding of a case-based situation (Creswell, 1998)—the religious and spiritual perceptions, beliefs and practices among one group of African American and U.S.-born and/or raised African students. Positionality Statement Having grown up in an environment that maintained Christian values, I felt I could personally connect with much of the students’ experiences. Likewise, I identify as African American (Black) also attended a PWI. Consequently, I experienced some of the racial tensions the students described, both on campus and in the greater community. Also, I do believe that my racial background aided in both the recruitment and interview process. On multiple occasions, a student would express that they felt more at ease or comfortable speaking with me because we were both Black. Because of my Black identity and prior experiences, it was especially important throughout the course of the study—in recruiting students, in interviews, in coding and during the data analysis portion—not to superimpose my beliefs. It became crucial for me to gain a deep understanding of students’ specific contexts and also to be very attentive to the language they opted to use. FINDINGS Findings are presented in four main sections. The first section details how students define both “religion” and “spirituality.” The second section offers three character sketches of students who embody the continuum of beliefs and practices that became evident in the study. The third section speaks to conceptions around religion and spirituality and tendencies toward social justice. The fourth section addresses how students interpreted and reinterpreted their social identities within the context of attending a PWI. The final section focuses on similarities and differences in beliefs between African American and U.S. born/and or raised African students. Religion and Spirituality—The Definitions Each of the students in the current study defines religion and spirituality similarly. Religion and spirituality are concurrently social/personal identities and manifest as beliefs and practices in varying ways.

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For these students, religious affiliation denotes secular notions around individual responsibilities to a divine being. However, a spiritually-minded practice suggests a worldview that considers the individual, members of other identity groups and a beyond the physical world. As Patrice, a U.S.born African student, notes, “Spirituality is a lot more broad than religion is . . . connects us to things that are not physically or materially here. There is a lot of overlap between the two, but they can exist without each other as well.” As such, students generally associate religion with the practical application of a belief system (i.e.: prayer, attending church, reading the Bible, congregating with other members of a religious order, etc.). For students, spirituality is both a practice and a feeling, or connection, with a deity or power source. A spiritual practice, however, exists for the benefit and betterment of not just the individual, but others as well. As such, religious is closely aligned with the secular, whereas spirituality implies a responsibility beyond the self—distinctions students tended to make in their collegiate years. Students also recognize both religion and spirituality as social identities, but neither is viewed as singular identity expression. Instead, religion and spirituality for these students appear to be identity signifiers and also complex integrations of beliefs and practices, offering a contrast to the literature. For instance, students generally do not believe churchgoing is mandatory for religious or spiritual development, a belief that all but two students in the study said they came to decide later in their young adult years or as a university student. However, tremendous variation exists in religious affiliation and practice among the students interviewed, representing a continuum of practice and meaning. Thus, whereas social identity theory has historically explained that individuals are members of groups bound by comparable beliefs and values (Tajfel, 1982), that is not a uniform case with these students. The students often appear to be in-group and out-group members simultaneously and persistently engaged in reinterpreting their individual and social identities. A Continuum of Beliefs and Practices Consider Patrice, Alice, and Thomas. The three students represent the divergent range of what appears to be a continuum of practice and also meaning around religion and spirituality. The character sketches on Patrice, Alice, and Thomas reveal the many ways in which students define and also conceptualize religion and spirituality. The sketches also indicate ways the students reinterpret social identity around religion and spirituality, and how their interpretations informs their individual and group-based practices.

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It was during her years as a university student that Patrice, a U.S.-born African student raised in a Christian church, decided to abandon her earlier “zealous” ways because they did not coalesce with the type of person she wanted to become. Patrice, viewing behaviors of a close male friend modeled around spirituality, then chose to adopt a more spiritually-minded practice, one she says liberated her emotionally and intellectually from her earlier teachings. Patrice says her new spiritual leanings also inform her practice not only as a student, but motivates her activist sociopolitical work around gender, sexuality, and race specifically because of negative experiences she either had or witnessed. Then there is Alice, also a U.S.-born African. Alice is a devout Christian who prefers to read scripture, attend church functions and engage in daily prayer. She prefers to speak about her religion only to those she feels a close emotional or personal connection. Alice says she believes that speaking about one’s religion, even in social circles, is “not professional.” Though Alice is grounded in her religious beliefs, she appears less confident in the actual practice, suggesting she may have internalized negative beliefs about how she can engage her faith in university settings. Yet, Alice’s religion is a strong part of her identity that she works to protect. For Alice, her religion appears more of a motivating force in her life rather than a practice; it requires a level of conscious awareness, but does not necessarily demand outward action in any way. As such, religion for Alice is more insular and individually focused. Thomas, an African American, had comparable upbringings as Patrice and Alice, but he also is somewhat dissimilar. Foremost, Thomas views religion as having a spiritual component, but says it is also sharply different in comparison to spirituality. Most students describe religion and spirituality in this way. Raised in a Pentecostal church and home, Thomas says he retains the practical, applied side of his Christian teachings, such as prayer and attending church services, but that he also maintains “spiritual component,” one that he says “now I see is more as a connection to consciousness.” Through his education around social injustice, it appears Thomas reinterpreted earlier teachings and redefined what it meant to be a devout Christian which, for him and others in the study, required a dimension of social justice work. Interpretations of the stories told by Patrice, Alice, and Thomas, along with stories of others in the study, indicate that religion and spirituality are each multidimensional and also intersect with other social identities, especially in a PWI context. Indications suggest that the collegiate years are quite informative to continuing the religious and spiritual socialization of students and that experiences at a PWI have both direct and indirect positive and negative influences on what meaning students prescribe to religion and spirituality, and how they practice both. Thus, several key themes and

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findings are discussed. Also, differences and similarities between African American and U.S.-born and/or raised Africans around religion and spirituality are discussed. The Connection Between Spirituality and Social Justice One unexpected finding pertains to spiritualty and social justice. It is important to note that students more often associate spirituality with critically-engaged actions, such as social justice work, in a way that they do not always find necessary for those closely aligned with a religious organization. The signifier of “religious organization” is critical here, as students appear to make indirect distinctions between individuals who are churchgoers and those who identify with a specific religion. Findings suggest students enter high school and the higher education setting and, through both positive and negative experiences around other social identities—some that serve as duplications of early childhood experiences—develop a more complex view of religion and spirituality. For most of the students, being affiliated with a religious organization does not indicate an immediate connection to spirituality, nor critical awareness or critical consciousness. Grounded in an Afrocentric understanding, this may serve as an indication that these students have become sharply critical of what some of them view as historically oppressive religious teachings. Thus, the differentiation between religion and spirituality presents somewhat of a conundrum, especially because most students willingly acknowledge that religion and spirituality can coexist within a person. Christopher, an African American who was raised attending a Christian church and continues participating in education other students about religious teachings. He affirms: “I don’t really have a religion,” but that he has a close spiritual connection with God. For example, Christopher associates self-sacrifice and selfless behaviors with both religion and spirituality, but identifies less with his earlier religious teachings and more with spiritual leanings because he wants “a personal relationship with God. We got a relationship, when you got a relationship that’s good.” Another student, Lucy, also mentioned the concept of a personal relationship with God in a similar way. An African American and member of a Pentecostal church, Lucy preferred the term “relationship with God” because religion “has been misconstrued over the past maybe 20, 40, 50 years or so.” For Lucy, the most important act was in being devoted to Christian teachings, following the biblical word point by point. Thus, students’ comments about religion are comparable, yet those students who are the most aligned with a religion belief system do not actively describe faith-based

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practices as demanding outward social justice work as the more spirituallyminded students interpreted. Regardless of a student’s beliefs, it appears religion and spirituality do not merely offer guidelines for personal practices, but each can and do inform an individuals’ worldview. Students recognize that injustices exist in the world and, therefore, there exists a spiritually-motivated obligation to work toward positive and progressive change, whether that be at the very local level through ministry with peers, or through the active study of and devotion to social justice-oriented work. As such, religion and spirituality are each an identity and a practice, simultaneously while religion denotes moral obligations and spirituality accounts for both ethical and moral characteristics. Shifting Social Identities and the PWI Experience It appears that, through the college years, the more powerful socializing agents are those positive and negative and/or stress-inducing experiences with religious groups or organizations, social justice programming and peers. But, in the process, students feel the institution does not nurture their social identities (such as religious and spiritual identities, sexual orientation and sexuality), which can lead to feelings of anger, frustration and sadness. As the literature reflects, certain experiences for Black students may be confounded because of their racial and ethnic identities and underrepresentation (Neville, et. al., 2004; Ancis, Sedlacek, & Mohr, 2000). However, and interestingly, most of the students in the study did not believe the institution held any responsibility to aid in religious and spiritual identity development. It was not anticipated that students would not expect the institution to aid in their religious or spiritual development. In fact, another unexpected finding involved race. Most of the students in the study appear to be keenly aware of issues around race—their own and others—and, although they did not define it as such, maintained an Afrocentric perspective. However, issues of race were not always strictly relegated to individual experiences as a Black person in a predominantly white environment but, at times, as a person of color in a dominant or normative order. As such, certain students were attentive to the experiences of Hispanic and American Indian students, those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds or those who are members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This represents an interesting theme around in-group/out-group identification, indicating that students at times identified with other oppressed people, viewing others as members of a separate social group specifically informed by shared experiences of oppression at their PWI.

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Another interesting theme arose around self-identification based on prior and current experiences. When students internalize prior negative experiences with religious practices they seem more apt to later identify more closely with spirituality. For the more spiritually minded students, this shift was affirmed given the PWI context. On campus, many students had experienced direct and indirect forms of racism and discrimination. While students wanted and appreciated access to cultural center programming and courses related to race, only when students experienced a conflict around identity intersectionality—whether it was race or gender or sexuality—did they feel advisors, faculty or other institutional actors should be actively engaged. Consider Corey, for example. Corey describes an instance in which students claimed she had received scholarships specifically because of her racial identity, not her academic tenacity. Corey says the students were even more critical because she took an interest in the medical field. Feeling slighted, Corey feels there should have been more education around scholarship and also what it meant to be successful. She does not feel she should have had to verbally defend herself; the other students should have been attuned to the realization that Black students can be and are academically engaged and do qualify for funding on the basis of merit. Corey explains a comparable experience around her spiritual leanings. Prior to attending the university, Corey regularly attended church with her family, believing church attendance was an important and fundamental act for Christians. But a shift occurred for her in college. “When I first came here, I intended to go to a church. But I felt like now my focus is on academics. It’s not like I’m removing myself from religion, it’s just that I am prioritizing my education over my religion . . .” Corey goes on to explain that she took an interest in religious clubs on campus, but found that she was not comfortable with the formal nature of the organization and unlike religious organizations she was raised attending. She felt pressure to join, but denied and later felt her religious beliefs were subsequently questioned. She continues: “I can be a Christian and relate to the Christian religion and that doesn’t mean that if I don’t go to church I’m not a Christian. Someone else can’t tell me I am not part of that religion. That kind of stuff sets me off, and I will defend my religion.” It is interesting to note that while church attendance has been essential to Corey prior to her studies at the university, the pressure to be a certain type of Christian is what subsequently led to her resistance. She retains the value of church attendance, but no longer believes attending church confirms her identity as a devout Christian. Furthermore, she views her self-selection to practice as she chose as a form of resistance in the face of what she describes as an overbearing Christian organization. Other students conceive of some aspects of their beliefs as a form resistance to a dominant ideology and climate. Whereas students may have

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felt frustrated, angry or saddened by their experience within the university, or something they observed, they tended not to allow those feelings to become overwhelming. Thus, these students do not merely overcome challenging situations or maladjustment, as some scholars have noted are results of discriminatory and racially-motivated experiences on campus. Instead, it appears that these students tend to push back, becoming more grounded in the belief that they can and will be successful. For religiously affiliated students, the belief is grounded in God. For those who identify as spiritually minded, the motivation appears to be associations with members of other oppressed social identity groups. For example, Sharon, a U.S.-born African student raised in a Baptist household, says she is “comfortable” with both her religious beliefs and with herself. “It helps me with my morals and what I stand for,” she says, later adding that she is the sole person responsible for her own self-judgment. She also says, “I always refer back to my Bible and church . . . There hasn’t been a time it hasn’t helped me, help me to have a positive mental attitude.” Meanwhile, the spiritually-minded students appear to be motivated by a desire to fix social and institutional structures to prevent others from experiencing what they have felt or observed. One such student, Devon, says the institution provided a “conducive environment” for her learn about the problems other students face, including students of color and LGBT students, which only gave even more encouragement for her to become involved in social justice outreach activities. Referencing interactions with other students who are unaware of social issues and less engaged, Devon says: “I can’t even associate with you until you get your stuff together.” Thus, even though it appears the effect of negative and challenging experiences have a differing effect depending on a students’ beliefs, students tend to reinterpret the those negative experiences into something that is productive. Differences Between African Americans and U.S.-Born and/or Raised Africans For students who purposefully abandoned their earlier religious teachings, African American students describe having more of an emotional psychosocial challenge than did U.S.-born and/or raised African students. African American students tend to have at one point experienced shame or embarrassment for abandoning the church in which they were raised. This may be partially due to the pressures African American students say they receive from members of their immediate and extended family and also community members to remain connected to the church. Those pressures do not appear to be as present with U.S.-born and/or raised African student.

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For example, Tina grew up attending a Baptist church but, in college, says she prefers an individual connection with her God through prayer. Yet, she feels pressure to attend church through the encouragement of several friends. Her response: “I feel like it’s being pushed on me to be a number one priority when it’s not for me.” Still, Tina also says that while she wants to receive religious teachings, she is not actually interested in church attendance. She has long held the belief that church attendance “was the right thing to do,” but she feels powerless to do otherwise. Yet when Patrice, of African descent, chose to abandon her religious practice, she suffered no negative consequences, saying her “old faith” is no longer her purpose. “I’ve been able to really figure out what am I about? And who am I about? . . . in accordance to the spiritual world it’s (spiritual ancestors) . . .  realizing it’s very much a part of me but realizing I am physical, too.” The difference between Tina and Patrice is that while Tina feels restricted, Patrice has felt nurtured in both her optimism in life and also challenged in it. In other words, Tina had not yet had the chance to explore her individual self within the context of different environments whereas Patrice did, typically by either other individuals or restrictive social situations in which one or multiple of her social identities were challenged. One similarity presented in the data is the influence of salient identities. While each group of students mentions both race and gender-based issues, it appears the intersection between religion and spirituality is most prevalent for African Americans. For example, prayer and a religious practice are both crucially important for Zane, an African American, who believes God “uses me as he sees fit.” Zane, who was raised Black in the South, said growing up “didn’t offer a lot,” largely because of the presence of violence and the prevalence of drug abuse and prostitution. He continues: “But I knew I had a great chance of being not so much sucked in, but mistaken for someone. Out there [name of city omitted to protect identity] in a city like that we all fit somebody’s description, so I knew I didn’t want to be there.” For Zane, his connection to God through is religion guided him in decisions that helped him to avoid the consequences of being negatively stereotyped based on his race. “I could have been dead at 25 . . . but here I am getting a college degree as a young Black man. This is where I’m meant to be. God wants me to be here.” DISCUSSION The current study and its findings serve to complicate the normative discourse around Black students’ religious and spiritual identities and also their experiences at PWIs. The study of religion and spirituality, both as individual social identities, among Black students attending a western PWI in the United States reveals that students are experiencing, at times,

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a reality in direct opposition to the existing literature regarding religious and spiritual socialization. For these students, one’s religious and spiritual identities do not strictly reside in an individual domain, but result in tangible interactions and outputs. Students appear increasingly informed by their personal experiences as college students, by their peers and namely through the increased knowledge around social justice issues, whether locally or internationally. Many of the studies that have specifically considered the experiences of Black students have tended to focus on outcomes associated with being religiously affiliated or spiritually minded. Much like the scholarship on Afrocentrism, studies indicate that Black students whose religious and spiritual identifies are strong indicating that those students exhibit stronger psychological well-being, an improved sense of self and heightened levels of selfesteem and general psychological health (Spencer, Fegley, & Harpalani, 2003; Bowen-Reid & Harrell, 2002). Yet, such studies rarely consider the intersecting social identities of race and religion/spirituality and how student navigate and negotiate those identities in a PWI context. The difference in definition, and also self-identification or association with religion or spiritualty, appears largely shaped by negative experiences around race/ethnicity and religious beliefs that students experience later in life and in college. Of note, there appears to be distinct interpretations of experiences at the PWI that are different for those who self-identify as more religious compared to those who are more spiritual. Those who self-identify as spiritually minded tend to reinterpret negative interactions around social identities in a way that becomes informative to their practice. Likewise, while students reference social consciousness, it is always in the context of being spiritually minded. Those students who identified as religious were less likely to speak in terms of being critically conscious or engaging in social justice-oriented work. Yet, they do appear to believe that maintaining their religious identities is both empowering and transformative. For most of the students in the study, consciousness added an additional layer of understanding about the spiritual world and specifically around issues of social justice. As one student, Thomas describes it, consciousness holds a dual purpose, enabling one to be attuned to their spiritual self, while also aware of the experience of others, particularly those who are suffering. “If you would have asked me the same question in 2006 when I started [attending the university], I would have told you spirituality is a connection between people, Gods or spirits,” he says. Instead, he began to see the “big picture” which led him to see “some of the injustice in the world.” Students describe this consciousness through their spirituality as opening their eyes and minds to injustice and suffering with some also saying they felt more informed and others more peaceful. For Thomas, spirituality led him to feel “more enlightened to the world” and appears to have been the

The Belief and the Practice     51

force that informed him on ways he could apply his earlier religious teachings to his current faith and interactions with others. Also, religion and spirituality are each social and personal identifies for students and are confounded by other identities—namely race, gender and sexual orientation. Third, negative experiences around social identities, particularly on campus, inform students’ involvement in social justiceoriented activities, such as activist and educational work, empowerment programs, volunteering with targeted populations or direct ministry. However, those negative experiences may also be internally focused, resulting in students renegotiating their social identities and level of involvement either on campus or with religious organizations. As such, students generally define religion as more structured in contrast to more multidimensional conception of spirituality, and this occurs during and around college years. Students’ newfound religious and spiritual beliefs appear to be largely informed by their racial experiences, particularly while attending a PWI, and through the negotiation of other social identities as well, including race/ ethnicity, gender, sexuality or sexual orientation. Specifically, experiences with race and spirituality within the context of a PWI environment appear to inform students’ personal and academic practices, often times leading students toward experiences, organizations and fields of study to enable a social justice orientation, such a cultural anthropology, nutritional sciences, education, political science and criminal justice. And it appears that religion and spirituality serve not only as buffers to negative experiences, but also as a supportive and a motivating force that encourages students to actively engage in critical consciousness and social justice work. Likewise, students’ religious and spiritual identities and beliefs enable them to self-empower and to encourage the empowerment of other individuals within their social identity groups, whether it be in-group our out-group members. It is important to note that while the focus of the study is on religion and spirituality, students often evoke other social identities, and with much variation. For example, students often describe feeling compelled to employ their religious practice and/or spiritual beliefs to aid individuals who are members of targeted or oppressed groups. Overall, students have had comparable socialization around their religion and spirituality, but it is there interpretation of their prior experience and current lived experiences at a PWI are somewhat different. But regardless of their beliefs, students felt obligated to succeed and be critically engaged in varying forms of community work. Most act in ways meant to challenge dominant ideologies around how they should be, identify and participate within a higher education context. For example, certain students feel compelled to openly share their beliefs not merely as a form of engaged religious or spiritual participation, but in ways several feel are forms of quiet resistance within an institution and environment they feel is

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not fully supportive. Depending on religious affiliation or spiritual orientation, variation exists in how students engage, indicating a continuum of practice. On one end of the continuum were students like Christopher, a member of a religious organization who prayed regularly, attended or facilitated Bible study and who was comfortable in openly discussing his faith. Students like Corey reside in the middle of the continuum, and were those who generally speak with God daily and pray semiregularly, but maintain no other practice. Students, like Patrice and Tina, to the right of the continuum generally held onto one practice: praying, talking to God, reading religious or spiritual texts or attending church functions. Interestingly, it did not matter where a student felt on the continuum—beliefs about religion and spirituality remained uniform. Still, to reaffirm, religious affiliation and practice does not directly correlate into being a spiritually minded person for these students. Being spiritually minded requires an additional level of consciousness, one that not all, but many of the students said they were not able to attain as part of traditional religious practices, such as attending church, communicating and connecting with other congregation members or participating in Bible study. STUDY LIMITATIONS The current study did not serve to strictly inform on intersectionality of social and personal identities, but rather to explain how Black students experience their religious and spiritual identities within the context of PWI. In doing so, the study also attempted to understand the shared and dissimilar experiences among African American and U.S.-born and/or raised African students. While findings provide to be quite interesting, some are nonconclusive, requiring additional research. Though these findings may be provocative, I offer a word of caution. These findings may present a limitation in the study, as the majority of the subjects were both African American and also women for whose genderbased identities also were salient. While these findings are quite telling in the context of the current study, they also should inform further research into similar and dissimilar socialization around religion and spirituality, gender, racial and ethnic identities, among other social identities, between African American and U.S.-born and/or raised African students. Another limitation of the study is that the sample of U.S.-born and/or raised Africans is not entirely representative. Thus, I caution that the experiences of these students may not be representative of all Black students attending PWIs and, in fact, experiences may differ from region to region. Future studies would benefit from a more detailed comparative analysis of

The Belief and the Practice     53

the two student populations. Despite its limitations, the current study reveals important findings that can inform both further research and practice. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FIELD In an era in which Affirmative Action and diversity initiatives are persistently being challenged in states across the nation, researchers persistently find that students of all backgrounds enjoy benefits of studying in diverse educational environments. This is particularly true when people are critically engaged around issues of diversity, whether related to race/ethnicity, gender, social class, sexual orientation and other instances of diversity. The current study contributes to that body of knowledge in several ways, particularly in expanding understandings of how Black students conceive of their religious and spiritual identities and how institutional environments support or impede the development of those very social identities. Fowler (2004) warned against strictly promoting stage-based advancement in students (p. 417) as student experiences in the current study along with others indicates that students are not necessarily developing based on a step-by-step method. It is, however, to be aware that stage-based models do exist (Fowler, 2004) in informing practice. It appears that, above all, Black students want to see positive change occurring on their campuses and in the world around religious and spiritual action, social justice work and awareness about the specific issues that people of color, women, members of the LGBT community and other targeted groups face. Also, Fleming (1984) noted that Black students attending PWIs may not be experiencing anticipated academic or social events their White counterparts do, specifically because PWI environments remain hostile toward such student populations. However, the current study reveals that it may not be adequate to merely to target supports toward Black students to aid in their racial or religious/ spiritual identity development. It does not appear that based in the findings of the current study the greatest benefit would be only in introducing more targeted academic and social programming for Black students. Instead, the PWI environment must evolve, both for the benefit of Black students and other members of the campus community. As student development research has already shown in great detail, students of differing backgrounds benefit widely from diverse environments and intentional programming around diversity (Gurin, 1999; Gurin, et. al., 2002; Chang, 2003; Milem, 2003). The current study reiterates that truth, but also indicates that Black students still experience racism and discrimination largely due to their social identities.

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Therefore, findings suggest that higher education officials and practitioners working at PWIs must acknowledge the Black student experience, particularly when those students self-identify as religious or spiritual. But it may be most helpful to support these students in their religious and spiritual development in indirect ways—by touching upon the intersectionalities of social identity and the conflict that arises when divergent realities clash. This likely requires informed, dialogue-based interactions. Because students in the current study said they did not expect their institutions to aid in their racial and spiritual development is telling. Reasons for this belief require research, though a preliminary review suggests that as students are negotiating other social identities that are more salient at a predominately White institution, some of them do feel there is little space for discussions on religion and spirituality. Yet, it is important that these students are experiencing their race and issues around race within the context of being religious or spiritually minded. Implications also suggest that while offering courses in Black religion and spirituality remain important, it appears the Black students do benefit from contentious experiences in their interactions with non-Blacks, but that such interactions must be both encouraged and also buffered in some way. NOTES 1. The current study involved self-identified African American and U.S.-born and/or raised African students. As such, the groups of students will jointly be referred to as “Black” throughout the chapter. 2. Between 85 and 88 percent, based on National Center for Education Statistics data, White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities reports and Howard University Digital Learning Lab analyses. 3. The Migration Policy Institute indicates growth in the number of African immigrants in the United States rose from 35,355 in 1960 to 1.4 million in 2007. The majority of those immigrating to the United States were from African countries that include Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia, the institute also reported.

REFERENCES Akbar, M., Chambers, J. W., Jr., & Thompson, V. L. S. (2001). Racial identity, Africentric values, and self-esteem in Jamaican children. Journal of Black Psychology, 27, 341–358. Ancis, J. R., Sedlacek, W. E., & Mohr, J. J. (2000). Student perceptions of campus cultural climate by race. Journal of Counseling and Development, 78, 180–185. Allen, W. R. (1992). The color of success: African-American college student outcomes at predominantly White and historically Black public colleges and universities. Harvard Educational Review, 62(1), 26–44.

The Belief and the Practice     55 Anglin, D., & Whaley, A. (2006). Racial/ethnic self-labeling in relation to group socialization and identity in African-descended individuals. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 25(4), 457–463. Astin, A. W., Astin, H. S., & Lindholm, J. A. (2011). Cultivating the spirit: How college can enhance students’ inner lives. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Berkel, L. A, Armstrong, T. D., & Cokley, K. O. (2004) Similarities and differences between religiosity and spirituality in African American college students: A preliminary investigation. Counseling and Values, 49(1), 2–14. Billingsley, A., & Caldwell, C. H. (1991). The church, the family, and the school in the African American community. Journal of Negro Education, 60, 427–440. Blaine, B., & Crocker, J. (1995). Religiousness, race, and psychological well-being: Exploring social psychological mediators. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1031–1041. Bowen-Reid, T. L., & Harrell, J. P. (2002). Racist experiences and health outcomes: An examination of spirituality as a buffer. Journal of Black Psychology, 28, 18–36. Brome, D. R., Owens, M. D., Allen, K., & Vevaina, T. (2000). An examination of spirituality among African American women in recovery from substance abuse. Journal of Black Psychology, 26, 470–486. Brown, D. L. (2008). African American resiliency: Examining racial socialization and social support as protective factors. Journal of Black Psychology, 34(1), 32–48. Brown, D. L., & Tylka, T. L. (2010). Racial discrimination and resilience in African American young adults: Examining racial socialization as a moderator. Journal of Black Psychology, 37(3), 259–285. Ceja, D. M.& Solórzano (2003). Critical race theory, racial microaggressions, and campus racial climate: the experiences of African American college students. Educational Administration Abstracts, 38(1), 3–139. Chang, M. J. (2003). Compelling Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Colleges and Universities. Stanford, CA: Stanford Education. Chatters, L. M., Taylor, R. J., & Lincoln, K. D. (1999). African American religious participation: A multi-sample comparison. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 38, 132–145. Chu, D. (2007). Religiosity and desistance from drug use. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34(5), 661–679. Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2003). Research Methods in Education. London: Routledge Falmer. Constantine, M. G., Gainor, K. A., Ahluwalia, M. K., & Berkel, L. A. (2003). Independent and interdependent self-construals, individualism, collectivism, and harmony control in African Americans. Journal of Black Psychology, 229, 87–101. Constantine, M. G., Miville, M. L., Warren, A. K., Gainor, K. A., & Lewis-Coles, M. E. L. (2006). Religion, spirituality, and career development in African American college students: A qualitative inquiry. Career Development Quarterly, 54(3), 227–241. Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

56    L. EVERETT-HAYNES D’Augelli, A. R., & Hershberger, S. L. (1993). African American undergraduates on a predominantly White campus: Academic factors, social networks, campus climate. Journal of Negro Education, 62, 67–81. Dantley, M. (2005). African American spirituality and Cornel West’s notions of prophetic pragmatism: Restructuring educational leadership in American urban schools. Educational Administration Abstracts, 41(4), 651–674. Dennis, D. L., Hicks, T., Banerjee, P; and Dennis, B. G. (2005). Spirituality among a predominately African American college student population. Faculty Working Papers from the School of Education. Paper 9. Retrieved September 19, 2012 from . Doswell, W. M., Kouyate, M., & Taylor, J. (2003). The role of spirituality in preventing early sexual behavior. American Journal of Health Studies, 18(4), 195–199. Fowler, J. W. Faith development at 30: Naming the challenges of faith in a new millennium. Religious Education, 99(4), 405–421. Fleming, J. (1984). Blacks in College. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Gayles, J. (2006). “Carrying it for the whole race”: Achievement, race and meaning among five high achieving African American men. Journal of African American Studies, 10(1), 19–32. Gurin, P. (1999). Expert Report of Patricia Gurin in Gratz, et al. v. Bollinger, et al. & Grutter, et al. v. Bollinger, et al. In The compelling need for diversity in higher education. Retrieved September 16, 2012 from .\ Gurin, P., Dey, E. L., Hurtado, S., Gurin, G. (2002). Diversity and higher education: Theory and impact on educational outcomes. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 332–366. Greer, T. (2007). Measuring coping strategies among African Americans: An exploration of the latent structure of the COPE Inventory. Journal of Black Psychology, 33(3), 260–277. Herndon, M. K. (2003). Expressions of Spirituality among African-American College Males. The Journal of Men’s Studies, 12(1), 75–84. Hogg, M. A. and Abrams, D. (1988). Social Identifications: A Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations and Group Processes. London: Routledge. Jackson, A. P., & Sears, S. J. (1992). Implications of an Africentric worldview in reducing stress for African American women. Journal of Counseling & Development, 71, 184–190. Krause, N. (2003). Religious meaning and subjective well-being in late life. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 58(3), 160–170. Loo, C. M., & Rolison, G. (1986). Alienation of ethnic minority students at a predominantly White university. The Journal of Higher Education, 57(1), 58–77. Love, P., & Talbot, D. (1999). Defining spiritual development: A missing consideration for student affairs. NASPA Journal, 37(1), 361–376. Mazama, M. A. (2002). Afrocentricity and African spirituality. Journal of Black Studies, 33(2), 218–234. Milem, J. F. (2003). The educational benefits of diversity: Evidence from multiple sectors. In M. Chang, D. Witt, J. Jones, & K. Hakuta (Eds.). Compelling Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Higher Education. Palo Alto, Calif. Stanford University Press, 126–169.

The Belief and the Practice     57 Miller, D. B., & MacIntosh, R. (1999). Promoting resilience in urban African American adolescents: Racial socialization and identity as protective factors. Social Work Research, 23(3), 159–169. Myers, L. J. (1993). Understanding an Afrocentric Worldview: Introduction to an Optimal Psychology, (2nd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt. Neuman, W. L. (2000). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Neville, H. A., Heppner, P. P., Ji, P., & Thye, R. (2004). The relations among general and race-related stressors and psychoeducational adjustment in Black students attending predominantly white institutions. Journal of Black Studies, 34(4), 599–618. Noy, C. (2008). Sampling knowledge: The hermeneutics of snowball sampling in qualitative research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 11(4), 27–344. Palmer, P. J. (1993). To Know as We are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey. San Francisco: Harper, San Francisco. Park, C. L. (2005). Religion and meaning. In Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Eds. R. F. Paloutzian and C. L. Park. New York: Guilford. Phillips, F. L. S. (2000). The effects of spirituality on the adjustment to college of African American students who attend a predominantly White institution. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, 61 (2-A), 527. Phinney, J. S., & Onwughalu, M. (1996). Racial identity and perception of American ideals among African American and African students in the United States. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20(2), 127–140. Rouse, K. A. (2001). Resilient students’ goals and motivation. Journal of Adolescence, 24(4), 461–472. Spears, R., Doosje, B., & Ellemers, N. (1997). Self-stereotyping in the face of threats to group status and distinctiveness: The role of group identification. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(5): 538–553. Spencer, M. B., Fegley, S. G., & Harpalani, V. (2003). A theoretical and empirical examination of identity as coping: Linking coping resources to the self-processes of African American youth. Applied Developmental Science, 7(3), 181–188. Steger, M. F., & Frazier, P. (2005). Meaning in life: One link in the chain between religiousness and well-being.” Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52, 574–582. Stets, J. E., & Burke, P. J. (2000). Identity theory and social identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63(3), 224–237. Stevenson, H. C. J. (1995). Relationship of adolescent perceptions of racial socialization to racial identity. Journal of Black Psychology, 21(1), 49–70. Stewart, D. L. (2002). The role of faith in the development of an integrated identity: A qualitative study of Black students at a White college. Journal of College Student Development, 43(4), 579–596. Stryker, S., & Burke, P. J. (2000). The past, present, and future of an identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63, 284–297. Tajfel, H. (1982). Social Identity and Intergroup Relations. Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press. Taylor, R., Chatters, L., & Jackson, J. (2009). Correlates of spirituality among African Americans and Caribbean Blacks in the United States: Findings from

58    L. EVERETT-HAYNES the National Survey of American Life. The Journal of Black Psychology, 35(3), 317–342. Turner, J. C., Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell, M. S. (1987). Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorization Theory. New York: Basil Blackwell. Walker, K. L., & Dixon, V. (2002). Spirituality and academic performance among African American college students. The Journal of Black Psychology, 28(2), 107–121. Wallace, B., & Constantine, M. (2005). Africentric cultural values, psychological help-seeking attitudes, and self-concealment in African American college students. Journal of Black Psychology, 31(4), 369–385. Weaver, D. E. (2009). The relationship between cultural/ethnic identity and individual protective factors of academic resilience. Dissertation. Retrieved September 17, 2012 from . Wood, J. L., & Hilton, A. A. (2013). Moral choices: Towards a conceptual model of Black male moral development. Western Journal of Black Studies, 37(1), 14–27.

CHAPTER 3

BLACK MORMONISM AS AN EXAMPLE OF MODEL MINORITY DISCOURSE Nicholas Hartlep

Statistics [Black Mormon and Model Minority Discourses] are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. —Chang, 1998, p. 367

ABSTRACT This chapter will argue that Black1 Mormonism is an example of model minority discourse. I will assert that model minority stereotypic discourse is used to instantiate the claim that with enough hard work, anyone can “make it” in the United States. The rhetoric and racist moniker of the model minority myth indirectly demonizes Blacks, by implying that Asians have achieved excellence due to their effort, while Blacks are understood to have been unsuccessful due to their own individual laziness and dependence on social support services, like welfare. Aggregated statistics are used to promote the notion that Asian Americans constitute a model minority. Blacks have been historically demonized, but oddly, in the same breathe, they are now beginning to be described as representing a “new model minority” (e.g., see Kaba, 2008). Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 59–86 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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60    N. HARTLEP But how can Blacks be demonized and also be considered to be model minorities? This chapter argues that they cannot, and that Black Mormonism serves as an example of a racialized (Smith, 2003), albeit disguised model minority discourse.

PURPOSE OF CHAPTER The main purpose of this book chapter is to expand our understanding of how Black Mormonism is an example of model minority discourse (Hattori, 1999), and how this discourse—the model minority stereotype—is deleterious to the schooling and education of Black students.2 Consequently, in order to understand the negative implications of model minority stereotype for Black Mormons, it is first important to note that it was not until 1978 that Blacks were allowed to become members of the Mormon Church (Saulny, 2012; Smith, 2003, 2004; Time, 1963). This historical fact raises questions about inclusivity and issues of social justice for the Black, and also Black Mormon, communities. While scholars have argued that the “Lotus Blossom” image inheres in the “model minority” stereotype (see Shrake, 2006), no scholar has made the claim that Black Mormon exceptionalism is a racialized religious trope and analog of the Asian model minority stereotypic trope. Similarly, the discourse around the Asian model minority stereotype is merely an extension of Black Mormon discourse. Additionally, this book chapter presents a critical perspective of Black education (King, 2005) by citing model minority conundrums related to Blacks, and Black education: such as (a) Frank Wu, the first Asian American law professor at Howard University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU); (b) Cornel West, a Black professor who has taught at lily White Ivy League institutions of higher education; and (c) Howard Zinn, a White professor who taught at Spelman College, another HBCU. This book chapter fills lacunae in the literature in Black education, (Black) Mormon and model minority discourses, spirituality, and various forms of religious and social justices. The chapter begins with a comprehensive synthesis of the previous literature on the model minority stereotype: Over 240 model minority stereotype literary documents were reviewed. Next, references are made, with regard to—Frank Wu, Cornel West, and Howard Zinn—professors who work, or have worked, in transracial educational settings. The chapter then discusses how the myth of the “American Dream” permeates Mormon and model minority discourses. The chapter ends by explaining how Black Mormonism is an example of disguised Asian model minority discourse. Last, implications are shared for race relations and Black education.

Black Mormonism as an Example of Model Minority Discourse     61

METHODOLOGY Literature that was reviewed for this book chapter was located through a series of steps, and both peer-reviewed and nonpeer-reviewed documents were rigorously reviewed for content. Peer-reviewed articles, books, book reviews, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, journalistic writings, newspapers, reports, and monographs were located, collected, and saved in a systematic way. First, batteries of Google Alerts were set up (with various combinations of the following terms: Asian American + Model Minority + Mormonism + Mormon + Black Mormonism + Stereotype + Myth + Model Minority Stereotype + Model Minority Myth). Second, a search for literature was conducted using three separate methods: (a) First by using the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/index.html) website (using the same phrases above), (b) second by using the WorldCat (http://www.worldcat.org/) website (using the same phrases above), and (c) third by cross-referencing bibliographies and reference pages within literature that was already found. Book chapters and other printed materials were scanned and saved in PDF format on the author’s external hard-drive. Files were saved using the following convention for ease of later reading: Author’s Last Name (Date of Publication). The next section details the literature that was found in more detail. Due to space restrictions, this book chapter does not provide as thorough of a review as some scholars have (e.g., see Hartlep, In Press). Nevertheless, the review of previous literature is comprehensive enough, and helpful enough, to situate and contextualize the present chapter. PREVIOUS LITERATURE ON THE MODEL MINORITY STEREOTYPE In order for readers to understand the notion that Black Mormonism serves as an example of model minority discourse, a review of the literature on the model minority is necessary. To begin, some scholars have labeled the model minority to be a myth (e.g., see Chou & Feagin, 2008), while others have labeled it a stereotype (e.g., see Lee, 1996). This chapter intentionally uses the term “model minority” stereotype in order to center the negative aspects of this hyperbolic characterization of Asians. Origins of the Stereotype The genesis of the model minority stereotype was spawned by William Petersen’s (1966) New York Times Magazine article, “Success Story: Japanese

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American Style.” In this highly cited article, Petersen pointed out how the Japanese were doing extremely well, unlike Blacks, in America. Petersen’s (1966) article fed the public’s understanding that Asians (Japanese) in America were “model minorities” worthy of emulation. The quintessential qualities of a model minority are the following: apolitical orientation to life, working hard, not questioning the established order, and assimilating into middle-class culture. The Japanese were successful at doing all of this, while Blacks were not, leading to the latter’s demonization and stigmatization. Therefore, many model minority scholars contend that the model minority discourse served as a rhetorical—social, political, and educational—device used to divide and conquer Blacks and Asians (as well as other non-White minorities) while maintaining the status quos. Particularly, the stereotype of model minority is perceived to be a 20th Century or Cold War creation (e.g., see Lee, 2010). Due to strong international pressure, the United States needed to lead other foreign countries, as well as its own, that it was not racist, but a democracy wherein anyone, regardless of color could achieve the American Dream. The American Dream is the “master script” (Swartz, 1992) or the “majoritarian stock story” (Noblit & Jay, 2010) that the model minority discourse supports. Trends in the Literature Indeed, the model minority stereotype is something that many scholars have written about (see Table 3.1). Although it is now over five decades old, the model minority stereotype remains, and continues to gain, considerable academic attention well into the 21st century. Evidence of this increased attention can be seen in the frequency of writings on the topic. Table 3.1 below highlights the numbers of writings on the model minority stereotype by the decade, beginning during the 1960s. It is clear that the model minority stereotype is a sociological phenomenon that continues to increase in academic appeal. TABLE 3.1  Frequency of Model Minority Stereotype Writings Decade

Number of Writings 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

2 6 28 53 151

Total

240

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Major Themes Found Within the Literature After reading the 240 model minority documents, clear themes emerge. The following are salient themes codified within Asian model minority discourse: 1. Critiquing Colorblindness. Much of the literature attempts to dispel the notion of colorblindness. 2. Countering Meritocracy. At times an analog to colorblindness, many writings attempt to problematize the so-called meritocracy that often ignores the plight of Asian Americans. 3. Demystifying Asian Exceptionalism. Much literature on the model minority stereotype understands that applauding Asian Americans for their exceptionalism leads to the suppression of other oppressed non-White minorities. 4. Uncovering Divide-and-Conquer Stratagem. Many writings conclude the model minority stereotype is a “wedge” used to maintain white supremacy. Maintenance comes in various forms, but by and large, the model minority stereotype is predictable since it focuses on the individual while glossing over structural issues. 5. Problematizing Homogenization. The vast majority of the literature discusses that Asian Americans are a heterogeneous population that follows a bimodal distribution. 6. Unfasking the Yellow-Peril. The Yellow Peril is a parallel phenomenon when compared/contrasted to and with the model minority stereotype. LEADING SCHOLARS IN THE FIELD Although many scholars have dedicated their careers to demystifying the model minority stereotype, a thorough and judicious analysis of the literature—consisting of over 240 documents—reveals that Stacey Lee, a professor of Educational Foundations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is considered the nation’s foremost model minority scholar. Lee has written many articles (e.g., see (Lee, 1994, 2005; Ngo & Lee, 2007), books (Lee, 1996, 2005), and book chapters (Lee, 2007; Lee, Wong, & Alvarez, 2009; Park & Lee, 2010) on this topic. Her research attests to, and most model minority scholars would agree, that the American Dream inures through the model minority stereotype. Another well-respected Asian American model minority research scholar is Frank Wu (e.g., see Wang & Wu, 1996; Wu, 2012), who is discussed in the subsequent section.

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Transracial Teaching: Teachers Who Disrupt Racial Congruent Politics Frank Wu, a Chinese American man, is currently the William B. Lockhart Professor of Law and Chancellor and Dean at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. He is the first Asian American professor to teach at Howard Law School, as well as the first Asian American to serve as dean of Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, Michigan. Wu is best known for his book Yellow. Cornel West, a Black man, is recently retired from Princeton University, where he was both a Professor and Director of the Center for African American Studies. Dr. West also previously taught at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. With degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton University, he has not only received an Ivy League education, he has taught in what can only be labeled, “lily white” institutions of higher education. When I chanced to meet Dr. West at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, an “Urban 13” public university, where I completed my doctoral studies, I asked him the following question after his lecture: “Professor West, as an African American who teaches at an Ivy League University, how do you reconcile race and racism, especially given what Princeton historically and contemporarily represent for folks of color?” Before responding he sighed, and said that was a great question. After a momentary pause, he responded that he had to always tell the truth to his students, many who are privileged, and consistently recommit himself to the struggle for Civil Rights. To me, my question was equally as salient as it was provocative, especially given Dr. West’s race and Ivy League institutions’ “possessive investment in whiteness” (Lipsitz, 1998). Howard Zinn, passed away on January 27, 2010. Prior to his death, he was a professor of political science at Boston University. Zinn also was professor of history at Spelman College in Atlanta from 1956 to 1963. Spelman, an HBCU, is a four-year liberal arts women’s college located in Atlanta, Georgia. Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist of “The Color Purple” met Zinn when she was a student at Spelman. Walker (2010) had this to say about Zinn: I was Howard’s student for only a semester, but in fact, I have learned from him all my life. His way with resistance: steady, persistent, impersonal, often with humor, is a teaching I cherish. Whenever I’ve been arrested, I’ve thought of him. I see policemen as victims of the very system they’re hired to defend, as I know he did. I see soldiers in the same way. In some ways, Howie [read: Dr. Zinn] was an extension of my father, whom he never met. My father was also an activist as a young man and was one of the first black men unconnected to white ancestry or power to vote in our backwoods county; he had to pass by three white men holding shotguns in order to do this.

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THE AMERICAN DREAM: MORMON AND MODEL MINORITY STEREOTYPE DISCOURSE Mormon discourse, like model minority stereotypic discourse, highlights a nonmainstream group’s success, hard work, loyalty, humility, and frugality, by indirectly demonizing a nonrepresentative, or out-group. Both discourses—Black Mormonism and Asian model minority—can be summarized as embodiments of the American Dream, or the idea that with enough hard work, anyone can become successful in the United States, the land of “opportunity.” Rodman’s (1977) “The Mormons From Poverty and Persecution to Prosperity and Power” and U.S. News & World Report’s (1966) “A Church in the News: Story of Mormon Success” both signify such symbolism in their titles, reifying, reinforcing, and replaying the Horatio Alger Myth into the general public’s consciousness. However, both discourses—Mormonism and model minority—are not as positive as they may appear to be at first blush (Poon-McBrayer, 2011; Tayag, 2011). Hamilton’s (1952) “Those Amazing Mormons,” Chen and Yorgason’s (1999) “‘Those Amazing Mormons’: The Media’s Construction of Latter-Day Saints as a Model Minority,” and Chen’s (2004) Mormon and Asian American Model Minority Discourses in News and Popular Magazines recognize how the model minority discourse and the Mormon discourse are similar in their intent and purpose: to divide and conquer nonmainstream minority groups. The model minority discourse is one of “pariah-turnedparagon” seen in their transformation from a yellow menace to model minority (Kawai, 2005; Shim, 1998), while the discourse of Mormonism is one that could be described as “satyr-turned-saint” seen in their successful rise from religious persecution to religious prominence and prosperity (Shipps, 1973). The American Dream operates as a mythic message in which both discourses persist. The Mormon and model minority stereotypic discourses are pernicious since they over-emphasize ascendance and attainment, ignoring their racist underpinnings. Both discourses hurt and hinder race relations and Black education since they reinforce the message that “with enough hard work, anyone can make it, despite race or religion.” “With-enough-hard-work-anyone-can-make-it,” is a truism that many buy into. Research and data indicate that for Black students, it is more fable than factual (Kunjufu, 1983; 2002; 2005; 2006). Data supports the idea that Black students are at increased risk to become imprisoned (Alexander, 2010), exactly what the “white architects of Black education” want (Watkins, 2001).

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BLACK MORMONISM AS AN EXAMPLE OF MODEL MINORITY DISCOURSE Black educators are concerned with meeting the needs of Black students (King, 2005). Their desire is laudable. But Black educators should also be concerned with the model minority discourse. Blacks are demonized whenever comparisons are made to Asian (“honorary” White) students. For instance, many times when educational affirmative action is brought up or discussed, Blacks are considered under qualified receivers of handouts that they do not deserve (Lee, 2008). Neoliberals use the term reverse discrimination to mollify the facts of affirmative action and diversification programs since the truth hurts: White females are actually the largest beneficiaries of affirmative action (Katznelson, 2005). Moreover, many conservatives would like Asians to believe that they are harmed individually and collectively by affirmative action programs. These individuals claim that Asian would be best served using meritocratic—or colorblind—college admissions, and have constructed the term “negative action”—the notion that at some elite colleges and universities, Asian Americans applicants are less likely of being admitted than equally qualified White applicants (Kidder, 2006). The notion that Asian American applicants are held to higher standards than other applicants has been written by others (e.g., see Nakanishi, 1989; Robles, 2006; Takagi, 1992). IMPLICATIONS FOR RACE RELATIONS AND EDUCATION This chapter has highlighted several implications for race relations work and education. The first pertains to the idea of a coalitional politics. Asians and Blacks must work in tandem in order to refute the model minority characterization—both Black Mormonism and Asian model minority stereotype. The model minority stereotypic discourse is harmful to Black education given that it seeks to divide and conquer Blacks and Asians. One salient example of this divide and conquer strategy can be seen in how affirmative action is framed by neoliberal educationalists. Secondly, given that model minority scholarship has mushroomed in the 2000s (there are more writings in the 2000s than in the four previous decades combined), race relations scholars must develop avant-garde ways to discuss how the model minority stereotype is interconnected to Black Mormonism. Minority status can be in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, or spirituality, thus Black Mormonism should be examined by race (relations) scholars as well as by educational and spiritual sociologists in future research.

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The model minority stereotypic discourse implies Asian success, but the eligibility is based on an ethno-racial and sociopolitical agenda that is colorblind. Blacks have historically been ineligible to be model minorities given their race. Moreover, they have also been unable to be formally recognized as priests within the Mormon Church. Given that some scholars—such as critical race theorists—contend that both the foundations of education and the Mormon Church are racist, and the ways in which race is socially constructed and institutionalized in law and order, and religion, Blacks must be skeptical about the Mormon Church’s stance and ideological position of their supposed inferiority within both discourses. Furthermore, the fact that selected “darker-skinned” Southeast Asians (e.g., Polynesians) have been allowed to enter the priesthood within the Mormon Church should be sufficient evidence that both the “pariahturned-paragon” (Asian model minority discourse) and the “satyr-turnedsaint” (Black Mormon discourse) are internally illogical and inconsistent. Black Mormon economic and religious exceptionalism should now be readily seen and dismissed as an example of the model minority discourse. The model minority stereotype stifles race relation scholars and educationalists from beginning to do the meaningful work that is necessary to demystify the “American Dream” myth, and notion that education is the “great equalizer” (Mann, 1848). Both discourses—Black Mormonism and the Asian model minority—have nothing to do with achievement and ascendance, and everything to do with status quo and modus operandi maintenance. As a result, there are several implications that Black education should consider: 1. Building coalitional politics. Both discourses are deceptive due to the fact that they deliberately avoid issues of race by emphasizing so-called merit, industry, and effort. The salience of the model minority stereotype and its disqualification and discouragement of Black students should cause Blacks and Asians to form coalitions and politicize the divide-and-conquer elements contained within both discourses. Blacks in America have a history of oppositional and confrontational politics, while Asians in America possess a critical mass (their growing population) and socioeconomic capital (Magazine Publishers of America, 2004). By joining forces, Blacks and Asians in America might be able to radically impact educational and social policy. 2. Counter narrating reality. Both discourses also control the message or “metanarrative.” In other words, the majoritarian stock story narrowly defines and evaluates success. Counter-storytelling or counter narration are seldom used as tools to question the validity—or the mendacity—of the model minority and/or Black Mormonism discourses (e.g., Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). One very powerful example

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of counter Black Mormon narration that testifies to the power and effectiveness of counter-storytelling is found in Smith’s (2011) “BYU’s Troubling Honor Code Pattern” story which was published in The Chicago Tribune. By pushing back against colorblindness and supposed fairness, Smith (2011) effectually and effectively counter narrated the notion that the rules and regulations for Brigham Young University (BYU) athletes were in fact colorblind and unbiased. If race did not matter, why did Black student athletes at BYU face harsher and longer punishments for their off-the-field infractions (honor code violations) compared to White athletes? Critical Race Theory’s tenet of counter-storytelling is powerful and effective when it comes to “race and sport” (e.g., see Hylton, 2009). Smith’s (2011) counter story highlighted the racial profiling at BYU that is endemic in modern racism. Smith (2011) wrote the following in his scathing news story: Since 1993, at least 70 athletes have been suspended, dismissed, put on probation or forced to withdraw from their respective teams or the school for honor code violations. Fifty-four of these athletes, nearly 80 percent, are people of color. Forty-one, or almost 60 percent, are black men. A clear pattern of conduct has been established for athletes of color, who make up a mere 23 percent of all athletes, according to the university. (para 2)



I contend that by centering “just the facts”—in this case the statistics—counter narration forces readers to question their own ideologies and preconceived ideas; their biases are unavoidably left rattled and unsettled. Only when this dissonance occurs, do I believe that dogma and ideology can become pliable enough to be altered or changed. Counter narration is a strategy that can be used when examining the discourses of Black Mormonism (Smith, 2004) and the Asian model minority. CONCLUSION

Race relations and religion have been indelibly something American society has been forced to recognize and engage with. Barack Obama, the first U.S. Black President, and now Mitt Romney, a well-known and highly vocal Mormon, are now vying to become the leader of the “Free World.” Race relations and religion have no choice but to be placed at center stage. As a result, both of these race (Obama) and religion (Romney) representatives embody the same “American Dream” discourse: Mitt Romney, a “rags-toriches” Mormon, and Barack Obama, a “pull-himself-up-by-the-boot-straps”

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Black man who became the first Black President of the Harvard Law Review, the first Black U.S. President, as well as the first U.S. President to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize during his first year in office. Chang’s (1998, p. 367) quotation, the chapter’s epigraph—“Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital”—is helpful for understanding how Black Mormonism is an example of model minority discourse. Consequently, both discourses are suggestive of success, but what they conceal (white supremacy) is vital for the continuation and credibility of the “American Dream.” NOTE 1. All racial terms in this chapter, like Black and Asian, are capitalized due to their salience and social construction. 2. I do not find it important to specify whether this refers to K–12 (primary or secondary) or postsecondary, considering Blacks experience negative experiences and outcomes at every level of education.

REFERENCES A Church in the news: Story of Mormon success. (1966, September 26). U.S. News & World Report, 61, 90–92. Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York, NY: New Press. Chang, C. (1998). Streets of gold: The myth of the model minority. In G. Colombo, R. Cullen, & B. Lisle (eds.), Rereading America: Cultural contexts for critical thinking and writing (4th ed.) (pp. 366–375). Boston, MA: Bedford Books. Chen, C. H. (2004). Mormon and Asian American model minority discourses in news and popular magazines. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press. Chen, C. H., & Yorgason, E. (1999). “Those amazing Mormons”: The media’s construction of Latter-Day saints as a model minority. Dialogue: A journal of Mormon thought, 32(2), 107–128. Hamilton, A. (1952). Those amazing Mormons. Coronet, 26–30. Hartlep, N. D. (In Press). The model minority stereotype: Demystifying Asian American success. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Hattori, T. (1999). Model minority discourse and Asian American Jouis-Sense. Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 11(2), 228–247. Hylton, K. (2009). ‘Race’ and sport: Critical race theory. London, UK: Routledge. Kaba, A. (2008). Race, gender and progress: Are Black American women the new model minority? Journal of African American Studies, 12(4), 309–335. Katznelson, I. (2005). When affirmative action was White: An untold history of racial inequality in twentieth-century America. New York, NY: W.W. Norton. Kawai, Y. (2005). Stereotyping Asian Americans: The dialectic of the model minority and yellow peril. Howard Journal of Communications, 16(2), 109–130.

70    N. HARTLEP Kidder, W. C. (2006). Negative action versus affirmative action: Asian Pacific Americans are still caught in the crossfire. Michigan Journal of Race & Law, 11(2), 605–624. King, J. E. (Ed.). (2005). Black education: A transformative research and action agenda for the new century. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Kunjufu, J. (1983). Countering the conspiracy to destroy Black boys. Chicago, IL: Afro-Am Pub. Co. Kunjufu, J. (2002). Black students-middle class teachers. African American images. Chicago, IL. Kunjufu, J. (2005). Keeping Black boys out of special education. African American images. Chicago, IL. Kunjufu, J. (2006). An African centered response to Ruby Payne’s poverty theory. African American Images. Chicago, IL. Lee, R. G. (2010). The Cold War origins of the model minority myth. In J. Y.-S. Wu & T. C. Chen (Eds.), Asian American studies now: A critical reader (pp. 256–271). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Lee, S. J. (1994). Behind the model-minority stereotype: Voices of high- and lowachieving Asian American students. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 25(4), 413–429. Lee, S. J. (1996). Unraveling the “model minority” stereotype: Listening to Asian American youth. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Lee, S. J. (2005). Up against whiteness: Race, school, and immigrant youth. New York, NY: Teacher’s College Press. Lee, S. J. (2007). Unraveling the “model minority” stereotype. New York: Teachers College Press. Lee, S. J., Wong, N. A., Alvarez, A. N. (2009). The model minority and the perpetual foreigner: Stereotypes of Asian Americans. In N. Tewari & A. N. Alvarez (Eds.), Asian American psychology: Current perspectives (pp. 69–85). New York, NY: Psychology Press. Lee, S. S. (2008). The de-minoritization of Asian Americans: A historical examination of the representations of Asian Americans in the affirmative action admissions policies at the university of California. Asian American Law Journal, 15(1), 129–175. Lipsitz, G. (1998). The possessive investment in whiteness: How White people profit from identity politics. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Magazine Publishers of America (MPA). (2004). Asian-American market profile. New York, NY: Magazine Publishers of American. Retrieved on June 7, 2012 from http://www.magazine.org/ASSETS/BF4E8BCE5E9D4847BA537A448EE20EF4/market_profile_asian.pdf Mann, H. (1848). Twelfth annual report of Horace Mann as secretary of Massachusetts state board of education. Retrieved on June 7, 2012 from http://www.wright. edu/~christopher.oldstone-moore/Education.htm Nakanishi, D. T. (1989, November/December). A quota on excellence: The Asian American admissions debate. Change, 21(6), 38–47. Ngo, B., & Lee, S. (2007). Complicating the image of model minority success: A review of southeast Asian American education. Review of Educational Research, 77(4), 415–453. DOI: 10.3102/0034654307309918

Black Mormonism as an Example of Model Minority Discourse     71 Noblit, G. W., & Jay, M. (2010). Against the majoritarian story of school reform: The Comer schools evaluation as a critical race counternarrative. New Directions in Evaluation, 127, 71–82. Park, G. C., & Lee, S. J. (2010). The model minority myth stereotype and the underachiever: Academic and social struggles of underachieving Korean immigrant high school students. In R. Saran & R. Diaz (Eds.), Beyond stereotypes: Minority children of immigrants in urban schools (pp. 13–27). Boston, MA: Sense Publishers. Petersen, W. (1966, January 6). Success story: Japanese American style. New York Times Magazine, 20–21, 33, 36, 38, 40. Poon-McBrayer, K. F. (2011) Model minority and learning disabilities: Double jeopardy for Asian immigrant children in the USA. Global Studies of Childhood, 1(2), 152–158. Robles, R. A. (2006). Asian Americans and the shifting politics of race: The dismantling of affirmative action at an elite public high school. New York, NY: Routledge. Rodman, P. W. (1977). The Mormons from poverty and persecution to prosperity and power. American Heritage, 28, 74–83. Saulny, S. (2012, May 22). Black Mormons and the politics of identity. The New York Times. Retrieved on May 23, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/ us/for-black-mormons-a-political-choice-like-no-other.html Shim, D. (1998). From yellow peril through model minority to renewed yellow peril. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 22(4), 385–409. Shipps, J. (1973). From saytr to saint: American attitudes toward the Mormons, 1860– 1960. A Paper Prepared for Presentation at the 1973 Annual Meeting of Organization of American Historians. Shrake, E. K. (2006). Unmasking the self: Struggling with the model minority stereotype and lotus blossom image. In G. Li & G. H. Beckett (Eds.), “Strangers” of the Academy: Asian Women Scholars in Higher Education (pp. 178–194). Sterling, VA: Stylus. Smith, D. T. (2003). The persistence of racialized discourse in Mormonism. Sunstone, 31–33. Smith, D. T. (2004). Unpacking whiteness in Zion: Some personal reflections and general observations. In N. G. Bringhurst & D. T. Smith (Eds.), Black and Mormon (pp. 148–166). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Smith, D. T. (2011, May 2). BYU’s troubling honor code pattern. The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved on May 29, 2012 from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-05-02/ news/ct-oped-0502-byu-20110502_1_honor-code-black-men-byu Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter- storytelling as an analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23–44. Swartz, E. (1992). Emancipatory narratives: Rewriting the master script in the school curriculum. The Journal of Negro Education, 61(3), 341–355. Takagi, D. Y. (1992). The retreat from race: Asian-American admissions and racial politics. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Tayag, M. (2011, Spring). Great expectations: The negative consequences and policy implications of the Asian American “model minority” stereotype. Stanford Journal of Asian American Studies, 4, 23–31.

72    N. HARTLEP Walker, A. (2010, January 31). Saying goodbye to my friend Howard Zinn. Boston Globe. Retrieved on June 7, 2012 from http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles /2010/01/31/alice_walker_says_goodbye_to_her_friend_howard_zinn/ Wang, T. H., & Wu, F. H. (1996, Winter). Beyond the model minority myth: Why Asian Americans support affirmative action. Guild Practitioner, 53, 35–47. Watkins, W. H. (2001). The White architects of Black education: Ideology and power in America, 1865–1954. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Wu, F. H. (2012). The model minority: Asian American “success” as a race relations failure. In K. E. Rosenblum & T. M. C. Travis (Eds.), The meaning of difference: American constructions of race and gender, social class, sexual orientation, and disability (6th ed.) (pp. 370–378). New York, NY: McGraw Hill

MODEL MINORITY RESEARCH BY THE DECADE 1960s Petersen, W. (1966, January 6). Success story: Japanese American style. New York Times Magazine, 20–21, 33, 36, 38, 40. U.S. News & World Report. (1966, December 26). Success story of one minority group in the U.S., 73–76.

1970s Endo, R. (1974). Japanese Americans: The “model minority” in perspective. In R. Gomez & C. Cottingham (Eds.), The Social Reality of Ethnic America (pp. 189– 213). Lexington, MA: DC Heath and Company. Hayes, M. (1976). Amerasia dispels myths of the “model minority.” Public Telecommunications Review, 4(4), 54–56. Kim, B. L. (1973). Asian-Americans: No model minority. Social Work, 18(1), 44–53. Kitano, H., & Sue, S. (1973). The model minorities. Journal of Social Issues, 29(2), 1–9. Wong, L. (1976). The Chinese experience: From yellow peril to model minority. Civil Rights Digest, 9(1), 33–35.

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82    N. HARTLEP Nadal, K. L., Pituc, S. T., Johnston, M. P., & Esparrago, T. (2010). Overcoming the model minority myth: Experiences of Filipino American graduate students. Journal of College Student Development, 51(6), 694–706. Nance, M. (2007). Combating the model minority stereotype. Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 24(15), 9. Ng, J. C., Lee, S. S., & Pak, Y. K. (2007). Contesting the model minority and perpetual foreigner stereotypes: A critical review of literature on Asian Americans in education. Review of Research in Education, 31(1), 95–130. Ngo, B., & Lee, S. J. (2007). Complicating the image of model minority success: A Review of Southeast Asian American education. Review of Educational Research, 77(4), 415–453. Ono, K. A., & Pham, V. N. (2009). Threatening model minorities: The Asian American Horatio Alger story. In K. A. Ono & V. N. Pham (Eds.), Asian Americans and the Media (pp. 80–96). New York, NY: Polity Press. Osajima, K. (2005). Asian Americans as the model minority: An analysis of the popular press image in the 1960s and 1980s. In K. A. Ono (Ed.), A Companion to Asian American Studies (pp. 215–225). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Oswald, G. (2001). Middleman, model and silent minorities? In Oswald, G. Race and Ethnic Relations in Today’s America (pp. 129–147). Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company. Paek, H. J., & Shah, H. (2003). Racial ideology, model minorities, and the “not-sosilent partner:” Stereotyping of Asian Americans in U.S. magazine advertising. Howard Journal of Communications, 14(4), 225–243. Panelo, N. D. (2010). The model minority student: Asian American students and the relationships between acculturation to Western values, family pressures, and mental health concerns. The Vermont Connection, 31, 147–155. Park, G. C. (2011). Becoming a “model minority”: Acquisition, construction, and enactment of American identity for Korean immigrant students. Urban Review, 43(5), 620–635. Park, G. C., & Lee, S. J. (2010). The model minority myth stereotype and the underachiever: Academic and social struggles of underachieving Korean immigrant high school students. In R. Saran & R. Diaz (Eds.), Beyond Stereotypes: Minority Children of Immigrants in Urban Schools (pp. 13–27). Boston, MA: Sense Publishers. Park, E. J. W., & Park, J. S. W. (2005). Engineering the model minority. In E. J. W. Park & J. S. W. Park, Probationary Americans: Contemporary Immigration Policies and the Shaping of Asian American Communities (pp. 97–106). New York, NY: Routledge. Peng, L. (2005, December). The “model minority” checklist. Hardboiled: The Asian American Newsmagazine, 9(3), 5. Pimental, B. (2001, August 5). Model minority image is a hurdle. San Francisco Chronicle, A25. Pon, G. (2000). Importing the Asian model minority discourse into Canada: Implications for social work and education. Canadian Social Work Review, 17(2), 277–291.

Black Mormonism as an Example of Model Minority Discourse     83 Poon-McBrayer, K. F. (2011) Model minority and learning disabilities: Double jeopardy for Asian immigrant children in the USA. Global Studies of Childhood, 1(2), 152–158. Poon, O. A., & Hune, S. (2009). Countering master narratives of the “perpetual foreigner” and “model minority”: The hidden injuries of race and Asian American doctoral students. In M. F. Howard-Hamilton, C. L. Morelon-Quainoo, S. D. Johnson, R. Winkle-Wagner, & L. Santiague (Eds.), Standing on the Outside Looking In: Underrepresented Students’ Experiences in Advanced-Degree Programs (pp. 82–102). Sterling, VA: Stylus. Puar, J. K., & Rai, A. S. (2004). The remaking of a model minority: Perverse projectiles under the specter of (Counter) terrorism. Social Text, 22(3), 75–104. Qin, D. B., Way, N., & Mukherjee, P. (2008). The other side of the model minority story: The familial and peer challenges faced by Chinese American adolescents. Youth & Society, 39(4), 480–506. Qin, D. B., Way, N., & Rana, M. (2008). The “model minority” and their discontent: Examining peer discrimination and harassment of Chinese American immigrant youth. In H. Yoshikawa & N. Way (Eds.), Beyond the family: Contexts of immigrant children’s development. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 121, 27–42. Riess, J. (2011, October 4). A ‘model minority’ blends in: Normal Mormons. Christian Century, 128(20), 22–25. Rim, K. H. (2007). Model victim, or problem minority? Examining the socially constructed identities of Asian-origin ethnic groups in California’s media. Asian American Policy Review, 16, 37–60. Roshanravan, S. M. (2010). Passing-as-if: model-minority subjectivity and women of color identification. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 10(1), 1–31. Saran, R. (2007). Model minority imaging in New York: The situation with second generation Asian Indian learners in middle and secondary schools. The Anthropologist: Special Issue, 2, 67–79. Retrieved on January 10, 2012 from http://www.krepublishers.com/06-Special%20Volume-Journal/T-Anth00-Special%20Volumes/Anth-00-Special%20Issues/Anth-SI-02-Indian-Diaspora-2007.htm Shankar, S. (2008). Speaking like a model minority: “FOB” styles, gender, and racial meanings among Desi teens in Silicon Valley. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 18(2), 268–289. Shrake, E. K. (2006). Unmasking the self: Struggling with the model minority stereotype and lotus blossom image. In G. Li & G. H. Beckett (Eds.), “Strangers” of the Academy: Asian Women Scholars in Higher Education (pp. 178–194). Sterling, VA: Stylus. Sun, C., Miezan, E., & Liberman, R. (2009). Model minority/honorable eunuch: The dual image of Asian American men in the media and everyday perception. In R. Hammer & D. Kellner (Eds.), Media/Cultural Studies: Critical Approaches (pp. 516–536). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing Group. Suyemoto, K. L., Kim, G. S., Tanabe, M., Tawa, J., & Day, S. C. (2009). Challenging the model minority myth: Engaging Asian American students in research on Asian American college student experiences. New Directions for Institutional Research, 142, 41–55.

84    N. HARTLEP Suzuki, B. (2002). Revisiting the model minority stereotype: Implications for student affairs practice and higher education. New Directions for Student Services, 97, 21–32. Tan, E. (2010). Asian boys and the model minority label. In S. R. Steinberg, M. Krehler, & L. Cornish (Eds.), Boy Culture: An Encyclopedia (pp. 54–57). Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood. Tang, M. (2007). Psychological effects on being perceived as a “model minority” for Asian Americans. New Waves: Educational Research and Development, 11(3), 11–16. Tayag, M. (2011, Spring). Great expectations: The negative consequences and policy implications of the Asian American “model minority” stereotype. Stanford Journal of Asian American Studies, 4, 23–31. Taylor, C. R., Landreth, S., & Bang, H. (2005). Asian Americans in magazine advertising: Portrayals of the “model minority.” Journal of Macromarketing, 25(2), 163–174. Tendulkar, S. A., Hamilton, R. C., Chu, C., Arsenault, L., Duffy, K., Huynh, V., Hung, M., Lee, E., Jane, S., & Friedman, E. (2012). Investigating the “model minority”: A participatory community health assessment of Chinese and Vietnamese adults. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 14(5), 850–857. Teranishi, R. T. (2002). The myth of the super minority: Misconceptions about Asian Americans. The College Board Review, 195, 16–21. Teshima, D. S. (2006). A “hardy handshake sort of guy”: The model minority and implicit bias about Asian Americans in Chin v. Runnels. Asian Pacific American Law Journal, 11, 122–141. The national commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander research in education (CARE). (2010). Federal higher education policy priorities and the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Retrieved November 14, 2011 from http://apiasf.org/CAREreport/2010_CARE_report.pdf Thompson, T. L., & Kiang, L. (2010). The model minority stereotype: Adolescent experiences and links with adjustment. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 1(2), 119–128. Thrupkaew, N. (2002). The myth of the model minority. The American Prospect, 13(7), 38–41. Tran, N., & Birman, D. (2010). Questioning the model minority: Studies of Asian American academic performance. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 1(2), 106–118. Tsunokai, G. T. (2005). Beyond the lenses of the “model” minority myth: A descriptive portrait of Asian gang members. Journal of Gang Research, 12(4), 37–58. Tu, D. L. (2011). Model minority. In J. H. X. Lee & K. M. Nadeau (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Asian American Foklore and Folklife (pp. 69–71). Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing. Van Ziegart, S. (2006). Re-appropriating the model minority stereotype: Reflections on the 2000 organization of Chinese Americans convention. In S. Van Ziegart, Global Spaces of Chinese Culture: Diasporic Chinese Communities in the United States and Germany (pp. 21–58). New York, NY: Routledge. Victoria, N. A. (2007). A+ does not mean all Asians: The model minority myth and implications for higher education. The Vermont Connection, 28, 80–88.

Black Mormonism as an Example of Model Minority Discourse     85 Võ, L. T. (2004). The politics of social services for a “model minority”: The union of Pan Asian communities. In L. T. Võ, Mobilizing an Asian American Community (pp. 34–65). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Wallitt, R. (2008). Cambodian invisibility: Students lost between the “achievement gap” and the “model minority.” Multicultural Perspectives, 10(1), 3–9. Wang, L. L. (2007). Model minority, high-tech coolies, and foreign spies: Asian Americans in science and technology, with special reference to the case of Dr. Wen Ho Lee. Amerasia Journal, 33(1), 51–61. Wang, L. (Ed.). (2007). Demystifying model minority’s academic achievement: An interdisciplinary approach to studying Asian Americans’ educational experiences. New Waves: Educational Research and Development, 11(1), 4–28. Wang, Yu-Wei Shen, Frances C. (2008). Model minority myth. Encyclopedia of Counseling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Retrieved on June 7, 2012 http://www.sagepub.com/healeyregc6e/study/chapter/encycarticles/ ch09/WANG YU~1.PDF Wang, T. H., & Wu, F. H. (1996, Winter). Beyond the model minority myth: Why Asian Americans support affirmative action. Guild Practitioner, 53, 35–47. Weaver, R. (2007, November). Every coin has two sides: Uncovering the model minority myth. NEA Today, 26(3), 9. Weaver, S. (2009). Perfect in America: implications of the model minority myth on the classroom. Colleagues, 4(2), 8–11. Wing, J. Y. (2007). Beyond Black and White: The model minority myth and the invisibility of Asian American students. The Urban Review, 39(4), 455–487. Wong, F., & Halgin, R. (2006). The “model minority”: Bane or blessing for Asian Americans? Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 34(1), 38–49. Wong, L. L., & Wong, C. (2006). Chinese engineers in Canada: A ‘model minority’? and experiences and perceptions of the glass ceiling. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 12(4), 253–273. Wortham, S., Mortimer, K., & Allard, E. (2009). Mexicans as model minorities in the new Latino diaspora. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 40(4), 388–404. Wright, D. E., & Hom, H. L. (2003). Altering frequency estimates of hindsight bias in others via stereotyping: Asians as a model minority. Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, 8(4), 139–143. Wu, F. H. (2012). The model minority: Asian American “success” as a race relations failure. In K. E. Rosenblum & T. M. C. Travis (Eds.), The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability (6th ed.) (pp. 370–378). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. Yang, K. (2004). Southeast Asian American children: Not the “model minority.” Future of Children, 14(2), 127–133. Yee, G. A. (2009). She stood in tears amid the alien corn: Ruth, the perpetual foreigner and model minority. In R. C. Bailey (Ed.), They Were All Together in One Place? Toward Minority Biblical Criticism (pp. 119–140). Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature. Yeh, C. (2008). Constructing a “model minority” identity: The miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant. In C. Yeh, Making An American Festival: Chinese New Year in San Francisco’s Chinatown (pp. 56–74). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

86    N. HARTLEP Yin, X. (2001). The two sides of America’s “model minority.” Chinese American Forum, 16(3), 27–28. Yokohama, K., & Lee, D. (2005). Managing the model minority myth and other misconceptions: The struggles and strengths of Asian American gifted girls. In S. Kurpius, B. Kerr, & A. Harkins (Eds.), Handbook for Counseling Girls and Women: Ten Years of Gender Equity Research at Arizona State University (pp. 123– 156). Mesa, AZ: Nueva Science Press. Yoshihama, M. (2001). Model ginority demystified: Emotional costs of multiple victimizations in the lives of women of Japanese descent. In N. G. Choi (Ed.), Psychosocial Aspects of the Asian-American Experience: Diversity Within Diversity (pp. 201–224). New York, NY: Haworth Press. Yoo, H. C., Burrola, K. S., & Steger, M. F. (2010). A preliminary report on a new measure: Internalization of the model minority myth measure (IM–4) and its psychological correlates among Asian American college students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57(1), 114–127. Yu, T. (2006). Challenging the politics of the “model minority” stereotype: A case for educational equality. Equity & Excellence in Education, 39(4), 325–333. Zhang, Q. (2010). Asian Americans beyond the model minority stereotype: The nerdy and the left out. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 3(1), 20–37. Zhao, Y., & Qiu, W. (2009). How good are the Asians? Refuting four myths about Asian-American academic achievement? Phi Delta Kappan, 90(5), 338–344. Zia, H. (2000). Gangsters, gooks, geishas, and geeks. In H. Zia (Ed.), Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People (pp. 109–135). New York, NY: Farrar Strauss and Giroux.

CHAPTER 4

THE TRAINING OF VOLUNTEER ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN THE WISCONSIN JURISDICTION OF THE CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST William C. McCoy

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to ascertain the methodological training needs of adult Sunday school teachers in the Church of God in Christ. Pastors and instructional leaders of two Wisconsin jurisdictions were utilized as participants in the study. Research methodology included a blended approach of quantitative and qualitative methods with the use of a Likert-scale survey, short answer questions and an interview. One basic finding of the research indicated that the Church of God in Christ has various trainings already in place that deal with a number of areas in ministry, including Sunday school. Another basic finding was that there is a need for systematic methodological training for its adult Sunday school instructors to maximize instructional effectiveness. The main conclusion of the study suggests a need to begin sysCritical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 87–108 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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88    W. C. McCOY tematic training of adult Sunday school teachers in the area of methodology. An additional conclusion reflects upon the broader experience of this research to influence denominations and religious organizations outside of the Church of God in Christ. In essence, the applicability and usefulness of this research spans across denominational divides.

Melvin D. Williams embarked upon an anthropological study in the late 1960’s that involved in-depth observations of a Black Pentecostal church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As stated by Williams (1974), “Understanding Black people in the United States remains one of the critical tasks of the social scientist” (p. 4). Williams recognized, as his usage of the term “critical” suggests, that having such an ethnic group intertwined in the fabric of American society creates a need for greater understanding of the group. He also recognized how important it is to study not only the ethnic group, but the influences and circumstances that shaped the group to be what it is in its present form and mentality. While Williams’ (1974) focal point in his study primarily concentrated on the social environment and sense of community within the particular church of study, he relied heavily upon his observations and common experiences within the church to relate the details of his study to the reader. One of the most powerful passages in the book described a typical start to Sunday morning service; specifically the time for Sunday school: On Sunday morning Deacon Stokes arrives at church at about nine o’clock to open the building and let the worshippers in. Sunday school books are usually locked in the office. The main auditorium is locked and must be opened for Sunday school. After the majority have entered the main auditorium the services are opened with prayer by the superintendent (or his assistant if he is absent). The lesson for the day is then previewed, and a short discussion ensues about its meaning. Subsequently the members break up into classes, roughly divided by age, and the lesson and its relevant Scriptures are discussed, often heatedly, by the adults. After the offer has been taken (during much of the time the corridors, choir room, chorus room, kitchen, and outside areas are filled again with conversing members), the classes are dismissed formally and the children are asked to stand and recite a portion of what they learned in class. After the children’s recitation, the adults begin to discuss and often argue scriptural relevancies to the lesson. (1974, p. 101)

Williams did an excellent job of rendering an accurate picture of what many African-American churches experience when dealing with one of the most important learning opportunities within the Black church at large, but his observations open up several questions about religious education within the Black church. In what appears to be a church loosely structured in the area of education, one may be tempted to ask what type of genuine learning occurs in this environment? Are adult learners satisfied with the

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methodology utilized by the instructors? What type of formal training has the adult teaching staff undergone that would enhance the learning position of the students? The Black church has often been a source of wonder with social science researchers and Christians at large. One of the most notable and conservative denominations of the Black church is the Church of God in Christ (otherwise known and interchangeably referred to as COGIC, pronounced “koe-jick”), widely touted to be the largest Black Pentecostal denomination in the world and the central focus of this discourse (Synan, 1971). Like many Christian churches, COGIC actively utilizes Sunday school as a primary instructional opportunity for its congregants, but the problems associated with keeping Sunday school a vibrant and successful educational resource within churches transcends denominational lines. To be sure, many Christian churches, regardless of denomination, are experiencing a downturn in the attendance of Sunday school students. As aptly stated by Stafford (1990), “The bedrock institution of Sunday school is in trouble. . . . Few expect Sunday school to disappear—one might as well expect hymnals to disappear from the pews—but nearly everyone says it has problems with no solution in sight” (p. 29). Stafford not only acknowledged the importance of Sunday school as the foundation of religious education within the Christian church, but he also recognized the challenges faced by traditional Sunday school. By examining the meaning of his statement, one can conclude that as important as Sunday school is to the Christian church, there are many problems associated with the vitality of the institution, and no one seems to have viable solutions to the issues presented. Dr. Darren Thomas (2005), a Baptist minister, echoed the perspective of Stafford by asserting, Church popular culture has issued Sunday school its last rites and labeled it a dead program that worked for a few hundred years but has become irrelevant within the last twenty five. . . . It is viewed as a program of stale teachers in cold atmospheres with absolute zero Biblical relevance to life. (p. 5)

Undoubtedly, those are strong indictments of one of the pillars of Christian education. Yet despite these indictments, there remains a faction of individuals that hold strong the opinion that Sunday school is of utmost importance to the lifeblood of the church. Taylor (2003) challenged those that consider Sunday school to be on its deathbed by pointedly asking, “Has the Sunday school failed us, or have we failed our Sunday school?” (p. 15) Taylor seems to touch one of the church’s educational sore spots by asking this question. He is in essence asking if the fault lies with church leaders or with the structure of Sunday school itself. That is a deep question to ponder, for the answer elicits an inevitable need to acknowledge misguidance

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of either the institution, or the creators of the institution, or perhaps both. In addition, the voice of Sunday school influence can be heard from the past as Flake (1922), one of the pioneers of modern Sunday school leadership, echoed certain familiar concerns from the annals of history by stating, Even now, in some churches, the Sunday school is merely tolerated, and in only a few is it utilized to its fullest capacity. These conditions exist because the leaders do not have a correct understanding of the true function of the Sunday school. (p. 13)

Though dated, Flake’s writing serves to provide a point of historical relevancy in the notion that the decline of Sunday school is not a new phenomenon; it is a problem that has existed for a number of years. The latter part of Flake’s observation also leads to an additional point of importance. Flake essentially indicted church leaders in the decline of their own religious education institution. How can this be? Is it possible that this potential self-sabotage is intentional, or is it occurring unwittingly to the leaders? If nothing else, Flake brings to light the need to closely examine those that lead the Sunday school charge within the churches. In an indirect way, Flake’s comments also bring to light an additional point of interest that leads to the heart of this discourse: the need to examine what lies within the structure and/or leadership of Sunday school to cause mere tolerance of the institution. Upon examination, it would seem that adults who take the time to attend Sunday school are frequently faced with a problem indirectly addressed by Flake; for many times, the teachers of the adult Sunday school class are volunteers that may or may not be knowledgeable in content, but in many cases are unskilled in the art of effective teaching methodology. This can lead even the most thoughtprovoking lessons into the realm of boredom, thereby discouraging the attendance of faithful and potential students. Mack (1996) summed it up best by stating, “The traditional view of Sunday school is that of people sitting in rows looking at the backs of the heads of people sitting in front of them, listening to a teacher lecture” (p. 67). If this is the case in many of the adult Sunday school classes across the Christian church, it is easy to understand at least one fragment of the problem creating the decline within the institution. More importantly, several questions must be asked, especially of the Church of God in Christ. The first question is certainly, “What is the current status of COGIC adult Sunday school teaching methods?” The second question gets at the heart of the issue raised by Flake, “What recommendations will emerge from studying the issue?” It is the primary goal of this discourse to probe these two questions more deeply and to examine potential solutions. With this in mind, it is befitting that a brief overview of

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the Church of God in Christ be provided. The next section provides an overview of Pentecostalism and the Church of God in Christ as well as the general organizational structure of the Church of God in Christ leadership. PENTECOSTALISM AND THE CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST The research of this study delves into the perspective of Sunday school as it pertains to the Black church, specifically the Church of God in Christ. In order to thoroughly examine this question, a brief history shall be shared for purposes of clarification. Also, as the essence of this research reflects upon the organizational structure of the Church of God in Christ, it is necessary for the researcher to briefly describe the structure of the denomination to assist the reader. Destined to lead a brand new denomination, Charles Harrison Mason was born September 8, 1866, on a farm near Memphis, Tennessee. Mason’s Christian conversion occurred at the age of twelve, and thirteen years later, Mason received his ministerial license. Though he attended the Arkansas Baptist College, Mason eventually decided that the instructional methodology utilized by his instructors was not in congruence with his preferred methods, nor was Mason in agreement with their presentation of the Bible message, so he dropped out of college several months after enrolling and became a street preacher. Mason’s style was touted to be fiery, with emphasis placed on sanctification, a teaching that stressed setting one’s self apart from things in the world that endanger conversion. Several years later, Mason encountered several preachers with similar fiery preaching styles as himself, and revivals were run by the group in several areas in the south. As stated by the COGIC website; “In 1895, Bishop Mason met Elder C. P. Jones of Jackson, Mississippi; Elder J. E. Jeter of Little Rock, Arkansas; and Elder W. S. Pleasant of Hazelhurst, Mississippi, who subsequently became Bishop Mason’s closest companions in the ministry.” (Church of God in Christ website, 2009). Upon returning to Jackson, Mississippi, Mason was eventually given the use of an old gin house to hold his revival-type services. This location was to become Mason’s first established sanctuary, and the charter members formed what was known as the “Church of God.” In 1897, while walking down the street in Little Rock, Arkansas, and pondering a name that would differentiate his gathering from similar-named groups, the name “Church of God in Christ” was given to Mason by divine revelation. As stated on the website, “The following scripture supported his revelation: I Thessalonians 2:14, ‘For ye brethren became followers of the Churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye have suffered like things of your own countrymen even as they have of the Jews’” (Church of God in Christ website, 2009). Ten years later, during a time of severe

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disenchantment felt by not only blacks, but socioeconomically depressed whites, circumstances would create an opportunity that would change Mason’s life forever. Cox (1995) provided some perspective of the pervasive feelings of the time: For African Americans the period from 1890 to 1920 was what the historian Samuel Eliot Morrison calls the worst in their postemancipation history. But it also was a bad time for poor whites who also responded to the Pentecostal preachers. Populists and progressives sought to turn back the growing power of the monopolies, but with limited success. America’s graduation to the status of an empire with its acquisition of Puerto Rico and the Philippines did not bring much comfort to hard-pressed farmers or unemployed urban workers. The vote for Eugene V. Debs’ Socialist party increased tenfold between 1900 and 1920. Furthermore, mainly among the lower classes, people had become dissatisfied with the coldness and empty formality of the churches. (p. 77)

As one can see, the proverbial “wand of success” failed to wave over the poorest of the country, which opened up a flood of dissatisfaction among America’s economically challenged. What changed Mason’s life forever was an introduction to a charismatic occurrence sweeping the nation’s west coast. Despite feelings of disenfranchisement, Mason eventually received news about a spiritual awakening occurring in California. As Cox (1995) stated: For decades Christians had been praying for a great revival, for a new down pouring of the Spirit: “Send us another Pentecost!” When word came that, first in Los Angeles and then in other locations, it had actually begun, they could hardly wait to hear direct testimonies from those who had actually experienced the new descent of the Spirit. (p. 79)

So Mason and several of his associates ventured to California to investigate the great Pentecostal revival led by W. J. Seymour. During the course of his investigation, Mason believed Seymour’s teachings and became convinced that it was essential for all believers to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost, an additional religious experience that culminated in the speaking of what is considered a heavenly language understood only by God; or as it would come to be known as speaking in tongues. Upon receiving such an experience himself, Mason returned home to Memphis, Tennessee, to proclaim his new knowledge to all that would listen. It is this teaching that set Mason and the Church of God in Christ apart from many Pentecostal churches of the time, and continues to be a point of differentiation in the world of Pentecostalism.

The Training of Volunteer Adult Sunday School Teachers    93

CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE In terms of leadership structure within the Church of God in Christ, one would find direct parallelism to Catholicism. The entire church is represented by one leader referred to as the Presiding Bishop. This position would be similar to the Pope in the Catholic Church. The Presiding Bishop also doubles as the leader of a particular region, otherwise known as a jurisdiction. With the Presiding Bishop, there is a governing body of twelve jurisdictional bishops known as the Presidium, who set the course for the church, interpret the laws of the church, and deal with foundational matters that affect the church at large. This group would be very similar to the cardinals of the Catholic Church. The rest of the national church is split into jurisdictions that are presided over by jurisdictional bishops, very much like the office of Bishop in Catholicism. Jurisdictions are further split into districts that are presided over by Superintendents. Superintendents are commissioned to be the hands-on overseers of a varying number of local pastors, who in turn lead their local congregations. The specific jurisdictions included in this study were Wisconsin 1st Jurisdiction, under the leadership of General Board member Bishop Sedgwick Daniels, and Wisconsin 3rd Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction under the leadership of Bishop Johnny C. Williams. CONTEXTUAL ORIENTATION When examining literature concerning Sunday school, one will find a bevy of research that concerns itself with both the importance of Sunday school and the debatable decline in the popularity, feasibility, and relevance of the institution. What seems to be missing is a similar amount of study devoted to improving the andragogical—“the art and science of helping adults learn” (Knowles, 1984, p. xxiv)–methodologies of adult Sunday school teachers; that is to say the importance and necessity of train-the-trainer sessions for volunteer adult Sunday school teachers. Due to the dearth of research materials focusing specifically on the methodological improvements of Sunday school instruction, this author relied on available research. In his dissertation entitled, An Analysis of Sunday school Factors Leading To Effective Assimilation In Selected Baptist Churches In Georgia, the words of Thomas (2005) embodied the essence of this discourse, and certainly led us toward the need for improvement of teaching methodologies. Thomas understood the importance of coupling discipleship and instruction, as stated in his dissertation: “. . . the church must be eager to run the race, eager to go into the world and take the gospel, but it must also foster an eagerness to

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teach and disciple once it has gone out and reached others” (p. 3). Thomas underscores the need for the church to be ready for instruction, as discipleship and instruction work together for successful conversion. Similarly, other authors understood the importance of teaching in the church. As declared by one scholar: The very syntax of the Great Commission makes it clear that teaching is not optional. This passage contains three principles—going, baptizing, teaching—all equal in rank grammatically, all equal in importance operationally. To concentrate exclusively on “going” and “baptizing” without regard for “teaching” is to ignore part of the Lord’s command. (Coleman, 1984, p. 31)

Again, Coleman underlines a clear message that instruction within the church is vitally important and should not be minimalized. So why are so many churches failing in the area of improving instructional methodologies? Most likely, it is due to a lack of understanding the true influence of methodology in instruction. What many pastors, church administrators and teachers fail to realize is that by teaching methodological approaches to adult Sunday school instructors, classes will grow, the retention of knowledge will increase, and the class itself will become more meaningful to all participants. It is important to avoid the type of situation described by Jones (1999): There may be no more important position in the church than to be a Sunday school teacher—and yet we often only offer the most minimal training, typically because we are so desperate to have the classroom staffed that we are afraid to ask our teachers to do more than be there on Sunday morning. (p. 1144)

Jones’ words verify an underlying need for trained Sunday school staff; especially those who are volunteering and have no formal training as educators. Volunteer instructors need to have more than a base knowledge of scripture; they need to have a thorough understanding of how to impart such knowledge in a way that is palatable for the students in their classes, which in return will provide fodder for spiritual growth. Ultimately, growth in knowledge is what education is all about, and the church should not consider itself exempt from such a fundamental definition. Understanding how to impart such knowledge is key, coupled with an understanding of the audience, their learning styles, and effective methodologies tailored to fit the specific audience being addressed. Within the circles of education, it is now understood that various age groups and audiences need exposure to various types of methodologies in order to maximize the effectiveness of instruction. This has not always been the case. Traditionally, the most widely known and acceptable way of knowledge impartation has been known as pedagogy. Malcolm Knowles (1984) provides an important definition of pedagogy as “the art and science of

The Training of Volunteer Adult Sunday School Teachers    95

Dependency

Pedagogy

Lectures

Limited Experience Assigned Readings/External Motivation

Figure 4.1  The essence of pedagogy.

teaching children” (p. xxiv). Pedagogy has dominated instructional methodology since the dawn of education. Figure 4.1 provides an at-a-glance view of perspectives associated with pedagogy. The model features the triangular shape of pedagogy encompassed by a circle filled with various attributes of pedagogical perspectives. In relation to the pedagogical ideology, Pratt (1998) discussed what he describes as two fundamentally different views of knowledge related to perspectives on teaching. The first view is the conception of knowledge as existing independent of the learners’ interest in it or awareness of it. Pratt referred to this idea as “objectivism,” and it is this idea that serves as the foundation on which Figure 4.1 stands: build upon knowledge provided. This objectivism, as described by Pratt, is also based on the logic of discovery. It is not difficult to understand Pratt’s thinking when one considers the limited amount of knowledge and experience brought to the learning environment by youth, which creates a need for pedagogical learning. Pedagogy is built upon knowledge provided, or knowledge gained from the wisdom of the adults in the lives of a youth and the world around them. This seems to make sense when one considers the old adage, “Youth and wisdom do not go together.” It is important to note the descriptive terms within the pedagogy circle. Dependency denotes the student’s reliance on the instructor, while lecture

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and assigned readings describe the main mode of teaching methodology. The term “limited experience” portrays the amount of knowledge brought into the learning environment, while external motivation describes the source of the student’s drive. It is within the last forty years that a distinctive line of educational division has been made between youth learners and adult learners. With the creation of this line came the introduction of the term andragogy. It is important to note that the relationship between pedagogy and andragogy is not adversarial, but complementary. Such a complementary relationship has not always been an assumption made by educators. In fact, many have assumed that the two are very independent of each other, and must be utilized as such. Pratt (1998) made light of this by stating, “. . . many adult educators assume that andragogy represents the best (and only) way to teach adults, especially when adult education is compared to youth education. What is needed instead is a plurality of perspectives on teaching adults that recognizes diversity within teachers, learners, content, context, ideals, and purposes. (p. 3–4)

Andragogy is most effectively thought of as a dynamic extension of learning practices; an addition of methodological concepts and perceptions to pedagogy that, until formally introduced in this country by Malcolm Knowles over thirty-five years ago, were not given much consideration. Essentially, both pedagogy and andragogy are a frame of reference concerning the learning process; with one (andragogy) building upon another (pedagogy). They do not exist separately, but cohesively. Just as a child grows to adulthood, so must there be growth in the approach of dealing with progressive learning needs. Figure 4.2 provides an example of this concept in the form of a model to better illustrate the nature of andragogy. Ultimately, the term “andragogy” within the model changes the verbiage within the circle. Those descriptive terms are indicative of the nature of the combined relationship. In similar fashion to Figure 4.1, andragogy stands upon what Pratt (1998) referred to as subjectivism, or what is referred to by the figure as knowledge stored and provided. Pratt reflected upon subjectivism as the conception of “knowledge as something that is intimately determined by the learner and is based on a logic of interpretation” (p. 22). This concept allows for the experience and wisdom acquired by adults. Adults have the breadth and length of life experiences to pull from, indicating a need for the instructors of adults to both recognize and honor those experiences. Note in Figure 4.2 the inclusion of different terms reflective of andragogy. Andragogical students tend to be older and thus independent and much more experienced than pedagogical students. Their self-conception is strong and

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Independent

Andragogy (Pedagogy)

Experienced

Problem-Centered Orientation/ Internal Motivation Self-Conception

Figure 4.2  A model of adult learning.

their external motivating factors are driven by problem-centered orientation—that is the need to solve a problem that is affecting their lives. It is vital to look more closely at the present delivery of Sunday school to better understand where potential issues exist. Figure 4.3 represents the present model of delivery for typical adult Sunday school courses. The left side of the model is considered the foundation of instruction or the pedagogical perspective of education. It is here that most Sunday school teachers draw their experiences from, as this perspective is most comfortable due to past methodological exposure. Again, it is the pedagogical perspective that is built upon knowledge that is provided by the instructor, with little opportunity for adults to control the reins of their own education. This means that upon instructional delivery, the learning process is dominated by knowledge that is provided with little credence given to the base knowledge brought into the classroom by adult learners. This results in an instructional imbalance. What does this look like in the adult Sunday school classroom? Essentially, the students sit listening to a lecture given by the teacher with occasional instructional variances that may include andragogical methodologies (real life examples, stories, etc.) barely capable of drawing the adult Sunday school student into the educational elixir of learning.

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Andragogy Pedagogical Perspective

(Delivery)

Pedagogy

Figure 4.3  Present model of adult Sunday school delivery.

One may ask, “How can the differences between pedagogy and andragogy be more plainly identified?” That question can perhaps be answered best by looking at a side-by-side comparison of each term. Malcolm Knowles (1984) did this best by describing each in a theoretically dichotomous way. Knowles did an excellent job of simplifying the differences in learning assumptions made regarding the concept of the learner, the role of the learner’s experience, the readiness to learn, the orientation to learning, and the motivation to learn. Table 4.1 attempts to depict Knowles’ information in a succinct manner. Notice the distinct perceptual differences provided by Knowles in the descriptions of Table 4.1. All of the categories must be considered when dealing with knowledge impartation to adults and youths. This is also useful information in obtaining a greater understanding of Table 4.1. Regarding the concept of the learner, pedagogy assumes that the learner is a dependent personality. This implies that the learner depends on the knowledge and, more importantly, the direction of the instructor to achieve the learning goal. In contrast, the andragogical learner is self-directing or able to make learning connections on his own if simply provided the boundaries and instructional tools necessary to achieve the learning goal. In regard to the learner’s experience, there exists a major contrast between the two concepts. Pedagogy takes into account the lack of experience brought to the table by the learner. Pedagogy thereby underscores the need to bridge the learning gap by the instructor who is providing the information lacking by the participant or student. The andragogical perspective associates adults with a greater depth and breadth of experiences, thereby creating a level of peer respect not possible with pedagogical learners. In regard to participants’ readiness to learn, pedagogy understands an initial and continuing dependence on being told what to achieve in learning in order to secure advancement, while

The Training of Volunteer Adult Sunday School Teachers    99 TABLE 4.1  Pedagogy/Andragogy Contrast Chart Learning Assumptions Regarding the concept of the learner Regarding the role of the learner’s experience Regarding readiness to learn

Regarding orientation to learning Regarding motivation to learn

Pedagogy

Andragogy

Learner is a dependent personality

Learner is self-directing

Learner enters into educational Adults enter into an educational activity with little experience activity with both a greater that is of much value as a volume and a different quality resource for learning of experience from youth Students become ready to Adults become ready to learn learn what they are told that when they experience a need to they have to learn in order to know or do something in order advance to the next grade level to perform more effectively in some aspect of their lives Students see learning as a Adults learn in order to be able to process of acquiring prescribed perform a task, solve a problem, subject matter content or live in a more satisfying way Motivated primarily by external Although influenced by some pressures from parents and external motivators, primary teachers, competition for motivators are internal—selfgrades, the consequences of esteem, recognition, better failure and the like quality of life, and the like v

andragogy understands that adults will only learn when there is an underlying reason to do so that will have a lasting and positive effect on their lives and/or the lives around them. Pedagogy’s orientation to learning embraces learning as that which has been predetermined as a need to learn, while andragogy embraces only what is needed to perform a necessary task for knowledge acquisition or improvement or to problem solve. Finally, Knowles indicates that the motivation of learning is different between the two. Pedagogy is primarily influenced by external pressures from various authorities and competition, while andragogy’s influence is primarily intrinsic in nature with some external factors. Here is the crux of the research issue: Current methodologies utilized by many adult Sunday school volunteer instructors are stuck in the pedagogical model. Thomas (2005) made this point plain when he asserted, “Too often Sunday schools have teachers who feel that good teaching is a powerful lecture on the scriptures supported by multiple commentary references” (p. 58). Thomas’ point is again echoed through the annals of time by another writer who expressed disdain in utilizing only the pedagogical model of instruction: Simply surveying the scriptures is not Bible study, nor is it Bible teaching. Many teachers do this in their Sunday school class or home Bible Study. They think

100    W. C. McCOY they are teaching or leading a Bible study because they fill a classroom with talk. But you have not taught until your pupil has learned. (Towns, 1998, p. 26)

Understandably, many Sunday school instructors give very little thought to adapting methodology to fit the audience; instead, the pedagogical sphere expects to provide information to knowledge-thirsty individuals. The challenge of this discourse is to link the pedagogical/andragogical divide by studying methodology, thereby increasing the methodological tools held by the adult Sunday school teacher that will enhance their techniques. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY FOR SELECTED AUDIENCES The issue that this chapter addresses is the fundamental question of what is the current status of COGIC adult Sunday school teaching methods. Presently, there is no formal mechanism in place on a national level to assess the effective andragogical impartation of theological knowledge within the primary educational structure of the Church of God in Christ. It is imperative that volunteer instructors be knowledgeable not only in the content of what is taught, but also have knowledge of the best and most current methodology available to impart such knowledge. In order for this to occur, volunteers must be taught the foundations of instructional methodologies and how to apply those methodologies to the adult students whom they serve. This research utilized adult Sunday school teachers within COGIC who dually serve as pastors within two COGIC jurisdictions of Wisconsin. It also examines their training needs as those needs relate to adult teaching methodologies. As stated by Thomas (2006), “Too often Sunday schools have teachers who feel that good teaching is a powerful lecture on the scriptures supported by multiple commentary references” (p. 58). While Thomas’ statement is inclusive of all Sunday school teachers, the essence of this discourse centers on methodological improvements necessary for adult Sunday school attendees. The topic narrows even further when considering how to improve the methodological opportunities utilized within the Church of God in Christ. Despite the narrowness of this topic, the literature proves that the issue raised in this research seeps across denominational divides and permeates churches across the world. In essence, this research examines a denominational issue that shares commonality with other denominations. Simply put, many religions face a decline in adult student religious education due to outdated methodology. As far back as the turn of the 20th Century, Brown (1901) recognized the need for trained Sunday school leaders: What then is the first great need of the American Sunday school as it stands today? The question at once suggests so many and such fundamental weaknesses that the answer cannot come hastily. We believe, however, that the first

The Training of Volunteer Adult Sunday School Teachers    101 great need is the trained superintendent. If the Sunday school is to stand on a plane with other institutions of learning its superintendent must stand as an equal among the principals of these institutions. (p. 191)

Brown understood the necessity of training those that teach Sunday school. This discourse, while focusing on one particular Christian denomination, has the potential to reach across the denominational divide to positively affect all adult religious institutional education methodologies. NECESSARY EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES The main question of this research asked, “What is the current status of COGIC adult Sunday school teaching methods?” To process this question in a succinct manner, it is important to understand the dynamics of a typical COGIC congregation. As a COGIC pastor of five years and a member of COGIC for over thirty years, this researcher can draw upon personal, yet relevant, experiences to assist in the validation of the results of this study. My conclusion is that standardized methodology training is needed in the Church of God in Christ as it relates to Sunday school. Dr. James S. Thomas, while writing a Forward for the Chism (1995) book entitled Christian Education for the African American Community: Teacher Training in the Black Church, seemed to accurately capture the present state of COGIC educational affairs: The black church has long been known for the freedom and exuberance of its worship services. Spirited singing, vibrant preaching, and congregational response are not only expected, they are encouraged. When these important worship forms are experienced at their best, they are powerful forces for spiritual nurture and continuing evangelism. The teaching function of the black church is far behind these more obvious expressions of the faith. (p. v)

Although Thomas was addressing the black church as a whole, his description is clearly applicable to the COGIC church. By stark contrast, Luther E. Lindberg asserted that, “. . . teaching adults is a first and fundamental task of the church” (Grothe, 1997, p. 89). If Sunday school is to remain a vital part of the educational system of COGIC, it is essential that standardized training be infused into every level of the church. Such an idea is not new, as Brown stated in 1901: . . . the times now demand that at least in city Sunday schools the superintendents, if not the teachers, should be required, rather than urged, to give themselves a thorough training for their work. They should be expected to

102    W. C. McCOY devote not merely an hour or so a day to study, but entire years, just as if preparing for one of the so-called professions. (p. 196)

Even at that time, Brown recognized that significant time and dedication to training and education was important to the vitality of Sunday school. She solidified her perspective by making a strong assertion concerning the level of education necessary to assure educational success. Brown stated, . . . preparation for a Sunday school superintendent should ordinarily be either university work in the philosophy of education, with work at the theological seminary as a minor subject, or a theological course with university work in education as prominent electives. (p. 196–197)

Brown obviously understood the need for systematic training for Sunday school teachers. The Church of God in Christ would certainly benefit from a systematic approach to the training of its Sunday school teachers and educational leaders with a nationalized curriculum inclusive of andragogical methodology awareness and implementation. Like Brown, Grothe (1997) asserted the need for proper preparation of church educational leaders: The second key action is to equip teachers in the congregation for their task. This includes integral training of teachers of adult groups and classes, not just those who teach children and youth. Teacher education is a must for those already involved in teaching and also for those who plan to teach in the future. (p. 30)

Grothe obviously understands that teacher training in the church is as imperative as secular training of teachers. Teacher training is the backbone of educational foundation for any religious educational opportunities, and to neglect such opportunities handicaps a church, regardless of the organizational level. Grothe even advocates for a teacher education enrichment program that involves a myriad of pertinent areas including training in the Bible, theology, spirituality and strategies, among others. Such is not always the focus in the church, as many COGIC congregations are struggling simply to have warm bodies to instruct, but this does not diminish the need for training. When writing the preface of a Chism (1995) publication, Joseph Crockett emphasized the struggle that seems so common in the black church by stating, “Members are not prepared or willing to teach” (p. vi). Chism recognized that all levels of congregations observed a need for improved teacher training—from the lay members to conference directors. Without such training, Chism recognized the potential for a very negative impact. He stated that, These observers also indicate that the decline of the church school may have its roots in the performance of the church school teacher. In most cases, loss

The Training of Volunteer Adult Sunday School Teachers    103 of interest, church school dropout, and the decline of the church school all result from poor teaching. (p. 1) .

Chism made a powerful assertion, but one that is worthy of pause and reflection on the health and vitality of Sunday school. If the Church of God in Christ is to provide strong leadership in the area of education, teacher training has to become a priority. To his credit, the presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ has recognized the necessity of training at all levels of the church and has recently decreed the implementation of education initiatives throughout the entire COGIC organization. This mandate has affected every major auxiliary in the church at the national level, with Bishop Alton Gatlin, the denominational head of religious education, being an intricate part of widespread implementation. The focus of this implementation is simply to increase the educational opportunities of the congregants in all areas of active ministry within the church. For instance, the Sunday school department is accountable for increasing the educational opportunities of attendees throughout the church. Although Gatlin is very concerned about the importance of teaching methodology, it may not be on the list of primary objectives for him. Gatlin is responsible for what appears to be an overhaul of the entire department which includes the literature associated with his department, the accuracy and viability of such material as it relates to the national church objectives, and strategic planning initiatives to lead the national church to greater biblical education and impartation accountability. With so much on his plate, it is highly possible that the consideration of adult learning (andragogy) and teaching methodology is simply not a priority at this time given the amount of important topics battling for his attention, which leads to a second and more poignant recommendation. It is recommended that adult Sunday school instructors of COGIC be mandated to study proven and effective andragogical teaching methodologies to enhance their educational output. A necessary part of this study should be to understand the general makeup and mentality of the congregants being served so that methodologies can parallel the needs of the students. Loessner, as part of his 1961 dissertation, asserted, “The teachers in the churches are volunteer lay people whose busy lives and lack of training in this area often cause them to disregard the importance of discovering the needs of adults in their classroom” (p. 3). Loessner’s perspective is accurate, and it is not in the best interest of the students or the instructors of COGIC to instruct in a way that is not palatable to class participants. More training must be done in this area. Thomas (2005) underscored this need by asserting, “. . . effective Bible teaching is critical and therefore the Bible teacher must be properly equipped to fulfill the task of teaching with excellence” (p. 184). Thomas understood the need for complete methodology

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training for adult Sunday school teachers. He went on to further underscore this perspective by stating, “Churches must provide times of training for their Sunday school teachers to understand the dynamics of the Sunday school ministry as well as have skills in understanding, interpreting, and communicating the truths of Scripture” (p. 184). Thomas’ words are prophetic for the needs of COGIC adult Sunday school teachers. Understanding the uphill battle of training adult Sunday school instructors in improved methodology, Gatlin confirmed that most COGIC adult Sunday school teachers are blue collar volunteers who have a desire to assist where they can in the church. Gatlin’s statement is not to be interpreted as a negative generalization concerning the average American black citizen; it is intended to be a statement recognizing the state and mentality of his instructional constituents. In essence, Gatlin recognizes the need for individual church instructional staff that understands and demonstrates the concepts of andragogy even if those staff members don’t know what andragogy is. To demonstrate the methodologies associated with andragogy would be a clear indication of the instructional needs of the adults in the Sunday school classroom. Conrad identified the need for an understanding of adults in order to reach them where they are by saying, “We need to learn about adults in their settings so that we can begin where they are and help them embrace lifelong learning, growing in Christian faith and love” (as cited in Grothe, p. 33). For Conrad, this meant that teachers should know the differences in generational gaps to better understand the students in front of them, whether boomers, busters, generation xers and blasters—all substantive knowledge in andragogical consideration. As a side but relatable issue, Conrad indicated that the cultural right, “made up of the lower middle class, the working class, and the poor, . . .  need teachers that can be sensitive to where people are and begin from there” (as cited in Grothe, p. 39–40). It is safe to say, and even confirmed by Gatlin, that a majority of COGIC congregants fit the definition of cultural right. Conrad’s words indicated a need to understand the mentality of the congregants being taught and to relate their needs effectively to the lessons being taught. This cannot be properly performed in the absence of methodological study. In the 1987 dissertation of Matthew Kent Crain, Crain quoted Melvin Williams in an attempt to parallel the necessity of understanding the relationship between good Sunday school teaching and positive influence on attendance by writing, “Making Sunday school classes a place where learning is relevant to life could positively affect attendance” (p. 13). This statement again verified the need for proper teacher training to meet people where they are. When adult students feel that the knowledge they bring to the table is both honored and welcomed, the Sunday school classroom will begin to increase in students and learning opportunities.

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Chism (1995) understood the need for the type of methodological variety expected for adults. Although not exhaustive, he presented a small list of andragogical learning methodologies including lecture (to be used sparingly), role-playing, case methods and demonstration. In teaching such variance in methodology, the COGIC church can capitalize on viable opportunities for winning souls and evangelism—both ultimate goals of the church. It is also recommended that training for adult Sunday school teachers within the Church of God in Christ be on-going and wide-spread. This would create an educational environment throughout the church indicative of continuous quality education improvement on an international level. Although continuous quality improvement (CQI) is a popular business concept, it is quite applicable in the field of education and can be easily applied specifically to religious education. By adding the mastery of content knowledge to the conclusions of the study, the chance of educational success for the adult COGIC Sunday school student is greatly increased. Figure 4.4 provides a unique perspective of the educational posturing and inter-connectedness of these conclusions.

Content Knowledge

Ongoing Methodological Training

Improved Student

Mandated Methodological Training

Standardized Methodological Training (Andragogy)

Figure 4.4  COGIC adult Sunday school instructional model.

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On-going methodology training for adult Sunday school teachers in COGIC would ensure a healthy pipeline of well-informed instructors able to exercise an educational nimbleness to the changing students in their classrooms. Creating a standardized curriculum that is mandated and on-going would greatly strengthen the educational foundation of COGIC’s goals and organizational ambitions. A firm grasp of Biblical content and knowledge is assuredly one of the most important parts of the figure, for the lack of it nullifies the effectiveness of the entire educational model. These four aspects would only serve to solidify and further legitimize COGIC’s adult Sunday school department. What role does local, jurisdictional and national COGIC administration play in providing volunteer adult Sunday school teachers proper training to successfully teach? Given the present top-down structure of COGIC leadership, initial support for change and improvement must be garnered by the national leadership in order for holistic change to take place. Given the current direction of the national church in regards to education, gaining national support should not be difficult. As a matter of fact, it is quite apparent that the recent change in national leadership has created new and exciting opportunities for education to be pushed to a higher spot on the national church list of initiatives. An example of education’s new positioning within the church lies in the fact that the presiding bishop publically legitimized an organization called COGIC Scholars—An internal organization of COGIC congregants that possess higher-level degrees intent on utilizing their learning for the betterment of the entire organization. Likewise, as of this writing, the International Sunday school Department of the Church of God in Christ has developed its own yearly commentary and included many instructional references to proven methodologies by COGIC members. The utilization of such internal organizations and methodological improvements provide a foundation that formulates and strengthens standardized learning opportunities at the national level, and have proven to be of great benefit to the entire organization. A focus group designed to consider adult Sunday school teaching methodologies made up of COGIC Scholars would provide another wonderful opportunity for educational advancement within the learning circles of the church. In addition to what is already being developed, a regional training model parallel to the completed national model should be applied with individual jurisdictional support. This would ensure curriculum consistency throughout the church, which is sorely lacking at the present time. This would also ensure greater sustainability of the proposed educational model, for without jurisdictional support, the model will fail before it ever begins. To assure a greater success rate, it is essential that regional training be made available to jurisdictional Sunday school leaders who can in-turn provide training opportunities for local Sunday school leaders. It is interesting to

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note that although much training is offered throughout the church on a national level, the national church depends on those that attend the national training sessions to take the information back to regional and local settings to impart the information. It is important to recognize COGIC’s structure and work within the confines and limitations to improve upon what already exists. Not working within such confines would alienate leadership on all levels and cause the rejection of the model itself, regardless of its usefulness and proven effectiveness. Acceptance of the model will greatly increase the foundation of volunteer training of adult Sunday school teachers in the Church of God in Christ, as well as other spiritual reformations across denominational and religious lines. Lastly, it is important to consider the expansion of research findings to other Christian denominations that utilize parallel instructional structures within their organizations. It is likely that more than COGIC churches face educational disparities concerning prescribed teaching methodologies within their local congregations. As stated by earlier authors, many of the teachers for adult Sunday school classes are volunteers that have a zeal for such ministry but no formal training in instructional methodology. All denominations would benefit from adult teachers that have studied the concept of andragogy and how to utilize such knowledge in adult Sunday school classes. To do so would certainly strengthen the instructional fabric of the church, and improve upon the central mission of the Christian church to preach and teach by reaching out to the masses. In future studies, the perspective of teachers other than those directly involved with church leadership would be insightful and informative, and would add volumes to the holistic perspective of this study. It would be equally interesting to have all participants discuss what methodology works and does not work for them personally and compare such survey results with the indications of the instructors. To do so would provide a complete and overarching perspective to this research. REFERENCES Brown, M. C. (1901). Sunday-school movements in America. New York: Fleming H. Revell. Chism, K. A. (1995). Christian education for the African American community: Teacher training in the Black church. Nashville, TN: Discipleship Resources. Church of God in Christ. (2009). Retrieved December 28, 2009, from http://www. cogic.org Coleman, L. E., Jr. (1984). Why the church must teach. Nashville, TN: Broadman. Cox, H. G. (1995). Fire from heaven: The rise of Pentecostal spirituality and the reshaping of religion in the twenty-first century. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.

108    W. C. McCOY Crain, M. K. (1987). Transfer of training and self-directed learning in adult Sunday school classes in six churches of Christ. (Doctoral dissertation, Southwestern Baptist Bible Seminary, 1987). Flake, A. (1922). Building a standard Sunday school. Nashville, TN: The Sunday school Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Grothe, R. (1997). Lifelong learning: A guide to adult education in the church. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress. Jones, L. G. 1999. One good teacher. Christian Century 116(32), 1144. Knowles, M. S. (1984). Andragogy in action: Applying modern principles of adult learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Loessner, E. J. (1961). The expressed religious education needs of adults of two contrasting educational levels with the teachers’ perceptions of their expressions of needs. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University. Mack, M. C. (1996). The synergy church: A strategy for integrating small groups and Sunday school. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Pratt, D. D. (1998). Five perspectives on teaching in adult higher education. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing. Stafford, T. (1990). This little light of mine: Will Sunday school survive the “me”generation? Christianity Today 34(14), 29–32. Synan, V. (1971). The Holiness-Pentecostal movement in the United States. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Taylor, A. (2003). The six core values of Sunday school: A philosophical, practical, and passionate approach to Sunday school. Woodstock, GA: Author. Thomas, D. W. (2005). An analysis of Sunday school factors leading to effective assimilation in selected Baptist churches in Georgia. (Doctoral dissertation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2005). Towns, E. (1998). How to create and present high-impact Bible studies. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman. Williams, M. D. (1974). Community in a Black Pentecostal church; An anthropological study. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh.

CHAPTER 5

BORN OF OUR NECESSITIES “Muhammad Speaks” Vision of School Reform Khuram Hussein

In Florida’s summer heat, Minister Norman Jones-Raiford exhorted his congregation that “school and college campuses here in the hells of North America traditionally have not supplied the Black man and woman with an aggressive, progressive, pro-Black alumni.” Admitting that his claim was audacious he insisted that, “it is the cold truth.” In the face of this “truth,” he declared that it was time for “a new Black education—an education that is intrinsically related to our wants, needs and Black desires.”1 The Minister’s words were printed in an August 1973 edition of Muhammad Speaks; a religious newspaper owned and operated by the Nation of Islam. In the 1970s Muhammad Speaks was uniquely positioned to give voice to rising popular sentiment among Black Americans who demanded that schools be made more relevant to Black needs. Muhammad Speaks’ community orientation and intellectual diversity distinguish it as an important Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 109–140 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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source of discourse on school reform. As the official newspaper of the Nation of Islam (NOI), Muhammad Speaks was unappealing to mainstream advertisers. Thus the paper’s viability rested upon on its capacity to be relevant to Black patrons requiring an orientation towards regionalism. Journalists took time to build relationships with community informants, obtain multiple local perspectives and followed up on a story several weeks or months later.2 It was a national paper that operated like a local one and treated national school policy issues through the lens of local Black community perspectives. Therefore Muhammad Speaks was poised to herald the rising sentiment among Black Americans that new vistas needed exploration and that the journey toward educational opportunity must first be an inner journey for Black communities.3 CHAPTER OUTLINE This chapter will trace the evolving discourse in Muhammad Speaks over the demand for direct representation of Black interests in schools. The 1970s were marked by growing criticism of antisegregation activism, with many Black Americans arguing that it was time to change tactics.4 Historian Vincent Harding has describes the late 1960s and early 1970s as a period of fervent searching for new directions and institutions in Black education.5 Calls for school integration had been widely supplanted by Black demands for educational control. If an institution of learning is to authentically represent the needs of Black Americans—it was argued—then the institution must be under Black authority. From its inception, Muhammad Speaks championed the cause of self-determined education for Black Americans, widely rejecting the likelihood of an equitable school integration process. Across its lifespan, the paper utilized stories and events to advocate for reform of educational institutions and curriculum. The paper initially staged discussions of institutional control within its coverage of the University of Islam school system. By the late 1960s the paper shifted focus covering college student protests for Black studies and “community control” school battles. These stories served as staging ground for wider discussions on the importance of curriculum and institutions that represented the depth of Black experiences and served the needs of Black communities. Discussions of institutional and curricular control were not unified, presenting conflicting visions of educational self-determination and revealing shifting priorities amidst emerging news events. Contributors agreed that education for Black children must be shaped by Black community necessities, and devoted to the freedom of Black Americans, however there was no consensus about what approach was most necessary or freeing. As with

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the earlier chapters, this chapter asserts that these differences reflect the complexity of perspectives and agendas voiced in the paper. Yet despite swirling differences, there were significant commonalities running through the pages. This chapter argues that Muhammad Speaks aimed to redefine educational excellence for Black students to encompass curriculum developed for Black necessities, substantiated by lived Black experiences and dedicated to Black liberation. Specifically, the paper utilized news stories to advocate for curriculum that was culturally and historically relevant, and served the needs of—and was accountable to—Black communities. Ultimately, Muhammad Speaks presumed that schools are sites of social transformation where educational opportunity and racial justice are inextricably linked. The paper’s position on school reform was premised on the existence of identifiably Black historical narratives and worldviews that have been suppressed in American schools by a White supremacist superstructure and that this superstructure must be vanquished in order to salvage the educational attainment of Black students. Furthermore, Blacks must have the power to determine the conditions and content of learning in order for educational institutions to truly represent their needs. These sentiments were shared across religious and secular lines, including secular editors and journalists who did not directly advocate the particularities of the religious Afro-centrism of the Nation of Islam, yet participated in an advocacy campaign that served to reinforce much of their agenda to reform curriculum. These commonalities are especially important for a broader understanding of the historical significance of Muhammad Speaks as a conduit of Black educational thought in the 1960s and 1970s. Vincent Harding has argued that a deep commitment to relevant and libratory education has passed through generations of Black reformers, manifesting in the lives and work of towering figures like Marcus Garvey, Carter Woodson, W.E.B. Du Bois and Elijah Muhammad. Despite differences, Harding asserts that a common cause of Black self-determination undergirded the highest educational aspirations of a century of prominent Black intelligentsia and leadership.6 This common cause, inasmuch as it emerges through the voices in Muhammad Speaks—or possibly over a century of Black thought—complicates dichotomous “integration vs. segregation” narratives that frame 1960s and 1970s school reform as primarily a story about commitments for or against school desegregation. Moreover, Muhammad Speaks’ school reform discourse is not defined by school desegregation, yet treats the consequences of school desegregation as one aspect of a wider struggle for an educational program that reflects the needs and experiences of peoples of African descent. Muhammad Speaks envisions libratory educational programs emerging from the crucible of communal resources. This vision is among the paper’s most salient contributions to public discourse

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on school reform and serves to revise a narrow typification of the press as solely a separatist publication or narrow depictions of school control advocates as “Black militants” or “ethnic separatists.”7 Instead, the common call for community relevancy and Black control indicate how robust and pervasive the desire for agency in schooling was in Black communities throughout the United States. The chapter will begin with a study of the paper’s coverage of the University of Islam—the nation of Islam’s private religious elementary school. The schools gave the press the chance to discuss the politics of knowledge and the role of school textbooks and curriculum in socializing children towards empowered or disempowered destinies. The next section will examine the paper’s reporting on Black Studies protests and Muhammad Speaks’ articulation of community relevancy as the true ends of education. Muhammad Speaks provided readers a reformulation of the relationship between history and liberation, as well as the relationship between curriculum and community. For reasons explained in this chapter, the Black Studies movement was a uniquely useful source for drawing these relationships out. The third section explores the paper’s approach to “community control” movements tying into both the paper’s notions of curricular reform as well as its demands for community representation in education. Finally, the chapter will argue that historians of education should be mindful of narrow depictions of Muhammad Speaks’ advocacy of Black institutional control, community relevancy, and curricular reform as solely separatist or ethnocentric. Such a presumption risks missing the complexity and dynamism present in their advocacy. A Brief History of the Muslim Black Press Throughout his years in the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X held firm belief in the power of an independent Black press to shed light on Black liberation struggles. He was convinced that the mainstream press was not a fair broker, and would not allow him to plead his case without distortion: “[i]f I had said ‘Mary had a little lamb,’ what probably would have appeared was ‘Malcolm X Lampoons Mary.’”8 As National Spokesman for the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X initiated a number of amateur publications aimed at broadcasting the religious message of the NOI’s leader Elijah Muhammad as well as Muhammad’s perspective on current events. Among Malcolm X’s ventures was a remarkable newspaper titled Mr. Muhammad Speaks.9 The paper proved to be strikingly effective at appealing to Black consumers. Mr. Muhammad Speaks.10 preceded the stylistic and substantive qualities that would later make Muhammad Speaks one of the widely

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circulated Black newspaper in American history.11 Published out of Harlem in 1959, Mr. Muhammad Speaks was a tabloid-sized city paper dubbed a “militant monthly dedicated to Justice for the Black Man.” Male members of the Nation of Islam were required to sell the paper on foot, targeting individuals as they left or entered churches and other community centers. Like other Nation of Islam publications it included the teachings of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, but it stood out in its professional layout, quality of writing, and coverage of news events pertinent to Black communities. Editor in Chief Malcolm X hired journalist Sylvester Leaks to edit the paper, enlisted the newsgathering skills of syndicated columnist Louis Lomax and had the young scholar Charles Eric Lincoln correct galley proofs.12 As Malcolm X had envisioned it, Mr. Muhammad Speaks was a protest-oriented press that staged city news in a narrative of racial justice. The triple threat of quality journalism, a militant approach to current events and an aggressive grassroots sales campaign earned it notoriety among Harlemites.13 Elijah Muhammad was dually impressed by the paper’s ability to raise revenue and broadcast his message to Black readers. In 1961, Elijah Muhammad initiated plans to make the paper a national publication, titled Muhammad Speaks, with a professional staff commissioned to “tell the truth and bring freedom, justice and equality to the Blackmen and women of America.”14 The paper moved to Chicago, dropped its surname and replaced Malcolm X as chief editor. Playing a less direct role, Malcolm X helped facilitate the transition. Together, Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X pursued highly qualified journalists and writers with reputations for promoting Black liberation efforts. The particular circumstances under which journalists were recruited tended to exclude consideration of Muslims as editors, which had important consequences for the trajectory of the paper. Despite the growing number of formally educated ministers enlisted by Malcolm X in the 1950s, too few members were sufficiently prepared to fill job requirements within the NOI’s growing economic enterprises. The newspaper was a perfect example. Virtually no members of the Nation of Islam were professional journalists in 1961, requiring recruitment from outside the Nation. Historian Amy Alexander points out that ongoing tensions with immigrant Muslims who “often disagreed with Mr. Muhammad’s heterodox Islamic doctrine,” derailed the procurement of non-Nation of Islam Muslim specialists.15 In addition former chief editors John Woodford and Askia Muhammad note that the unpleasant public defection of Malcolm X in 1964 encouraged Elijah Muhammad to avoid anointing another Muslim editor-in-chief. Therefore even as potentially capable Muslim chief editors emerged in the 1960s, fear of another Malcolm diminished their chances.16 In turn, the most acceptable and available alternative source emerged from the Black middle class.

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Secular chief editors were placed in critical leadership positions alongside Muslim staff members and writers.17 The paper simultaneously hosted a range of Muslim and secular perspectives on political, cultural, and economic issues facing communities of color in America and abroad.18 The issues covered ranged from African independence movements to local strikes and analyses of economic and cultural phenomena, as well as of the purposes, challenges, and possibilities of Black education. The spectrum of voices found common ground in their disaffection with the path school reform took—or failed to take—in the 1970s. In making their voices heard, they articulated programs for achieving quality education through control of the form and function of educational institutions, and curriculum. Muhammad Speaks reflects not only the complexity of the contributors’ views but also the rich texture of discourse regarding the nature of self-determined education. Muhammad Speaks’ take on school reform raises questions about the fundamental purpose of our public educational institutions: Who are schools most answerable to? What knowledge is most worth learning? To whom can we entrust the education of oppressed communities? And to what extent have dominant group cultural norms defined the character of public education? University of Islam and Rewriting the Black Narrative The earliest manifestation of Muhammad Speaks’ commitment to curricular reform emerged in the paper’s coverage of the University of Islam. Coverage of the Nation of Islam’s schools was framed in terms of Black institutional autonomy and communal integrity. Stories, editorials, and illustrations about the University of Islam provided an opportunity to discuss broader issues of school reform that addressed institutional control, as well as individual and communal Black identity. Attesting to the merits of the University of Islam, many letters to the editor drew a connection between need for school autonomy in order to cultivate positive racial self-concept. Martha Evans Charles declared that after removing her child from Catholic school it was her: . . . most fervent wish that the Muslims would help me to turn my little nine year old around in midstream and away from the all too common self-hate which ranged from, “I wish my hair was long and blond” to “why is my skin so dark mommy, will it get darker when I’m older?19

Famed poet Sonia Sanchez asked readers of Muhammad Speaks: “Have you ever hated yourself? I have. It all began once long ago in a classroom where I learned that I was inferior to Whites in this country.”20 She encouraged

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parents to send their children to the University of Islam where they would be provided the opportunity to develop an empowered self-image. Another former public school student informed Muhammad Speaks that the education he received taught him that “everything White was right and everything Black was wrong,” asserting that by contrast the University of Islam elevates “the entire person.”21 Implied in many of the editorials was the notion that Black run institutions, like the University of Islam, could provide safe harbor from the tempest of White supremacy and psychic wholeness through lessons in positive racial self-concept.22 Proponents of University of Islam schools did not presume that a school that was simply staffed, funded, attended, and directed by Blacks would alone have the default effect of improving the racial self-concept of students, thereby uplifting them as a people. Instead, contributors to Muhammad Speaks qualified their definition of autonomous and self-determined schools as necessarily imbued with a deep institutional commitment to shared cultural expressions, histories, and lived experiences that could be identified as distinctively Black. One advocate of the University of Islam told readers: Unlike the White or even all-Black or Black-majority schools . . . Muhammad Universities of Islam do not try to turn out mere “jobseekers and potential breadwinners.” Nor do they taint their [curriculum] with “alien” (European Judeo-Christian) ideology or characteristics. They strive instead to produce graduates . . . steeped in Black history, proud of their past civilizations and culture and, at the same time, anxious and determined to selflessly serve their own kind and people in every way and manner possible.23

Elijah Muhammad’s followers asserted that White supremacists had substantially defined and designed the fundamental character of American schooling and therefore any educator who taught in a conventional school system, regardless of race, would tend to collude with an educational system that excluded personal or communal meaning for Black children. Members of the Nation claimed that while “the so-called Negroes are being schooled,” this education is not equal to “that of their slave masters,” because children have been denied knowledge of “their own kind for 400 years.”24 For Muhammad and the members of the Nation, “knowledge of their own kind” could only be received by restructuring the content and conditions of learning. Specifically, autonomous schools required leaders that rejected White supremacy and steeped children in a curriculum that reflected Black life. A common rhetorical practice among NOI contributors to Muhammad Speaks was to differentiate “Negro” educators who colluded with White supremacy from “Black” educators who presented the appropriate mentality required to lead a libratory educational program. Reporter Lonnie Kashif informed readers that:

116    K. HUSSEIN Serious consideration and study of helping and maintaining Black institutions with total Black community support and direction . . . would require a total break with the “Negro” concepts and patterns, which were being confused with the more progressive and functional concept of “Black.”25

University of Islam teacher Theodore 4X Marshall wrote to Muhammad Speaks that at his school “Black children are taught by Black teachers. Mind you, I didn’t say Negro children are taught by Negro teachers.”26 For Kashif, Marsahall and other members of the Nation, terms like Negro and colored were labels created by White supremacists to undermine the greatness of the Black race. Those identified as such had presumably incorporated a White worldview into their own perception of themselves and were unprepared to empower Black students. Thus Theodore 4X Marhsall writes, “[w]hen a Negro is taught by another Negro the problem becomes worse.” Marshall paralleled the condition of children taught by “Negroes” to being locked in a prison cell, artificially separated from seeing the full scope of who he is. Lonnie Cross informed readers that the term “Negro” was used to separate peoples of African descent in America from their past.27 At the heart of the Nation of Islam’s contrast between Black and Negro was the demand that the scope of shared cultural expressions, histories, and lived experiences identified as Black not be defined on White terms. The NOI’s conception of Black identity included reaches of time and space, long excluded from White historical narratives of Black history. For this reason, the Nation of Islam centered historical perspective as a major fissure point between Black and Negro. Negro history was described as White man’s history, and only went back as far as slavery, as demonstrated by a 1962 article in Muhammad Speaks describing “so-called Negro history” as “slave history.” For the Nation of Islam, Blackness and Black history crossed continents, millennia and vast civilizations. Another 1962 contributor proclaimed that there is nothing in Negro history that would: . . . inspire a black child to want to be like the characters in this history. Muslims extol, in place of Booker T. Washington, Richard B. Allen, etc., the fighting men and women of the black man’s past such as Hannibal of Carthage and King Menelik of Ethiopia whose small army . . . inflicted a resounding defeat on the mighty forces of Imperial Italy.28

Generally men like Washington and Allen were widely described in the paper as accomplished Black leaders. For example, one reader protested in a letter to the editor, “It seems to me that your comment referring to Mr. Booker T. Washington as submissive was totally out of place and showed complete disregard for Mr. Washington’s place in history.” Journalist Gordon B. Hancock praised Washington as a visionary: “Suppose the Negro

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carpenters and bricklayers had listened to Washington today most of the South’s greatest builders and contractors would have been Negroes.”29 In addition there was push back in the paper over the Nation of Islam’s Pan-African assimilation of Black and African identity. As historian Sherman Jackson notes, despite the African origins of peoples in the United States, “American history has essentially transformed these erstwhile Africans into a new people.”30 Many contributors were sensitive to this and resisted the Nation of Islam’s essentialized formula. CORE leader, James Farmer told Muhammad Speaks, “[w]e are no closer to answering Du Bois’ question whether we are ‘Afro-Americans, Negroes, Blacks or Americans,’ we must put all our efforts into developing a culturally plural community.”31 Ironically, some Blacks thought that the Nation of Islam’s description of Black identity was divisive and exclusive instead of universalizing—as the NOI claimed. In spite of the dissenting viewpoints in Muhammad Speaks over the NOI’s racial essentialism and their treatment of figures like Washington, the Nation of Islam’s “Negro vs. Black” narrative provided an entry point into a discussion about reforming school curriculum to more broadly interpret Black American history. Muslim contributors described the limited capacity of “Negroes” to see past an American context in their envisioning of Black history; thereby limiting Black history to a few short decades of victimization and accommodation. In place of this history, the Nation of Islam’s Muslim contributors advocated for a history curriculum that empowered students through connections between precolonial African civilizations, emerging African nations and the past and current Black American experience. Muhammad Speaks’ coverage of the University of Islam provided contributors an opportunity to articulate their vision of the role of Black history and culture in the curriculum of autonomous Black institutions. The importance of transmitting the history of peoples of African descent to children as well as adults was widely discussed in Muhammad Speaks, making detailed appearances in dozens of issues,32 generally calling for a positive representation of the historical agency of Black people and Black culture. There was a general consensus in the paper that the abuse of Black history must be rectified at every turn, especially in schools. Voices in the press like Lonnie Cross’, asserted that public school curriculum indoctrinated children to believe that “the Black man has no history worth knowing, nor culture worth preserving and that through the centuries the back man has contributed nothing to the cause of civilization.”33 Stories and editorials on the University of Islam served to address Black history as a vital curricular agenda item that required remedy. Proponents of the University of Islam presented curricular alternatives to White supremacist indoctrination, focusing primarily on the role of textbooks in driving curriculum in the cause of Black liberation.

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No individual was more prolific in making the case for the University of Islam, as a vanguard of textbook reform, than the National Director of the University of Islam: Christine Johnson X. A graduate of Loyola University, Christine Johnson entered her directorship with a PhD and fifteen years of public school teaching experience.34 She was part of a growing cadre of female school leaders in the once male-dominated University of Islam school system. Editors heralded her tenure as evidence of the meritocratic system of advancement in the University of Islam.35 Her voice was pervasive in the press, where her writing on matters of education and the University of Islam were printed at length covering tabloid sized pages accompanied by photographs. As director, she wasted little time making textbook reform a priority and employing Muhammad Speaks as a forum for discussion. In 1961 she warned readers of “a national conspiracy to indoctrinate our children with ‘White supremacy’ propaganda.” She described school textbooks in social science and history as “primers in White supremacy.”36 The following year she asked readers, “Where in our textbooks, that we use in our schools, can you find one credit that reflects the part that the Black man played in helping make America great?”37 Johnson was joined by a chorus of Muslim and non-Muslim critics of conventional textbooks. Muhammad Speaks editor in chief, Richard Durham prioritized coverage of racism in textbooks.38 During his tenure, the paper published the protest of prominent Black leaders like A. Philip Randolph stating that “[o]ne of the greatest crimes against blacks is contained in the history books used in U.S. schools.” The editor in chief published scholarly findings on textbook racism including: The Treatment of Minorities in Secondary School Books, Intergroup Relations in Teaching Materials, and Bias and Prejudice in Textbooks in New York City Schools.39 In July 1962 Durham dedicated five pages to summarize a study by Columbia graduate student L.P. Beveridge which found that by-in-large Blacks were historically depicted as victims and perpetrators or altogether invisible in schoolbooks.40 Muhammad Speaks’ journalists ran multiple reports on specific school districts nationwide that used “insidious chauvinist literature” in their schools.41 These reports often complimented the claims of the Nation of Islam, that school books disconnected Africa from Black American historical narratives and did not recognize Black social, political, economic or intellectual contributions to America.42 Through her writing in the paper, Christine Johnson launched a campaign to promote school textbooks that presented a more empowering historical narrative of Black experiences: Let them see black, brown, cream and yellow faces when they open their books. Let them become accustomed early in life to the idea, that he has something to strive for. Let them realize early that they have a history with

Born of Our Necessities    119 meaning, and not a meaningless, nebulous something about Negro history and how much progress we have made since slavery.43

Johnson and other University of Islam educators asserted that their curriculum was elementally tied to Africa and that their approach to curriculum was fundamental for any program that earnestly aimed to empower Black schoolchildren. Stories about the University of Islam often presumed the school’s success as a truly autonomous institution were based on its capacity to teach “real” Black history. For example, a 1963 article about a UOI expansion reminded readers that “obtaining separate schools for our children” required “teaching them first our history and a knowledge of themselves and their own kind.” A 1964 photo of a University of Islam classroom was accompanied by the caption: “What a visitor will see, whether from the East or West entering Muhammad’s University of Islam is the teaching of the true history of black Americans.”44 The assertions of Johnson and other proponents of the “true history of black Americans” rests on two Afro-centric premises. First, that there exists an African and non-White historical narrative and worldview that has been suppressed in America by a White supremacist super-structure. Lorrain Mohammad alluded to this premise in Muhammad Speaks when she informed readers in 1962, “We must teach our children, (every child) that rejection of heritage means loss of cultural roots, and people who have no past have no future.”45 Secondly, a Black institution of learning can only operate as fully self-determined, and expressive of children’s humanity when it is permitted to depose and censure White supremacist premises in schoolbooks and when it can facilitate this view through the self-creation of its students and educators.46 The second premise was articulated in Muhammad Speaks via rising demands for textbooks authored by Black educators, catered specifically for Black students.47 In April of 1962, Christine Johnson took up the call to write such a schoolbook, publishing Muhammad’s Children: The first grade reader. The book was well-received in Muhammad Speaks as an important contribution to the mental liberation of Black children. Johnson claimed that the book would serve to take a child “through the world he knows, and can relate to himself.” Her forward to the book presented the general themes she had long called for in schoolbooks. By exposing children to stories of “great men and great women of color” she asserted that children would develop “self-love” and “self-respect.”48 Her models of “great men and great women” were often African and the connection to African culture and history was reinforced through displays of African artwork and symbols.49 The book was also stridently religious in tone, celebrating the successes of Muslim Africans and Muslim Black Americans in particular.

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In contrast to Johnson, for many of the secular contributors to Muhammad Speaks, the mistreatment of Black history was a “political rather than cultural or educational problem.”50 Misrepresentations of Black Americans were seen as endemic to a wider problem of inaccurate and inequitable representations of Black Americans in public life. Quoting historian Lerone Bennett, Muhammad Speaks told readers: History is used in America to undergird the whole superstructure of prejudice and race hatred. This is why there is a deep-seated resistance on the part of millions of Whites against a complete revelation of the role of black people in the building of this country.51

This problem struck at a core journalistic agenda of Richard Durham, John Woodford, and writers that were committed to telling a fuller, richer and more empowering story of Black experiences nationally and globally. One editor opined in 1965 that schoolbooks “participated in a cultural lobotomy” engineered “to make the American Negro a rootless person.” The editor argued that publishers, authors, and artists in the field of children’s books were part of a longstanding White-supremacist program to “defraud, dehumanize, and demoralize black Americans into quiet submission of this country’s unreal Whites-only philosophy.52 In response, editors attempted to counterbalance the absence of Black contributions in textbooks by highlighting them in the paper.53 The paper regularly carried a one or two page spread of biographies of prominent African or Black American figures and stories highlighting historical achievements. Each week readers were treated to biographies and accomplishments of ancient African kings, inventers, and adventurers along with Black American freedom fighters like Fredrick Douglas, intellectuals like Du Bois and scientists like Benjamin Banneker. These stories often served to bridge African and American identities. A 1962 story about Timbuktu told of “a society where university life was highly regarded and scholars were beheld with reverence.”54 Implied through the story is a shared tradition of learning among peoples of African descent. In the same edition a story on an art symposium described African art as the cultural heritage of Black Americans.55 Thus, editors and journalists who did not directly advocate the religious particularities of the University of Islam’s Afro-centric curriculum participated in an editorial advocacy campaign that served to reinforce the University of Islam’s curricular agenda. Muhammad Speaks’ coverage of great Africans and Black Americans was well known to its readers. The regular feature was praised by members of the Nation of Islam for its service to the cause of “teaching the true history of black Americans.”56 Members of the Nation encouraged educators to use Muhammad Speaks as a supplemental source in their classrooms and editors celebrated Black educational

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institutions that utilized the paper as a feature of their path to self-determined education. Photos and letters from University of Islam classrooms from around the country bore witness to the role of Muhammad Speaks as a classroom text. A caption under a published photo of two elementary aged children leaning over the paper read, “They will not grow into adults thinking all the worthwhile progress in America and the world was wrought through the skill of only White hands and brains.”57 Letters from students and teachers at public schools attested to the use of the paper as historical text and poured praise on Muhammad Speaks as “an education in itself.”58 Taken together, the input of secular editors and religious contributors helped make Muhammad Speaks a fierce advocate of—and source for—the Nation of Islam’s school curriculum reform effort. Yet, the use of the University of Islam’s curriculum as a model for libratory reform was not without irony or paradox. As noted, the advocates of Afro-centric curriculum defended their reforms on the basis that Black children required an education that accurately reflected the substance and duration of lived Black experiences, and opposed White supremacist narratives of Black life. However, much of the discourse on the value of the University of Islam disparaged traditional Black folk culture, language and mores in favor of White Anglo Protestant middle class cultural and linguistic norms. The reform of popular Black cultural customs and practices was an important feature of the Nation of Islam’s economic and religious movement. Elijah Muhammad’s program was staunchly self-help, setting standards of personal and group morality that were purportedly spiritually enriching and economically functional for its members.59 Thrift, cleanliness, honesty, sexual morality, diet control, and abstinence from intoxicants were taught as important for developing dignity and self-respect.60 In turn, Muhammad described Black cultural norms that did not reflect his moral standards as evidence of the dysfunctional lifestyle and culture of the masses of Blacks.61 These sentiments appeared in Muhammad Speaks as published religious speeches, cartoons, and editorials condemning or mocking particular aspects of popular culture in Black life. For example, a running cartoon in Muhammad Speaks depicted a side profile of a Black woman in a thigh-high skirt and high heels with a young girl following her in a similar getup; below the pair was captioned “the shame.” Another regular cartoon depicted a Black man in ornate platform shoes, bellbottoms, a sequin shirt, wide brimmed patterned hat, large sun glasses, and chains of sparkling jewelry. He was often engaged in dialog with a handsomely drawn, somber faced, suit and tie wearing Fruit of Islam. Through their dialog the former character was depicted as licentious, weak willed, myopic, and superficial in thought and deed. Editorials followed suit, critiquing everything from the aesthetic and rhetorical style of Black preachers, to the consumption habits of Black shoppers and the parental practices of Black fathers and mothers.

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The critique of mass Black cultural norms spilled into the paper’s coverage of curricular reform. The inclusion of “Black English” in classrooms was criticized as ill-conceived encouraging mediocrity among young Blacks. An unnamed journalist described the inclusion of Black English as an example of racist low expectations: “They hold that under privileged Blacks can’t learn English ‘so swell’ as they can and to bridge this problem they say the use of dialect should not only be encouraged but regarded as a language of its own.”62 Implied in many of the critiques was that the substance of Black vernacular did not inherently contribute value to the classroom. Teachers who attempted to utilize Black English were accused of advancing functional illiteracy, allowing students to wallow in parochial dialect. Ironically, contemporary scholarship was evidencing that Black English’s language structures may have travelled across the Middle Passage and evolved in the Americas.63 Yet the well-read contributors to Muhammad Speaks did not address this in relation to their curricular agenda. An additional irony was that the paper’s first editor made one of most important literary contributions of his generation to a richer understanding of Black English, with his groundbreaking 1954 Original Handbook of Harlem Jive.64 Coverage of Black English also offered journalists the opportunity to denigrate other cultural expressions such as popular dance and musical traditions, which, instead of being drawn into a wider historical context, were associated with a lack of discipline or academic seriousness.65 While the Nation of Islam’s puritanical, “Protestant Work Ethic” sensibilities likely informed much of the paper’s approach to Black culture, the reasoning is particularly important to appreciate in a study of the paper’s educational discourse.66 Moreover, the reasoning and rationale for excluding popular culture was that it stood in the way of academic success, which contributors still in part conceived of in terms of dominant White society’s educational standards. The level of acrimony towards particular expressions of Black cultural life reveal that a deep commitment to historically rooted Black experiences was not the only priority of proponents of the University of Islam or many of the secular contributors to Muhammad Speaks. Specifically, elements of dominant White culture, such as Standard English, were presented as vital features of a proper education. Journalism historian Robert Fanuzzi has noted that character education has been a resilient theme in the Black press. Various categories of religious, secular, protest-oriented and profit-driven papers have been proponents of moral education. Terms like “right living” and “respectability” are commonplace in these papers over the ages. Education was seen as a civilizing agent and children were to cultivate a moral and mental culture.67 Fanuzzi points out that one reason for this was because of the emphasis of many editorialists on proving to White supremacists that Black children are

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just as good as White children, by echoing Anglo-American, middle-class notions of good living.68 Also at play is the social class of the writers. Dickson Bruce’s study of Black intellectual history from 1877–1915 argues that many would be surprised by the consensus among black writers about the meaning and importance of middle-class ideals.69 E. Franklin Frazier serves up a pointed indictment of the middle class aspirations of the Black press: “Although the Negro press declares itself to be the spokesman for the Negro group as a whole, it represents essentially the interests and outlooks of the black bourgeoisie.” Furthermore, Frazier asserts that the Black press provides “documentation of the attempts of this class to seek compensations for its hurt self-esteem and exclusion from American life.”70 Frazier’s remarks on the Black press fit into his wider critique in Black Bourgeoisie, of a subset of a Black middle class that was at once dependent on the patronage of poor Blacks yet focused on earning the approval and acceptance of the White middle class. His analysis has been widely criticized for being—uncharacteristically—based on personal observation and unqualified generalizations.71 Yet, as Harold Cruse notes, Frazier was grappling with significant Black social class realities.72 The tensions and realities of social class addressed by Frazier emerge in Muhammad Speaks’ discourse on popular Black language and culture. Therefore there is an important irony to the words of an editorial by an unnamed contributor who declared that it is “time for the Black man in America to stop depending upon our enemies to educate our youth.”73 In notable ways, the success of separate and self-determined educational institutions—insofar as supporters of the University of Islam saw things—was not solely about transforming curriculum to address Black experiences. It also aimed to compel poor urban and rural Blacks that it would be necessary to define academic success in terms largely developed and perpetuated by dominant White society. Yet these middle class aspirations were mediated through the paper’s community-oriented focus on educational reform. As Michael Fultz notes, middle class Black journalists also sought to define themselves and Black liberation struggles, through discussion and debate on the fundamental purpose and meaning of education for Black Americans.74 Muhammad Speaks served as a forum for discussion at a time when the community orientation of the paper propelled it deeper into conversation with the public protests of working class Black communities. Black Studies and the Rise of Community Relevancy Until the mid-1960’s, much of the paper’s discussion of educational and curricular reform moved through the coverage of the University of Islam.

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After 1967 the rising demand for Black Studies programs provided Muhammad Speaks a new entry point into discussions of educational autonomy and opportunity. Throughout the paper’s coverage of the protests and the instituting of Black Studies was a call for curriculum that promoted a shared past and a commitment to the needs of the community. At the core of the discussion was a struggle to redefine the meaning of academic excellence and a reimaging of who educational institutions should serve. The Black studies programs of the 1960s and 1970s were made possible by grassroots antisegregation activism, and ensuing legal school desegregation of the 1950s and 1960s. Court rulings had the effect on traditionally White campuses of introducing a limited degree of desegregation.75 While this desegregation was statistically unremarkable, the increased numbers of student of color created an opportunity for Black students to organize social and political groups, which were historically anomalous at many elite White institutions. In addition, both Black and White campuses hosted a new generation of politically conscious and activism tested young people. According to historian William Van Deburg, “[t]hey carried their generation’s understandings and convictions from the streets to the classrooms.”76 Many of these students were dissatisfied with the limited pace of social change after the legal reforms to education and voting rights of 1964. Trained in protest and grassroots organizing, student organizations like SNCC, Du Bois club, Revolutionary Action Movement and college chapters of the Black Panther Party, fixed their energies on demanding greater authority over educational institutions as a means of social advancement.77 The late 1960s witnessed unprecedented levels Black activism on college campuses. Between 1967 and 1968, the vast majority (over 90%) of sit-in demonstrations organized by Black students occurred on college campuses, not in segregated institutions.78 Black student participation in protest activities was in anomalous proportion to their numbers. Despite representing less than 6%79 of the collegiate population, over half of all campus protests in 1968 involved Black students.80 Using violent and nonviolent means, students protested in organized and improvised contexts on campuses nationwide.81 The protests were also remarkable for their impact on college operations, often slowing or stopping administrative functions for weeks or months.82 From one campus to the next the students captured national press attention. When 120 black students occupied Cornell University’s Willard Straight Hall, demanding reforms to the Africana Studies program, Time described the incident as a “crisis in a week of chaos that almost destroyed Cornell and deeply alarmed universities throughout the United States.”83 After Black demonstrations at the University of Wisconsin, Madison were met by 2,100 National Guard troops equipped with bayonets, gas pellets,

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and machine guns, a perplexed Calvin Trillin informed readers of the New Yorker that “[n]obody could understand their action: The university had consciously recruited Negroes; [and] had established a special committee to assist them . . .”84 Amidst the mainstream press’ expressions of bewildered outrage, Muhammad Speaks heralded the protesters as the “vanguard of revolution” evidencing a “new breed” of Black students.85 In January 1968, Adam Clayton Powell was quoted in the paper as stating that “[y]oung people are all through with their preachers, politicians and parents, who have led them on a downward spiral that is sickening. They are trying to find a way out of this cult of mediocrity.”86 Muhammad Speaks highlighted protests nationally committing time and resources to interview students and administrators at White and historically Black colleges. Between 1968 and 1973 the paper ran a section titled “Inside Black Revolts on Campus.” It was a two page spread, often of investigative reporting by embedded journalists from various college campuses, which focused largely on the perspectives of student protestors. Atop the section was a professionally illustrated banner depicting darkly shaded men clad in varsity jackets forcefully leaning into White Roman pillars, which are at the beginning stages of cracking and breaking. Beyond the rhetorical and illustrative drama of the headlines and illustration, the actual stories served as a staging ground for sweeping discussions and meditations on the necessity for educational institutions that provide curriculum that reflected Black experiences and held relevancy for Black communities. In this way, Muhammad Speak gave readers the chance to see reformulations of the relationship between history and liberation as well as the relationship between curriculum and community. For reasons explained below, the Black Studies movement was a uniquely useful source of drawing these relationships out. Between 1967 and 1973 Black Studies emerged as a key issue of college protests nationwide.87 Muhammad Speaks’ journalists substantially covered student protests over curricular reform, paying particular attention to the rise of demands for Black Studies. From the beginning of its coverage, Muhammad Speaks sought out student activists who demanded that college curriculum create a sense of racial pride, collective history, and a shared destiny, absolutely hinged upon the applicability to Black community needs. San Francisco State College was site of the first official Black studies program. San Francisco’s program was established in 1969 after a yearlong student led insurgency that included sit-ins, boycotts, and violent demonstrations, laying precedent for programs nationwide. “Out of this chaos,” Washington Bureau Chief Lonnie Kashif remained skeptical of the liberatory capacity of the new programs. He told readers that despite the capitulation of administrators at leading colleges and universities, these concessions have not subsided the frustrations and embitterment affecting Black students.

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Kashif’s primary concern was that any notion of success was contingent upon the relative service Black Studies could provide to Black communities.88 Kashif had struck upon an early fissure point in the Black Studies movement between proponents of an academic-oriented Black Studies program and those that supported a program rooted in Black Community needs. Historian Fabio Rojas categorizes the two as “community education” and “academic black studies.” Activists promoting academic Black studies envisioned a program that resembled existing academic disciplines. It would be an interdisciplinary field drawing together and further promoting scholarship pertinent to Black life and thought from existing social science and humanities programs.89 Community education proponents envisioned a practitioneroriented model, which focused on the economic, political, and psychological needs of Black urban working class and working poor communities.90 While the two are not mutually exclusive, some proponents made salient distinctions which reflected deeper political undercurrents in the debate. Community education supporters certainly wanted to see the inclusion of Black life and thought in the traditional disciplines. However, in the words of the first Black studies chair, the program also needed to: “regenerate and reconstruct their own Black communities, break the deadly grip of poverty and build a productive Black future.”91 Muhammad Speaks was outspoken in the cause of community education, framing protest stories in terms of community needs and advocating for students who claimed that urban universities were irrelevant to Black communities and unconcerned about the welfare of Black communities.92 At Brandies University, where a month earlier Black students had occupied Ford Hall, New York Bureau Chief Joe Walker arrived “to get the Black students’ story of what happened and is happening there.”93 Walker’s five page story highlighted the “gap between Blacks in college and the Black community” as a major issue. He published the testimony of students like Morris B. Abram, who asserted that “as an academic program, Afro-American and African studies must be resisted.”94 After conducting dozens of extensive interviews, Walker concluded that: “Black College youngsters are pressing for curricula which correctly and fully portray their past and prepares them to serve their people and communities.”95 Walker focused on the student protesters’ story, particularly those advocating the community approach, to the apparent exclusion of the White administration. He repeated this approach in his extensive coverage of Black protests at Cornell University, again focusing on Black student protestors and not addressing the administration’s perspective.96 Conversely his work on the Rutgers University Newark student protests presented both student and administrative perspectives. Walker presented both student and administrator voices which supported a community approach to Black studies. In the journalist’s report on Kwame James C. McDonald, assistant dean of the

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new Livingston College of Rutgers, he tells readers that “[i]t is McDonald’s contention that it is incumbent on Blacks in America to act as intelligence agents for the rest of the Black community and deliver the secrets from the White community that can be converted into relevancy for us.”97 Muhammad Speaks offered a comparable narrative of students, quoting undergraduates who believed “college graduates should return to their communities and extend their expertise to their Black brothers and sisters.”98 While it is reasonable to presume that Walker chose only to speak to administrators that supported the community approach, there is an equally likely reason for the inclusion of Rutgers administration and not Brandeis, Cornell et al.: Blacks were on both sides of the Rutgers protests providing the journalist the opportunity to present multiple Black perspectives. Muhammad Speaks’ journalists prided themselves on tipping the scales of public discourse by overwhelmingly emphasizing the voices of Black citizens that had long been excluded from equal time in mass public forums. In Walker’s words, “The Black press is . . . a place with an autonomy of its own and the only place that genuinely addresses the Black community without the kind of editorial censorship of the White media.”99 Therefore, Walker’s coverage of the late 1960s protests at historically White institutions disproportionately presented the views of protesters over the White administrators who had access to major press outlets to voice their perspectives. Muhammad Speaks’ coverage of Black Studies protests at historically Black colleges and universities presented a new dynamic in which to frame the paper’s advocacy of the community approach. Throughout the paper’s lifespan, Muhammad Speaks had supported the right of Black colleges and universities to determine their own destiny, often siding with administrators and faculty who opposed Federal agencies and White-run foundations.100 In the process, the paper had developed ties with administrators and alumni who held the paper in high regard. The paper’s coverage of student protests at Black colleges and universities was qualified by longstanding relationships with administration, whose perspectives the paper was sure to include. Yet, the paper remained steadfast in its advocacy of the community approach, mediating between administrative and student perspectives. Nowhere was this dynamic more on display than the paper’s coverage of the Howard University student protests. Howard University Protests Summary Picket lines began appearing on Howard University’s campus during the Spring semester of 1965. In small groups, students demonstrated against a range of issues, including compulsory ROTC, the administration’s refusal

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to register a chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the dismissal of several popular teachers.101 Spurred on by a rising tide of Black student protests nationwide in 1966 and 1967, the historically conservative Black campus followed suit, advancing public admonitions of militarism as well as administrative hierarchies. Invited guest Lewis Hershey of the Selective Service Administration was prevented from speaking by student demonstrators. When the demonstrators were brought before a disciplinary committee, the hearing was disrupted by intense protests. Students listed new demands for greater voice in the operation of the university. When the demands went unheeded, students organized a one-day boycott of classes on May 10, 1967.102 Following the boycott, student leaders met with members of a University Senate Steering Committee. Amidst the negotiations, friction intensified between students and administration as a series of fires broke out in classrooms, five activist teachers were fired and fourteen students were dismissed for disrupting school activities. The semester ended with the formation of UJAMAA and the Student Rights Organization, which served to organize protests against the administration. The following semester inauguration ceremonies were disrupted when over one hundred students and professors walked out during the President’s address. Ongoing friction between the administration and students was a fact of life in the Fall of 1967. March 1968 witnessed the escalation of protests as students disrupted Charter Day, to insist that the President respond to student demands. Two weeks later the University brought charges against thirty-nine students including destruction of property, desecration of the American flag, and disruption of a University event. In solidarity with the charged students, undergraduate students rallied in increasing numbers of protests, peaking with the seizing of an Administrative building and the closing down of Howard University. After reopening, the school was yet again shut down in the Spring of 1969. In the first closing, student activists were primarily undergrads from the liberal arts college. In the Spring, students in graduate and dental schools presented their own grievances and demands, which spread, culminating in the closure of the university for nearly a week.103 Before and after the protests, Howard University maintained strong ties to Muhammad Speaks. Its journalists attended University events, coordinated investigative journalism with faculty,104 and were awarded Howard’s Fredrick Douglass Liberation Award “for a consistent integrity in espousing a Black perspective of World Events.”105 The Dean of the School of Communication at Howard published his praise for the paper’s editors for his leadership and “viable editorial position which can only broaden its readership and influence.”106 This relationship served as a limited qualifier to Muhammad Speaks’ coverage of the campus protests.

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In an April 1968 article, Muhammad Speaks declared that “the nation has seen Black student rebellions at college campuses throughout the country . . . the educations these schools offer them—in terms of their own ethnic identity and needs— . . . are inadequate.”107 Many of the paper’s contributors depicted the Howard University protests as essentially comparable to the Black studies protests at White colleges, motivated by student demands for community relevance and Black representation. Lonnie Kashif was the primary correspondent for Muhammad Speaks and was embedded on campus, offering him a unique perspective from which to develop a more complex narrative on the protests than other contributors. Kashif was DC Bureau Chief for Muhammad Speaks during the 1968 and 1969 protests. Throughout his coverage Kashif did not frame the protests within a narrative about community, emphasizing that “the boycott in itself is unique in that familiar ‘Black power’ and ‘Black relevancy’ slogans are absent.”108 Instead he pointed to administrative autocracy and “high-handed rule” as primary motives for student unrest. By May, protests were increasingly volatile, arrests more common and student–faculty relations chilled. Yet Kashif’s work with students, faculty, local residents and administrators had earned him entry into a critical negotiation between students and administration. Writing up the meeting, he described a shared effort by stake holders: At the Law building, opposite the iron entrance gates barricaded with piled rocks and cross boards, concerned faculty members, student leaders and community militants and moderates, frantically sought to whittle down the disagreements and issue a joint “agreement,” before “all hell broke loose.”109

At one point Kashif even implies that some of the disagreement was over semantics more than substantive differences. The presence of a Muhammad Speaks reporter at a meeting of such importance not only evidences the prominent role that the paper played in the University community, but the nuance and complexity of student-administration interactions that the paper was capable of presenting in the story that emerged from the meeting. By-in-large, Kashif’s coverage did not cry revolution.110 In fact Kashif applauded nonviolent student protests as “exemplary,” declaring that the “nonrancorous, but determined attitude, might well establish a pattern for future student dissenters around the country.”111 Instead of focusing on contrasts, his articles offered perspective, points of contention and possibilities of outcome. Yet in many of his Howard University installments, he returned to the theme of community relevancy in curriculum reform. Kashif was mindful to publish student demands that “knowledge and expertise developed here be geared to the needs of the Black community,” explicating course topics like welfare rights, and tenet laws.112 Ultimately, Kashif’s coverage reveals that

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Muhammad Speaks advocated community relevancy in a multiplicity of contexts. Even in stories that were absent of a White supremacist protagonist: Devoid of White supremacist curriculum and without an uncompromising White administrative structure, the paper’s writers would still advocate for the cause of community in school reform. Community Control, Racial Identity, Autonomy, and Reform Concurrent to the paper’s coverage of college protests were the New York City “community control” school protests which supplied Muhammad Speaks with a another entry point from which to stage the relationship between community, racial identity, autonomy and school reform. Coverage of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville community protests provided a platform from which Muhammad Speaks could deliberate on the right of Black American citizens to determine educational policy and the capacity of a Black public to ascertain what is most appropriate for advancing the educational opportunities of Black children. Furthermore, Muhammad Speaks’ reporting offered readers a sustained public expression by Black citizens advocating school control at all levels, thereby supporting the paper’s platform of autonomy and self-determination. On the first day of school in 1966, scores of Black children were missing from Harlem Intermediate 201. The day marked the opening salvo of parental boycotts. Fueled by outrage from the failed promise to desegregate the school, parents demanded that the school either keeps its promise to become racially integrated or that control be turned over to the Harlem community. According to Maurice Berube and Marilyn Gittell, the boycott “marked the end of the school integration movement.”113 Boycotts spread throughout the Boroughs, with parents and activists demanding substantial local control. Actions taken by the Brooklyn residents of Ocean Hill and Brownsville were particularly salient. A group, composed primarily of parents, organized themselves around a series of grievances, including racial segregation, poor administration, and academic achievement. Representing District 17, the teachers were joined by the United Federation of Teachers,114 and envisioned a restructuring of power. Among their demands, the coalition wanted the power to hire and fire principals and teachers. They also wanted control of finances, the right to buy books and equal funding distribution with predominantly White districts.115 The New York City Board of Education granted temporary self-governance, as one of three “demonstration schools.” Muhammad Speaks drew parallels between the demonstration schools and the University of Islam schools, emphasizing the need for autonomous educational institutions as essential for building racial self-concept and true academic success:

Born of Our Necessities    131 The experimental schools in New York City and surrounding areas shows once again that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s program of establishing independent and separate Black schools is the only way we can give our children a true education.116

Both the University of Islam and the demonstration schools represented educational institutions that could help reframe definitions of academic excellence to address racial self-concept. Both were schools where curricular “relevancy” tied into Black history and a connection to an African past as well as enhancing students’ personal self-worth through positive racial identification. Beyond curriculum, coverage of Ocean Hill-Brownsville schools afforded Muhammad Speaks the occasion to address Black institution-building and racial justice as mutually inclusive. This became a particularly salient topic in the paper during the citywide confrontations that helped decide the fate of the schools. In May of 1968 the Ocean Hill-Brownsville governing board terminated nineteen teachers and administrators, most of whom were White, asserting that the teachers continued to oppose the new governance and undermining the project.117 One-time allies of the district, the United Federation of Teachers, cried foul and demanded due process, ultimately declaring a city-wide strike. The UFT lobbied New York State legislators to strip community boards of their power over budgets, curriculum, or personnel and recommended these powers bestowed upon a decentralized bureaucracy.118 By April of 1968, State legislators had ruled to decentralize the districts, essentially ending the experiment in community controlled schooling in New York City. Muhammad Speaks voiced opposition “as a public service and history lesson for all our readers.”119 According to the paper’s contributors, the experimental districts represented advancement towards equality of educational opportunity: If the Board were innovative, it would recognize that the new law is essentially anti—educational and acknowledge that an essential ingredient of good education is a small, flexible administrative unite free to innovate and respond to the needs of its students. Since the Board presumably has the expertise to appreciate the benefits of decentralized education . . . 120

Like many community control advocates, they saw the demonstration schools as a means of preparing students for academic success and a brighter future. The failure of equitable desegregation had left many Black families convinced that if a school must be segregated, let it be a quality segregated school. For many such families, community control was about accountability and suitability of educational institutions. As in earlier instances, a January 1970 article presented the school board’s White power structure as unfair brokers who did not have equality

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of educational opportunity as a first priority for Black children. Instead, decentralization was about power: “We can only conclude that cowardice and blatant racism—the desire to emasculate Black efforts at limited community control of schools—are the underlying reasons for this abdication of responsibility.”121 The “desire to emasculate Black efforts” implied that community control offered a new source of power and racial justice in a school system. Furthermore, in the history of New York City, school segregation was born of residential segregation and is the legacy of geographies of power and powerlessness: That the Board of Education would abolish the three experimental school districts because they have less than 20,000 students each, while allowing other Manhattan districts with only 13,000 students to remain intact graphically, demonstrates again the overbearing racist arrogance typical of the White establishment at large and characteristic of the New York City Beard of Education in particular.122

As Gary Orfield has noted, few aspects of urban history are as evident as the fact that governments at all levels fostered residential segregation for generations. In New York City, housing segregation was initiated and institutionalized with massive official support and most Black neighborhoods segregated during the period of overt segregation policies remained segregated in 1970. In turn, school districts were constructed to disproportionately allocate smaller student loads and better funding to White community schools.123 For Muhammad Speaks, the demonstration schools were a vehicle to “redress the imbalance” of the status quo consequences of redistricting and residential segregation by conferring power to the direct stakeholders in children’s academic success.124 To a degree, the paper demanded that Black communities simply receive the same level of privilege that White communities had long held over their schools. The denial of this opportunity was equated with a refusal to see Black families as public stakeholders in the educational destinies of Black children. For Muhammad Speaks, access to schooling governance was a feature of enfranchisement that was elemental to the liberation struggle of Black Americans. Furthermore, the devastating record of White control of Black education was referenced to argue that a sustained Black community based governing board was the last best hope of advancing the educational aspirations of parents and the educational opportunities of children of color. CONCLUSION Muhammad Speaks’ take on curricular and school governance reform raises questions about the fundamental purpose of our public educational

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institutions: Who are schools most answerable to? What knowledge is most worth learning? To whom can we entrust the education of oppressed communities? And to what extent have dominant group cultural norms defined the character of public education? Yet, much of the leading history of education scholarship on the reform movements covered in Muhammad Speaks ignores or dismisses many of the salient perspectives presented in the paper, thereby missing out on the points of inquiry raised by these perspectives.125 Addressing the Black studies protests at San Francisco State and Cornell University, Diane Ratvich describes the Black student protestors as kneejerk militants, convinced that the “‘White power structure’ responded positively only when confronted by militant tactics.”126 The source material used by Ravitch reveals why the voices in Muhammad Speaks must be taken into consideration when interpreting the protests. She cites By Any Means Necessary authored by administrators at the college, Blow it up, written by an editor of the White student newspaper, The Gator, which acerbically criticized Black protestors, Academics on the Line, authored by professors and President Seven, written by the president of San Francisco State. Finally, she employs mainstream media interpretations from New York Magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Times. Ravitch manages to review every angle of the protests except for the protestor’s side themselves, yet claims authority over what was in their minds.127 Moreover, she employs her resources to depict student protestors as ungrateful, reactionary, and motivated by narrowly defined racial politics. Without a thorough inclusion of the voices of protestors themselves, scholarship risks caricaturing historical actors in the same way they were discredited by their most salient detractors of the day. This problem continues with Ravitch and other scholars who have depicted advocacy of Afro-centric and culturally relevant curriculum reform as ethnocentric treachery in the face of good liberal allies who had for years and “sought to reduce group prejudice by preaching the virtues not only of tolerance among different peoples but of the insignificance of group differences.”128 Proponents of culturally relevant curriculum in Muhammad Speaks did not arrive at a singularity regarding why or how Black history should be taught or included. While some contributors participated in a kind of racial chauvinism, many did not. All these contributors shared one thing: they argued that curriculum needed to be inclusive and representative of Black experience and identity. This ranged from Afro-centric, to multicultural, and the extent of either was subject to debate in the paper, with some arguing that indeed tolerance was only possible when children of all backgrounds participate in perspective taking and are exposed to the achievements of those they consider different than themselves. Finally, ignoring the salient perspectives presented in Muhammad Speaks on community control protests can limit the range of historical interpretation on the events of the day. Concluding her seminal work, The Great School

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Wars, Diane Ravitch describes the Ocean Hill-Brownsville activists as not serving the interests of Black people: “The leaders of Ocean Hill-Brownsville must be faulted for failing to understand that the interests of their people would be best advanced by breaking down the barriers of race and class and by overcoming the self-limitations of separatism.”129 As historian Lisa Stulberg has noted, scholars like Ravitch do not sufficiently recognize the nuances of the interracial politics of desegregation, fitting the blame for failed desegregation on race-obsessed separatists who cannot see past their ethno-nationalism.130 As rigorous of a historian as Ravitch is, her failure to consider these complexities limits her interpretation. If Diane Ravitch had picked up a copy of Muhammad Speaks in 1969, she would have read Black advocates of cultural pluralism and advocates of cultural nationalism calling for greater Black representation in schooling. If she had read the paper throughout the mid-1960s, she could not have missed the emerging despair over undemocratic desegregation practices and the tactical nuances of proposed responses. She would have witnessed the creative, complex and wrenching expressions of Black Americans struggling to make meaningful sense out of the collapse of Federal and state school policies purporting to advance the educational opportunity of Black Americans. Ultimately, Muhammad Speaks attempted to direct readers to a set of new possibilities for Black school success. By making productive arguments for Afrocentric curriculum, community relevancy and community control, they were contributing to a discourse beyond the do or die binary of integration to a wider realm of possibility. By no means was the paper an “objective” source, nor did it ever claim such a title. Muhammad Speaks’ editors saw themselves as defenders of outcast voices and never staked substantial faith in the promise of Brown vs. Board of Education. Even before the large-scale collapse of integration efforts was apparent, Muhammad Speaks did not provide equal print space to the proponents of school integration. Yet, the paper’s discourse did introduce a set of nondesegregation based strategies for racial and educational justice, critically inquiring into the fundamental nature of American schooling. NOTES 1. Norman X Jones-Raiford, “Education should make you ‘think independence,’” Muhammad Speaks, August 3, 1973, 18. 2. Askia Muhammad, Muhammad Speaks, Editor-in-Chief (1973–1975) interview with author, March 16, 2009; John Woodford, Editor-in-Chief, Muhammad Speaks, (1969–1972) interview with author, May 22, 2009.; Leon Forrest, Editor-in-Chief (1972–1973), “Papers, 1937–1999, 1952–1999,” Northwestern University Archives; Lonnie Kashif, interview with author, June 20, 2009.; Karl Evanzz, The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1992).

Born of Our Necessities    135 3. In the words of Harold Cruse, it was a time for “positive reexamination and reevaluation of the black personality.” Harold Cruse, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (New York: New York Review of Books), 1967). 4. Jack Dougherty, More Than One Struggle: The Evolution of Black School Reform in Milwaukee (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005). 5. Vincent Harding, “Toward the Black University,” Ebony, August 1970, 156. 6. Harding, “Towards a Black University.” 7. Diane Ravitch, The Great School Wars: A History of New York City Public Schools, (New York: Basic Books, 1984); The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945–1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1983). 8. Malcolm X, Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: Ballantine Books 1993), 247. 9. C. Eric Lincoln The Black Muslims in America (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973), 132–134; Karl Evanzz, The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1992) 93; William Sales, From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (Boston: South End Press, 1994), 118. Other publications include: The Messenger, Salaam, Muhammad Speaks to the Blackman, and Islamic News 10. C. Eric Lincoln The Black Muslims in America (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973), 132—134; Karl Evanzz, The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1992) 93; William Sales, From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (Boston: South End Press, 1994), 118. Other publications include: The Messenger, Salaam, Muhammad Speaks to the Blackman, and Islamic News 11. John Woodford, “Messaging the BlackMan,” in Voices from the Underground: Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press (Tempe, Az.: Mica Press, 1993), 191–198; Rassoull Abass, “National Secretary Catalogues Accomplishments,” Muhammad Speaks, August 23, 1974; Mattias Gardell, In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1996), 360; Ronald Wolseley, The Black Press, U.S.A. (Ames, Iowa : State University Press, 1971) 80. 12. C. Eric Lincoln., The Black Muslims in America (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973), 132—134; Karl Evanzz, The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1992) 93; William Sales, From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (Boston: South End Press, 1994), 118. 13. Lincoln, The Black Muslims in America. 14. Elijah Muhammad quoted in John Woodford, “Testing America’s Promise of Free Speech. Muhammad Speaks in the 1960s: a memoir” in Voices of the African Diaspora 3 (1991): 7. 15. Amy Alexander, The Farrakhan factor: African-American writers on leadership, Nationhood, and Minister Louis Farrakhan (New York: Grove Press, 1998) 66. 16. Askia Muhammad, interview with author, March 16, 2009; John Woodford, interview with author, May 22, 2009. 17. The highly consequential 1964 defection of Malcolm X may also have persuaded Muhammad to avoid anointing another Muslim editor-in-chief. Askia Muhammad, interview with author, March 16, 2009; John Woodford, interview with author, May 22, 2009.

136    K. HUSSEIN 18. Gardell, In the Name of Elijah, 64; Woodford, “Messaging the Blackman,” 86; Dennis Walker, Islam and the Search for African-American Nationhood: Elijah Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (Atlanta: Clarity Press, 2005), 343; Claude Clegg, An Original Man, 159; Juliet Walker. “The Promised Land: The Chicago Defender and the Black Press in Illinois: 1864–1970” in The Black Press in the Middle West, 1865—1985, Henry Lewis Suggs ed. (Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut. 1996),12. 19. “Schoolteacher praises Muslim Education,” Muhammad Speaks, 1971. 20. Sonia Sanchez, “Famed Poet Says Educate Our Own,” Muhammad Speaks, August 11, 1972. 21. “University of Islam ‘elevates’ former public school scholar,” Muhammad Speaks, April 20, 1973, 18. 22. Ibid. Coincidently psychologist Kenneth Clarke had employed the same line of reasoning towards different ends in the Brown case, arguing legally segregated schools diminished Black children’s racial self-concept. See James Patterson, Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001). 23. “School Is Being Fed to Whites,” Muhammad Speaks, March 23, 1969, 24. 24. Elijah Muhammad, Message to the Blackman in America (Newport, VA: United Brothers Communication Systems, 1965). 25. Lonnie Kashif, “How our taxes are misspent White colleges founded at 40-toone ratio over Black colleges,” Muhammad Speaks, June 11, 1971, 11. 26. Theodore 4X Marshall, “Black Children Need Black Teachers,” Muhammad Speaks, August 1, 1969, 4. 27. Dr. Andress Taylor, “Dr. Cross to Albany: Blessed the Child that has his own,” Muhammad Speaks, July 1962, 22. 28. “Negro History Week,” Muhammad Speaks, 1962. 29. Gordon B. Hancock, “Should we have Obeyed Booker T.?” Muhammad Speaks, 1962. 30. Sherman Jackson, Islam and the Black American: Looking Toward The Third Resurrection, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 17. 31. “CORE Leader Warns Black Students Culture ‘Bag’ Deters Black Gains,” Muhammad Speaks, March 30, 1968, 2. 32. See Muhammad Speaks: September 30, 1962, 22; October 31,1962, 10; July15,1962, 20; December 30, 1962,18; February 1962, 17; April 15, 1963, 15; April 15, 1963, 20; October 25, 1963, 19; January 3, 1964; October 23, 1964; March 26, 1962, 6; April 23, 1962; May 21, 1965, 14; October 22, 1965, 20; December 17, 1965, 24; December 31, 1965, 16; July 15 1966, 22; July 29, 1966, 21; September 30, 1966; July 25, 1966; November 11, 1966; August 26, 1966, 18; December 2, 1966, 17; January 20, 1967; June 27, 1969; March 6,1970; February 26, 1973; February 15, 1974; May 3, 1974. 33. Andress Taylor “Blessed the Child.” 34. Edward E. Curtis, Black Muslim religion in the Nation of Islam, 1960–1975 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 153; Barbara Taylor Whiteside, “A Study of the Structure, Norms and Folkways of the Educational Institutions of the Nation of Islam in the United States from 1932—1975” (PhD dissertation, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 1987).

Born of Our Necessities    137 35. Muhammad Speaks, November 15, 1962, 15. 36. Sister Christine Johnson, “Self Help or Oblivion for the Negro,” Muhammad Speaks, Oct–Nov, 1961, 16. 37. Muhammad Speaks, March, 1962, 29. 38. John Woodford, interview with the author, May 19, 2009. 39. Lloyd Marcus, The Treatment of Minorities in Secondary School Books (New York: B’nai B’rith, 1961); M.M. Tumin, Intergroup Relations in Teaching Materials, a Survey and Appraisal (New York: American Council on Education, 1949); Bias and prejudice in textbooks in use in New York City schools (New York: Teachers Union Report, 1945). 40. “Are Millions Being Brainwashed by White Supremacy Poison in Books for Children? Why are they always White children?,” Muhammad Speaks, July 1962, 1197–33; Muhammad Speaks, October 1965, 21. 41. Thomas Wertnkaker and Marvin Schiegel, “Principals Fight Bias Books in Va.,” Muhammad Speaks, November 18, 1962, 18. 42. Ibid; “School Board Bans Books Omitting Role of Negroes,” Muhammad Speaks, July1962, 28; “School Textbooks Buttress ‘White Supremacy’ Theory,” Muhammad Speaks, July 1962, 28; “Nature of Slavery Must be Taught Realistically,” Muhammad Speaks, July 1962, 33. 43. “Self Help or Oblivion for the Negro,” Muhammad Speaks, Oct–Nov 1961, 16. 44. Muhammad Speaks, July 31, 1964, 22. By East and West, the author is likely drawing contrast between White/western Europeans and the rest of the world. 45. Lorrain Mohammad, “Whiteman’s textbooks makes us a race of sheep,” Muhammad Speaks, April1962, 8. 46. Gerald Early, “Afrocentrism: From Sensationalism to Measured Deliberation,” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 5 (Autumn 1994): 86–88. 47. “Whiteman’s textbooks,” 8. 48. Christine Claybourne Johnson, Muhammad’s Children: A First Grade Reader. 49. Even Muhammad Speaks’ famous banner symbolizes the African and American connection. 50. “Nature of Slavery Must be Taught Realistically,” Muhammad Speaks, July 1962, 33. 51. “Ebony Editor-Historian Says: False History Undermines Youth,” Muhammad Speaks. 52. “Are Millions Being Brainwashed,” 21. 53. John Woodford, interview with the author, May 19, 2009. 54. John Henrk Clarke, “The Story of Timbuctoo’s Astounding Civilization,” Muhammad Speaks, October 31, 1962, 10. 55. “Old African Art Tells Negro Culture Heritage,” Muhammad Speaks, September 30, 1962, 22; “Retiring Educator Led Persistent 30 Year Fight for Negro History in Public School System,” Muhammad Speaks, July15, 1962, 20. 56. Muhammad Speaks, July 31, 1964, 22. 57. Muhammad Speaks, October 1, 1965. 58. Eugene Lassier Allegheny, letter to the editor, Muhammad Speaks, January 5, 1973, 25. 59. T.P. Wright, “Protestant Ethic among the Black Muslims,” Phylon 27 (Spring 1966): 5–14.

138    K. HUSSEIN 60. Charles Eric Lincoln, The Black Muslims in America (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973), 90. 61. Jeffrey Ogbar, Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2004), 23—26. 62. “Bid to replace English with dialect in schools,” Muhammad Speaks, February 6, 1970, 12. 63. Joe Dillard, Black English: Its history and usage in the United States (New York: Random House, 1972); Alan Dundee, Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973); Robbins Burling, English in Black and White (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973). 64. Dan Burley, Original Handbook of Harlem Jive (New York: Dan Burley, 1945). 65. T, J. Sellers, “‘Culture of poverty not poetic’ Educator hits rhetoric used as alibi for inferior teaching,” Muhammad Speaks, August 8, 1972. 66. For a careful treatment of the former see Ogbar, Black Power, for the latter TP Wright, “Protestant Ethic.” 67. Todd Vogel, The Black Press, 60. 68. Ibid, 39. 69. Bruce Dickson, Black American Writing from the Nadir: The Evolution of a Literary Tradition, 1877–1915 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 8. 70. Edward Franklin Frazier, Black Bourgeoisie: The Rise of a New Middle Class in the United States (New York: Free Press, 1957), 174. 71. Michael O. Emerson, “Review,” The Journal of Southern History 69 (2003):987– 988; F. D. Freeman, Social Forces 37 (1958):181. 72. Harold Cruse, Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, 156. 73. Muhammad Speaks, February 5, 1972. 74. Michael Fultz, “The Morning Cometh,” 77. 75. As Fabio Rojas has noted: “Until the installment of Affirmative Action policies in the 1970’s, elite White universities had at most a few hundred black students out of thousands.” Fabio Rojas, From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2007). 76. William Van Deburg, New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965–1975 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 67. 77. Ibid., 28. 78. William H. Exum, Paradoxes of Protest: Black Student Activism in a White University (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1985). 79. “Racial and ethnic enrollment data from institutions of higher education,” United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (Office for Civil Rights.Washington, D.C., 1969). 80. The American Council on Education found 57% of campus protests involving Black students in 1968; the Urban Research Corporation’s study found the number to be 51%. 81. Van Deburg, New day in Babylon, 67. 82. Rojas, From Black Power to Black Studies, 55. 83. “The Agony of Cornell,” Time, Friday, May 2, 1969, 37–38. 84. Calvin Trillin, ““A Hearing in the Matter of Disciplinary Action Involving Certain Students of Wisconsin State University, Oshkosh”,” The New Yorker, January 4, 1969, 62.

Born of Our Necessities    139 85. “Wilkins Goes All-Out Against Black Studies,” Muhammad Speaks, January 24, 1969, 6. 86. Muhammad Speaks, January 26, 1968. 87. Rojas, From Black Power to Black Studies. 88. Lonnie Kashif, “New Trends Coming In Black Studies,” Muhammad Speaks, June 27, 1969, 29. 89. Rojas, From Black Power to Black Studies, 100 90. Delores P. Aldridge and Carlene Young, Out of the Revolution: The Development of Africana studies (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2000). 91. Nathan Hare, quoted in “Noted Sociologist Rips Racism in Schools,” Muhammad Speaks, February 7, 1969, 36. 92. “Black Students Mobilizing for the Crisis to Come,” Muhammad Speaks, February 16, 1968. 93. Joe Walker “Exclusive: Students Strike for Equality”: “Why Blacks Rebelled at Brandeis,” Muhammad Speak, February 28, 1969, 13 and 20. 94. “Portrait of THREE Brandeis Students,” Muhammad Speaks, February 28, 1969, 14 and 29 and 30. 95. Walker, “Exclusive: Students Strike for Equality,” 13. 96. Joe Walker, “Inside Black Revolts On The Campus, Cornell: What Black Students Wanted,” Muhammad Speaks/ 97. Joe Walker, “Rutgers University Dean: De-Brainwashing Whitened Mind,” Muhammad Speaks, April 4, 1969, 23. 98. “Rutgers Undergrads Win Major Concessions,” Muhammad Speaks, April 11, 1969, 33. 99. Joe Walker, “Need Unification of Black Journalists into National Groups,” Muhammad Speak, March 29, 1974. 100. Ida Bell X, “Southern University Hurt by Integration,” February 23, 1973, 18. (2/23/73) p. 18; “‘Save Black colleges’ Nixon intervention sought by heads,” Muhammad Speaks, December 21, 1973, 8; “Praise for M. S. Atlanta coverage,” Muhammad Speaks, December 14, 1973. 101. Gilbert A. Lowe and Sophia McDowell, “Participant-Nonparticipant Differences in the Howard University Student Protest, The Journal of Negro Education 40 (Winter, 1971): 81–90. 102. Ibid. 103. Sophia F. McDowell et. al., “Howard University’s Student Protest Movement,” The Public Opinion Quarterly, 34 (Autumn, 1970), 383–388. 104. Lonnie Kashif, interview with author, June 22, 2009. 105. “Muhammad Speaks Wins Howard University Truth Award,” Muhammad Speaks, March 29, 1974. 106. “Letter to the Editor: Congratulations from Howard University,” Muhammad Speaks, January 5, 1973, 25. 107. “Black Furor on the Campus: Why the Students are Rebelling,” Muhammad Speaks, April 12, 1968, 7. 108. Lonnie Kashif, “Students Rip Autocratic Rule: Howard University Medical School Target of Boycott,” Muhammad Speaks, February 21, 1969, 3. 109. Lonnie Kashif, “Howard Shutdown Spells New Student Dynamic.” Muhammad Speak, May 23, 1969, 9.

140    K. HUSSEIN 110. Many of Kashif’s descriptions of the protest were corroborated in a 1970 campus survey by Sophia F. McDowell, Gilbert A. Lowe, Jr., and Doris A. Dockett. The authors concluded that “A militant black nucleus sparked the 1968 revolt and provided much of its rhetoric and direction. But broad and essential support came from large segments of the student body not ideologically committed to black revolution. Their rebellious energies sprang from deep reservoirs of discontent with an institution long perceived as autocratic and indifferent. The inchoate restlessness of youth was aggravated by unsolved problems of the college and the community.” Sophia F. McDowell et. al., “University’s Student Protest Movement The Public Opinion Quarterly,” 34 (Autumn, 1970):388. 111. “Howard Law Dean Explains Resignation: Rips Officials,” Muhammad Speaks, March 14, 1969, 18. 112. “Howard University Law School Emptied in Wake of Determined Student Protest,” Muhammad Speaks. 113. Maurice Berube and Marilyn Gittel, Confrontation at Ocean Hill-Brownsville: The New York School Strikes of 1968 (Praeger: New York, 1969), 13. 114. Ibid. 13–14. 115. Lisa Stulberg, Race Schools and Hope (New York: Teachers College Press, 2008), 36–37 116. “We Must Have Our Own Schools,” Muhammad Speaks, February 16, 1970, 6. 117. Stulberg, Race, Schools and Hope, 38. 118. Berube, Confrontation at Ocean-Hill Brownsville, 215. 119. “As Black people begin to make community control work— Cowardly racists dissolve Black schools,” Muhammad Speaks, January 16, 1970, 6. 120. Ibid. 121. ibid. 122. ibid. 123. Gary Orfield and Susan E. Eaton, Dismantling Desegregation. The Quiet Reversal of Brown v. Board of Education (New York: Wiley, 1969). 124. “As Black people begin to make community control work,” Muhammad Speaks. 125. See James Patterson, Brown vs. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001); Diane Ravitch, The Troubled Crusade: American Education 1945–1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1983) and The Great Schools Wars: New York City, 1805—1973. A History of Public Schools as a Battlefield of Social Change (New York: Basic Books, 1974); Richard Kluger, Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality (New York: Knopf, 1976). 126. Ravitch, Troubled Crusade, 210. 127. For another example of the use of primarily mainstream sources see Fabio Rojas, From Black Power to Black Studies. 128. Troubled Crusade, 270. 129. The Great School Wars, 378. Also in this vein see Jim Sleeper, The closest of strangers: liberalism and the politics of race in New York (New York: W.W. Norton, 1990). 130. Stulberg, Race Schools and Hope, 40.

CHAPTER 6

THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPALSHIP Racial and Spiritual Dynamics of Educational Leadership Lisa Niuwenhuizen

The role of the assistant principal is a growing one, involving many facets of the daily operation of schools. Over time, the assistant principal has morphed into a “jack of all trades” who must juggle multiple responsibilities simultaneously. It is due to this ambiguity that assistant principals find themselves pulled in many directions. Although the assistant principalship is challenging, many administrators begin their careers in this role (Austin & Brown, 1970; NASSP, 1991). For many, the assistant principalship has served as a stepping-stone to the principalship (Chan, Webb, & Bowen, 2003; Hartzell, Williams, & Nelson, 1995; Marshall, 1992; Scoggins & Bishop, 1993; Winter, 2002). This chapter explores the issue of race in the field of educational leadership, specifically, the role of the assistant principal. Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 141–173 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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The following chapter briefly describes the preparation of secondary school assistant principals , the challenges they face on the job , the role race plays in how assistant principals function, as well as the role that spirituality plays in their work and everyday lives. For many years, schools have been institutions of social control, advancing White hegemony through the Anglo-Saxon notions of righteousness, law and order, and popular government (Noguera, 1995). Schools were deemed the vehicle by which immigrant children would be socialized and taught American values and norms so social order and a civil society were maintained (Apple, 1982; Durkheim, 1961). However, critical scholars argue that administrators, including assistant principals, have a duty to transform schools from the historical sorting machines where students were prepared for their place, into an equitable system where the disenfranchised are given hope and social change becomes a reality (Anyon, 2005; Aronowitz & Giroux, 1993; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977). This goal can best be achieved by exposing future school leaders to race and racism as it is embedded in the educational system with the hope to eradicate it (Lopez, 2003; Parker & Shapiro, 1992). This critical context is essential for practitioners and scholars to recognize so that White hegemony can be replaced with equity for all students. Traditional educational leadership preparation programs of assistant principals neglect to teach future leaders about race and racism in our society and how it impacts our educational system (Lopez, 2003). School leaders have a duty and an ethical responsibility to “interrogate systems, organizational frameworks, and leadership theories that privilege certain groups and/or perspectives over others” (Capper, 1993; Donmoyer, Imber, & Scheurich, 1995). Lopez (2003, p. 70) states, “Quite simply, preparation programs across the nation do very little to equip students with a cogent understanding of racism and race relations.” There is much research to support this position, as evidenced by Laible & Harrington, 1998; Lomotey, 1995; Parker & Shapiro, 1992; Reyes, Velez, & Pena, 1993; and Young & Laible, 2000. Moreover, Parker, and Villalpando (2007, p. 519) argue that, Critical Race Theory “is a valuable lens with which to analyze and interpret administrative policies and procedures in educational intuitions and provides avenues for action in the area of social justice.” The role of principal is widely studied in leadership literature, while the role of the assistant principal is consistently overlooked (Hausman, Nebeker, McCreary, & Donaldson, 2002). The role of the assistant principal has not been thoroughly interrogated through CRT lens. The purpose of this descriptive study is to address the gap in the literature surrounding the preparation and practice of assistant principals through a CRT informed lens. As Young and Laible (2000) posited, “White educators and educational leaders do not have a thorough enough understanding of racism in its

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many manifestations . . . nor do they comprehend the ways in which they are perpetuating White racism in their schools (p. 388). Looking critically may help reveal the underlying racialized cultures and practices prevalent in schools today, where administrators are primarily White and middle-class, and lack understanding of or interest in institutionalized systems of White privilege, oppression, and racism (Young & Laible, 2000). As our country grows increasingly more diverse, it is important for assistant principals to develop tools and skills in a new mindset that is not currently taught in most leadership preparation programs (Capper, 1993; Donmoyer, et al., 1995). Critical Race Theory attempts to promote activism by trying to change how society organizes itself through exploring racial boundaries and hierarchies (Anyon, 2005; Delgado & Stefancic, 2001). According to Price (2010), CRT moves the focus from equality to social justice through radical reform. The issue of race in education can be understood best by deconstructing its origins. First, race is a social construction that is used as a tool for Whites to oppress people of color (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001). Racism is “a means by which society allocates privilege and status. Racial hierarchies determine who gets tangible benefits” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001, p. 17). For the duration of this study, I will refer to this concept as White hegemony, the idea that through discrimination against minorities, Whites are able to maintain their grip on wealth and power in the United States. White hegemony has become the vehicle for maintaining the current political and economic structure in the United States (Anyon, 2005). White hegemony refers to a set of social forces beyond the individual and beyond a conscious belief in White supremacy (Roediger, 2005). While preparing to become a principal, assistant principals should be prepared to lead in an era of increasing national diversity (Marshall & Hooley, 2006). The historical practice of selecting administrators who are similar in race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender to those with whom they will work has perpetuated the gap in opportunities for people of color, women, and those with different sexual orientations (Marshall & Hooley, 2006). Stovall (2004) writes of the ever-silenced issue of race, advocating for school administrators to forge ahead with a social-justice agenda to provide better education for all students, especially those of color. Mentoring in the area of diversity and multicultural education is lacking in the preparation of aspiring principals and must be increased to meet the changing needs of students in public schools. RESEARCH DESIGN I selected the qualitative descriptive study coupled with a CRT-informed lens for my research design as it became apparent from the interviews that

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race was a factor in the work of assistant principals. Creswell (2007) explained qualitative research as that “in which the researcher relies on the views of participants; asks broad, general questions; collects data consisting largely of words (or text) from participants; describes and analyzes these words for themes; and conducts the inquiry in a subjective biased manner” (p. 46). Capturing the lived experiences of assistant principals creates a strong reliance on the words and positions of the participants and necessitates this study originate from a qualitative perspective. As Creswell (2003) explained, “The process of data analysis is eclectic; there is no ‘right way’” (p. 153). Data analysis used for this study illustrates the unique techniques of qualitative description, exploration through natural inquiry, and narrative elements that can be utilized in data analysis. Utilizing open coding, I identified several categories that were consistent with those described in the literature review. Upon closer analysis, several themes appeared within the major categories. Upon identifying the most important themes, I then selected the most salient quotes and wove them into a narrative to create the unique story of each assistant principal. My descriptive structure borrows Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) elements of a case study—the problem, the context, and the issues and lessons learned. By combining these elements, I was able to explore the perceptions and experiences of assistant principals by conducting a series of interviews with assistant principals whose voices are not represented in current literature. By approaching the study from a modified naturalistic perspective, I was able to incorporate aspects of the CRT lens as it became apparent through the interviews that the issue of race was intertwined in the selection and promotion of assistant principals, as well as with the students whom they manage. Categories emerged from the analysis of transcripts and expanded the base of themes explored in the literature review. In this respect, I was interested in examining the promotion of assistant principals as well as school policies applied to marginalized groups (low-income or racial minorities), who are over represented in the statistics of school discipline. This study sought to expand on the work of Marshall and Hooley (2006), which serves as a primer in the study of assistant principals. This study examined not only the work that secondary school assistant principals do, how assistant principals are trained, the challenges they face, their job satisfaction, the role race plays in how assistant principals function, but also the role that spirituality plays in their work and everyday lives. This study focused on assistant principals from grades six through twelve with various levels of education, experience, and career aspirations to build a deeper understanding of their roles as assistant principals. Broad research questions guided my study:

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1. 2. 3. 4.

What do assistant principals do? How are assistant principals trained? What are the challenges of being an assistant principal? How personally and professionally satisfying is it to be an assistant principal? 5. How does spirituality impact your life and work? Working from the premise that racism is thoroughly embedded in American society and schools, the study wove questions about race into the subquestions of the study, rather than ask one specific question about race. These questions revealed hidden biases and racial prejudices in the Pleasantville School District which impact not only assistant principals, but also the students whom they serve. By analyzing data through a CRT-informed lens, I was able to “unpack and address issues of race and racism internal and external to the school setting” (Stovall, 2004, p. 9). Seeking to understand the pervasive nature of racism throughout American society and schools, I intertwined questions dealing with race in relation to discipline, professional experience, and promotion, as well as discrimination participants have experience due to race or gender, and student achievement. By carefully weaving questions about race throughout the study, I was able to gain honest and unguarded responses during the interviews which shed light on the racial tensions in the Pleasantville School District. A complete list of questions can be found in the Interview Protocol in Appendix A. This descriptive study seeks to thoroughly understand the role of assistant principals at the secondary level in the Pleasantville School District. Data were collected by spending time in the study schools over the course of one semester and conducting initial hour-long interviews with each of the 22 participants. In the spirit of naturalistic inquiry, I positioned myself in the schools, which allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the work of secondary assistant principals. The issues that sprang forth from the study include student management and discipline, instructional leadership, career stresses and opportunities, and politics perceived by assistant principals in relation to district-level school administration. THE PROBLEM The Pleasantville School District struggles to educate all students at a high level in accordance with No Child Left Behind. For several years now, the district’s racial minority students have not made adequate yearly progress. Additionally, racial tensions in the community and in the schools have been on the rise. Students of color are disproportionately referred for special education services and for severe disciplinary consequences, including

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suspension or expulsion. As a teacher and administrator in PSD for over fifteen years, I know the district’s teaching staff is predominantly White, middle-class, middle-aged females who have limited cultural understanding of their minority students. Moreover, administrators are predominantly White and may be unaware of their own biases, which may lead to the unfair treatment of children of color. SETTING, SITES, AND CONTEXT OF STUDY Pleasantville is a large school district located in a progressive, midsized city with a population of 105,000. The community values education and has traditionally been supportive of its schools. The community boasts two colleges, as well as a state university. Medicine is a strong industry in the community, with five large hospitals located in the city. Due to the economic crisis of 2009, the community has experienced significant job losses in manufacturing yet unemployment is about 7%, which is 2.5% lower than the state average (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010). With the availability of excellent medical care, the university atmosphere, and relatively low unemployment, the community has consistently been ranked as a desirable city in which to live. Pleasantville School District (PSD) has approximately 17,000 pupils. The district employs more than 1,400 teachers in 29 schools. The district has been accredited with distinction by the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for the past seven years. This study will focus on the secondary schools, consisting of three middle schools, three junior high schools, three high schools, and a vocational school. The middle and junior high schools each have two assistant principals. Two of the high schools are comprehensive high schools with five assistant principals. The remaining high school is an alternative school with one assistant principal. The vocational school has one assistant principal. Pleasantville has three middle schools (grades 6–7), which are feeder schools for the other secondary schools. Walters Middle School (WMS) is located in the center of the community. WMS has 901 students with the demographics divided 68.8% White, 18% Black, 8.7% Asian, 3.6% Hispanic, and 1% Indian (District Report Card, 2010). Walters has 27.4% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch (District Report Card, 2010). Johnson Middle School ( JMS) is located on the northern edge of the community. JMS has 781 students with demographics divided 57.5% White, 35.1% Black, 3.1% Asian, 3.5% Hispanic, and 0.9% Indian (District Report Card, 2010). Johnson has 53.4% of students qualifying for free or reduced price-lunch (District Report Card, 2010). Hancock Middle School (HMS) is located in the southern part of the community. HMS

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has 791 students with demographics divided 66.2% White, 23.5% Black, 4.4% Asian, 5.6% Hispanic, and 0.6% Indian (District Report Card, 2010). Hancock has 39.3% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch (District Report Card, 2010). Pleasantville’s three junior high schools contain grades 8 and 9. Washington Junior High School (WJHS) is centrally located in the community. WJHS has 819 students, demographically divided 70.3% White, 20% Black, 4.9% Asian, 4.0% Hispanic, and 0.7% Indian (District Report Card, 2010). Washington Junior High has 34.7% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch (District Report Card, 2010). Red Stone Junior High (RSJH) is located in the northern part of the community. RSJH has 727 students, demographically divided 59.3% White, 32.5% Black, 3.0% Asian, 4.1% Hispanic, and 1.1% Indian (District Report Card, 2010). Red Stone has 51.6% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch (District Report Card, 2010). Madison Junior High School (MJHS) is located in the west-central part of the community. MJHS has 889 students, demographically divided 73.3% White, 17.2% Black, 8.0% Asian, 1.3% Hispanic, and 0.1% Indian (District Report Card, 2010). Madison has 25.2% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch (District Report Card, 2010). Pleasantville School District has two comprehensive high schools and one alternative school. Carver High School (CHS) has a student population of 1,975 students in grades 10–12 and 165 certified staff (District Report Card, 2010). This school has a diverse population comprised of 65.4% White, 26.1% Black, 4.3% Asian, 3.8% Hispanic, and 0.5% Indian (District Report Card, 2010). Carver’s free and reduced-price lunch population has steadily risen over the last three years to 31.1% (District Report Card, 2010). Carver’s dropout rate has fluctuated over the last five years from the high of 5.4% in 2005 to 4.9% in 2009 (District Report Card, 2010). The dropout rate disaggregated by race and ethnicity shows that the dropout rate for minorities is 5.9% Black, 8.8% Hispanic, and 2.1% Asian (District Report Card, 2010). White dropout rate in 2009 was 4.5% (District Report Card, 2010). The school’s graduation rate has remained consistent with over 87% of students graduating (District Report Card, 2010). Carver has maintained an average daily attendance rate of about 92% for the last four years (District Report Card, 2010). Carver’s number of students enrolling in four-year colleges or universities has declined 20% over the last five years, with only 45.8% of students graduating entering four-year colleges or universities and another 22% entering two-year colleges (District Report Card, 2010). Oaklawn High School (OHS) is located in the southern area of the community. OHS has a student population of 1,832 and 127 certificated staff (District Report Card, 2010). The school’s demographics are 75.6% White, 13.3% Black, 6.9% Asian, 2.8% Hispanic, and 1.3% Indian (District Report Card, 2010). Oaklawn has 19.8% of its students qualifying for free

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or reduced-price lunch (District Report Card, 2010). Oaklawn’s dropout rate has steadily declined over the last five years from 3.1% in 2006 down to 1.9% in 2010. The dropout rates disaggregated by race and ethnicity in 2010 were 4.7% Black, 0% Asian, 2.0% Hispanic, and 4.0% Indian (District Report Card, 2010). The White dropout rate had dipped to 1.6% (District Report Card, 2010). The school’s graduation rate has steadily risen from a low of 88.7% in 2006 to 93% in 2010 (District Report Card, 2010). Oaklawn has maintained over 93.4% attendance for the last five years (District Report Card, 2010). Oaklawn has seen a drop in the number of students entering four-year college or universities from a high of 76.1% in 2006 down to 56.6% in 2010 and an increase to 22.0% of students entering a two-year college after high school (District Report Card, 2010). Lewis High School is an alternative school located in the central city and serves a population of 185 students with 23 certificated staff (District Report Card, 2010). The school’s demographics are 37.3% White, 60.5% Black, 0.5% Asian, 1.6% Hispanic, and 0% Indian (District Report Card, 2010). Lewis High School has 80.2% of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch (District Report Card, 2010). Lewis’s dropout rate has fluctuated over the last five years, but remained high with 28.4% of their students dropping out. These numbers disaggregated by race and ethnicity show 30.6% of Blacks, 33.3% of Hispanics, and 25.4% of Whites drop out (District Report Card, 2010). Only 7.7% of Lewis graduates enter a four-year college and 25.6% enter a two-year college (District Report Card, 2010). Pleasantville Career Center is a state-of-the-art career and technical education center populated by students from Oaklawn, Carver, and Lewis high schools as well as schools in surrounding communities. The district does not report demographic data for PCC. Pleasantville School District’s vision is to be the best school district in the state. PSD’s mission is to provide an excellent education for all students. PSD’s values include student achievement, elimination of achievement disparities, providing equitable curriculum and learning opportunities for all students, diversity, highly qualified staff, collaboration, professionalism, innovation, data-driven decision making, a culture of dignity, a safe learning environment, quality facilities, appropriate instructional and technological resources, partnerships between schools and community, proactive communication, visionary leadership, excellent fiscal management, and the judicious use of public resources (District Website, 2010). As a researcher with intimate knowledge of Pleasantville School District, I observed incongruence with the mottos listed, as PSD is experiencing a widening in the achievement gap among African American and Caucasian students, tremendous funding cuts, increased school violence, and declining teacher morale. There seems to be a disconnection between the values espoused and the lived reality in Pleasantville.

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PARTICIPANTS OF THE STUDY The participants of this study were assistant principals at the secondary schools. There were 24 secondary assistant principals in the Pleasantville School District. Of those, 22 participated in this study, with only nine answering questions about spirituality. Participants ranged in age, education, and experience, as well as in race and gender. Table 6.1 lists the participants by school, name, race, gender, and years of experience and education. Noticeable from the table below is the demographic makeup of the various levels. Middle school has five females and one male and are racially even with three Black and three White assistant principals. The junior high level is comprised of four men and two women. Assistant principals are racially divided, two Black and four White. The high school level has seven men and four women. Here assistant principals are racially divided, three Black and eight White. The secondary assistant principals range in age from 26 to 55. Some participants were comfortable talking about their spirituality, while others were not. Of the 22 participants, only 9 APs agreed to discuss their spirituality. This does not mean the other 13 were not spiritual, rather those individuals declined to answer questions about spirituality. Based on the diversity of this group, I secured varying perspectives of these assistant principals during the interview process. DATA COLLECTION During the course of one semester, I conducted hour-long interviews with each of the 22 participants, for a total of 22 hours of interviews. Interviews were conducted in the participant’s school, within the context of their school day. This enabled me to get a feel for the fast paced routine which each followed. My relationship, as a fellow assistant principal, made the interview process very relaxed and cordial. I collected data through the use of semi-structured interviews, open-ended main questions, probes, and follow-up questions as described by Rubin and Rubin (2005). Under each of the main research questions, I devised sub-questions to dig deeper into the multiple facets of each area. DATA ANALYSIS Descriptive data were collected through audio-recorded interviews, which were transcribed verbatim. Careful analysis of verbatim transcripts of interviews yielded the themes that emerge from the interviews. Through a CRT-informed lens, I examined the role that race plays in the daily lives

Participant

Sierra O’Malley Dominique Sullivan Johnson Middle School Leslie Fredrickson Silvia Douglass Hancock Middle School Melissa Smith Jeff Jones Washington Junior High Henry Joseph Mike White Red Stone Junior High Renee Moore Sean Schneider Madison Junior High LaShawna Lindsey Saul Hollingsworth Carver High School Marcus Clark Deborah Watson John Green Anthony Brown Thomas Walker Oaklawn High School Bob Flanders Shari Finnigan Becci Jonmeyer Dan Conner Jessica Lewis Lewis High School Larry Barnes Career and Technical School Curtis Jones

Walters Middle School

School B B B W W W B W W W B W B B W B W W W W W W W W

Race F F F F F M M M F M F M M F M M M M F F M F M M

8 administration; 13 teaching 10 administration; 10 teaching 5 administration; 8 teaching 5 administration; 9 teaching 6 administration; 10 teaching 2 administration; 6 teaching 20 administration; 10 teaching 6 administration; 12 teaching 2 administration; 7 teaching 1 administration; 6 teaching 4 administration; 10 teaching 15 administration; 10 teaching 5 administration; 14 teaching 17 administration; 8 teaching 20 administration; 7 teaching 1 administration; 3 teaching 1 administration; 4 teaching 15 administration; 7 teaching 5 administration; 15 teaching 4 administration; 22 teaching 10 administration; 6 teaching 4 administration; 7 teaching 10 administration; 5 teaching 7 administration; 23 teaching

Gender Years of Experience

TABLE 6.1  Pleasantville School District Secondary Assistant Principals

Education Specialist–Administration Pursuing Doctorate in Administration Education Specialist–Administration Education Specialist–Administration Education Specialist–Administration Education Specialist–Administration Education Specialist–Administration Pursuing Doctorate in–Administration Education Specialist–Administration Master’s in Administration Pursuing Doctorate in Administration Doctorate in Education Administration Master’s in Administration Education Specialist–Administration Master’s in Administration Education Specialist–Administration Education Specialist–Administration Doctorate in Education Administration Pursuing Doctorate in Administration Master’s in Administration Education Specialist–Administration Pursuing Doctorate in Administration Education Specialist–Administration Doctorate in Education

Education

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and work of assistant principals in the areas of student management and discipline, promotion to higher positions, professional satisfaction, as well as their spirituality. By capturing the administrators’ experiences in their own words and sharing them, others may understand the work life of assistant principals, while challenging the master narrative that perpetuates racism in our educational system. Data is presented in the form of narratives of each participant. Presenting each person’s unique story revealed some of the biases and prejudices inherent in the culture of Pleasantville School District. RACE PLAYS A LARGE ROLE IN THE WORK OF ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS While race was not the primary focus of this study, I was interested in the race play in the work that assistant principals do. Administrative training programs do very little to train students to have an understanding of racism and race relations in American schools (Lopez, 2003). Preparation programs have a duty to raise questions of race and racism to aspiring administrators as well as an ethical responsibility to create critical practitioners who will lead our schools (Lopez, 2003). My research found that assistant principals’ work is intertwined with race in a variety of ways. Race and Discipline Are Inextricably Linked to Decreased Student Achievement Assistant principals in PSD were keenly aware of race in their work with student discipline. Several APs commented about the overrepresentation of African American students in suspension numbers. While many are aware of the overrepresentation, few APs were actually taking steps to reduce it. Mike White, AP at Washington Junior High, is one such administrator, saying, You know, I think it [race] used to probably play a role. Now, I don’t think it plays a role at all. It’s not like I ever considered myself to be a racist person. But when you consider race, I think I used to at least question my numbers, my demographic numbers when it came to suspensions, things like that. I have looked at them the last several years. It’s pretty consistent year to year to year. Any more, it doesn’t consciously play any role with me. As far as percentage of people that are suspended or whatever. They’re consistent my numbers every year or with Washington Junior numbers every year. There’s definitely a gap. There’s definitely more African Americans suspended, etc. than White children here. But it’s not out of line, what I’m doing, with what has hap-

152    L. NIUWENHUIZEN pened here in the past . . . or in other buildings for that matter. It’s pretty consistent with the district numbers. So, I have to admit, it used to play a role with me. Absolutely. Just because whenever you’re new at this, you know, I don’t want to be perceived as being racist or whatever. But I don’t consider that at all anymore.

I wondered, “Why doesn’t Mike consider race in his discipline data now? Has he grown complacent and comfortable with the data? Is there no one to question the data?” I pondered the Mike’s notion that because Washington Junior High’s suspension numbers for minorities had always been high, there was not a problem with the discipline practices in his school. I was struck that this was an example of White hegemony in action. Renee Moore, assistant principal at Red Stone Junior High, noted that in the school district, she had never been asked to even look at her discipline data in terms of race. She also identified a direct correlation between race and discipline referrals: In my work with students, cause that’s seventy percent of my job. I do take into account, because I review the data, the discipline data. That’s part of my own goal and no one has told me to do it, I just do it. And I of course know that African American males take up a great number of office referrals. So, in my dealings with students, I don’t necessarily talk to them about race, but I guess it does cross my mind with the data that I have that I get to reflect over after a semester is done or a year is done.

Probing, I asked, “So what do you see in the data?” Renee took a deep breath and said, “I see a high African American male, special ed. proportion of students being referred for discipline.” I pushed Renee to dig a little deeper on this subject. “And so as you reflect on that, kind of where do you go with that? Is that something you’re like—I don’t know, is that something you like, is it a worry, is it something that you’re just trying to be mindful of?” I asked. After a small pause, Renee said slowly, I would say it’s definitely a worry. I mean we’re all cognizant of the achievement gap. We’re all . . . we all know if a student is talking to me about a referral that they’re not in class learning. We also know that that plays a big role in maybe a continued attitude of racism if students see a particular gender or ethnicity disturbing their classroom. We don’t want to you, you know, have any more stereotypes about that. We don’t want them to say all the Black kids are bad. All the Black boys are bad. All the special ed. Black boys are bad.

Renee was clearly troubled by our conversation. I wondered at what point her discomfort would force her to take action. Historically, PSD has noted the overrepresentation of minority students in discipline data. However action to correct these practices and how schools are managed are slow

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to occur. The district and building administrations have done little to inform their practices and work toward decreasing the achievement gap. One might logically conclude that students who are suspended out of school are not receiving instruction and/or learning the necessary materials to achieve at a high level, thus further perpetuating the achievement gap. It may be possible that there is no one looking at the data in PSD. Reports are generated, but not used to inform the practice of administrators. As described earlier, there is no leadership in the area of social justice or equity for diverse populations. The district professes to want to increase student achievement for all students, yet over a ten year period has made almost no gains toward this goal. There is surprisingly little leadership from the Secondary Assistant Superintendent toward decreasing the number of students of color who are over represented in discipline data. Moreover, the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction has not provided the necessary leadership on how to increase African American student achievement. As the achievement gap widens, children of color are left behind, while White hegemony maintains the status quo. Without training and collaboration time for APs to analyze their data coupled with clear leadership from above to improve the situation, there will be little change in the achievement gap. Relegating Issues of Race to African American Administrators This study revealed that African American APs are expected to handle discipline for children of color in their buildings. Several African American APs reported that they are often asked to deal with racial minority students because of their own race. White APs report they are reluctant to engage in certain discipline issues for fear of being labeled racist by students or parents. As LaShawna Lindsey eloquently described her challenges working as an African American AP at Madison Junior High School, there is problem with race in her school. As a Black female, she brings a different perspective to the position than her White male counterpart. LaShawna noted that students in her school play the race card, saying, There are a lot of things that students use as a crutch because of it and often sometimes, he [Saul] has to come to me and say you know are you sure this is what I should be doing or what do you think. Because you’re not so sure that they are honest about what they’re doing or about what they’re saying. Some of them know how to play the game. Yeah, they know how to play the race card and so they use that to an advantage.

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Because Saul, her colleague, doesn’t recognize his own white privilege, LaShawna feels that she must educate Saul and her faculty. She has accepted that her place in this school is to educate others and try to stop racist practices, saying I do think though because I’m the only African American, I’m the African American assistant principal [and] all the race issues come across my plate. Well when it comes to questions about being racist or when it comes to issues that relate to race, I think the parents and the students feel more comfortable coming. I used to wonder, because I hated working here, why I was here and then started thinking well maybe I’m here because God wants me to help because some of the things that teachers do in this building and in other buildings are racially offensive and I don’t know that they know that they’re racially offensive.

LaShawna’s spirituality helps her with grace to stay in a job that is extremely challenging. LaShawna identified other examples of teachers lacking cultural proficiency by doing things that are racially offensive, without even being aware that they are doing so. The recurring theme of administrators and teachers in PSD lacking cultural proficiency is a powerful one. It perpetuates White hegemony and the negative treatment of racial minorities. This issue must be addressed before any real progress can be made in decreasing the achievement gap and the overrepresentation of African American children in the discipline data. Denial—It Isn’t Just a River in Egypt For some administrators in PSD, pretending there is no problem with over representation of racial minorities in discipline data allows them to carry out their normal daily routines. This color blind approach is detrimental to the racial minorities and further perpetuates White hegemony and the unjust treatment of students. For example, African American AP Leslie Fredrickson was aware of the disproportionality of African American students in her building’s discipline data. When she raised this issue, her building leadership and faculty chose to ignore the issue of race, and instead, focus on the issue of gender. She said, You know, I don’t want to say that teachers are being discriminatory to students, but our data shows that more of our minority students, of course, are being referred. Well, our minority males are the highest. And then our [minority] females are second, when you look at it that way. Even though the population here at Johnson of minorities is probably thirty percent, they are responsible for, I think when we last looked at it, up into the seventy percent of referrals.

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Leslie’s staff may be uncomfortable discussing issues of race. They mask the issue as one of gender, rather than have a courageous conversation about race. The problem Leslie describes is not uncommon. Nationally, research illustrating the overrepresentation of racial minorities in school discipline data (Noguera, 2003). However, ignoring the problem and pretending that it does not exist is not a solution. Deflecting the issue of race and repackaging it as a gender issue is disingenuous and will not lead to any real equity for minority students. Moreover, the subjective nature of many discipline referrals in PSD is cause for concern too. Leslie acknowledges the subjectivity in discipline referrals, stating And most of it is disrespect, is what our teachers are coding. You know, they feel disrespected that the kid didn’t do what they said, or something like that. And most of it is disrespect, is what our teachers are coding . . . It’s nothing that we’re looking at the building that we need to address. We’ve talked about it at our expectations that it’s something we need to face. And there were disagreements even there because some wanted to address it, and some didn’t. Some wanted to look at what we could make a change in. Their thoughts were gender over all, females, looking to kind of, not balance, but be, really evaluate as a staff where we’re writing referrals gender-wise instead of racial . . . But I think that’s because they don’t have to face within themselves in case they’re being, not racist, but discriminatory due to color.

While Leslie’s own analysis identifies the problem of racialized disciplinary practices, she is reluctant to actually name it as such. I wondered if her own race made her reluctant to speak out about the injustices which she perceives in her building. Leslie’s story not only supports the need for cultural-proficiency training for teachers and administrators in PSD, but also identifies some clear issues surrounding the subjectivity of discipline involving students of color. Administrators’ Work to End Disparity and Move Toward Social Justice for Racial Minorities is Challenging Saul Hollingsworth, AP at Madison Junior High School, is concerned about the overrepresentation of racial minorities in his discipline data. He regularly analyzes his data and is trying to make a difference and make positive changes toward social justice and end the disparity of minority overrepresentation. Saul, a White male, said, “Okay we also look at what is there any disproportion regards to how many Black students will receive a minor referral compared to a direct office referral versus our White students receiving minor referrals versus a major referral.” His careful analysis of discipline data gives him a tool with which to talk to his faculty about the disproportionate number of racial minorities in their building’s discipline data. He guides the discussion around reflective questions about the data

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and gathers feedback from his faculty. Saul is using this data to teach his faculty how to analyze and reflect on it to improve their practices, without directly calling into question staffs’ racial biases against minority students. Saul is working to educate his faculty on the disproportionality of African American students being sent to the office for discipline. He is working to eliminate this disparity. Moreover, Saul is concerned with the disproportionality and its impact on achievement data. He said, I personally take a real hard look at disproportionality in this and I generate reports for our building based on certain factors of that. For example if you take your F list and then you break that down by ethnicity, by number of suspensions, by number of missed days and so on and you break that you show that but you also need to show that in terms of the proportion of their enrollment in the building.

By looking at the achievement data correlated to their suspension and discipline data, Saul is working toward the elimination of the achievement gap for racial minority students at Madison Junior High. His work is a model for other APs in PSD. The district may be well served to use his work as an example and train other APs to look at data this way. However, as described earlier, PSD does not allow APs the time to collaborate and share information and strategies. PSD is not capitalizing on a valuable resource within their ranks—talented APs with an eye for equity and social justice—by not allowing APs time to work on this problem together and learn from each other. PSD Lacks Cultural Proficiency in Instruction and Discipline, and Perpetuates Racial Stereotypes for African American Administrators As noted earlier in this paper, PSD is woefully lacking in cultural-proficiency training for administrators. As evidenced by the examples provided by Leslie, LaShawna, and Saul, teachers in PSD are lacking in some basic cultural competence. PSD began to acknowledge the issue of race through a short 45-minute workshop held for all administrators during mandatory professional development held in 2010. This entire day might have been devoted to the topic of race, but instead, this seminar was crammed into the 45 minutes before lunch. PSD hired an expert to present the issue of racism in schools as the need to have fearless conversations about race. A brief overview skimmed the topic, yet due to the lack of time allotted for the session no real progress was made. One might interpret the lack of time as a statement of PSD’s priorities and value for the topic. This overview session did little to scratch the surface of the topics of race, hegemony, White privilege, and the discrimination that is pervasive in the American education system. Moreover, the session failed to show what steps could be taken by administrators to combat the problem. In fact, other than making some

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people uncomfortable for a very short time, the session had little or no impact on the business as usual of PSD. Through my research, I have come to believe that cultural competence and multicultural education are essential components of training effective of assistant principals and building a good administration and school. Sadly, in some buildings, the hatred and racial stereotypes are deeply entrenched. Dominique Sullivan, an African American AP at Walters Middle School, described hateful comments made by staff members on her yearly evaluations. The comments clearly show that teachers in her school are lacking cultural proficiency and may even be openly biased against administrators of color. Dominique’s experience of being rated poorly on her evaluations due to her culture as a Black woman is shocking. Dominique was tearful as she shared this story of the comments made on her yearly evaluation completed by her faculty, stating I need to ‘be quieter’ . . . maybe it’s someone [who] can’t take this type of African American lady, that I’m not a quiet, shy, meek in any way, shape, or form and most of the people that you encounter you know who are like me, people who aren’t like us have difficulty. Maybe that isn’t a racial thing but everything that was pointed to in my 360 survey, it gave me pause, why so personal? Why so personal?

She felt personally attacked based on her race and gender, and rightly so. This example raises questions about the teachers in her building. What training have teachers had in cultural competence or multicultural education? Why teachers are openly biased against an African American female AP? What support is the district giving to Dominique to help sustain her and lift her up after such hateful evaluations? Does PSD see these evaluations as negative reflections on the AP or on the staff? All of these questions beg further study. Racial stereotyping was not limited to Dominique. African American AP Marcus Clark reflected upon the role race plays in his daily work at Carver High School. His experience tells him he is often stereotyped based on his physical appearance. He is a very large, imposing Black man, who has been chastised for intimidating students and parents. He said You know, people say, because I speak direct to things, that I can be intimidating. They say my size would be intimidating. And based upon the stereotype in our society, when a Black man of my stature starts speaking directly, people instantly become intimidated. So are they becoming intimidated because I’m speaking the truth, or are they looking at the exterior factors? It’s a combination of mainly both, but I would have to say . . . the scale’s got to lean towards the racial issue.

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Marcus is not alone in his frustration of being stereotyped due to his race. His colleague, Anthony Brown, described his experience of racial stereotyping in his role as an assistant principal at Carver High School. As a young African American AP, he has battled both age and racial discrimination during his first year on the job. Due to his race he believed teachers had different expectations for him. He said, They expect you to be first of all a good manager as opposed to an instructional leader I think. So they expect you to manage discipline. You find that people expect you to connect most with people who are African American, even though there are so many different aspects of culture today that go into understanding people and connecting with people. I feel like—and I don’t know if it’s more so on my race or my age but I feel like people question my ability to do the job . . . there’s a trust issue missing so I haven’t built that trust, but it could also be my age or it could also be my race and the culture that I come from because just being young myself I have a different culture than a lot of the teachers that I evaluate. I can’t pinpoint and say that—which issue it is that’s causing the trust issue.

Anthony’s frustration with being classified as a disciplinarian because he is Black is strong. He wants to be perceived as an instructional leader, but as a first-year AP, new to the building, he has met with some staunch opposition. He has been stereotyped to be the person who deals with the Black students who are discipline problems, yet he wants to be much more than that. Marcus’ and Anthony’s experiences raise questions about Carver High School and PSD. What support does Carver or PSD provide to recruit and sustain male administrators of color? Does PSD believe that these men should be relegated to taking care of the discipline problems dealing with racial minority children in the school? What will PSD and Carver do to change the perceptions of the teachers regarding race and administrators? These are important questions left unanswered by this study and should be examined in the future. Saul Hollingsworth examines cultural proficiency at Madison Junior High through his building’s discipline-referral and achievement data. His strategy is to get his teachers to recognize and accept what their data shows. He states You know that’s a big piece because many times they’re in denial but if you’ve got that evidence base and it’s there and then they can see that and then provide them the instruction to help them improve their strategies. And we have to identify where their areas are where they’re struggling. Is it unaware of you know, cultural differences for example? Is there something as far as what’s going on in the classroom that we can help them better manage behavior in general?

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Saul is addressing an uncomfortable issue for the teachers at MJHS. By presenting the actual data, he is shaping opinion with facts, stripping away some of the biases that exist, and working toward equity for all students. His approach is a model for other APs to follow. Race and Promotion in PSD: It’s Not What You Know, but Who You Know Two very distinct examples dealing with race and promotion were gleaned from the interviews. One is the tale of a home-grown African American female who had been groomed and personally selected by the assistant superintendent for every administrative job she had received. The other is the story of a home-grown African American female who had struggled to achieve her current position as AP. One must wonder about the stark differences in their stories. Sierra O’Malley, AP at Walters Middle School, has been groomed for every position she has received in the PSD. She readily admits that she is home-grown and educated at the local college. She recounts how she got her first break into administration because she is friends with the Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education, Dr. Suzanne Potterfield. Sierra stated, . . . you know and then it was at Suzanne’s son’s engagement party, December thirtieth. I remember and she was like, “You ready to get your boots ready for something else?” She said, “I’ve got something that I want to talk to you about after Christmas.” I think it’s been good, I mean, especially since I think Pleasantville is trying to do more with women and with African Americans as well. That’s probably a positive thing for me, you know, that’s a big thing when Dr. Potterfield first started talking to me about the job. She was real open, she said, ‘I’m going to tell you, they need a strong African American woman over there and you’re who I want to go,’ so you know they kind of hand-picked me.

Sierra’s story is one of an insider, connected to the powerful assistant superintendent, receiving special treatment and consideration to help her attain her career goals. In sharp contrast is the story of Dominique Sullivan, who, like Sierra, is home-grown, but is still viewed as an outsider, overcoming poverty to reach her career as an AP. Dominique shared her reflections on her race and how it has impacted her career aspirations. She believes that her race and impoverished beginnings have been impediments to her climbing the administrative ladder in PSD. Moreover, she feels that PSD claims to want diversity among its leaders, but does not actually pursue that goal. She said, My race helps me understand that we, while we’ve come far we still have a long way to go and that I have appreciated every struggle that I had and know

160    L. NIUWENHUIZEN that it’s basically going to be that. I’ve kind of accepted that it’s going to be that way for me. That because of my race and because of watching people like me you know wait to be selected sometimes but also struggle it strengthens my resolve to do what I need to do regardless of how others might see me or how others might, where others may see me. . . . I had to fight and always had to fight to get as far as some of my Caucasian peers. I think I would, I fight harder, twice as hard as males do but I’m realistic to know that they would select a White female to be a building principal before they would select me . . . I have watched in this district many initiatives to try and recruit and retain African American people fall to the wayside . . . I am saying in a sense that if you say that you are really concerned with the number of African Americans or lack of African American[s] who have . . . leadership positions and teaching positions in this district, why not start from within?

Dominique’s question is valid. PSD claims to value diversity and seeks to promote from within, yet she has been passed over for promotions multiple times. Dominique’s perception of bias is important in that it highlights how an African-American female feels discrimination in the PSD. SPIRITUALITY IN ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS’ LIVES As noted earlier, only nine assistant principals elected to answer questions about their spirituality. Their responses varied by race and gender. My findings discuss two areas of spirituality: personal life and professional life. African American and White APs’ Personal Lives Are Shaped by God Noteworthy is the personal relationship with God that female African American APs cite. These APs describe their spirituality as deep, personal, and daily parts of their lives and decision making. African American APs describe their personal spirituality in terms of fellowship and worship of God. None of these participants mentioned organized religion specifically. Instead they focus on the intimate nature of their relationship with God and living the principles of their faith: service, helping others, honesty, and a deep belief in God’s plan for them. Leslie Fredrickson, the African American AP at Johnson Middle School, described her view of spirituality as, “Having a personal belief and personal relationship in God.” She characterized her spirituality saying, “[Spirituality] is daily prayer, regular fellowship attendance with other believers, trying to live my life in a manner that is consistent with the plans of God. My family worships together. We pray together and have a personal relationship with

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God. We seek His direction for our lives.” Leslie’s strong personal relationship with God sustains her in her work and in her family life. Sierra O’Malley reflected on her concept of spirituality. She stated, “I am a very spiritual person. And, you know, I make an effort to display characteristics of my spirituality. I mean, my home life is quiet and serene. I live alone, and often, I sit in quiet and talk to Him through prayer as I reflect at the end of the day.” With her children grown and gone, Sierra finds comfort in her personal friendship with God. LaShawna Lindsey viewed spirituality as a necessary component of her life. When I asked her to describe her own spirituality, she said, “Spirituality is part of my daily life . . . it is meditation on God’s role in my life. It is worship time, daily prayer, and having fellowship with others.” She continued on to characterize her spirituality saying, I love being with and helping other people. My spirituality makes me honest to a fault—I am extremely transparent in my life. What you see is what you get. I believe my spirituality is based in divine intervention, because I truly believe that all things happen for a reason, that no matter what it is, it is all part of God’s plan for me . . . I might not understand why things happen the way they do, but I trust in Him and believe. In our house, more now than before, we use prayer to make decisions together. Prayer has brought us closer together and helped me to see that my work life was consuming my family life. But through prayer, I have come to realize that I will get it all back and my family will be ok.

The demands of her job as an AP took a toll on her marriage and family. LaShawna had been separated from her husband for a several months and at the beginning of last school year reconciled with him to save their marriage of 14 years. She credits her clear faith in God for sustaining her through this difficult time in her personal life. Similar to her African American counterparts, Becci Johnmeyer, the 57-year-old AP at Oaklawn High School, described her spirituality saying, “I have a private relationship with God but I am not much of a church goer. I believe that He guides me in decisions and is there to answer prayer and to help to make me kind and compassionate.” Becci characterized her spirituality, I have always worked in the caring professions. I have a lot of empathy and I am a pretty good judge of character. I try not to hold grudges and I try to determine why a person acts the way they do as a result of their own demons and insecurities. This helps me to not take things too personally . . . with my home life, well, marriage is a commitment, even when it needs more work to sustain it. My family is always first, and to me nothing else really matters in life because in the end all you have is family. I believe things happen for a reason but I also think it is up to people to control their destiny by working hard,

162    L. NIUWENHUIZEN doing their best, and being considerate of others. I don’t believe that being a spiritual person means that you can go walking out in front of traffic to see if God will save you!

Becci’s views are not dissimilar from her colleague Mike White. Mike White, AP at Washington Junior High had a similar view of spirituality. He stated, I define spirituality in regards to myself as the values I live by, which in short are the implicit life rules that I have come to believe. I don’t necessarily define spirituality in the religious sense. I have never defined myself as someone associated with a particular religion, but a person of faith who believe in the common good of, as you have you have called it, social justice.

I asked Mike to characterize his own spirituality. He said, Simply, I will be judged someday based on how I’ve treated all people during my time. I do not define my own spirituality based on non-negotiable religious parameters, rather based on how well I’ve treated others. Nice people will finish first someday . . . my parents used to always preach that. I’ve always believed that. Now, my wife and I are not terribly religious people . . . despite her being the daughter of a Lutheran minister, however, we’ve always tried to raise our children with faith and to live by my philosophy that nice people will finish first someday.

White APs’ Define Their Spirituality Around Organized Religions The remaining four APs who elected to answer questions about spirituality were all White. Interestingly, most of the White APs define their spirituality in terms of organized religion, specifically Christianity. They too espoused principles of faith: service, helping others, and belief in God’s plan for them. Sylvia Douglass, AP at Johnson Middle School, described her spirituality when she said, “Spirituality involves my Christian faith . . . it is the core of my values and beliefs in regard to human interaction and decision making. My spirituality involves daily prayer and devotion in seeking God’s plan for my life.” Sylvia characterized her spirituality as relating to service to others. She said I believe in serving others, doing what is “right” with the best information I have, and putting others first. I strive to be selfless, and that’s challenging. I truly enjoy lifting others up, especially students. I try to behave ethically, and maintain open and honest communication with others. I am passionate about loving others. I believe in our Lord, Jesus Christ, and look to Him for guid-

The Assistant Principalship    163 ance in my life. In prayer I seek His plan for my life and search for opportunities to be of service to others.

Sylvia described her spirituality influencing her home life through love. She stated, “At home, [spirituality] it is the love that I feel for my family. I strive to put my family members first each day and show them my love and support. I try to take good care of everyone.” Renee Moore, AP at Redstone Junior High, described her spirituality in a similar fashion. She stated, “My spirituality is connected completely to my Catholicism; I have thought about spirituality as separate from my religion, but have never been able to accept them as two different things.” She characterized her spirituality stating, “I have a devout belief in the beauty and good in people, and I try never to judge, lest ye be judged.” Laughing, she continued, “This is often challenging in my job, but I hope that they will know I am Christian by my love.” Renee described her family’s spirituality this way My husband is not Catholic, but is a very spiritual person. His spirituality comes from his long-time affiliation with Alcoholics Anonymous. He goes to church by going to meetings. Our daughter will be raised Catholic and we speak of faith in matters of ethical and moral consideration at home.

Thomas Walker, a White AP at Carver High School shared similar views of spirituality stating, “I attend church every Sunday, pray frequently, and use my moral upbringings and spirituality in my thoughts and decisions in everyday life.” He went on to characterize spirituality as “Attending church, making decisions, and assigning consequences with my spirituality in mind.” I found this an interesting response, in that I had not yet asked him about spirituality and work, yet he tied “assigning consequences” to his characterization of spirituality. Thomas continued to describe spirituality and his home life, saying, “It makes me closer to my girlfriend and family members . . . and because of my spirituality growing up, my parents and I are very close.” Thomas associates his family’s tradition of attending church services together with his spirituality and credits that for their close family. Jessica Lewis, an AP at Oaklawn High School, recounted a similar view of spirituality. She stated, “My spirituality is the relationship I have with God, influenced by the tenants of religion from being raised as a mainline protestant in Missouri.” She characterized her spirituality as, “An effort at some regular connecting with God, through prayer, readings—Biblical or others, and discussions with others.” Laughing, Jessica continued, “I have the feeling of obligation—not necessarily in a negative connotation, to attend weekly Sunday church service. I seek direction from God and show compassion toward others.” Jessica noted that as a single woman, her spirituality is not played out at home, stating, “Generally [spirituality] dictates

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the Sunday schedule, with church in the mornings and prayer. Without a spouse or children, the manifestation of my spirituality isn’t seen as much in a home life.” Spirituality and Professional Lives of APs An interesting difference in responses from APs is the level to which their spirituality guides their daily work. The African American APs reported an intertwined relationship with God, their spirituality and their daily activities as assistant principals. While White APs report that their spirituality manifests itself in their ethical treatment of people. Leslie Fredrickson became animated when I asked her how her spirituality influences her professional life. She said, I pray a lot regarding my position, especially when I am working with trying students and parents. I seek the Lord to help hold my tongue. I also seek Him for direction about different positions and career changes that are best for my family. With my duties as an AP, well I want to be fair with all my students, so I seek the Lord to keep me in a manner that reflects fairness and doing the right things for all of my students and their families. I have always had a relationship with the Lord. I have gone to church since I was little and was very active in church growing up. As an AP, I have begun praying for the school more on a daily basis. I’m trying to be more open minded so that I can see the whole picture on how things might affect all parties involved. Because of my spirituality, I have stopped just responding. Now I pray and think before I respond to things.

LaShawna Lindsey shared a similar view when asked how spirituality influences her professional life, she laughed out loud and said, “It keeps me from taking my hands and choking the shit out of somebody!” I laughed with her at this response. Then she became very serious and said, You know, it’s really hard when you are surrounded by people who don’t believe in doing what’s right for everyone . . . From the process of placing people in jobs and not follow through; it’s not fair or consistent. As an AP, spirituality is what keeps me going and keeps me hopeful that we will save some of these kids. My spirituality creates the hope that the punishment I assign allows students to make better choices even if I don’t like issuing them. It [spirituality] enables us to deal with adults and their emotions and feelings. I believe my spirituality allows me to be a change agent, much like a cook in a kitchen I’m going to make things happen.

I asked LaShawna if she had always felt this way. She shook her head no and said, “No, three years ago I set goals at my retreat with my spiritual leader

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and that has guided me.” I asked her to elaborate on what type of things she has begun doing due to her spirituality. LaShawna said, I started doing things on the weekend to help students, like home visits and adopting families for Christmas. I’ll have a kid come over and hang out with my family and I’d baby sit them so they can see how our family lives. At the district level, I wanted to look at the consequences and the reasons behind them . . . because it really comes down to did the teachers like those kids and want them in their classes. You know, I’ve started to see the issue of race and class as being a reason for discipline referrals. Many times students are innocent but they are sent out on a referral by a teacher who doesn’t want that student in his or her class. Sometimes I send the referral back to the teacher or just tear it up.

LaShawna’s analysis of discipline is consistent with findings presented earlier in this chapter. When I posed the question about what she does differently due to her spirituality, she quipped, I’ve stopped attending things that I don’t believe in . . . and I’ve stopped covering other’s stuff up. I am brutally honest now and I have started using daily reflection and prayer to handle situations differently. You know, there are some people in this district who will do whatever to get to the top. Not me. I’m going to treat others like I want to be treated and stop telling lies of omission, because they are still lies.

Sierra O’Malley views her spirituality and work similarly. She stated, My spirituality does influence my professional life. I seem to be in constant conversation of my idea of a superior being! I often bring up my own spirituality with my students because I believe that what I do is a higher calling from above . . . it has to be! I haven’t really changed anything personally or professionally in what I do, but my spirituality and my beliefs are a part of me and my personality . . . it’s just who I am.

Clearly, Sierra’s spirituality is a big part of who she is and how she does her job. White assistant principals referred to their spirituality in terms of ethical behavior in the work place. Seemingly, the golden rule—treat others as you wish to be treated—is a common mantra among White assistant principals. Mike White described in great detail how his spirituality guides his work, saying Professionally speaking, my spirituality is tested in my position. Being an AP unfortunately exposes me to people who do not necessarily share my beliefs and values. It can be challenging to continue to believe that all people have good in them and need to be treated equally and with compassion. I believe,

166    L. NIUWENHUIZEN however, that I do just that in most cases. I continue to maintain that if and when I treat people with the values I believe in—all people have good in them, nice people finish first and so on, then I will receive from people what I give. I think this speaks to social justice. I believe in it, and quite frankly believe my behavior toward others, especially students, is the most impactful way to forward my values on to others. Prior to working in schools, I was much less global with my thinking of other people and my values have definitely changes since taking over an administrative role. Ironically, the more exposure I’ve had to others who do not necessarily share my values and spiritual beliefs, the more I’m convinced I need to practice them! I think I’ve become much less judgmental and dare I say, racist. If there’s one positive to my AP job, it has been the incredible exposure to an immense diversity of people and situations. While I have never considered myself racist in any way, now that I’ve been exposed to so many different types of people, I’ve come to realize that maybe I was earlier in my life after all . . . as such, my spirituality has helped me see this reality, and I believe confirms my value system to myself.

Mike’s explanation of spirituality is laden with ethics and describes how he applies his spirituality in the form of ethical treatment of others. I found it interesting that he mentioned that he has become much less racist in his disciplinary practices, something that I pondered above in his account of overrepresentation of minority students in his discipline data. The two statements are incongruent and are worthy of deeper inquiry at another time. Jessica Lewis saw spirituality in her work in a similar fashion. She stated, “My spirituality takes a back seat, in most cases, to my professional life. I do seek direction from God on professional matters, but not exclusively.” When I asked her what role spirituality played in her work, she stated, “Mostly in compassion. I try to show grace, not absolution, when possible. I am often challenged by the blurring of the line between right and wrong . . . I am slower to make a judgment about where the line is these days.” Surprisingly, Jessica revealed that she has on occasion shared a Biblical reading with a mom who is dealing with a difficult situation. Jessica believes her spirituality has allowed her to, “Stop jumping to conclusions too early.” Renee Moore identifies her spirituality in terms of ethics too. She states, “I fairly and ethically treat all students, staff, and parents with whom I come in contact. I hope my spirituality is reflected in the morality and ethical decisions I make as an AP, based on Board and school policy.” Silvia Douglass has a similar view of spirituality in her work stating, “I am strong in my convictions regarding ethical issues and maintain high standards for my personal conduct. I provide a supportive environment for students, parents and teacher regarding concerns.”

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IMPLICATIONS The stories of assistant principals in the Pleasantville School District provide rich details of the daily lives of assistant principals and the role spirituality plays in them. Their stories serve to illustrate successes and challenges in the profession. Moreover, their stories provide a voice for assistant principals who are often overlooked, not only in the literature, but in education as a whole as middle managers. By examining the work of APs through a critical lens, a host of issues come to light, including the perpetuation of the achievement gap, discriminatory practices for promotion, and the lack of social justice and equity in PSD. There are important lessons to be learned from their stories, both for research and for practice. Implications for Research This study sought to expand the work of Marshall and Hooley (2006) to understand the work that assistant principals do, their training and preparation, the challenges they face, and the role of spirituality in their personal and professional lives. More work is needed to further explore the role that race plays in these areas. Research on the impact of race and gender on the career success and promotion of assistant principals is needed. Large-scale studies are needed to explore the role of race, hegemony, and gender in the work that assistant principals do. Specifically, more qualitative research is needed to capture the stories of assistant principals and their struggles and successes, and to gain insight that can be used to help prepare future assistant principals, change current preparation procedures, and better inform our understanding of what it means to be an assistant principal. The longitudinal study of APs should be conducted nationally exploring the themes identified within this study. Additional study of APs in a large urban setting could yield important findings too. The field could benefit from the study of urban versus rural APs and the challenges that each face. The study of APs’ race in the role is also needed. A deep study of spirituality of APs would create a better understanding of how spirituality impacts their lives, both personally and professionally. The education community could benefit from studying APs through an international context. There is value in the detailed ethnographic study of one or two APs complete with observational data to help us better understand their work. Studying the training and preparation programs nationally correlated to the success of their candidates and the schools in which they work could provide a basis for a revamping of these programs. Research on the restructuring of the role of the assistant principal is also needed. There is a deficit on research of AP work and

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student achievement. The impact of professional development and mentoring for APs also beckons study. This is an area which beckons further study. The bottom line is that there is almost no research on APs and they are in a huge pivotal role in the school and should be studied further. Implications for Practice The voices of assistant principals in PSD spoke loud and clear about the need for more practical training for the role of the assistant principal. Preparation of APs needs to change. Universities should develop two separate tracks of preparation. The master’s degree in administration should contain more authentic coursework for aspiring assistant principals. Pragmatic, skill-oriented training in discipline, student management, teacher evaluation, relationship building, communication, and school law is needed in addition to longer internships. The educational specialist program should continue to prepare APs for the role of principal, focusing on building leadership, vision, mission, school improvement, and finance. Training and preparation of assistant principals must also incorporate cultural proficiency training as well as CRT. APs must be prepared to have courageous conversations and challenge racism and inequity in our educational system. Assistant principals must understand the concept of social justice and work toward the goal of equity for all students. APs must understand what it means to do social justice in discipline—fair punishment is not necessarily equal punishment. APs must not be afraid to show compassion for students who have tough circumstances when meeting out consequences. The role of the assistant principal as a whole should be reconceptualized to focus time and energies on instructional leadership and less on managerial aspects the position currently possesses. Focused quality professional development must be available to assistant principals in order to stay abreast of the latest trends in education. Mentoring must be systematic, thorough, and authentic, not simply a form filled out for the state education agency and never revisited. APs must be allowed to collaborate with their colleagues and find time during their busy days to do so. Collegial support is essential for new APs to be socialized into the profession. Both collegial support and collaboration with colleagues can invigorate APs and provide relief from the stress and burn out they experience on the job. Practitioners must redirect the focus of assistant principals from student discipline to that of student achievement if we are ever to see a closing of the achievement gap. Acknowledging the impact of racial biases and our own unconscious and engrained biases is but a first step in closing the

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achievement gap. There is much work to be done and the 2014 deadline of NCLB is looming. We cannot afford to waste a single minute. The role of the AP must change to meet the needs of instructional leadership if American schools hope to remain competitive in a global economy. CONCLUSION The assistant principal is often overlooked in school leadership literature, yet in recent years has grown to be a vital part of secondary schools (Marshall and Hooley, 2006). As the literature shows, assistant principals have tough and varied jobs necessary to ensure our schools run smoothly. Assistant principals experience frustration and joy as they work with teachers and students to improve their schools and the instruction within. They rely upon their own spirituality to guide them through difficult situations. These unsung heroes work quietly behind the scenes to ensure that schools run, education happens, and students and teachers feel valued and respected. Looking at the work of assistant principals through a CRT-informed lens has unmasked much of the bias, discrimination, oppression, and White hegemony that exist in Pleasantville School District. However, this descriptive study cannot be generalized to all schools. The work of the assistant principal is vital to the success of schools and worthy of more study. This often overlooked position in schools can become a pivotal role in improving instruction in classrooms. Racialization of discipline and achievement data remains a contentious issue in education: it must be acknowledged so that it can be addressed, combated, and defeated. Race is also important in how APs deal with their fellow educators as well as their students. It is time for us to rethink and redesign the role of APs. APs should devote time to instructional leadership instead of management and discipline. To achieve this goal, APs roles must be redefined to that of an instructional leader, rather than a manager of an organization. If the role of the AP remains as the status quo, and focuses on management, then AP training needs to change. More pragmatic application of behavior management, social justice, spirituality, learning theory, and instructional leadership is needed for APs. It is time for the field of education to recognize the valuable resource it has in the assistant principal. This resource is being squandered on trivial managerial work, when most APs are highly educated and could specialize in school and instructional improvement. It is time for the education community to recognize APs as an integral part of closing the achievement gap and improving our schools.

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APPENDIX A Interview Protocol Name _______________________________ Date __________________ How long have you been an assistant principal?________ What is your age? _________   Highest level of education?_________ Q1. What do assistant principals do? What does a typical day look like for you? What are your listed duties? How were those duties assigned? How much of your work is with teachers in an instructional leadership capacity? How much of a role (if any) does race play in the work you do? How much of a role (if any) does gender play in the work you do? How much of your work is with student management? How much of your work consists of other responsibilities? What input do you have in the policies of your school or district? Q2. How were you trained to be an assistant principal? What led you to become an assistant principal? How long did you teach before becoming an assistant principal? What was the best preparation you had for your role as an assistant principal? What aspects of your training did not adequately prepare you for becoming an AP? What (if any) would you change about your leadership training for the AP role? What type of mentoring or support did you receive upon becoming an assistant principal? What training (if any) did you receive in diversity during your preparation? Q3. What are the challenges of being an assistant principal? What is the most challenging part of your role as an assistant principal? How do you manage time as an assistant principal?

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Has your race, gender, or sexual orientation ever been a factor in your career as an assistant principal? If so, how did you deal with the bias or discrimination? How do you maintain a safe and effective learning environment? How do you manage the stress of the position? What strategies do you use to avoid burnout? Do you believe your gender impacts your work as an assistant principal? Do you find your personal instincts at odds with district policies or practices relating to your work? Q4. How personally and professionally satisfying is it being an assistant principal? What is the most personally satisfying part of your work as an Assistant Principal? Where do you find ways to interact with students in an outside of supervision or discipline? What is the most professionally satisfying work as an AP? How would you describe your career aspirations as an assistant principal? Do you aspire to a higher leadership position within your current district or another district? How do you find joy in the daily work of the assistant principal? Q5. How does spirituality impact your life and work? How do you define spirituality in regards to yourself? What would you say are some characteristics of your spirituality? How does your spirituality influence your home life? How does your spirituality influence your professional life? In regards to your duties of the AP, what role does your spirituality play in the work you do? Have you always felt this way? What kinds of things have you begun doing in your AP role because of your spirituality? What kinds of things have you stopped doing in your AP role because of your spirituality?

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REFERENCES Anyon, J. (2005). Radical possibilities. New York, NY: Routledge. Apple, M. (1982). Education and power. Boston, MA: Ark Paperbacks. Aronowitz, S., & Giroux, H. (1993). Postmodern education (2nd ed.). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Austin, D. B., & Brown, Jr., H. L. (1970). Report of the assistant principalship. Volume 3: Study of the secondary school principalship. Washington, DC: National Association of Secondary School Principals. Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. C. (1977). Reproduction in education, society, and culture. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2010). Economy at a glance: Columbia. http://www.bls. gov/eag/eag.mo_columbia_msa.htm Capper, C. (Ed.) (1993). Educational administration in a pluralistic society. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Chan, T. C., Webb, L., & Bowen, C. (2003). Are assistant principals prepared for principalship? How do assistant principals perceive? Paper presented to the annual meeting of the Sino-American Education Consortium, Kennesaw, GA. Columbia Public School District. (2010). http://www.columbia.k12.mo.us/ Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (Eds.). (2001). Critical race theory: An introduction (2nd ed.). New York, NY: New York University Press. Donmoyer, R., Imber, M., & Scheurich, J. J. (1995). The knowledge base in educational administration: Multiple perspectives. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Durkheim, E. (1961). Moral education: A study in the theory and application of the sociology of education. (E. K. Wilson & H. Schnurer, Trans.). New York: The Free Press. Hartzell, G. N., Williams, R. C., & Nelson, K. T. (1995). New voices in the field: The work lives of first-year assistant principals. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Hausman, C., Nebeker, A., McCreary, J., & Donaldson, Jr., G. (2002). The worklife of the assistant principal. Journal of Educational Administration, 40(2/3), 136–157. Laible, J., & Harrington, S. (1998). Leaders with alternative values. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1, 111–135. Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. B. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Lomotey, K. (1995). Social and cultural influences in schooling: A commentary of the UCEA knowledge base project, domain I. Educational Administration Quarterly, 21, 294–303. Lopez, G. R. (2003). The (racially neutral) politics of education: A Critical Race Theory perspective. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39(1), 68–94. Marshall, C. (1992). The assistant principalship: An overview of the frustrations, rewards. NASSP Bulletin, 76(547), 88–94. Marshall, C., & Hooley, R. M. (2006). The assistant principal: Leadership choices and challenges (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

The Assistant Principalship    173 Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (2010). District Report Card. Retrieved from http://dese.mo.gov/planning/profile/rc010093.html. National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). (1991). Restructuring the assistant principal. Reston, VA: Author. Noguera, P. A. (2003). Schools, Prisons and the Social Implications of Punishment: Rethinking disciplinary practices. Theory to Practice, 42 (4), 341–350. Noguera, P. A. (1995). Preventing and producing violence: A critical analysis of responses to school violence.  Harvard Educational Review, 65(2), 189–212. Parker, L., & Shapiro, J. P. (1992). Where is the discussion of diversity in educational administration programs? Graduate student’ voices addressing an omission in their preparation. Journal of School Leadership, 2(1), 7–33. Parker, L. & Villalpando, O. (2007, December). A race(cialized) perspective on education leadership: Critical Race Theory in educational administration. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43(5), 519–524. Price, P. (2010). At the crossroads: critical race theory and critical geographies of race. Progress in Human Geography 34(2), 147–174. Reyes, P., Velez,W., & Peña, R. (1993). School reform: Introducing race, culture, and ethnicity into the discourse. In C. Capper (Ed.), Educational administration in a pluralistic society (pp. 66–85). Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Roediger, D. R. (2005). Working toward Whiteness: How America’s immigrants become white. The strange journey from Ellis Island to the suburbs. New York, NY: Basic Books. Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2005). Qualitative interviewing—The art of hearing data. (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Scoggins, J. A., & Bishop, H. L. (1993). A review of the literature regarding the roles and responsibilities of assistant principals. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA. Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2000). Towards a critical race theory of Chicano and Chicana education. In C. Tejada, C. Martinez, & Z. Leonardo (Eds.), Charting new terrains in Chicana (o) /Latina (o) education (pp. 35–66). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Stoval, D. (2004). School leader as negotiator: Critical Race Theory, praxis, and the creation of productive space. Multicultural Education, 12(2), 8–12. Winter, P. A. (2002, November). Applicant attraction to assistant principal jobs: An experimental assessment. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the University Council of Educational Administration, Pittsburgh, PA. Young, M. D., & Laible, J. (2000). White racism, antiracism, and school leadership preparation. Journal of School Leadership, 10(5), 374–415.

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CHAPTER 7

RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY ARE MY LIFELINES Religion and Spirituality Among Black Professors at Primary-White Institutions Cassandra Chaney

ABSTRACT In this paper, I support and extend Tisdale’s (2003) assumptions regarding religion and spirituality by incorporating how religion, spirituality, education, and race shape this discourse. Specifically, this paper asserts that the relative absence of Black faculty at Primarily-White Institutions (PWIs) essentially motivates these individuals to use religion and spirituality in ways that are inextricably linked to their teaching pedagogies. This study examined the qualitative responses of 7 Black professors between the ages of 33–60 years of age to the following questions: (a) “How do you define “religiosity?” (b) How do you define “spirituality?” (c) How does religiosity influence how Black professors at PWIs deal with race-related issues in the classroom? (d) How does spirituality influence how Black professors at PWIs deal with race-related issues in the classroom? (e) What are the implications regarding how Black professors at PWIs use religiosity and spirituality in their classrooms for PWIs, more broadly? Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 175–210 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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176    C. CHANEY Qualitative analyses of the data resulted in the following themes: (a) religiosity as related to ideologies and organized practices; (b) spirituality was associated with the intersection between the individual, faith community, and the divine (Higher Power); (c) religiosity helps Black professors deal with race-related issues in the classroom by providing a source of fairness, internal struggle, selfreflection, and positive outlook; and (d) spirituality helps Black professors deal with race-related issues in the classroom by serving as a context for critique, the quest for social justice, and inner strength. Supporting qualitative data are presented in connection with each theme. Implications for practitioners and PWIs are provided as well as recommendations for future research. KEY WORDS: academe, African-American, Black, higher education, religion, spirituality To live in America is to live in a religiously charged atmosphere and that includes colleges—whether they like it or not —William M. Sullivan (2006) Spiritual growth is a continuous, lifelong process for most people —Braxton, Lang, Sales, Wingood, & DiClemente (2007, p. 124)

Religion and spirituality has the ability to inform how educators see and experience life, as well as how they teach their students to critically examine the world. Perhaps in no greater arena are these constructs more appropriate than in academe, whose primary mission is to motivate students to seek and aspire to the highest forms of intellectual development and social responsibility. A recent search of one the largest academic search engines revealed 526 manuscripts and books were published between 1975 and 2010 regarding ‘religion, spirituality, and education.’ Interestingly, when the key word “academe” was introduced into the search, only two manuscripts were published in the years 2005 and 2006, respectively. This is surprising since 60% of individuals report religion to be “important” or “very important” in their lives(McCullough et al., 2000), the increasing number of individuals who consider themselves more spiritual than religious (Zinnbauer, Pargament, Cole, Rye, Butter, Belavich, Hipp, Scott, & Kadar, 1997), and other scholars noting it [religion] to be “the single most important influence in [life]” for “a substantial minority” of Americans (Miller & Thoresen, 2003, p. 25). Clearly, in spite of its importance for members of the general population, and its historical and contemporaneous salience for Black1 Americans (Reddie, 2009; Taylor & Chatters, 1991; Taylor, Jackson, & Chatters, 1997; Walker, 2009), religion and spirituality holds a tertiary position in academe. Given the burgeoning attention given to religion and spirituality in academe, very little is known about how Black professionals at Primarily White Institutions (PWIs) define each of these constructs as well as how religion and spirituality informs their pedagogies. To address this paucity, I invited

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7 Black professors to provide their own narrative in response to these topics and used qualitative methods for the analysis of these data. After examining the data, I discuss how the narratives provided in this study can better elucidate the unique experiences of Black faculty, during various stages of their professional development, as well as how the incorporation of religious and spiritual values can contribute to, rather than hinder critical thinking. As is typical in qualitative research, this study is limited by its sample size and scope. I will minimize this limitation and promote the transferability of the study, beginning with the placement of this work within the context of the empirical literature and ending with recommendations based on my findings and its implications for academe. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Recent scholarship has examined religion and spirituality influence on a wide array of human experiences. For example, some studies have explored how gay Black men (Jeffries, Dodge, & Sandfort, 2008; Sneed, 2008), and gay, bisexual, lesbian, and transgender individuals define these terms (Halkitis, Mattis, Sahadath, Massie, Ladyzhenskaya, Pitrelli, Bonacci, & Cowie, 2009) as well as how these definitions shape their attitudes and behaviors. Other studies have examined how religion and spirituality has helped Black women to end abusive relationships (Potter, 2007), lead to more effective coping among individuals living with HIV (Ridge, Williams, Anderson, & Elford, 2008), and new explorations regarding the connection between religion, spirituality, and health (Miller & Thoresen, 2003). Distinctions Between Religion and Spirituality Although used interchangeably, several distinctions have been found between religion and spirituality. Over forty years ago, religiosity was identified as “the human enterprise by which a sacred cosmos is established” (Berger, 1967), while spirituality was associated with becoming a person in the fullest sense (Macquarrie, 1972). Some scholars associated religiosity with “church teachings” (Best, 1996), while others regarded spirituality as “a process by which people interpret, disclose, formulate, adapt, and innovate reality and their understandings of God within a specific context or culture” (Stewart, 1999). In addition, qualitative research has been especially instrumental in further identifying the differential meaning between these terms for Blacks, in particular. In her study of 130 African American women, ages 16–69, Mattis (1996) found religion to be defined as an adherence to prescribed doctrines and

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traditions, while spirituality was primarily identified as crucial in the construction of meaning (i.e., in identifying one’s life purpose, and in explaining experience). Using two qualitative studies among 149 African American women, Mattis (2000) later identified three key differences between these terms. First, while religiosity is associated with organized worship, spirituality is defined as “the internalization of positive values.” Second, religion is conceptualized as “a path” and spirituality “as an outcome.” Finally, whereas religion is tied to worship, spirituality is associated with relationships. Later, Mattis, Murray, Hatcher, Hearn, Lawhon, Murphy, and Washington (2001) quantitatively examined the friendships of 171 African American men and the impact of religion and spirituality on the development and maintenance of these relationships. These scholars found that while subjective religiosity had little impact on the quality of men’s same and cross-sex friendships, spirituality strongly predicted men’s perceived support among same-sex friendships. More recent work has revealed unique nuances between these terms for Black men and women. In her ethnographic study of the distinctions that members of a Black church community make between the terms “religion” and “spirituality,” Chaney (2008) found religion to be associated with external behaviors and internalized beliefs, while spirituality was linked to acknowledging a “spiritual reality” and feelings of connectedness to God. Clearly, religion and spirituality are not the same for many Black men and women, but the way that each of these constructs is experienced among Black professionals in academe is still, for the most part, unknown. Religion and Spirituality in Academe A growing number of fields have integrated religious and spiritual issues into their fields of study. Perhaps in no other fields have these issues been more foundational than those of social work and nursing. In his quantitative study regarding the inclusion of religion and spirituality among 280 social work educators, Sheridan (1994) found that while many instructors saw the benefit of educating students regarding these issues, most expressed concerns regarding how to discuss these topics within the classroom, and believed that the course should be an elective, and not a requirement. Even beyond the boundaries of the United States, issues regarding religion and spirituality are important issues for those in the helping professions. In their examination of the perceived importance of religion and spirituality for practicing social workers in the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), Sheridan and Hemert (1999) found that while most respondents believed spirituality to be “a fundamental aspect of being human,” more than three-quarters of them reported little or no content on religion

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and spirituality in their educational programs. In particular, the men and women in this study strongly approved of introducing the topic of religion and spirituality with clients who are experiencing terminal illness, bereavement, adoption, and foster parenting. Furthermore, almost half (47%) of these professionals believed religion and spirituality to be compatible with social work’s mission. Through the use of quantitative methods, other scholars have found that while the overwhelming majority of social work students favor the inclusion of religion and spirituality in social work, most lament their lack of exposure to these issues in classroom settlings (Furman, Benson, Grimwood, & Canda, 2004). Spirituality In perhaps one of the most comprehensive offerings regarding the role of spirituality in higher education to date, Elizabeth Tisdale (2003) acknowledges the delicate relationship between how the unseen, or spirituality, transforms learning within the context of academe. By focusing on spirituality, this scholar is not suggesting that academicians abandon elevated ways of thinking, which is the hallmark of higher education, but rather acknowledge the various ways through which students learn while connecting with their environments. For Tisdale (2003), spirituality rests on the following seven assumptions: (a) spirituality and religion are not the same, but for many people they are interrelated; (b) spirituality is an awareness and honoring of wholeness and the interconnectedness of all things through the mystery of what many refer to as the Life-Source, God, higher power, higher self, cosmic energy, Buddha nature, of Great Spirit; (c) spirituality is fundamentally about meaning making; (d) spirituality is always present (though often unacknowledged); (e) spiritual development constitutes moving toward greater authenticity or to a more authentic self; (f) spirituality is about how people construct knowledge through largely unconscious and symbolic processes, often made more concrete in art forms such as music, image, symbol, and ritual, all of which are manifested culturally; and (g) spiritual experiences most often happen by surprise.(p. xi)

Essentially, spirituality allows for classroom inclusion, integration, and acceptance for it respects and validates the unique ways in which individuals learn, critique, and embrace knowledge and everyday realities. At this point, I would like to build upon Tisdale’s assessment of religiosity and spirituality by also recognizing (a) religious and spiritual values as the foundation on which instructors within academe should validate the racial experiences of all students; (b) religious and spiritual values as a source of

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internal conflict among instructors in academe whose charge is to heighten critical and intellectual awareness among their students, yet who do so in the face of race-related issues that are not consistent with religiosity and spirituality’s quest to realize their higher selves; and (c) that religion and spirituality are necessary strategies of coping for marginalized instructors in academe who are numerical and collective ideological racial minorities. The History and Exclusionary Practices of PrimaryWhite Institutions (PWIs) The relative absence of Black faculty has been a pervasive issue in higher education (Allen, Epps, & Guillory, 2000; U.S. Department of Education, 2011). In particular, “the absence of these scholars within PWIs reinforces false stereotypes that Blacks cannot or do not succeed in higher education (Smith 2004), inhibits an institution’s ability to recruit and retain newer African American faculty (Blackwell 1989; Holland 1993; Witt 1990), and limits the number of same-race mentors for African American students, which is central to their academic success (Grant-Thompson & Atkinson, 1997; Hickson, 2002; Patton, 2009)” (as quoted in Patton & Catching, 2009, p. 714). In addition, the scarcity of Black tenured scholars greatly restricts their capacity to actively advocate for institutional policies that adequately address diversity and equity issues on campus (Assensoh, 2003). Moreover, even when they are physically present their demographical absence contributes to the frequent feelings of isolation that many Black faculty experience. To support this, previous scholars that found that although Black faculty are largely invisible among the largely White professoriate, they immediately become “hyper-visible” when their presence is needed to serve as the “diversity” voice within their departments, and the university, more broadly (Stanley, 2006; Thomas & Hollenshead, 2001; Turner & Myers, 2000). Furthermore, Black faculty frequently feel that they have to work twice as hard as their white colleagues, which bring significant forms of psychological, mental, and emotional stress (Johnson-Bailey, 1999; Laden & Hagedorn, 2000; Patton & Catching, 2009; Smith & Witt, 1996). Thus, the PWI becomes a work environment in which the Black academic is disconnected from others like himself, his contributions are invalidated, his knowledge and scholarship is marginalized, and he must financially support himself in a climate that produces form of stress in his life that other contexts do not offer. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CURRENT STUDY There are four reasons why an examination of the definition and manifestation of religiosity and spirituality among Black professors at PWIs is

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important. First, and foremost, the historical and contemporaneous importance of religion and spirituality in the lives of many Blacks (Chaney, 2002; Taylor & Chatters, 1991; Taylor, Jackson, & Chatters, 1997; Walker, 2009) makes these constructs pivotal in understanding how these professionals view the world as well as how these views informs their educational pedagogies and in-class experiences. Second, while previous scholarship has examined the experiences of Black female graduate students at White research institutions (Williams, Brewley, Reed, White, & Davis-Haley, 2005), the experiences of Black professors at Primarily-White Institutions (PWIs) have been virtually ignored in the literature. Since Black faculty has been underrepresented within predominantly white institutions (PWIs), it is important to examine how Black faculty use religiosity and spirituality to successfully cope with the academic isolation, marginalization of their scholarship, and racial hostility that they face (Patton & Catching, 2009). Third, given the social injustices experienced by Blacks and other minorities within and outside of the United States (Reese, 2004; 2001), university classrooms are fertile grounds for self-reflection, critique, and expression among professors and students. In other words, since professors are given the charge to motivate their students to critically think about the world, through this process, they (professors) are forced to critique, rely on, and/or modify their own values related to religion and spirituality, and encourage their students to do the same. More clearly, the values of the instructor determines whether religion and spirituality holds a tertiary position in the classroom, or become an active, living, impetus for critique, open dialogue, and change, especially regarding issues related to race. Fourth, increasing diversity in the workplace, and the number of individual and family changes in society has resulted in many employees using religion and spirituality as ways of seeking value, support, and meaning in their lives. Given their marginalized position as minorities (in terms of numbers) and lack of generalized acceptance of their individualized and collective ideologies regarding race, Black faculty may conceptualize religion and spirituality in ways that contribute to their value as individuals, the type of support that they receive and give, as well as the meaning that their lives and positions at educators at PWIs. Although past studies have found spirituality to be less controversial than religion (Cash, Gray, & Rood, 2000), both are traditionally important for Blacks. Last, understanding how Black professors use these terms bridges the Black religion, Black spirituality, and Black experiences in higher education literatures. While I acknowledge that religion and spirituality informs the experiences of Black professors at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), I argue that Black professors at PWIs are a unique subset of the population. For one, there are fewer Black professors at PWIs than Whites, and in many colleges and universities in the United States, many

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are the only Black professor in their department. In addition, Black professors at PWIs primarily teach to primarily White audiences, while White professors rarely teach to primarily Black audiences. Furthermore, as HBCUs are primarily attended by Black professors and students, issues regarding race can be more openly critiqued and discussed. Given these realities, it is important that given their position in academe, the literature identifies the unique ways that Black professors at PWIs conceptualize religiosity and spirituality as well as how these constructs informs their experiences and educational pedagogies. The Current Study This qualitative study has two major goals. First, this study aims to identify the definitions of religiosity and spirituality provided by Black professors, a unique minority segment of the population. Second, this study seeks to identify the specific ways that these constructs inform the experiences and teaching pedagogies of Black professors. This study’s focus on Black professors is deliberate. Past research has shown that Black professors at Primarily-White Institutions (PWIs) face unique challenges when teaching White students (Ladson-Billings, 1996), including but not limited to their credibility as instructors (Hendrix, 1998). However, given the historical importance of religion and spirituality for Blacks (Taylor, Jackson, & Chatters, 1997; Walker, 2009), scholars know very little about how Black professors at PWIs define these constructs as well as the extent to which these constructs inform how they deal with race-related issues within and outside of the classroom. The four questions that guided this research are as follows: (a) How do Black professors define “religiosity?” (b) How do Black professors define “spirituality?” (c) How does religiosity influence how Black professors at PWIs deal with race-related issues in the classroom? (d) How does spirituality influence how Black professors at PWIs deal with race-related issues in the classroom? There are two major limitations with the aforementioned research. First, the majority of scholarship devoted to spirituality in classroom settings has concentrated on the fields of nursing (Becker, 2009) and social work (Furman, Benson, Grimwood, & Canda, 2004; Rothman, 2009; Sheridan, 1994; Sheridan & Hemert, 1999), and ignores religion. Unfortunately, this view fails to recognize how religion and spirituality can support, and at times, be in conflict with one another. In addition, this view assumes that the fields of nursing and social work are the only or best forums through which to integrate religious and spiritual values. Given the pervasive salience of religion and spirituality for Black men and women, I believe that these constructs

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are mutually-supportive and have the potential to extend the learning objectives of a larger number of disciplines. Second, with few exceptions (Ladson-Billings, 1996), much of the research on religion and spirituality in academe has relied on quantitative methods to elucidate the value of these constructs for students, not faculty. This study will fill this gap in the research by qualitatively analyzing Black professor’s written narratives regarding how they define and experience religiosity and spirituality as well as how they integrate these constructs in the classroom when discussing issues regarding race. METHODOLOGY Sample Seven (7) Black professors (four women; three men) from various universities in the United States self-selected for participation in the study. Three individuals were from universities in the South, two were from universities in the East, and two individuals represented universities in the West and Midwest, respectively. The participants were advised that the researcher was interested in how Black professors define the terms “religiosity” and “spirituality” as well as how each of these constructs informs their pedagogies regarding race-related issues in the classroom. The participants completed an open-ended survey and their identity was protected through pseudonyms. This methodology was chosen because it was a time-efficient way for the researcher to solicit the perspectives of anyone who chose to participate to pen their opinions, values, and experiences in a private, nonthreatening, and safe environment. Participants were in the 33–60 age range, and had an average age of 41. Six individuals were Assistant Professors and one was an Associate Professor. Two participants were single/never married; two were married; and three were divorced. Although four individuals did not have children, three individuals had at least one child between the ages of 2–24 years of age. These professionals had annual incomes in the $68,000–$89,999 range. Research Design To identify the themes that emerged from the written interviews, all narrative responses were content analyzed using grounded theory and an open-coding process (Holsti, 1969; Strauss & Corbin, 1990; Taylor & Bogdan, 1998). In keeping with open-coding techniques, no a priori categories were imposed on the narrative data. Instead, themes were identified

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from the narratives. In order to clearly abstract themes from the written responses, words and phrases were the units of analysis. Approximately 4–6 phrases constituted a particular theme. So, if when describing “religiosity,” the participants used the words “rituals,” “church teachings,” or “doctrine,” these words were regarded as anchors indicating religion as associated with the teachings of a particular religious organization. Specifically, coding involved examining all responses, keeping track of emerging themes, assigning words and symbols to each coding category, and examining how the themes presented are specifically related to religiosity and spirituality. To control for the “length and stylistic complexity” of written and verbal responses, raters only coded for the “presence or absence of endorsement” of particular categories (Mattis, 2000). To assess the reliability of the coding system, a list of all codes and their definitions along with the responses were given to two outsiders who then coded the transcripts based on this predetermined list of codes. The outside coder was selected due to their extensive experience with coding and analyzing narrative data. This strategy allowed for a qualitative version of interrater reliability in that only core themes/concepts that: (a) were identified by both coders; (b) occurred in the majority of the participants’ responses; and (c) were salient, are included in this paper. After a 98% coding reliability rate was established between the researcher and the outside coder, it was determined that a working coding system had been established. In order to sufficiently control for reliability, a second outside coder was selected to code and analyze the narrative data after the initial coding reliability had been established. The mean inter-rater agreement for the second coder was 97%. I am confident that this approach promotes overall rigor, reliability, and validity of the qualitative findings that are highlighted in this study as well as greatly minimizes the likelihood that the researcher’s biases heavily influenced the reported outcomes in this study. PRESENTATION OF THE DATA In the subsequent paragraphs of this paper, the primary themes that emerged from the written narratives related to the four questions of interest will be highlighted. Specifically, the definition of religiosity was related to religious ideologies and organized practices. The definition of spirituality was related to the intersection of the individual, faith community, and the divine (Higher Power). Religiosity helps Black professors deal with racerelated issues in the classroom by providing a source of fairness, internal struggle, self-reflection, and positive outlook. Spirituality helps Black professors deal with race-related issues in the classroom by serving as a context for critique, the quest for social justice and inner strength.

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THE DEFINITION OF RELIGIOSITY Theme 1: Religiosity as Ideologies and Organized Practices For the majority of the women and men, the word “religiosity” was associated with the ideologies of various religions as well as the organized practices of a particular faith. When describing what “religiosity” mean to him, Nicholas, a 39-year old married, Assistant Professor, who also did not identify with a particular religion, described this construct as: The extent to which an individual practices a particular religion and constructs their lives around those practices.

The religiosity as “practice” theme was resonated by Isaac, a 60-year old divorced, Associate Professor who also did not identify with a particular religion. In many respects, his perspective mirrored that provided by Nicholas. When sharing what “religiosity” meant to him, he expressed himself in this way: Commitment to and affiliation a formal doctrine commonly known as a religion; the practice of that doctrine.

To further support the “religiosity as practice” perspectives provided by Nicholas and Isaac, Yvette, a 38-year old Religious Scientist, and Assistant Professor believed “religiosity” to be akin to social actions that further the goals of a particular faith. She shared the following: I believe religion includes social actions and practices geared toward reinforcing a particular belief system.

For others, “religiosity” involved ideological rigidity and nonflexibility. When describing what “religiosity” meant to her, Kara, a 33-year old Baptist Assistant Professor shared this perspective: I think that it reflects the organization, systemization, and regulation of religious canons and/or religious denominations. Its presence is already predetermined, rigid, and standardized.

To further support the practices and social actions views provided by the aforementioned, one individual saw religiosity as a bridge between the physical, metaphysical, and political. When describing what religion meant to him, David, a 38-year old single, never married, Catholic Assistant Professor expressed himself in this way:

186    C. CHANEY I think of it as the organized structures i.e., physical/material manifestation of organized faith . . . religion/religiosity is the Utamawazo or political economy of the ideologies forwarded by a specific faith community.

“Religiosity” can also be seen as foundational to the faith that an individual possesses. To further extend the “practices” commentaries already provided, one individual shared that these “practices” involve three specific behaviors. When describing what “religiosity” meant to her, Andrea, a 37year old divorced Assistant Professor, who identified as Christian, shared this view: To me, religiosity is the practices of a particular religion. It is the foundation on which a person’s faith is built. To me, religiosity involves regular attendance and active involvement with a particular religious organization, and adherence to the standards (thoughts, words, and deeds) of that organization.

Although religion has been generally found to be historically important for most Blacks, one professor believed the term to be nondescriptive of her and the quality of her relationship with God. In addition, “religiosity” was seen as constricting, while spirituality was seen as a better facilitator of nurturance, growth, and connection to God and other. When describing what religion meant to her, Edwina, a 39-year old single, Assistant Professor who did not process a particular religion shared this interesting commentary: It certainly is not how I would define myself. The term sounds more ruleladen rather than the spirituality relationship I consider myself to have with God. This term appears “fundamentalist” to me. The term seems to carry the “feeling” of merely following the rules. Religiosity does not carry the importance of spirit-nurturing, growth, or soul connection to God and to others. I think that one can be religious and have none of those things. However, I think religiosity CAN carry those things.

Religiosity as Ideologies and Organized Practices was associated with religious specificity, as well as practices that are acknowledged regardless whether the individual identifies with a particular religion or not. While Nicholas and Isaac associated religiosity with “practices,” Yvette extended this theme by incorporating “social actions” into this dialogue. Furthermore, Kara saw religiosity as regulatory, “predetermined” and “rigid,” David highlighted its connection between the seen, unseen, and political, while others saw this construct as foundational to the specific behaviors in which one engages. For Andrea, religiosity as organized practices included “regular attendance and active involvement with a particular religious organization, and adherence to the standards (thoughts, words, and deeds) of that organization.” In addition, it is also important to note that for Edwina, religiosity was seen

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as “rule-laden” and “fundamentalist” while spirituality was viewed as “spiritnurturing, growth, or soul connection to God and to others.” Given spirituality’s elevated position for this individual, attention will now be given to how these men and women defined this term. THE DEFINITION OF SPIRITUALITY Theme 2: Spirituality as Intersection Between the Individual, Faith Community, and the Divine (Higher Power) Consistent with previous research, the men and women in this study described “spirituality” in terms the frequency and quality of one’s relationship with an unseen force, frequently referred to as “the divine,” “God,” “gods,” ancestors,” “Higher Power,” or a “sacred cosmos.” When describing what spirituality meant to her, for one woman, spirituality involves a “relationship” with an invisible entity. Yvette shared this view: “Spirituality is one’s personal interaction and relationship with the divine.” Spirituality as “relationship” was further supported by another participant. When describing what spirituality meant to him, Nicholas expressed himself in this way: A person’s relationship with God, gods, ancestors, or other objects that provide comfort from worldly problems through metaphysical mechanisms.

In a slight departure from the aforementioned perspectives, another professor saw the acknowledgement, or belief in a higher power should be consistent with an individual’s moral, ethical, and interpersonal feelings of responsibility. When sharing his view of “spirituality” Isaac used these words: Belief in a higher power and acting in consonance with the morality, ethics, and interpersonal ethos represented by that higher power.

Interestingly, another individual drew attention to the oftentimes irrational and flexible nature of “spirituality.” Kara shared her beliefs regarding this construct in this way: I think that it encompasses experiences, beliefs, and epistemologies that cannot be defined by or limited to logic, rationality, or proofs. Its presence is fluid, flexible, and changeable.

Another professor highlighted that Western ideological obsessions with rationalization via theory, measurability, observation, and textual

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acknowledgment, render it impossible to identify when the individual, community, and a “higher power” intersect. When discussing what “spirituality” meant to him, David expressed himself in this way: Spirituality is the actual lived encounter with the sacred cosmos in which the individual, faith community, and higher power meet. These connections have the potential to be so powerful that Western obsessions with empirical/measurable/ontological, written, and linearity are incapable of expressing. And subsequently often end up being reduced to their simplest terms.

Like David, another professor described “spirituality” in terms of the connection between individuals, family, friends, and God. However, in contrast to the previous views, “spirituality” was seen as the motivation for serving God, establishing and maintaining a strong relationship with God, and the desire to be a better person. When describing the personal meaning that this construct had for her, Andrea shared this uniquely complex commentary: Spirituality is the relationship that you build With God, your family, friends, and fellowmen. Earlier I said that religion is the foundation on which a person’s faith is built, so spirituality is what you do to maintain the relationship that you have with God, your family, friends, and fellowmen. Spirituality also reveals our true motives for serving God, because for me, spirituality is something that one cultivates away from the eyes of others. Spirituality motivates me to want to be a better person, a faithful worshiper and develop and maintain a strong, unwavering relationship with God.

Like “religiosity,” Edwina found it difficult to describe herself as “spiritual,” due to its general lack of agreed-upon meaning. In addition, since “religiosity” has not been positively received by others, she chooses to “honor the humanity of others” by tapping into her spiritual side. When describing her feelings, Edwina provided this extended narrative: Spirituality is not how I would describe myself either. It almost seems to not be a well-enough defined term for me. I would say that it can apply to any religion or nonreligion and would relate to some belief system that attends to the spirit. Ultimately I know that I feel this way because of my Baptist and then nondenominational Judeo-Christian worldview. I do order my life according to the “rules” of my religious beliefs, but I also know that there is an intangible, spiritual part of my beliefs that really come from faith. I don’t know a good way to describe either religiosity or spirituality as sometimes they seem interconnected to me in my own life. The idea of being “religious” has also not been well-received in larger society for many reasons. And I suppose that I have such a desire to honor the humanity of others that this is not how I want

Religion and Spirituality Are My Lifelines    189 to be perceived. It is not the label or the term really that is important to me. It is how I am living and loving God and others.

Spirituality as Intersection Between the Individual, Faith Community, and the Divine (Higher Power) was associated with the relationship that an individual has with an unseen entity as well as the ways in which this relationship influences how an individual interacts with others around him. For Yvette and Nicholas “spirituality” involves one’s “relationship” with God, while Isaac believed that continuity should exist between one’s “belief in a higher power” and their “morality, ethics, and interpersonal ethos” which is the basis on which the representation of spirituality rests. Furthermore, Kara highlighted the illogical and irrational nature of “spirituality” as well as its “fluid, flexible, and changeable” nature. For David, spirituality’s power is oftentimes simplified due to its inability to be explained via “empirical, measurable, ontological, written, and linearity.” For Andrea, “spirituality” addresses the authentic motives by which individuals enter into and maintain an “unwavering” relationship with God, “away from the eyes of others.” Interestingly, given the negative stigma associated with religious identification, Edwina saw “spirituality” as a more effective tool by which to “honor the humanity of others.” Given spirituality’s connection to the individual, community, and the unseen, I will now address how Black professors use religiosity when addressing race-related issues in the classroom. RELIGIOSITY AND RACE-RELATED ISSUES IN THE CLASSROOM Theme 3: Religiosity As a Source of Fairness, Internal Struggle, Self-Reflection, and Positive Outlook Black professors utilize a variety of strategies when incorporating religiosity into their classroom pedagogies. Although one person did not interject religion when discussing issues pertaining to race, other professors drew attention to critical aspects of religion, positive and negative aspects of religion, used religiosity as a barometer of equitable treatment within the classroom setting, as a source of internal struggle and self-reflection, as well as the means through which a positive outlook is experienced. Nicholas, who did not consider himself religious, shared that religiosity had minimal impact on his teaching. He said the following: It doesn’t, really. I’m not a religious person, so I don’t draw upon any particular beliefs when dealing with race-related issues.

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When discussing how “religiosity” influences how she deals with race-related issues in the classroom, Edwina admits to being open to the intersection of race and religion in the classroom. She shared the following: Although religiosity is not how I view my own beliefs, I know that I often critique it in dealing with race-related issues. For instance, I discuss epistemologies, ontologies, and axiologies and how religiosity is a valid standpoint from which individuals make sense of the world and cannot be discounted. However, we also discuss how these religious influences can be positive or negative. What I guess I mean is that the articulation of religion should be unpacked.

Given the intricateness of race-related issues, Isaac shared that he uses religiosity as a barometer for equal treatment within the classroom. He expressed himself in this way: I treat students as equally as I can, and enforce equal treatment by them toward each other and me. Race is a topic in all of my classes, so we discuss those issues as part of our curriculum.

In contrast to Isaac’s use of religiosity as a barometer for equal treatment, David expressed that given the historical underpinnings of his faith; religiosity can at times be a source of internal conflict and frustration. He provided the following extended narrative to articulate his feelings: Religiosity causes me to struggle in numerous and profound ways. On the one hand as a Christian and practicing Catholic while still also a history person the Church is a difficult place for me regardless of its Catholic, Protestant, or proposed nondenominational incarnation that actually makes a denomination out of being nondenominational. The first problem is that as a predecessor of influence with Europe the great commission that there is One God, One faith, One interpretation and all others are heathen, inferior and subsequently must be eradicated and conquered is a direct off shoot of Plato read through Judaism, planted in Christianity and I vital justification for the colonization that we are still reeling from today. Simply stated split the world into us against them if you are not in my team I am fully justified for my actions to either convert or dominate . . . Oh and my faith and more importantly MY GOD says it’s ok . . .  The way that plays out in my classroom is it causes me to be extremely harsh in ways that sometimes surprise me in my reading of Christians who don’t know the history of the church that they claim. Hence I am currently outraged and disgusted with the Catholic Church and particularly the Pope’s position of acting as if he is the victim when he stood by and allowed hundreds of children to be abused and did nothing. How dare you make the idiotic and insulting claim that you are Christ representative on earth when you know Christ would not stand for such vile actions.

Religion and Spirituality Are My Lifelines    191 The racial component of it comes in when I hear black folks who have been the recipients of the harshest treatment by the Christian Church simply accept it and not acknowledge that our participation with the Christian Church just as our perfect English is testimony of how the Pope is just the tip of the iceberg of how we have been colonized damaged and totally victimized!

For another professor, religiosity keeps her focused on her role as an instructor as well as the need to present race-related issues in a way that will increase the likelihood students will critically think about how race permeates all aspects of society. When describing the various ways that she uses “religiosity” to deal with race-related issues in the classroom, Andrea provided this extended commentary: Religiosity helps me to remain focused regarding my primary reason for being there. As a professor, it is my JOB to shed light on issues that may at times, be uncomfortable to discuss, and this definitely includes issues regarding race, gender, and social class. Freedom of academic expression is the hallmark on which academe was built, so I would not be effective as an educator if this were not my usual practice. In addition, my religious values help me to present issues, especially those pertaining to race, in a responsible, critical, fair, and empathetic way. Essentially, I live by The Golden Rule which says that I should always treat others in the same manner that I would want them to treat me. For me, this means that I should always present issues in ways that lend themselves to my student’s actually absorbing the information, and ultimately changing their thinking. The Bible says that one’s words should always be “seasoned with salt,” so for me this means that I must always be aware of not only what I say, but how I say it. As a professor, I’ve noticed that White students get quiet when the topic of race comes up. I believe that this is because White professors in academe generally do not make students actively conscious of the ways that race touches everyday life experiences because they are members of the dominant group. Essentially, religiosity keeps me focused, diminishes feelings of upset (when students say things that are racially-insensitive orally or in writing), forces me to rely on God more through prayer and meditation, and keeps me determined to say what needs to be said in a way that will hopefully alter the student’s current mindset. However, it is important that I always present information in a way that challenges current ways of thinking, greatly increases the likelihood that it will change how my students see race, the racial experiences of other minorities, as well as how they [White students and even educated Black students] are oftentimes privileged without even realizing it.

In support of the meditation and prayer theme provided by Andrea, Yvette also uses these tools to deal with race-related issues in a nonemotional and positive way. Interestingly, Yvette used an interesting metaphor when successfully coping with the various “isms” that are inherently tied to race. When

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discussing the specific ways that she uses religiosity when dealing with racerelated issues in the classroom, Yvette expressed herself in this way: Meditation and prayer are very important in my religion. When I am dealing with race based issues I try to meditate and pray more. It is my coping mechanism. In my religion it is also important to focus on what we WANT rather than what we do not want. To deal with race based issues I have learned to view them as watching a movie. When we watch a movie, we do not take anything personally or hold on to emotions once we turn off the DVD player or leave the theater. This is how we are taught to deal with the “isms,” to observe them, do not take them personally, and to work hard for what we WANT (peace, justice, equality, etc.) which in turn will address the “isms’ without immersing us in the negativity they often produce. It also teaches that we have a choice, to focus on peace, love, justice, or to be bogged down by emotions of anger, depression, revenge, etc. We have a choice to move towards the positive qualities, which is the part of God within us, or to repel those qualities. Dr. Micheal Beckwith is considered one of best spiritual leaders in my faith. He says it all much better than I can on this page. Go to the following link and move the bar towards the middle of the main video clip to skip to his sermon: http://indigoplatforms.tv/show/agapelive. All of his sermons are online. He is simply AMAZING. His teachings help me weather being on the tenuretrack, which for many can lead them to chronic negative thinking, stress and sometimes physical and mental health problems.

For Kara, religiosity necessitates she be aware, as well as help her students recognize the ways in which religion has been used to help advanced the interests of some entities, and minimize those of others. Like Andrea this involves challenging students in such a way that they clear articulate the foundation for their personalized stance in a certain issue. Kara used the following words to describe how she engages “religiosity” within the classroom context: Like race, I engage religiosity as a complex system of ideals and practices that is embedded with organizational and individual politics and agendas that have historical, cultural, sociological, and psychological implications. Since I am in the business educating, I have no problem educating both religious and nonreligious students about the connections between these systems. However, I do spend a lot of time preparing students for a classroom environment for engaging in conversations that may challenge them personally and professionally and where “agreeing to disagree” is a stance I will allow them to take as long as they are able articulate the foundation of their stance including the challenge(s) to it in relation to the issue(s) at hand and the systems involved.

Religion and Spirituality Are My Lifelines    193 In short, religiosity has helped me understand as well as convey how beliefs and faith have been systemized and regulated and how issues race are no exception whether they occur inside or outside of the classroom.

Religiosity as a Source of Fairness, Internal Struggle, Self-Reflection, and Positive Outlook pinpointed the specific ways that Black professors utilize religion and religious values to discuss complex issues regarding race. Although Nicholas did not implement religiosity within his classroom education, the other individuals relied on unique and complimentary strategies when integrating what are generally sensitive and conflict-ridden issues. Edwina validates the experience of religiosity by acknowledging it as “a valid standpoint from which individuals make sense of the world and cannot be discounted.” In addition, Isaac uses the classroom as a micro-template for the type of “equal treatment” that students should demonstrate toward him and one another. Conversely, religiosity has caused David to “struggle in numerous and profound ways” and critically analyze historical and contemporary modes of behavior, which includes racial oppression, that are not consistent with Christian teachings. For David, a great deal of his struggle is linked to the European belief in “One God, One faith, One interpretation” which renders all others “heathen” and “inferior,” however, he reconciles these feelings by being aware of the history of his religious organization and encouraging critical thought in others. Conversely, religiosity helps Andrea to remain cognizant of the way in which she presents sensitive issues regarding race. Essentially, her religious values, and in particular The Golden Rule “help her to present issues, especially those pertaining to race, in a responsible, critical, fair, and empathetic way.” In addition, like Andrea, Yvette relies on prayer and meditation when discussing race-related issues in the classroom. Interestingly, by concentrating on what she “wants” as opposed to what she doesn’t, this helps this scholar to remain positive in the face of various “isms.” In contrast, Kara holds religiosity as a form of critique, or the means by which to challenge students and force them to clearly articulate the rationale for their perspectives. Now that the various ways that Black professors use religiosity in their classrooms have been identified, I will now address how these professionals utilize spirituality when addressing race-related issues in the classroom. SPIRITUALITY AND RACE-RELATED ISSUES IN THE CLASSROOM Theme 4: Spirituality as a Context for Critique, the Quest for Social Justice and Inner Strength For these Black professors, spirituality is an intangible, yet pervasive source of strength that motivates how race is experienced, the responses

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provided to students within the classroom, to operate from a position of fairness and seek the best from themselves and others, striking a balance between personal conviction and critical thinking, as a tool in the quest for social justice, as psychological “lifelines” in an unjust world, and provides the inner strength to cope with life’s adversities. When discussing how “spirituality” influences how she deals with race-related issues in the classroom, Edwina acknowledges this construct to be more aligned with race-related issues than religiosity, although she addresses both in her classroom teachings. She shared this: I often use this in explaining certain ways of knowing. The idea of spirituality seems more compatible with discussing race-related issues. Actually I take that back. I often discuss religion and spirituality as distinct terms but also use the terms interchangeably. I deal with the articulation of each of these.

In a slight departure from Edwina’s comment, Nicholas uses a particular strategy when entering the classroom, which greatly helps him to consistently respond in the most effective way. When discussing this strategy, he said: When we say, “race-related issues,” I’m not sure what is meant. I go into each class session “prayed up” if you will, because I anticipate having to contend with predominantly white students and I want to be sure I stay “centered” at all times so I can always respond with my “higher” self.

In their quest to be their “higher self,” other professors saw the need to use their classrooms as forums of equitable and fair treatment. When discussing how “spirituality” influences how he deals with race-related issues in the classroom, Isaac expressed himself in this way: I treat students as equally as I can, and enforce equal treatment by them toward each other and me. Race is a topic in all of my classes, so we discuss those issues as part of our curriculum. I encourage students to seek the best in themselves, and find the best in each other. When that does not occur, I have private conversations with them to insure that they are not damaged by what was discussed, and that they do not damage others with their views.

Another professor saw academe as an entity that has little impact on the type of relationship that one has with God (spirituality). Interestingly, the student and the academician are on par, both open to views that may at times support, and be in conflict with their spiritual values. When discussing how “spirituality” influences how he deals with race-related issues in the classroom, David described this process as conflict-ridden, crystallizing, and at times, unexplainable. David used the following narrative to articulate how he felt about this matter:

Religion and Spirituality Are My Lifelines    195 This is where the conflict comes in because I believe regardless of the history of the church God is intimately concerned with each one of us and to not see the God in each individual is not an option. The academy, classroom, work place, etc. does not set the parameters it is the opposite God sets the nature of the relationship and the classroom context is secondary. In my best moments of practice I want to think my constant desire to hear the other position regardless of if I agree or not, make myself vulnerable and even at times down play my position afforded through the academy is a direct manifestation of my spirituality. Even as I raise deep questions of myself, the class topic, etc. I hope it is done in a way that does not diminish my personal faith commitments but lays them opened for critique just like the topics we are directly covering in class. Now in reality I’m extremely conflicted about these issues because I truly believe in the tenants of Christianity and often ask student’s questions about the insidious possibilities associated with the faith that I can’t answer myself.

Spirituality helps another professor to not internalize racism, but to rather view it in simplistic terms, or specifically as “another’s or a group’s lack of spiritual consciousness and growth.” For Yvette, problems students may have regarding discussing race-related issues and/or racism has no influence on her determination to uphold social justice. When describing how “spirituality” influences how she deals with race-related issues in the classroom, Yvette provided this unique perspective regarding her students, their developmental level, and her role as an instructor: I try my best to do the above, however of course I am growing in spirit and may not be as positive as I should sometimes. I am growing and get stronger every day. However, to get back to the question, I think my spirituality helps me deal with the negativity of racism by encouraging me to step back from it and view it for what it really is: another’s or a groups’ lack of spiritual consciousness and growth. Racism is rooted in fear and anger: neither of these are of God or pure love. As a teacher I am to share material that emphasizes the importance of justice, equality, and peace. All of these are of God. That is what I do. If the students have a problem with race based material, so be it. It is just where they are in their own development. I acknowledge it and move on with my teaching for social justice.

One of the narratives demonstrated the benefits that can come from Black professors dealing with race-related issues. This narrative was especially interesting because religiosity and spirituality were not only referred to as “lifelines,” but this story outlined the internal struggle experienced by this professor, how she successfully overcame this barrier, as well as how her need to highlight social justice resulted in a verbally-enriching class discussion, surrounding the subject of race and racism. When describing how

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“spirituality” influences how she deals with race-related issues in the classroom in general, as well as how she integrated a racially-sensitive issue in her classroom, Andrea provided this extended commentary: I know very well that Primarily-White Institutions are generally not healthy for the psyches of Blacks . . . so, for me, religion and spirituality are my lifelines. These constructs make it possible for me to not only have a close relationship with God but to also tolerate injustices in the world and instill within my students the need to critically examine their world. To me, a good teacher is self-reflective and instills the same need to critically examine things that are going on in the world. There are a lot of things that happen in the world that are not right, and just because people ignore them, or refuse to say that something is wrong, or the way that it was handled was wrong, in no way means that this isn’t the reality. As a teacher, I deal with race-related issues in the classroom by discussing them. I remember once going back and forth in my mind regarding whether I should discuss a racially-charged incident that occurred locally in the classroom. But this incident was on the news every single day, so there was no way to get away from it. I finally realized that I would discuss the incident, but I diffused any potential conflict or discomfort by first having the student’s write their honest feelings. When I collected their papers a few days later, I asked them if they wanted to share their views. I was literally amazed at the level of responses! The students not only talked openly about race issues, but even criticized the archaic ways of thinking among members in their small, racially-segregated communities. Through prayer, my spirituality helped me in this situation because God helped me to see that IF I handled the topic responsibly, I could open my students mind, so to speak, and get them to openly discuss issues that I knew were burning within them. Oftentimes the world is an unjust and unfair place, and spirituality helps me to understand my responsibility to encourage my students to be critical of their world. Ultimately, it is my responsibility to help my students commit to being the best that they can be, regardless of what is going on around them, and spirituality makes this possible.

“Spirituality” helped another professor to recognize the inherent difficulties associated with change. Although change is difficult, this professional, and she is oftentimes bothered by it, Kara knows that it is imperative that she “move on and push forward.” When describing how “spirituality” influences how she deals with race-related issues in the classroom, Kara acknowledges feeling frustrated with students who are resistant to change, while at the same time recognizing this reality as one that she must face within and outside of the classroom walls. She expressed herself via this lengthy commentary:

Religion and Spirituality Are My Lifelines    197 I understand that change is not easy and being challenged on ideals that have defined the way you think about others and your environment is difficult, emotional, and confusing. “Change requires commitment and dedication” (Jonhnson, 2001) and courage. Therefore, I expect outbursts, resistance, and bad evaluations from students in the classroom. In these situations, I remain calm and patient; and I provide validation to whatever emotion(s) a student is feeling along with assurances that his emotion(s) will not impact his final grade. I have to say that as much as I know that I have frustrated and angered students, I have yet to feel blatantly disrespected in the classroom. This does not apply to the evaluations though. That does not mean that these situations do not bother me. On the contrary, they affect me deeply. But because of the spirituality of my convictions and sincerity in what I am trying to do, I make it a point to move on and push forward. This spirituality of convictions and sincerity is not based on an organized predetermined system of beliefs about whom and what is wrong and right; and it is not regulated by a particular denomination. Even though I come from a strong Baptist background and I believe in the Holy Trinity (i.e., God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit), my spirituality is not limited to (although I must admit that it is informed by) the tenets of the Bible or determined by Baptist canons. My spirituality enables to navigate as well as learn to live with (although not necessarily accept) the complexity, hypocrisy, misguidance, uncertainty, and flexibility of humanity both inside and outside of the classroom.

At the end of the survey, participants were given the opportunity to provide additional comments. David’s comment was related to the importance of integrating faith issues in the classroom. For David, the inability to discuss faith was tantamount to the inability to discuss people in the classroom. David provided this parting perspective: Regardless of if it is plainly stated or not the idea that you can’t discuss faith in the class is ridiculous because it is a part of who we are and it’s like saying you can’t discuss people in the classroom.

Interestingly, one Black professor found fellow PhD’s within academe to hinder open and honest dialogue regarding race via their ‘conscious or subconscious’ perpetuation of racial myths or unwillingness to openness address race-related issues. Although she believed they “should know better,” she also recognized that their level of spiritual development may render a more responsible form of behavior impossible. Kara provided these additional comments: I find that I am mostly frustrated not so much with racial-related issues that occur in the classroom but with the ones that occur within the institution with fellow PhD colleagues within the field of education who consciously or sub-

198    C. CHANEY consciously perpetuate racial myths or fail to deal honestly with race-related issues in the higher education institutions. For some reason, I feel like they should know better, at least on an intellectual and scholarly level; but then again maybe their spirit does not enable them to do so.

Spirituality as a Context for Critique, the Quest for Social Justice and Inner Strength highlights the multiple ways that Black professors use this invisible, yet potent reality to heighten personal critical evaluation in others, raise awareness regarding the need for fairness and social justice, and as a bulwark of inner strength and fortitude. Edwina uses “religiosity” and “spirituality” as distinct yet mutually-supportive terms when discussing race-related issues. Furthermore, Nicholas relies on “prayer” as a strategy to “contend with White students” who may not be as open to discussing issues surrounding race, which essentially makes it possible to remain “centered” and give responses that represent his “higher self.” In order to be the best teachers possible, Lawrence uses his classroom as a context to “enforce equal treatment,” thereby seeking to bring out the best in themselves and others. Given the comforting aspect of “spirituality,” other scholars drew attention to the sometimes conflict-ridden nature of this construct. Specifically, for David, introducing “spirituality” and spiritual values in the classroom brings discomfort (within himself and others), the solidification of one’s spiritual values, and the acceptance of phenomena and everyday realities that one cannot always easily describe. Moreover, “spirituality” helps Yvette to better cope with racism because it allows her to clearly see that these feelings are linked to the spiritual level on which the perpetrators find themselves (“another’s or a group’s lack of spiritual consciousness and growth”). Given this reality, however, Yvette takes seriously her charge to continue “teaching for social justice.” In addition, since “Primarily-White Institutions are generally not healthy for the psyches of Blacks” religion and spirituality were “lifelines” for Andrea. Essentially, by bringing attention to a racially-charged incident in the classroom, Andrea tapped into her “spirituality” by recognizing and actualizing the benefits from open and honest dialogue regarding race. In support of Andrea’s desire to change the quality of dialogue in her classroom, Kara recognizes the inherent difficulties associated with change as it necessitates that individuals demonstrate certain qualities (“commitment, dedication, and courage”) that they have not yet fully developed. In addition, “spirituality” allows Kara to better navigate and live with a multitude of negative human experiences that occur within and outside of the classroom. DISCUSSION The purpose of this paper was to support and extend Tisdale’s (2003) assumptions regarding spirituality by examining how religion, spirituality,

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education, and race shape this discourse. To accomplish this goal, I examined the qualitative responses of 7 Black professors at Primarily-White Institutions (PWIs) to better understand how they define the terms “religion” and “spirituality” as well as how these constructs are linked to their teaching pedagogies. The themes provided by the men and women in this study reveal that religion and spirituality is a source of internal conflict, critique, and comfort. Results in the current study provide a nuanced way of identifying how Black professors use religion and spirituality as they navigate PWI environments and embrace their charge to foster critical ways of thinking via their educational pedagogies. However, before the findings are discussed, the limitations of this study should be noted. For one, the small sample size makes it difficult to generalize the findings presented herein to other Black professors at PrimarilyWhite Institutions (PWIs) in the United States. Also, since the overwhelming majority of participants (86%) were untenured, Assistant Professors in the 33–41 year age group, the current sample did not represent a diverse body of academicians. Furthermore, since most of the participants in the study represented universities in the southern region of the country, one must also be cautious when extending the findings of this study to Black professors in other regions of the United States. Moreover, as the men and women who self-selected for participation in the study were Black professors at PWIs in the United States, another possible limitation to the present findings is that definitions and integration of religiosity and spirituality may be different than that shared by Black professors at PWIs abroad. In other words, Black professors at universities in countries other than the United States may find gender, social class, and tribal identification to be more salient than race. Interestingly, few previous studies have specifically targeted Black professors—which constitute a unique minority subset of the academic population, so this represents a major strength of the current study. In other words, because this study represented the views of Black men and women who actively use religiosity and spirituality in their educational pedagogies, the author views this group, although small and nonrepresentative, as unique. In addition, although the sample size was small, the narratives provided by these men and women were candid, reflective, and rich. Fundamentally, the commentary provided by these professors provides a nuanced view of religion and spirituality because it examines how these individuals use inward and outward reflection to deepen and critically examine their religious and spiritual compass. In spite of the aforementioned limitations, however, this study has unearthed a largely overlooked aspect of the Black human experience, that of Black male and female professors. Specific attention will now be given to the four themes elicited from the written responses.

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Theme 1: Religiosity as Ideologies and Organized Practices Previous scholarship has associated religiosity with worship (Mattis, 2000), “the human enterprise by which a sacred cosmos is established” (Berger, 1967), “church teachings” (Best, 1996), adherence to prescribed doctrines and traditions, and external behaviors and internalized beliefs (Chaney, 2008). In support of this, Black professors at PWIs associated “religiosity” with humanistic and religious ways of practice, knowing, experiencing life and organized practices of a particular religion. Interestingly, for one member, religiosity was demonstrated through action, or via “regular attendance and active involvement with a particular religious organization, and adherence to the standards (thoughts, words, and deeds) of that organization.” However, in contrast to the findings identified in previous studies, these narratives linked religiosity to social and political realities that heighten collective responsibility among and between individuals. Another interesting departure from the previous literature was the view of religiosity as regulatory, “predetermined,” “rigid,” “rule-laden,” and “fundamentalist.” While they may or may not be religious, as facilitators of critical thought, Black professors may be able to more clearly identify the ways that religion has historically marginalized Blacks as well as advanced their organizational goals, sometimes to the detriment of its individual members. Theme 2: Spirituality as Intersection Between the Individual, Faith Community, and the Divine (Higher Power) While the findings presented herein recognize the relationship between humans and an unseen Higher Power (Berger, 1967; Stewart, 1999; Mattis, 2000; Chaney, 2008), for the men and women in this study, spirituality involved the delicate balance between the kinds of relationships that one establishes with others, members of their religious community, and the Divine, or “Higher Power.” In addition, spirituality involves continuity between “belief in a higher power” and one’s “morality, ethics, and interpersonal ethos.” Interestingly, this involves behaviors as well as the real motives that underlie one’s “unwavering” relationship with God, and ability to create and sustain ‘honorable’ relationship with others. Another interesting definition of spirituality provided by several of the men and women in this study was the inability to test, explain, measure, or observe spirituality. Given academe’s general emphasis on producing and generating knowledge that can be tested, measured, observed, and explained, Black academicians

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at PWIs who primarily self-define as spiritual and who use spirituality as a tool to honor others may find this academic reality especially difficult. Theme 3: Religiosity as a Source of Fairness, Internal Struggle, Self-Reflection, and Positive Outlook The Black men and women in this study recognized the capacity of religiosity to evoke internal conflict and validate external realities. The former is caused when one seeks to maintain a particular standard of classroom behavior that is inconsistent with what is generally demonstrated in the world. Black professors reconcile these dualities by using the classroom as a model for ideal behavior, or as a template regarding the type of racial fairness and equity that they should demonstrate when dealing with others within and outside of the classroom. In addition, Black professors also demonstrate fairness when they recognize religion’s ability to shape humanistic experiences (Sheridan & Hemert, 1999) the way that their students see the world. For these academicians, these experiences are valid, and at times, the source of internal conflict. Black professors reconcile these feelings, specifically their identification with and critique of religion, by presenting the historical and contemporary realities of religion. By doing so, the professional and his or her students are allowed the academic freedom to evaluate for themselves, the positive and negative aspects of religion, and clearly articulate their position on various issues. Furthermore, for one professor, The Golden Rule makes her aware of what she says as well as the manner in which she says it. Essentially, this foundational Christian teaching (Best, 1996) increases the likelihood that sensitive issues regarding race are discussed in a way that sheds light on the complexities associated with race and increases racial sensitivity and empathy. While previous studies have exclusively looked at religiosity via a humanistic lens (Berger, 1967), religiosity influences how Black professors incorporate race-related issues in the classroom by regarding the various negative “isms” of life experience as cognitive springboards for positive change. More clearly, religiosity influences Black professors at PWIs to focus on what they ultimately ‘want’ instead of what is harmful and/or detrimental. Theme 4: Spirituality as a Context for Critique, the Quest for Social Justice and Inner Strength As evidenced by their narratives, Black male and female professors use spirituality in unique, complicated, and complex ways, which is inherently tied to their experiences within and outside of academe. Earlier in the paper,

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I provided three extensions to Tisdale’s (2003) assumptions regarding the salience of religion and spirituality within academe, and would like to now return to these. First, religious and spiritual values allow professors to validate the racial experiences of all students. Essentially, these constructs help Black professors to better cope with and critique the realities of racism, within and outside of the classroom, by linking these to the perpetrator’s level of spiritual development. Regardless of its motivation, however, racism is seen as secondary to the charge to continue “teaching for social justice.” Second, religious and spiritual values are a source of internal conflict among instructors in academe whose charge is to heighten critical and intellectual awareness among their students, yet who do so in the face of race-related issues that is not consistent with religiosity and spirituality’s quest to realize their higher selves. In general, this is not a linear process, but rather one that is conscious, dynamic, and ongoing. In other words, as they encourage critical thinking in others, Black professors are oftentimes working through their own questions and issues regarding spirituality. While this in no way minimizes their position as conduits of academic knowledge, it does, however, recognize their position as “teacher-students,” who are in the constant quest to reach their “higher selves.” Third, religion and spirituality are necessary strategies of coping for marginalized instructors in academe who are numerical and collective ideological racial minorities. In order to deal with this reality, Black professors at PWIs are mentally, academically, emotionally, and psychologically strong. How do these professionals cope? By relying on a plethora of religious and spiritual coping mechanisms, which include prayer, meditation, and through their “commitment, dedication, and courage,” using race-related issues as tools for learning, and mutual understanding and empathy. As a unique subset of the academic population, Black professors use spirituality as “lifelines” that allow them to constantly evaluate their values, encourage critical thinking in others, acknowledge and change life’s injustices, and develop and foster inner strength and resilience, within and outside of the classroom. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTICE This study has implications for practitioners, namely educators, religious leaders, and mental health professionals. First, educators from various disciplines must acknowledge the conscious and unconscious role of religion and spirituality among Black faculty, and perhaps Black students. Given the historical salience of these constructs for Blacks, educators that recognize the direct and indirect influences of religion and spirituality for Blacks validate the everyday experiences of these individuals as well as motivate them to

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actively work to ensure that the “isms” that are commonplace in society are not perpetuated in the classroom. Second, religious leaders must be actively involved in the religious/spiritual lives of Black faculty. This recommendation is not offered to insinuate that the experiences of Black congregants that are not academics are not important, but rather to acknowledge the unique stressors experienced by Black faculty, who have a greater sensitivity to racial issues as their careers gives them the platform to deal with race-related issues, through the lens of religion and spirituality. Last, mental health professionals must recognize that while some Black scholars are greatly comforted by their religious and/or spiritual identity, others may at times be frustrated about past or current actions of which the church was responsible, the myths that their colleagues consciously and/or subconsciously perpetuate, or feel discouraged because of inconsistencies in how they choose to live their lives (e.g., The Golden Rule) and the realities of living in a racist society, of which the PWI is a microcosm. Although Blacks may be comforted by religion and spirituality, effective mental health professionals also recognize the possibility that these constructs may lead to confusion, frustration, and internal conflict among Black professors, especially in light of multiple racial and social inequalities. Thus, these negative internal and external life experiences make them more likely to rely on religion and spirituality as necessary “lifelines.” Thus, it is imperative that mental health professionals that work with Black faculty identify the greatest sources of stress for these individuals, and specifically identify the ways that the PWI culture facilitates, contributes, and exacerbates psychological stress. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRIMARILY-WHITE INSTITUTIONS (PWIS) The extensive narratives provided by the 7 Black professors in this study offer five recommendations for PWIs. For one, health and wellness centers on the campuses of PWIs must offer a holistic approach to wellness that includes multiple dimensions (i.e., psychological, emotional, and religious/spiritual), that helps Black faculty achieve and maintain wellness in each of these dimensions. In particular, these health and wellness centers could link Black academics with on and off-campus support groups that are rooted in ideologies that psychologically, emotionally, religiously and/or spiritually support the values and identities of Black professionals. Second, the findings of this study demonstrate the need for white scholars at PWIs to be conscious of negative realities within the academic climate that may impel Black scholars to turn to religion and spirituality as a viable coping strategy. Moreover, these scholars must also be aware of how Black faculty utilize the tenets and principles contained therein to influence how they think, what they say, and

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how they react within various classroom contexts. This statement is not to insinuate that religiosity and spiritualty do not inform the pedagogies of white faculty, but rather to acknowledge how the isolation, alienation, and racism that are generally part and parcel of the PWI culture may at times be especially challenging for Black faculty who value critical critique, fairness, and social equity. Third, the findings in this study should impel white scholars at PWIs to gain knowledge and/or greater knowledge regarding how religion and spirituality directly and indirectly informs the experiences of their Black colleagues in particular, and Black people, more generally. In this respect, understanding the historical and contemporary salience of religion and spirituality for Black people in America (of which Black academics comprise a unique, subset of the Black population) can help white scholars to acknowledge that their position in academe is considerably more “privileged” than that of their Black academic contemporaries. For example, while they (white scholars) may at times find teaching a challenge, racism is not their reality nor do they generally expect “outbursts, resistance, and poor evaluations,” a reality that was voiced by one participant in this study. Thus, when PWIs become consciousness of the isolation, scholarly marginalization, and various “isms” that generally assault Black scholars, this can help them to recognize that the experiences of all academics is not similar. Fourth, it is imperative that white faculty at PWIs openly discuss race, race-related issues, and racism in their classrooms. Regardless of whether they discussed the cause of racism, the need to integrate race within their various curricula, the decision of whether to introduce a “racially-charged incident” as fodder for classroom dialogue, all of the Black professors in this study mentioned race. Essentially, by discussing race in their classrooms, white scholars validate the experiences of their Black colleagues and Black people in general, and may thus, by promoting cultural sensitivity, become catalysts for positive change. Lastly, the findings in this study have implications for the PWI culture more broadly in that they should encourage these institutions to honestly evaluate the racial experiences of their current Black faculty and actively recruit additional Black faculty that can serve as effective mentors for undergraduate students, graduate students, and other Black faculty within and outside of their departments. To be clear, PWIs must be aware of the stressors that are unique to Black faculty (i.e., isolation, marginalization of their scholarship, racial hostility) and institute and enforce policies that will address and/or eradicate these concerns. DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH There are six ways that future studies can expound upon the findings that have been presented here. For one, future research should examine the

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perspectives of a larger number of Black male and female professors at Primarily-White Institutions (PWIs) who represent various stages of the life cycle and academic stage. For example, a 30-something year old untenured professor may have a very different need for religion and spirituality than a 60-something year old tenured Associate and/or Full Professor. To better facilitate this, future research should implement longitudinal designs that would allow researchers to identify the times when tenured and untenured Black male and female professors are most likely to rely on certain religious and spiritual coping strategies. This would allow researchers to examine the extent to which religious identification and/or spiritual awareness changes form, remains fixed or becomes malleable over time. Also, given the ways that religion and/or spirituality informs the pedagogies of Black professors, future scholars can examine these constructs from a strengths-perspective, or the ways that Black professionals actively rely on religion and spirituality to remain resilient, within and outside of the classroom setting. To be clear, future research can more closely examine the developmental, academic, and life changes that make the Black professional more or less likely to rely on one form of support, or use these forms of support in tandem, thereby forging a new conceptualized space for Black resilience. Added to the aforementioned, future research should examine Black faculty who do not identify with a particular religion, or consider themselves to be more spiritual than religious (Zinnbauer et al., 1997). Research in this area may find that abandonment from organized religion to be a process that is directly linked to academe’s mission to increase critique via cognitive, oral, and written expression. In addition, future research should explore how Black male and female professors cope with academic resistance regarding issues surrounding race. Since social and legal injustice are most likely to negatively influence the lives of Blacks in America than any other racial group (Reese, 2004, 2001; Taylor, Jackson, & Chatters, 1997), this knowledge may lead to a greater understanding of the unique frustrations and stressors of Black faculty, who are oftentimes one of few Black professors at their institutions or the sole Black faculty member in their departments. In particular, future work in this area must identify the ways that professors believe that their academic peers promote stereotypes and hinder more open and honest dialogue regarding race-related issues. Furthermore, future studies can also examine whether religiosity and spirituality are differentially defined and experienced by Black professors at PWIs and HBCUs. Comparative work in this area may reveal that these constructs are shaped by the academic environment in which one is a part. In other words, while the general goal of institutions of higher learning is to arouse critical thought, Andrea’s assessment that “Primarily-White Institutions are generally not healthy for the psyches of Blacks” highlights the unique stressors experienced by Black

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professors at PWIs as well as their greater reliance on religion and spirituality. Moreover, future research should examine, in greater detail, the specific strategies that Black professors use to increase dialogue regarding race-related issues. By identifying these strategies, models for successful discussion of race-related issues at PWIs can be advanced, sharpened, and implemented with an array of academic disciplines, including but not limited to social work, nursing, education, law, and the humanities. Last, given the interest that students in the fields of social work and nursing have in issues regarding religion and spirituality (Becker, 2009; Furman, Benson, Grimwood, & Canda, 2004; Rothman, 2009; Sheridan, 1994; Sheridan & Hemert, 1999), more fields should explore how students define these terms as well as whether they believe that these constructs are adequately addressed in their fields of study. Essentially, this work may more clearly identify the particular areas of religion and spirituality that are most applicable to student’s current lives and future professional experiences. CONCLUSION As members of a double (e.g., race & gender), and sometimes triple minority (e.g., race, gender, and discipline), the experiences of Black professors at PWIs are uniquely different from their White counterparts who are members of academic bodies that generally perpetuate the ideologies and values of the dominant culture. To support their experiences as professionals within this context, Blacks have traditionally relied on their religious and/or spiritual values as a compass for personal identification, and internal and external dialogue. The findings presented in this study are important because they provide strong evidence that regardless of whether they primarily identify as religious or spiritual, Black professors craft a form of religious and spiritual coping that informs how they see the world as well as how they motivate higher levels of thinking and learning in their students in regards to race. While their ultimate goal is to heighten the collective conscious of their students, Black professors at PWIs take seriously this responsibility and engage in the necessary and oftentimes uncomfortable work of openly discussing how race is directly linked to the everyday experiences of countless men, women, and children in the world. For the most part, since Black faculty experience isolation, the marginalization of their scholarship, racial hostility, and are generally excluded from institutional-administrative hierarchies that would allow them to push for policies that can effectively lead to increased diversity, it is imperative that PWIs make the current climate more of academe more sensitive to the needs and concerns of Black faculty. Although the tenets of religion and spirituality may help Black faculty at PWIs to cope, institutional change would create

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a climate where the contributions of Black faculty would be appreciated, honored, and validated, rather than minimized, disregarded or ignored. Although change can be “difficult, emotional, and confusing” for members of the dominant culture, PWIs more prominent acknowledgement of the knowledge, feelings, and experiences of Black faculty as they negotiate the appropriateness of can lead these men and women to clearly articulate the ways that religion and spirituality informs their pedagogies, as well as how these constructs are necessary “lifelines” for Black faculty at PWIs. At the onset of this paper, I provided two quotes that acknowledge the salience of religion and spirituality for most individuals, so I would like to briefly return to these. The narratives presented herein make clear that while religion can be a “charged” phenomenon it can also serve as the foundation on which a “continuous, lifelong process” of spirituality is built. For Black professors at PWIs, religion and spirituality encompasses internal conflict, critical assessment, and comfort. Given the pervasiveness of these constructs for most people, however, it is apparent that religion and spirituality should move from its current tertiary position in academe to one of greater prominence, which will essentially validate the expression of these constructs for a wide array of human experiences, both within and outside of the classroom. NOTE 1. Throughout this text, I will use the term Black to refer to people of African Diaspora, and to such populations that reside within the United States. To some, African Americans are a subgroup within a larger Black community. Since our discussion purposely includes those who may be first-generation immigrants or who, for whatever reason, do not identify as African American, I employ the term “Black.” Furthermore, I capitalize the term Black to distinguish this racial category and related identity from the color. Similarly, I capitalize the word White when referring to race.

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208    C. CHANEY Best, R. B. (1996). Education, spirituality and the whole child. London: Cassell. Blackwell, J. 1989. ‘Mentoring’: An action strategy for increasing minority faculty. Academe 75(1), 8–14. Braxton, N. D., Lang, D. L., Sales, J., Wingood, G. M., & DiClemente, R. J. The role of spirituality in sustaining the psychological well-being of HIV-positive Black women. Women Health, 46(2), 113–128. Cash, K. C., Gray, G. R., & Rood, S. A. (2000). A framework for accommodating religion and spirituality in the workplace. The Academy of Management Executive, 14(3), 124–134. Chaney, C. (2008). Religiosity and spirituality among members of an African-American church community: A qualitative analysis. Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 27, 201–234. Chaney, C. (2002). “Not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together:” Religiosity and spirituality in an African-American church community. Master’s Thesis: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Furman, L. D., Benson, P. W., Grimwood, C., & Canda, E. (2004). Religion and spirituality in social work education and direct practice at the millennium: A survey of UK social Henworkers, British Journal of Social Work, 34(6), 767–792. Grant-Thompson, S. K., and D. R. Atkinson. 1997. Cross-cultural mentor effectiveness and African American male students. Journal of Black Psychology, 23(2), 120–134. Halkitis, P. N., Mattis, J. S., Sahadath, J. K., Massie, D., Ladyzhenskaya, L., Pitrelli, K., Bonacci, M., Cowie, S. E. (2009). The meanings and manifestations of religion and spirituality among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults. Journal of Adult Development, 16(4), 250–262. Hendrix, K. G. (1998). Student perceptions of the influence of race on teacher credibility. Journal of Black Studies, 28(6), 738–763. Hickson, M. G. 2002. What role does the race of professors have on the retention of students attending historically black colleges and universities? Education, 123(1), 186–189. Holland, J. W. (1993). Relationships between African-American doctoral students and their major advisors. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, April, in Atlanta, GA (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 359915). Holsti, O. R. (1969). Content analysis for the social sciences and humanities. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Jeffries, W. L., Dodge, B., Sandfort, T. G. M. (2008). Religion and spirituality among bisexual Black men in the USA. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 10(5), 463–477. Johnson, A. G. (2001). Privilege, power, and difference. New York: McGraw-Hill. Johnson-Bailey, J. 1999. The ties that bind and the shackles that separate: Race, gender, class, and color in a research process. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 12, no. 6: 660–671. Laden, B. V., and L. S. Hagedorn. 2000. Job satisfaction among faculty of color in academe: Individual survivors or institutional transformers? In What contributes to job satisfaction among faculty and staff, ed. L.S. Hagedorn, 57–66. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Ladson-Billings, G. (1996). Silences as weapons: Challenges of a Black professor teaching White students. Theory into Practice, 35(2), 79–85.  

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210    C. CHANEY Sneed, R. A. (2008). Like fire shut up in my bones: Religion and spirituality in Black gay men’s literature. Black Theology: An International Journal, 6(2), 241–261 Stanley, C. A. 2006. Coloring the academic landscape: Faculty of color breaking the silence in predominantly White colleges and universities. American Educational Research Journal, 43(4), 701–736. Stewart, C. F. (1999). Black spirituality and Black consciousness: Soul force, culture & freedom in the African-American experience. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa Word Press, Inc. Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory, Procedures, and Techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Taylor, R., & Chatters, L. (1991). Religious life. In J. S. Jackson (Ed), Life in Black America, (pp.105–123). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Taylor, R., Jackson, J. S., & Chatters, L. (1997). Family life in Black America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Taylor, S. J. & Bogdan, R. (1998). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource (3rd ed). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Thomas, G. D., & Hollenshead, C. (2001). Resisting from the margins: The coping strategies of black women and other women of color faculty members at a research university. Journal of Negro Education, 70(3), 166–175. Tisdale, E. J. (2003). Exploring spirituality and culture in adult and higher education. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Turner, C. V., & Myers, S. L. (2000). Faculty of color in academe: Bittersweet success. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics (2011). Digest of Educational Statistics. Retrieved from: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/ digest/d10/tables/dt10_256.asp Walker, T. (2009). The Black church in America: African American Christian spirituality. Journal of Religion, 89(3), 427–429. Williams, M. R., Brewley, D. N., Reed, R., White, D. Y., Davis-Haley, R. T. (2005). Learning to read each other: Black female graduate students share their experiences at a White research institution. Urban Review, 37(3), 181–199. William, M. S. (2005). Work and integrity: The crisis and promise of professionalism in America (2nd Ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Witt, S. 1990. The pursuit of race and gender equity in American academe. New York: Praeger.Zinnbauer, B. J., Pargament, K. I., Cole, B., Rye, M. S., Butter, E. M., Belavich, T. G., Hipp, K. M., Scott, A. B., & Kadar, J. L. (1997). Religion and spirituality: Unfuzzing the fuzzy. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 36(4), 549–564.

CHAPTER 8

“I’M STILL HOLDING ON” Bearing Witness to the Gospel Impulse in an Urban All-Boys School Lenny Sanchez, Gerald Campano, and Ted Hall

We cannot know a culture unless we know the people whose spirit keeps it strong. —Buley-Meissner (2002, p. 323)

Over two hundred boys, their teachers, and family members packed into the gymnasium of an all-boy’s elementary school in a Midwestern city for their annual Awards Program. Some students sat nervously, quietly anticipating which awards they might receive while others posed for pictures as they turned around and waved to their families from their seats. Yellow bulletin board paper lined the front and back gym walls with images of the United States flag, President Obama, and burning torches (representing those found in Olympic games). Posters of “You’re the BEST!” and “Knowledge is Power” mottos and “Way to Go” balloons hung next to the school banner, stretching across the front wall behind the podium. The decorations, exchange of hugs and handshakes, and heat pouring in through the gymnasium’s opened exterior entrance heightened the excitement for the program, and reminded all of us in attendance that summer break was just days away. Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 211–230 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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After the principal and a second grader opened the program to welcome the students’ families and friends, a classroom teacher introduced a well-known community member, Dr. Harold Jackson (all names are pseudonyms), commenting how “. . . He is what you call homegrown— born here, educated here, works here . . . This is HIS hometown, and I don’t know of any other person who loves their hometown more . . . He IS an excellent educator . . .  [and] has always been an advocate for youth.” She further described how he works tirelessly with youth and adults in the community as a former principal, current professor, long-time community organizer, and present-day state representative for the housing zone where the school resides. As Dr. Jackson takes the microphone in hand, he asks for the allowance to give credit to God “for helping someone who grew up in the ghetto the opportunity to go to school and gain some titles so that he can do all the work he does now.” For the next twenty-five minutes he shares with the boys how they are descendants of African kings and queens, “princes of this nation . . . not the paupers.” Dr. Jackson critiques structural inequities the graduating boys face, as their “economic and racial beauties are targeted and manipulated by society.” He draws on scriptural references and literary connections from Nikki Giovanni to Alice in Wonderland to express his belief about the power of a child and the importance of education. Throughout his talk, Dr. Jackson returns to his central points, communicating to the boys “You have to recognize who you are to know to who you are” and “run twice as fast” so “nobody can stop you.” (Fieldnotes, June 1, 2009) We begin with this description of the Awards Program to highlight how a school community with whom we partnered raised questions about the inequalities affecting students and families, and valued creating a communitarian space where one can keep one’s intellectual and moral spirit strong and work towards enacting change. In his speech, Dr. Jackson invokes personal narrative and testimonial as a vehicle for community uplift, calling on himself, the boys, and the adults in the audience to transcend the societal constraints impinging upon their cultural rights and heritage. Unseen in this excerpt is how he also employs African American rhetoric such as “call and response” and “sermonizing,” forms of oral expressions that induce audience participation and have been a central part of African American modes of cultural expression (Smitherman 1999; Richardson & Jackson, 2004). Similar to Dr. Martin Luther King and other African American religious leaders, Dr. Jackson’s rhetorical performance with the audience seeks to establish his credibility as an intimate group member who shares in their historical burdens. This moment is one of many we observed at the Boys School while we joined children and teachers as part of a four-year school-university collaboration focused on creating meaningful, culturally-rich literacy experiences

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for students. As we spent time in classrooms, meetings, and school-wide events, we documented how the adults worked strategically and collectively to deepen students’ awareness of the links between their community histories and personal experiences, a larger pattern illustrated in Dr. Jackson’s keynote speech. In our research, we documented many occasions in which teachers, staff, and other school members incorporated forms of cultural pride and recognition into the curriculum. Even improvisational moments were well configured to the school’s mission of encouraging children “to keep [their] head[s] to the sky” (school’s promotion ceremony motto). In this chapter, we return to the Award Program speech and other representative examples to document the importance of “local knowledge” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) in fostering social critique and nurturing student resilience and academic success. In particular, we illustrate the role of the gospel impulse (Werner, 1998) as a cultural, spiritual, literate, and pedagogical resource for the members of the learning community. We begin by situating the work of the school community within a broader conversation regarding African American males in education. We then contextualize the school and its mission through the words of its students and teachers, and further elaborate on the methodological approach and conceptual frameworks that informed the study. In the sections that follow, we turn our attention to three examples from our study that crystallize dimensions of the gospel impulse and represent the school’s larger efforts to advocate for their students. We conclude by discussing how these important cultural and literate resources may be endangered in an educational climate that promotes standardization, erodes neighborhood schools, and dissuades teachers of color from entering into or remaining in the profession. AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES AND EDUCATION Over the past decades, many scholars (e.g., Tatum, 2012; Jackson & Moore, 2006) have documented structural barriers to African American student achievement and, in particular, how black males are disproportionately represented among those retained, placed in special education, and eventually denied diplomas—all contributing to the label of being “at risk” for school failure. These statistics do not always address how many youths may in fact be “placed at risk” (Vasudevan & Campano, 2009) by an educational system that continues to widen the “opportunity gap” between historically marginalized students and their middle class white peers. This shift moves the focus away from locating the blame of the achievement gap within students, and by implication their families and communities, and instead puts critical scrutiny on social stratifications that shape their lives both in- and outof-school. These inequities are invoked by Dr. Jackson when he addresses

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the school-to-prison pipeline which affect his community, as will later be revealed though additional excerpts of his speech. In order to address the historically racialized unequal distribution of capital (Harvey, 2004) that dispossesses many African American students from greater life opportunities, the Boys School forged its purpose from historical struggles for universal education. The school’s vision for supporting its student population to respect its cultural heritage transpired from educational movements such as the freedman schools, which were rooted in communal values of liberation, dignity of labor, and a “faith of [their] souls” (Douglass, 2005) as a way to provide slaves and ex-slaves the spiritual foundation for linking education to a more inclusive vision of social justice necessary for a democratic society. In later sections, we illustrate how this liberatory legacy offered the Boys School opportunities to counter the more dehumanizing aspects of the larger educational and social system. As we participated in the school across the span of four years, we observed how the mobilization of the gospel impulse (Werner, 1998) became an invaluable resource for this process of cultural resilience and resistance. The Gospel Impulse Similar to the blues and jazz idioms, the gospel impulse serves as an intergenerational cultural resource within the African American community that grounds the burden of suffering in a larger historical and spiritual narrative (Werner, 1998). Its emphasis is on the relational aspect of healing between the individual and community and the comfort of knowing “you are not alone, I will be with you.” As part of the African American collective memory dating back to West African cultures and values brought to the new world (Cone, 1992), the gospel impulse seeks to promote a sense of belonging through mutual care and empathy. At its core is a survival strategy (Williams, 2002) rooted in the African American experience, which has often been artistically expressed through the medium of music, as in sorrow songs, spirituals, blues, and jazz (Williams, 2002). In this chapter, we view the gospel impulse as a dialectical relationship in which there are individual calls for support and communal responses. We draw on Werner’s articulation of three dimensions of the gospel impulse—acknowledging the burden, bearing witness, and finding redemption—as a useful framework for understanding how teaching and learning at the Boys School retained cultural heritage and community solidarity. As illustrated in this chapter, the gospel impulse begins by acknowledging the burden, which entails historicizing contemporary issues confronting the African American community. It also involves bearing witness to the suffering experienced by those who are most vulnerable, while simultaneously

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participating in the restoration and transformation of the community. Finally, redemption stems from keeping the people’s hopes and aspirations alive by helping them reimagine a spiritual higher ground that transcends the limitations of their immediate material conditions. As we make evident in the examples that follow, this impulse was prevalent among the teachers, parents, students and administrators, who expressed their love and leadership through service to each other. Homegrown Legacies and Commitments: The Context of the Boys School In the spirit of the gospel impulse as a culturally and historically situated framework, we introduce the context of the school through the perspectives of its community members. Below are excerpts from an interview Lenny conducted with teachers, students, and administrators, asking them to share with him what they considered to be the essence—or soul—of the Boys School. Author 1:  What is the Boys School? T.J. (3rd grader):  Um, my primary purpose for attending school is to learn so that I make a meaningful contribution— B.J. (3rd grader):  —to my school. (interrupting T.J.) * * * Ms. Donoghue (2nd grade teacher):  When I first came here, um, three decades ago, [the housing project behind the school] was full. This project area was totally full . . . It was a class of people; grandma, mother, and then daughter. It’s always been a generation, and in that generation they stayed in the same area, same housing. Ms. Rhoades (Primary special education teacher):  Yeah, they lived together . . . You would have big families . . . and everyone would go to school here, you know . . . It was family oriented. Ms. Whitcomb (Primary special education teacher):  Then, over time, there were not as many mill jobs to support the working dads, so they had to move away to get jobs . . .  Ms. Harris (3rd grade teacher):  It makes it hard for us now that children are being bussed [due to school zone changes]. So that really ties our hands down a lot. In the past, I could call up a mom and tell her child had to stay after school that day to do some work, and then I would walk behind them to make sure they got home safely . . . Kids used to stay after school

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and be in programs, but these things can’t happen anymore because of having to bus them home. * * * Marvin (3rd grader):  We learn how to help people. The community and schools and families and friends . . . try to work together and make new opportunities for themselves like in the past. T.J. (3rd grader):  We learn how to— Kameron (3rd grader):  —teamwork. (interrupting T.J.) T.J. (3rd grader):  (continuing) We can help each other when we do yards or when we go to the store and people need help to carry bags, or when they go to the store for new furniture. * * * Ms. Donoghue:  This is a group of people in this school that partner together you know. And they’ll do it for you, you know. You just got to come to them and ask them. Ms. Rhoades:  It’s a strength of our school. Ms. Donoghue:  It’s because we pull together. If I can’t do it, I say, “Can you do it?” You know, and they just have to do it. If I can’t walk, I can’t walk it . . . It’s family. As evident through the children and adults’ responses, they repeatedly framed the school and its surrounding community as family. They understood their work as one of service to others. For example, T. J. defined his primary purpose for attending school as “to make a meaningful contribution” to his community. Other interviewees also discussed school as rooted in reciprocity. Ms. Donoghue, for example, emphasized how providing assistance to others should be an end in itself. In fact, in a discussion following her comment (not included in the excerpt), teachers echoed their shared commitment to each other because “[they] love one another . . . [they] are partners . . . [they] are buddies.” Throughout the unabridged interviews, educators shared many stories about the school’s history and their personal commitments to its community, such as how the average tenure for teaching at the Boys School consisted of 15 years while others, such as Ms. Donoghue, had devoted over 30 years. Such vocation also applied to a number of instructional staff and volunteers who remained involved in the school decades after their children and grandchildren’s graduated from the building. Even the school principal had attended the school, then operating as a coed institution, for her entire elementary career fifty years prior. It became apparent as we worked with the Boys School just how incredibly important these legacies were to creating conditions for the gospel impulse to a pedagogical resource.

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Teachers also voiced their appreciation for the many community-based initiatives at the school, asserting, “That’s what our children need.” They acknowledged the intention and care involved in fostering relationships beyond the classroom. Through the involvement of the Dad’s Club, a group of adult African American males who mentored children and youth across the district, and the Literacy Coalition, designed to facilitate organized book readings with elementary students, the school was able to cultivate a symbiotic relationship to the surrounding neighborhood and city, often in contrast to models of school reform that promote a distant and at times antagonistic dynamic. We also recognized the significant challenges faced by the Boys School, related to the economic decline of the community over the last several decades. Teachers reflected on how the city had once operated as a successful industrial mill town, until factory closings in the 1960s postwar era led to middle class flight and unemployment. As with other urban centers, this deindustrialization had a devastating impact on the African American population in particular, given that the manufacturing sector served as the primary avenue for social mobility (Wilson, 1987), further exacerbating economic isolation across racial lines. The school district soon became the state’s highest minoritized school district (99%), with African Americans consisting of the majority student population (97%). Despite these economic constraints, children and adults at the Boys School directed their energies to the question of “What can we do now?” as they worked to construct schooling into the liberatory space they envisioned (Mahiri, 1998). METHODOLOGY During our time in the school, we formed a partnership with educators, students, and community members as we engaged in inquiry projects, teacher research, and professional learning opportunities. Our work was informed by practitioner research (e.g., Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009; Campano, 2007) and critical and cultural theories, such as black feminism (Collins, 2000; hooks, 2003). Guided by these frameworks, we sought to situate our goals within a collective vision for the partnership. In contrast to professional learning and research that operates along a transmission model (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999), our orientation was to learn from and with educators through shared inquiry. Such “horizontal” research relationships (Campano, Honeyford, Sánchez, & Vander Zanden, 2010) also meant we celebrated achievements, grieved losses, and shared frustrations at both school and personal levels. Throughout our four-year involvement at the Boys School, we worked to intentionally ground our research questions in issues that impacted the

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school as we participated in numerous school-wide and individual classroom projects. Our work included: an inquiry group of educators that investigated literacy engagement; classroom inquiries with teachers and students, including small group literature discussions, nonfiction and social justice oriented student research, and poetry and biography studies; school-wide projects; and links between community organizations, the school, and the university. Throughout the partnership, we collected field notes, audio and/or video recordings of inquiry group meetings and classroom interactions, student work and other curricular artifacts, and interviews with varied members of the school community. In accordance with a practitioner research orientation, data analysis was ongoing during the four years, and continually informed subsequent phases in the work. One of the larger findings entailed the ways that the school community worked to critique the dehumanization students experienced as a result of both top-down educational policies as well as societal racism and inequality (Campano, 2011). This chapter focuses on one valuable cultural resource educators drew upon: the gospel impulse. In the sections that follow, we share three representative instances that illustrate how the school mobilized community legacies of overcoming adversity: Dr. Jackson’s speech, a third grade classroom inquiry into the explorer Estevanico, and the poem of an eight-year-old child written as part of the inauguration of a local Langston Hughes Museum. We use the gospel impulse as an interpretive lens for showing how the teachers at the Boys School nurtured the children’s educational and spiritual growth in the face of the dehumanization they experienced as African American males in a racially stratified American context. Through these examples, the educators speak truth to power about these injustices by allowing the boys to learn and share their stories (Hall, 2011) and create alternative spaces (Campano, 2007) for reimagining life possibilities. SPEAKING TRUTH: ACKNOWLEDGING BURDENS THROUGH A SCHOOL AWARDS PROGRAM SPEECH Although the city surrounding the Boys School was once crowned “City of the Century” and “Magic City,” new stigmatizing labels formed as social and economic crises produced increases in poverty, crime, and weakened infrastructures. Along with the city’s reputation, the families who stayed behind suffered from these losses as community-wide distress intensified. Concerned about this history, Dr. Jackson made a conscious effort to use his Awards Program speech (as introduced in the opening scene) to exhort the students to not forget this past in order to prepare themselves for the future. This future, which he proceeded to outline in his speech, would

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require overcoming outside perceptions in order to generate their own “visions for who [they] are to be” (speech transcript). He urged students to use education to counter the prevalent criminalization of African American youth (Alexander, 2011). Towards the beginning of his speech Dr. Jackson shared, “This school is important to [him] because it’s serving the needs of young men.” He told of recent times he served as an administrator for the school and appreciated the parental support given “in quest for their children to obtain academic success.” Lacking hesitation, he subsequently presented a series of alarming statistics about the imprisonment of African American males, particularly as it related to the rising incarceration rate occurring in the community. He then revealed his purpose for attending the program by explaining: I am concerned about the survival of our people . . . I’m not talking about all boys, I’m talking about African American boys. I’m talking about black boys. I’m talking about boys that look like me . . . If you are dead or locked up, then we cannot survive. We risk extinction . . . I come . . . to motivate a mission for excellence . . . and give a recipe for success.

Dr. Jackson believes that for the boys to understand success, they must first confront the grave realities they face, that an acute awareness of life’s burdens is necessary in order to overcome them. This awareness includes acknowledging the burdens of history: centuries of racial subordination; the replacement of the work industry with the prison industry; and the relationship between life opportunities and gender and poverty. With a growing sense of urgency he further asserts, “We’re not guaranteed tomorrow. I have to do what I have to do today. (italics represents stressed words) [for when] my bones are gone and buried I can lie in rest knowing that I said what I needed to say.” Dr. Jackson leaves no room for misinterpretation about the severity of the obstacles students may encounter as they engage in a world where “people are setting goals for [them].” He employs imperative mood in phrases such as “we must,” “we are,” “you ought,” and “you have to” more than seventy times in his speech to convey the pressing danger that if the boys do not speak a common language or operate from a shared understanding about the realities of their everyday experiences, they will end up in the state he calls the rocking chair mentality of “giv[ing] the impression that you are going somewhere but end[ing] up where you started.” In a solemn tone and demeanor he continues to describe the consequences of the cultural loss he fears as he returns three additional times to the topic of the prison industrial complex (Alexander, 2011) and its imprint on the children’s families. He maintains, “It’s not just a reality, but it’s an actuality that is here with us . . .” He then shares his greatest fear that if the boys do not accept the agency “to know where they are going” and do not forge

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solidarity out of the underlying phenomena that bind them together, “[his] people will perish for the lack of knowledge.” Out of desire for the boys to not lose sight of their infinite potential, he also encourages them to eliminate negative mentalities in order to become “young people” who are not “programmed by society.” Dr. Jackson understands that to develop the resilience to move beyond the everyday destructive politics of being a young black male, the boys must give attention to larger spiritual callings rooted in African American legacies. Tracing histories beyond the present-day problems affecting the community, Dr. Jackson constantly refers to the boys as “descendants of African kings and queens.” He explains how “only the strongest survived when we came across the water “and that “many died in transit to these shores.” He urges, “We are princes of this nation. We are not paupers,” but that “we are royalty.” Dr. Jackson shares tales told by West African ministers focused on the strength and freedom of eagles as they “stretch forth [their] wings and . . . look up to the Heavens.” He goes on to link the history of slavery with current economic realities that have “created a new plantation,” and urges students to “wake up” from such exploitation. By juxtaposing students’ heritage of royalty with the legacies of slavery, Dr. Jackson reframes and challenges deficit positioning’s of African American boys, and urges students to look to their roots as a source of critical discernment and strength. Dr. Jackson invokes students’ African histories to nourish their psychological, social, and spiritual wellbeing and inform a new future where they are able to flourish. He asks them to engage in a type of remembering echoing Fredrich Buechner’s (as cited by Tisdell. 2007, p. 537) notion of memory of “looking out into another kind of time altogether where everything that ever was continues not just to be, but to grow and change with the life that is in it still.” Dr. Jackson’s choices for storytelling encourages the boys to overcome but not forget collective struggles that were part of the historical processes of renewal and healing. As Dr. Jackson nears the end of his speech, he further encourages the boys to consider how they might set new directions for their talents and knowledge. He shares his own testimonial as an example for how schooling provided him the opportunity to inherit greater understandings about his potential. He expresses his mother’s vital role in his choice to accept “the opportunity to go to school,” and gives attention to how “education [was] the bridge to opportunity . . . because it [was] the means being used to evaluate me.” Throughout his speech, Dr. Jackson employs African American sermonic rhetorical practices in order to critique the racism he saw occurring in his community and the boys’ lives. Deciding to thread race as an intertext (Nielsen, 1994) within each of his stories, he calls attention to what may happen if this history of division continues to suppress those who live by the

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assumptions of others. He asks the boys to look inward and outward so they “not lose sight of who they are” but instead adopt a responsibility to change their world. He shares how “[he has] realized that if [he’s] not part of the solution, then [he’s] part of the problem” and that “whatever effort we put out, we’ve got to have someone who can multiply it for us.” Dr. Jackson thus affirms an orientation prevalent throughout the Boys School: that the process of self-definition rests in the ability to give yourself to others, despite adversity and pressures to do otherwise. Dr. Jackson makes clear to the boys the necessity of not conforming to a world that attempts to compromise their full humanity, but instead to proudly draw on their cultural legacies in order to break free from the cycles of mental, physical and spiritual slavery. In our research, we witnessed many other community events that embodied the gospel impulse. Celebrations such as Grandparents’ Day, Career Day, Voting Day, and holiday festivities often included event speeches and conversations related to social responsibility, cultural struggle/achievement and autonomy. Additionally, when organizations, such as the Literacy Coalition, and other outside guests were invited into the school to lead or partake in individual classes or whole school activities, related messages were inscribed into the discourse of these events as adults spoke with children about “want[ing] to better themselves” (quote from Dad’s Club President talking to a group of upper elementary boys); or sharing how “[They] are all All-Stars . . . [and] to come back one day to talk to kids at schools in [ this city] about what they’ve done. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a brain surgeon, a basketball player, a football player, a teacher, a lawyer, or a preacher” (quote from famous professional football player who grew up in the community, speaking to boys at a school book club event). We found that implicitly attached to these collaborations with the Boys School, including our own, existed an unspoken commitment to acknowledge the burdens of the past and present while simultaneously asserting messages of self-affirmation and liberation. REMEMBERING A FORGOTTEN NAME: BEARING WITNESS THROUGH A THIRD GRADE PROJECT Just as school-wide event speakers such as Dr. Jackson were committed to talking through a “spiritual voice” (Bosacki, 2002)—the ability to speak all of one’s mind with all of one’s heart—teachers, administrators, and staff worked diligently to make the gospel impulse part of the classroom record as well. Regardless of grade level or class size, we observed how questions concerning “What is your history?” and “How does this history change your life?” manifested in daily pedagogy. Conversations about unity, legacy, and seeing value in one another were woven into literacy, science, and social

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studies instruction. They formed a parallel curriculum that addressed academic knowledge and skills alongside cultural values and ethical and spiritual ideals. Not taught at professional development trainings, this everyday curriculum nourished the minds, hearts, and souls of the boys, and rooted their intellectual inquiries. One important dimension of this work was the notion of “bearing witness” (Werner, 1998), which involves mutual recognition of one another’s suffering as well as triumphs. Inseparable from acknowledging the historical burden, bearing witness produces collective healing through acts of concern. In this section, we offer a representative example of this aspect of the gospel impulse as a series of improvisational dynamics influenced the direction of a classroom inquiry project. During the third year of school-university partnership, Lenny made weekly four-hour drives to the school and set aside time three days a week to visit Ms. Harris’ third grade classroom. Each day Ms. Harris generously carved out time in her schedule for Lenny to engage in reading and writing lessons with the boys, which often included read aloud, book explorations, and narrative and poetry writing. Later in the year, a class-wide social justice-oriented inquiry developed across the span of several months as the children investigated a range of issues impacting their local community (Sánchez, 2012). In February of that year, Lenny came across a pile of American Legacy magazines (a popular publication on the celebration of African American history and culture) in the school’s Writers House after working with a group of children in the room. One featured the journey of Estevanico, the first black explorer of North America who was also the first non-native person to visit the territories of present-day Arizona and New Mexico. Lenny had recently learned about this explorer when a sixth grade classroom aide gave him an audio copy of Langston Hughes’ The Struggle, a collection of Hughes’ prose, poetry, songs about slavery, freedom chants, and wellknown African American accomplishments, such as Estevanico’s sighting of present-day Florida. Intrigued by the magazine’s account of Estevanico, Lenny hurried to Ms. Harris’ classroom to show her the story. Equally interested in the narrative, Ms. Harris abruptly stopped the students from finishing their current task so that she and Lenny could introduce the story of Estevanico to the boys. She explained to Lenny how for the past two days she had been teaching the class about the relationship between African American and American Indian history, and that she in fact carried “Winnebago blood in her veins from her grandparents.” As Ms. Harris and Lenny began to present the story of Estevanico to the class, they first asked the boys, “Who comes to mind when thinking about the first black people to walk the ground of the United States?” In that

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moment, Ms. Harris reached from underneath a pile of papers on her desk and pulled out a pencil adorned with an American flag. Lifting the pencil high in the air from both ends, she snapped the pencil in half exclaiming, “They broke their backs for us!” The boys, closely watching and entertained at the unexpected act, raised their hands shouting, “Slaves!” With that, the class entered into a four-day inquiry about the life of a man who did not fit the stereotype of a slave as he journeyed across Florida, Mexico, and Southwest lands for eleven years, relying on his gifts for languages, healing practices, friendships with American Indians, and determination to be viewed as an equal. As the inquiry progressed, Lenny learned that Ms. Harris would be absent and unable to return to school for at least a week due to a family health emergency. Instead, Ms. Carter, a favorite building substitute, would be in the classroom instead. After observing the students’ excitement for the topic, Ms. Carter quickly shared her eagerness to be a part of the research project sharing, “I hadn’t heard of him [Estevanico] before, but when I found out he was black, I thought hmmm, especially because of what he did.” From that moment forward, Ms. Carter played a significant role in sustaining the momentum of the project. She helped to frame the learning as an opportunity for bearing witness to the importance of Estevanico’s legacy. On the third day, the boys began selecting scenes from Estevanico’s biographical narrative to illustrate and label. Estevanico served as a lead scout, which required that he travel in advance of his companions. Upon finding treasure, he promised to send a messenger back bearing a cross, for which the cross size would signify the quantity of treasure discovered. In spite of not locating any treasure, the class was fascinated by the figure of the cross and thirteen of the nineteen boys elected to draw crosses in their selected scenes. Figure 8.1, for example, depicts a drawing of Estevanico being honored by Native Americans as they carried him around their village. The student illustrator noted, “He felt very safe. They were all happy.” In the backdrop, a cross stands alone on the left side even though in reality, a cross would not have been found in that village. The boys noticeably found the cross to be a significant symbol of Estevanico’s story, understanding it as an image of treasure, life and death, sacrifice and hardship, and safe harbor. The students’ response to the text indexed their desire for a spiritual lineage. After the children finished producing their scenes, Ms. Carter approached Lenny again stating, “I’m sorry, but I’m really interested in it [meaning the inquiry] now.” Immediately, she began suggesting possibilities for how the boys might share their work with the school. She mentioned, “I didn’t know what you were going to do, but I thought we might hang up the pictures in the hallway.” She proposed placing a large sheet of bulletin board paper in the hallway to use as a backdrop for the boys’

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Figure 8.1  Third grader’s drawing of Estevanico being carried around a village.

drawings. She then recommended we construct a display to accompany the drawings and even offered to purchase items the boys could use to supplement their drawings. While the display case never materialized due to a shift in Ms. Carter’s work schedule, the drawings were hung in the hallway and Ms. Carter continued to ask about the class’ projects during the rest of the year. As the school year progressed, Ms. Harris was forced to take multiple leaves. However, despite these unexpected absences, meaningful work grounded in critical discussions of race and identity, such as the Estevanico project, continued in part due to the commitments of educators like Ms. Carter. Far more than a visiting substitute, Ms. Carter was an integral part of the school community who was deeply invested in both the students’ and her colleagues’ wellbeing. She understood the cultural stake involved in teaching and learning and willingly collaborated on class-wide projects, thus sharing in the visions of others despite her inability to be involved full time. None of the adults involved in the Estevanico project needed external justification to build a bridge to a past they felt the children needed to discover. The story of Estevanico cannot be found in any of the fifty state standards, even those that publish separate African American programs of study (Shear, et al., 2012). In spite of this missing history in the school’s

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“official” curriculum, the third graders and adults took the opportunity to inquire into the African American influence on the early formation of the United States. Estevanico presented the children and adults a story of a man who crossed deserts and mountains in route towards finding freedom, a pursuit they felt deserved to be remembered and witnessed. Just as Ms. Harris, Ms. Carter, and Lenny built common understandings and goals for the Estevanico project, many other teachers, staff, and volunteers in the Boys School collectively sought to help the boys reimagine themselves from the inside of history (Greene, 1993) as they taught resistance against dominant interpretations of the past. Out of mutual concern for broadening the children’s historical perspectives, the adults at the Boys School communally created culturally relevant curriculum (Ladson-Billings, 2001). But perhaps the most important story here is the way the school community rallied together to support Ms. Harris during a difficult time. Ms. Harris was very dedicated to her students and hated missing class for any reason. It provided her great relief to know that the inquiry she began with them would continue and deepen even in her absence. In this way, the students and educators not only bore witness to past struggles, but also to one another’s current wellbeing, in the process enacting a community of care. REDEMPTION AS DREAMING: THE PERFORMANCE OF A YOUNG CHILD’S POEM In the chapter thus far, we have focused on two instances, a speech from a school-wide event and a third grade social studies project, to demonstrate how nurturing collective legacies were an integral part of the Boys School. This undertaking entailed acknowledging historical burdens while simultaneously enacting more caring and collaborative relationships in the process. In this section, we focus on the third component of the gospel impulse—redemption—as we present an additional example of how the Boys School invited children to imagine a better future that transcends suffering. We interpret redemption as the ability to dream for greater communal liberation, since “no one makes it alone” (Werner, 1998, p. 31). A dream poem written by eight-year-old Marvin, offers a fitting illustration. He, like many other children in the school, used writing to engage in liberatory healing (hooks, 1994), which involves an individual’s willingness to be vulnerable in order to heal the larger community. During the third year of the partnership, the Boys School received an invitation to participate in a ceremony recognizing the opening of a Langston Hughes Family Museum in the city. The family-owned museum offered schools and communities the opportunity to examine important collections retained by the Hughes family as well as participate in the various educational programs

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it provided. The invitation occurred just as the school was preparing to launch a Dream Flag project in honor of Hughes’ poetry. When it came time for the museum commemoration to be held at the public library, Marvin and two other children were selected to perform their original poems composed during the project. Marvin chose to recite “I Am Still Holding On.” I Am Still Holding On If I can continue to dream, even when I open my eyes, I feed the world, I feed my face, I give you never-ending hope. Never wake up even if I’m still awake, So it can carry you. Carry you to the ocean floor, Just like a motion in a flower. Oh my Sisters, Oh my Brothers, This can be taken. Oh, this can be taken.

Marvin’s opening line, “If I can continue to dream,” draws on Hughes’ theme of dreams and evokes the treasury of dreams written into African American culture (Hughes, 1990). Marvin’s poem conveys that dreams (e.g., for freedom, hope, strength, wisdom, and unity) are not merely individual, but carry social relevance. In “Inquiry, Imagination, and the Search for the Deep Politic,” Gitlin (2005) notes how freedom can be an illusion for the African American experience when “those who reside in the center” hold the power to reify the myth. Within his poem, Marvin exemplifies a possibility of reimagining freedom through an individual’s willingness to “feed the world” and “feed [his] face” with “never-ending hope.” He indicates the importance for dreams to remain intact and for individuals to be carried away by these dreams to the “ocean floor” (a dark, distant, expansive space) or in the “motion in a flower” (an act of unnoticed beauty). Marvin’s poem suggests that to overcome the barriers of broken dreams, or disillusioned freedoms (Gitlin, 2005), an individual must be free to ask “What kind of world do we want to struggle for?” (Kelley, 2002, p. 7). In other words, how might we live in a different (freer) world where dreams are an act of agency? Perhaps this is why he suggested “to never wake up”— to exist in an altered state of consciousness where we find redemption in the imagination and in the hope for a better world. With his poem, Marvin also unveils his own process of self-actualization in announcing his dream on stage. He uses pronouns of “I” and “you” to name the audience as recipients and makers of his dream (as referenced in Lines 1 and 3). Marvin inflects a sense of urgency as he frames transformation as a reliance on others. He measures self-worth through a connection to rather than a separation from others. In fact, he beckons the

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commemoration audience and the readers of his poem to join beside him as he redefines what lies ahead of him in his own mind, body, and spirit. He seems to understand that part of redemption involves becoming fully engaged with the world. During our time at the Boys School, we observed how writing offered students like Marvin the opportunity to not only become authors of their “life stories,” but heroes of these stories as well (Bosacki, 2002). Teachers, such as Ms. Carter, encouraged the boys to “cry in [their] writing . . . Cry while you write because this is serious” (quote taken during classroom observation). Marvin’s poem represents one of many instances we witnessed where children’s writing conveyed a sense of vulnerability, belonging, and imagination as they conceived new ways of redefining themselves and their world. In a test-taking driven curriculum that often defined writing as a five paragraph essay in response to a predetermined prompt, the teachers found opportunities for encouraging writing that genuinely “mattered” (Ghiso, 2011) to children. Just as Marvin was given the opportunity to confess his desire to dream in front of the audience at the museum ceremony, the Boys School created numerous occasions throughout our years there for the boys to engage in various forms of dream sharing. They were continuously encouraged to reveal visions of change they held for themselves and their community. MOBILIZING THE GOSPEL IMPULSE TO HEAL THE HUMAN SPIRIT In this chapter, we focused on examples from a cross-grade awards program, a classroom curricular inquiry, and an individual child’s poem to illuminate ways in which a school community mobilized the gospel impulse to foster hope and resiliency. As we spend time in educational contexts beyond the Boys School, we have grown ever more concerned about the impact of federal initiatives and “reform” movements on public neighborhood schools. Take, for example, how the recent decrease of minority teachers, the proliferation of charter schools, and the trends of rotating faculty in which new teachers spend no more than a few years in a school before changing positions or vocations (Ingersoll, 2001) make it increasingly unfeasible for educators to really know and learn from the local knowledge of communities. These dynamics endanger schools such as the Boys School, where the teachers and administrators—many of whom are from the neighborhood—really understand and can draw from the rich cultural legacies of their students. While the Boys School could not ignore sanctions placed upon it due to accountability measures, the adults and children nonetheless nurtured

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the relationships they formed with the neighborhood and legitimized this interdependence in order to carry forward the traditions they collectively created. We saw Dr. Jackson and others critique the past and present in order to move towards a new tomorrow. We participated in opportunities through the Estevanico and Langston Hughes dream projects to help restore a sense of lineage to these collective inheritances. Most often, these types of spiritual and cultural pursuits occurred in what Campano (2007, p. 40) has characterized as the second classroom, “an alternative pedagogical and ideological space” that runs parallel to the mandated curriculum where teachers nurture the “individual and cultural integrity” of students through relationship building and stories. In the context of the Boys School, we noticed how the gospel impulse flourished in the cracks between curricular and testing mandates, opening up richer possibilities for communally derived initiatives built on school members’ experiences and interests. Consider the impact for inviting speakers such as Dr. Jackson to a school-wide event where he openly linked his testimony to that of the boys. Consider the agency the boys felt when they were asked to unveil soul-moving writings to public audiences at the museum commemoration. Consider how Ms. Harris, Ms. Carter, and Lenny realized the spirit of interdependence when they worked together for the greater good of the classroom. Each of these endeavors was tied to the ability to challenge isolation through community affirmation and solidarity. These “gospel impulses” carried fundamental consequences for the boys; and those who taught and learned at the Boys School recognized how they were an important part of their legacies and saw them as a vital component to the healing spirit of the school. AUTHOR’S NOTE We would like to express a special thanks to Maria Paula Ghiso for her substantive feedback on earlier drafts of this chapter. REFERENCES Alexander, M. (2011). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York, NY: The New Press. Bosacki, S. L. (2002). Spirituality and self in preadolescents: Implications for a connected curriculum. Journal of Beliefs and Values, 23 (1), 55–67. Buley-Meissner, M. L. (2002). The spirit of a people: Hmong American life stories. Language Arts, 79(4), 323–331. Campano, G. (2011). On our common alienation: Toward a collaborative vision of education. Keynote address presented at the University of Pennsylvania Ethnography in Education Research Forum, Philadelphia, PA.

“I’m Still Holding On”    229 Campano, G. (2007). Immigrant students and literacy: Reading, writing, and remembering. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Campano, G., Honeyford, M., Sánchez, L., & Vander Zanden, S. (2010). Ends in themselves: Theorizing the practice of university-school partnering through horizontalism. Language Arts, 87(4), 277–286. Cochran-Smith, M., Lytle, S. L. (1999). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teacher learning in communities. Review of Research in Education, 24(1), 249– 305. Retrieved from http://rre.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/24/1/249 Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (2009). Inquiry as stance: Practitioner research for the next generation. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Collins, P. (2000). Black feminist though: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge. Cone, G. S., & Cone, J. H. (1992). Black theology: a documentary history. New York: Orbis Books. Douglass, F. (2005). Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: An American slave. (Signet Classics) New York: New American Library. Ghiso, M. P. (2011). “Writing that matters”: Collaborative inquiry and authoring practices in a first grade class. Language Arts, 88(5), 346–355. Gitlin, A. (2005). Inquiry, imagination, and the search for a deep politic. Educational Researcher, 34(15), 15–24. Greene, M. (1993). The passions of pluralism: Multiculturalism and the expanding community. Educational Researcher, 22(1), 13–18. Hall, T. (2011). Designing from their own social worlds: The digital story of three African American young women. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 10(1), 7–20. Harvey, D. (2004). Retrospect on the limits to capital. Antipode, 36, 544–549. doi: 10.1111j.1467-8330.2004.00431.x hooks, b. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. New York, NY: Routledge. hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Routledge. Hughes, L. (1990). Selected poems of Langston Hughes. New York, NY: Random House. Ingersoll, R. (2001). Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: An organizational analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 38(3) 499–534. Jackson, J. F. L., & Moore, J. L., III. (2006). “African American Males in Education Teachers College Record, 108(2), 201–205. Kelley, R. (2002). Freedom Dreams: The black radical imagination. New York, NY: Beacon Press. Ladson-Billings, G. (2001). Crossing over to Canaan: The journey of new teachers in diverse classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc. Mahiri, J. (1998). Shooting for excellence: African American and youth culture in new century schools. New York, NY: National Council of Teachers. Nielsen, A. (1994). Writing between the lines: Race and intertextuality. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. Richardson, E., & Jackson, R. (2004). African American rhetoric(s): Interdisciplinary perspectives. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

230    L. SANCHEZ, G. CAMPANO, and T. HALL Sánchez, L. (2012). Making community matter: Changing the composition of classroom learning. In P. Gorski & J. Landsman (Eds.), The poor are not the problem: Insisting on class equity in schools. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. Shear, S. B., Knowles, R. T., Soden, G. J., Canitz, C., & Castro, A. J. (2012, November). All Indians are dead . . . according to state standards: A mixed methods critical examination of the master narrative presented in all 50 states and the District of Columbia’s U.S. history standards. Paper presented at the College and University Faculty Assembly of National Council for the Social Studies, Seattle, WA. Smitherman, G. (1999). Talkin that talk: Language, culture and education in African America. New York: Routledge. Tatum, A. W., & Muhammad, G. (2012). African American males and literacy development in contexts that are characteristically urban. Urban Education, 47(2), 434–463. Tisdell, E. (2007). In the new millennium: The role of spirituality and the cultural imagination in dealing with diversity and equity in the Higher Education classroom. Teachers College Record, 109(3), 531–560. Vasudevan, L., & Campano, G. (2009). The social production of risk and the promise of adolescent literacies. The American Educational Research Association’s Review of Research in Education, 33(1), 310–353. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Werner, C. (1998). A change is going to come: Music, race, and the soul of America. New York, NY: Plume. Williams, K. (2002). Minority and majority students’ retrospective perceptions of social support in doctoral programs. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 95(1), 187–196. Wilson, W. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

CHAPTER 9

RELIGIOSITY AND SPIRITUALITY IN EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS Perspectives and Reflections From Black Educators Brenda Marina and Arline Edwards-Joseph

ABSTRACT A dilemma often facing women of African ascent is how to embrace the resonances of their souls that arise from spirituality and how to do so within academic contexts (Dillard, 2006). We discuss a study that has taken us beyond our role as researchers and our discussion arises from a worldview that is personal and cultural. This project has caused us to reflect on our praxis and embrace a creative paradigm that embodies a coherent space that reverberates spiritually, culturally, and intellectually with our work which we extend to our students. Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 231–249 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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BEGINNING THOUGHTS Our interest in the spiritual nature of education has grown and thus as educators, we must ask deeper questions about our own identities. We must consider our connections to others through our purposes—which are teaching, counseling, and mentoring women for leadership. What would happen to our lives (and the lives of our students) if we were to immerse ourselves more deeply in our spiritual roots of Africa? What would happen to our teaching and our research practice if we were to immerse ourselves in an African way of being and an African way of thinking? We can contemplate this query within the context of social justice by not only searching for the answers, but also by “gradually living our way into the answers” (Rilke, 1934). This chapter will focus on how religion and spirituality has impacted the praxis of African-American and Black-Caribbean women in leadership roles in education. Furthermore, as female educators and researchers of African ascent, we reflect upon our own praxis, common issues, challenges, and religious expression (or the lack thereof) within the context of social justice. As women of African ascent, we account the reflections of a group of women of African ascent who have embraced their roles as leaders in education. We report on how these women utilize their spirituality in their work as leaders in education and as social justice agents. Moreover, how these women employ their faith to be successful in a male dominated and often stressful system is also explored. Additionally, we discuss how these school counselors, as agents of change, show their commitment to the students they encountered daily, based on what they believe is imperative because their spiritual convictions. As researchers, we explore the nature of spirituality in education from a gendered perspective; we illuminate a qualitative study which examines the ways in which Black Caribbean women use religion/spirituality to address the challenges and realities in a male dominant political system. We took a qualitative approach to excavate the connections between spirituality and the practical applications utilized for coping in a profession that helps others cope with their lives. The study that we reference addresses the question: How does religion and spirituality inform the praxis of women of African ascent in their professional lives? Content analysis of the narratives of a sample of Black Caribbean women (n = 10) revealed themes that elucidates the role religion/spirituality plays in their personal and professional lives. Findings suggest that these women were committed to seeking equality, advocating for students and professionals. We found spirituality to be the driving force for their continued social justice work in the broader society. Narrative examples are utilized to demonstrate the thematic discovery followed by our concluding thoughts.

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African Ascent This brief discussion on African ascendance is a prelude for this chapter and a prerequisite for a deeper understanding of the use of the term throughout the chapter. The conception of African ascendance (Dillard 2006) implies a shift in the ideologies that have been taken for granted in our lives. Dillard deliberately sought language that attempts to debunk traditionally held cultural and political constructions/constrictions; her purpose was to utilize language that more accurately establishes and transmutes descriptions of sociocultural relationships. Language itself is epistemic and a way to understand reality. The very language we use to define and describe phenomena transforms ways of knowing and producing knowledge. In contrast to the term descendent (a well-established canon of western thought), the term ascendant or ascent is used to articulate how reality is known when based in the roots of African thought. This epistemological thought embodies a distinguishable difference in culturally constructed social identities for African American women. Uncovering the ideologies that we have taken for granted and have (mis)guided our purposes and practices, allows us to demystify and reframe our reality. Thus, the use of the term African ascendant/ascent is an invitation to the reader to be aware of multiple ways of knowing. The term descend ascribes to falling or tumbling down, which has a negative connotation. In contrast, the term ascend can be described as coming up, which has a positive connotation. (Marina, 2012, p. 5)

As with Dillard, illuminating this meaning within this discourse is our counter narrative to the conventional forms of African representation and rendition. INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE Counselors entering the profession have been educated with a professional emphasis on social justice and advocacy, thus creating a sense of leadership role while providing services to clients. Women as counselor educators must be prepared to deal with the expectations of leadership while balancing career and personal ambitions. Several studies in the counseling literature have addressed issues of gender including gender role perspectives of counselors (Hoffman, 2006), gender role in counseling (Ametrano & Pappas, 1996; Seem, 1998) and newer studies have emerged regarding the experiences of female counselors(Bradley, 2005; Gibson, 2004; Hill, 2009; Medina & Magnuson, 2009). The increasing volume of literature addressing the career experiences of women in counseling and counselor

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education suggests that women are assuming leadership roles in the counseling profession (Levitt, 2010). It is our contention that we, as education leaders, can transform lives— we are agents of change. We must intentionally use scholarship to strengthen our capacities. In the field of education, we must use our heads, hearts and spirit for the profession. Our beliefs direct all that we do, so, knowing ones’ beliefs is important. We have a commitment to social justice and we need to be congruent leaders. We need to develop a process and broaden the discourse by getting clear about what we believe (spirituality). Within our discussion of counseling and leadership for social justice, we provide a briefing of the literature on spirituality and women of African ascent, with a scaffolding discussion of the theory of intersectionality. Followed by a description of the study, narratives are used to substantiate our findings and finally, we discuss practical, professional, and theoretical implications. Spirituality We begin this section by revisiting the terms religiosity and spirituality. Religiosity is the degree to which individuals adhere to the prescribed beliefs and practices of an organized religion (Mattis, 2000) whereas spirituality is considered as a one’s belief in the sense of connectedness with humans, spirits, and God (Mattis, 2002). Religiosity/spirituality blends these two constructs while they are distinct as such. Religiosity/spirituality has been viewed as illogical and gendered in the social sciences. However, over the past 40 years feminist scholars have refuted the notion of equating religiosity/spirituality with irrationality with the patterns and stories of women’s lives (e.g., Blake & Darling, 2000; Doohan, 2007). Black feminist/womanist theological scholarship (e.g., Ngunjiri, 2011) suggests that women of African ascent used prayer and bible readings as transformative spaces. In short, religiosity/spirituality has played a significant role in African ascent women’s efforts to face social, cultural, and political struggles. In a study conducted by Byrd (2001), she found that religious beliefs influenced selfesteem. Almost all of her female participants reported that their belief in God was the reason for their high self-esteem. Their main sources of selfesteem were God, family, role models, and self-reflected appraisal. Religion and spirituality are an integral part of the Caribbean culture. It is therefore not surprising that that the issues of religion and spirituality are significant for Caribbean professionals in education. Many Caribbean religions have a distinctive African ethos and identity (Stewart, 2006). African Caribbean religious traditions can be categorized into three major trajectories—African derived religions, Christianity, and post-Christian religions movements—that are sometimes similar based on influence (Stewart). We

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focus on Christianity since the women educators we discuss all identified as Christians. Christianity was introduced to the region in the early sixteenth century and by the 20th century it had gained ascendancy to the official religion in the region (Stewart, 2006). The religious groups that garnered remarkable adherents were evangelical and “conversionist” in nature (Desmangles, Glazier, & Murphy, 2003). These included Catholicism, Anglicanism, Pentecostal, Baptist, Seventh Day Adventist, and more recently the Church of the Latter Day Saints; some also include the Jehovah’s Witnesses in this group (Desmangles et al.). The women in our study did not share affiliations to any specific denomination. The social sciences have inspired a body of research about the lives of women of African ascent. The literature is consistent with findings that report that religion/spirituality is central to their daily coping repertoire to negotiate personal and professional stressors. Despite the myriad accounts from women of color in general, there is limited research on the link between spiritualty and the developmental processes that occur in Black Caribbean women. . . . We seek to widen the discourse about, religion, coping, and leadership in praxis by examining the lives of a sample of Black Caribbean women. We continue to explore the concrete experiences and acts of other women of African ascent, while at the same time striving to understand and extrapolate wisdom and meaning. As educators, writers, researchers, counselors, and mentors, our concrete experiences, uniquely individual, are at the same time collectively connected. On a historical timeline, each pioneer builds upon the work of another, enlarging the scope of credible evidence among African spiritual pioneers. In other words, each generation of pioneers serves the following generation of women with African roots. INTERSECTIONALITY As we examine this case through the lens of the theory of intersectionality, we maintain that spirituality has given women of African ascent the ability to transcend the political, social, and economic limitations imposed by oppressive systems. This theory suggests that various culturally and socially constructed categories, such as race, gender, and class, interact on multiple and often simultaneous levels, contributing to systematic social inequality. Originally coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989), intersectionality was intended to address the fact that the experiences and struggles of women of color fell between the cracks of both feminist and antiracist discourse. However, scholars seem to share in the confusion and controversies about this term. Some regard it as a concept, others suggest intersectionality is a theory, and still

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others consider it a strategy for conducting feminist analysis. As a concept, intersectionality is, ambiguous and open-ended. It is precisely because it is so imperfect that it has been drawn upon in several contexts of inquiry. Intersectionality offers endless opportunities for interrogating one’s own blind spots and transforming them into analytic resources for further critical analysis. In short, intersectionality, by virtue of its vagueness and inherent open-endedness, initiates a process of discovery which not only is potentially interminable, but promises to yield new and more comprehensive and reflexively critical insights. (Davis, 2008, p. 78)

According to Davis (1986), the first characteristic of a successful social theory is that it speaks to a primary audience concern. This concern must not simply be shared by a broad and disparate audience of scholars, it also needs to address a problem which collides with something that the audience holds dear (Davis, 2008). “Intersectionality” addresses the most central theoretical and normative concern within feminist scholarship: the acknowledgement of differences among women. Intersectionality addresses how categories of race, class and gender are intertwined giving centrality to questions like how race is “gendered” and how gender is “racialized,” and how both are linked to the continuities and transformations of social class. This theory captures the attention of an audience by disputing or unsettling something that was previously believed- it addresses an old problem with a new twist. This concept, this theory, this method of analysis encourages feminist scholars to engage critically with her own assumptions in the interests of reflexive, critical, and accountable feminist inquiry. It encourages complexity, stimulates creativity, and avoids premature closure, causing scholars to raise new questions and explore uncharted territory. Intersectionality has since been heralded as the most important contribution to women’s studies (McCall, 2005) and is exactly what is needed within the disciplines (philosophy, social sciences, humanities, economy and law) and throughout theoretical perspectives (phenomenology, structuralist sociology, psychoanalysis, and deconstructionism) and political persuasions (feminism, antiracism, multiculturalism, disability studies). Intersectionality suggests that there is still important work to be done, and—we are the ones to do it. Thus, we attempt to show how our experiences as women are interconnected to our teaching, research, counseling, and mentoring. LEADERSHIP FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE AND RELIGION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLING (P–20) While the term social justice has become a popular concept within the academy, it is difficult to ascertain what it means in education leadership

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preparation programs. While there are multiple meanings for the term social justice, if we characterize the nature of social justice work by celebrating multiple voices and perspectives, we will better serve our field as we develop individuals for social justice leadership. This includes undoing the idea of archetypes and finding some clarity in our own career and scholarship trajectories in the academy. This also includes examining our own identity location as African American women researchers deeply interested in how spirituality might serve critical roles in public schooling. As more and more African-ascendant scholars are immersing themselves in cultural and spiritual spaces that are congruent with what we know (in body, mind, and spirit), we are also constructing more informed and authentic paradigms for ourselves, paradigms that allow us to emerge as pioneers and leaders on the timeline we previously mentioned. We are also deconstructing the boundaries and norms of conventional social science. While much of the social justice literature focuses on race, ethnicity and social class, less attention has been given to the intersections of social justice, religion, and public schooling (Lugg & Tabba-Rida, 2010). The growing mismatch between demography of education professionals and the demography of their students and clientele has caused educational leaders to begin paying attention to social justice issues. At this point, we pause to discuss the shifting terrain of religious expression in the United States, placing it within the context of educational leadership, social justice, and public schooling. There are roughly 2000 different faith systems in the United States with individualistic, eclectic, and idiosyncratic practices (French, 2003; Lugg, 2004). Educators as leaders who are committed to social justice need to be informed about how diverse the U.S. landscape is today and consider their local context. Such religious diversity poses a myriad of complexities for educators and leaders, especially those who have embraced a Protestant ethos which reflects a majoritarian ethic rather than one of social justice (Delfatorre, 2006; Fraser, 1999). Public school (P–20) educators, counselors and administrators are considered legal representatives of the secular state and have been historically told to function from a point of neutrality. Our schools and universities serve a captive audience that is highly impressionable, and thus our neutrality, silence, and selective silence impacts our young people, their communities and our democratic society. If we are using our heads, hearts and spirit as agents of change, how do we negotiate our legal representation in a majoritarian and secular system? In counseling, for example, social justice focuses on the relationship between the social factors such as poverty and inequity in education and poor mental health (Kiselica & Robinson, 2001). Social justice supports the assertion that counselors must be prepared to work outside of the traditional clinical or school setting if societal barriers hindering mental health and

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human development are to be broken down (Steele, 2008). Steele also asserts that for counselor educators, social justice is to be manifested in their professional practice, scholarship and research. If we are using our heads, hearts and spirit as agents of change, it is our practice, scholarship and research where we negotiate our legal representation in a majoritarian and secular system. Challenging systemic inequities with the intent of improving society has always been a key objective of the counseling profession. Social justice, hence, provides counselors with a conceptual basis for social action (Lee & Hipolito-Delgado, 2007). It is referred to as the “fifth force” in counseling and uses advocacy as a tool to address client problems (Ratts, 2009). Social justice focuses on issues of oppression, privilege, and social inequities (Lee & Hipolito-Delgado, 2007). In order to be effective leaders and helpers in social justice, we must have three levels of awareness: an awareness of self, interpersonal awareness, and systemic awareness. At level one, an awareness of self, counselors must understand important dynamics of their personality and how they contribute to the counseling process (Nugent & Jones, 2005); at level two, interpersonal awareness, counselors are expected to have an appreciation of the client’s reality without being judgmental (Lee & Hipolito-Delgado, 2007); at level three, systematic awareness, counselors must be able to accurately understand how the client’s development is impacted by the client’s environment. Counselors need to have knowledge of how to advocate at the systemic level in an effort to alleviate barriers that may impede the client’s psychosocial development (Dinsmore, Chapman, & McCollum, 2000; Lee, Armstrong, & Brydges, 1996). Within our research study, we explore the intersections of these levels of awareness. OUR STUDY—THEIR STORY According to Merriam (2002), qualitative researchers are interested in understanding the meaning people have constructed; in other words, how they make sense of their world and the experiences they have in the world. This understanding is an end in itself, as it sheds light on the three levels of awareness for social justice. For our qualitative study, the phenomenological approach was used to research the lived experiences of selected female educators. Each semistructured interview lasted approximately two hours, and during the interviews we asked a series of open-ended questions. The interviews were conducted face to face on a beautiful eastern Caribbean island. A 25 item questionnaire, and 4 open-ended questions, were designed to gather the women’s’ experiences. The women were asked about the perception of school counseling in their country through the 25 item questionnaire and the 4 open-ended questions were instrumental in uncovering

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the efficacy of their individual school’s counseling program as well as factors that influenced these programs. Additionally, we wanted to know what factors they thought influenced their effectiveness as counselors. Their responses to the open-ended questions were the basis for our focus group questions we developed and used to guide the group discussion. Participants The Ministry of Education on each of the islands in the Eastern Caribbean is the governing body for the education systems. Our participants were recruited through the Ministry of Education on one of those islands. With the assistance of the Ministry’s school counseling coordinator we agreed upon the school counselors that would participate in the interviews and focus groups. There were four primary school counselors (grades 1 to 6) and four secondary school counselors (forms 1 to 5, the equivalent of grades 7 to 11). These counselors worked in one of the rural parishes or in the city parish. The eight counselors participated in the focus group, along with two other professionals who were not individually interviewed. The length of time the women were employed as counselors varied from 1 year to 12 years. Procedures Data Collection Following our intuitional procedures, the informed consent document was read to the women and they were asked to respond orally as to their willingness to participate in the study. Their willingness to participate was also recorded with an audio-tape. We collected data through audio recordings and through interviewer notes during the semistructured interviews and focus group sessions. The face-to-face interviews were followed up with focus group discussions. Data Analysis The recorded data were transcribed for analysis. We used the constant comparative method of simultaneously coding and analyzing the (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The transcripts were read multiple times to refine the concepts, identify the properties, explore relationships, and enhance trustworthiness and authenticity. The narratives were sorted and coded, and the codes were combined to identify themes (Basit, 2003). Additionally, a third person, neutral to the study, was utilized to review the themes and codes that emerged to control for researcher bias.

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UNDERSTANDINGS (RESULTS) Hard work, commitment, service to country, spirituality, and social justice overwhelmingly emerged as themes. Here we present the intersections of hard work, commitment, and service to country within the context of spirituality and social justice. It is important to note that to capture the rich essence of participants’ reflections we share some direct quotes spoken in the island’s dialect. Spirituality All the women attributed a huge part of their work success to their spiritual practices. Many affirmed that spirituality was connected to their confidence level (level one: self-awareness) and provided a foundation for their work success in a system that presents challenges for women in an otherwise male dominant political system (level three: systemic-awareness). Having their Bibles in their offices was important to them because it served as a source of refuge when they were stressed. It was clearly communicated that their Bibles were a reminder of the biblical principles of working with children; it was also a reminder of their responsibility to the students (level two: interpersonal-awareness). For example, one counselor educator stated that she would show the students her Bible and remind them that it states that she should not spare the rod and spoil the child. Some of these women had their Bibles in plain sight to serve as a symbol of their faith. In fact, one individual stated . . .  Me warn ebreybady fu know dat me a wan Crishtian an me lib fu me life pan wa dissubben [the Bible] say. So me kip um right ya so pickney an big negar carn see.

Beyond the classroom, the women maintained that it is their faith (used interchangeable with spirituality) that helps them to survive in a system that is difficult at times to navigate. They attributed their career success up to this point in time to their belief in God (level one: self-awareness). Many testified that if it was not for “God on their side,” they are not sure if they would be able to complete their daily tasks. They also expressed that it is their spiritual convictions that serve as the impetus for their decision to seek fairness for the students they serve (level two: interpersonal-awareness). When asked what fairness meant, one stated, . . . fairness mean stannin up[advocating] fa da students an dem and da counselors dem. . . .

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Another stated, . . . fairness is making the decision to be agents of change and standing up for what I believe to be right for the students.

Collectively, the women educators agreed that working for equity in the system was an expectation of their Christian faith. Their faith was the driving force for their continued social justice work in the broader society (level three: systemic-awareness). Social Justice Considering the tenets of intersectionality, we believe that the continued survival of the human race depends ultimately on its capacity to see past selfish motivations and embrace what social psychologists refer to as the “justice motive” (Asch,1959). It was Solomon Asch who insisted that social psychologists not only consider the perpetration of injustice, but to carefully consider the “vectors that make it possible for persons to think and care and work for others” (p. 372). The justice motive can be seen when people extend themselves to promote fair treatment of others with mere considerations of self-interest (Montada, 2002; Jost & Kay, 2010). As we examine leadership for social justice and religion in public schooling through the lens of the theory of intersectionality, we maintain that spirituality has given women of African ascent the ability to think and care and work for others. The women were committed to seeking equity, advocating for students and for the profession. If they didn’t make a conscious effort to be agents of change it would be easy to retreat and not “buck the system.” For many it was not an option to retreat. Here we see examples that social justice must always be a critical idea that challenges us to reform our institutions and practices in the name of greater fairness (Miller, 1999): . . . me prepare fu fight de system if E mean dat the student an dem get wa dem need met . . . .E important cause if awee na stan up da pickney an dem need an fu awee needs as counselors nar get notice.

In recent decades, social scientists have come to recognize that justice considerations pertain not merely to the allocation of resources but also to the methods or procedures by which decisions are made at work, in the political arena, in the family, etc. (Miller, 1999):  . . . without stannin up fa the profession, we and other counselors inna the system could be ignored and in turn the resources necessary to help students an dem may not materialize by the leaders of the system.

242    B. MARINA and A. EDWARDS-JOSEPH . . . ironically, there are more women in education than men; however, it seems as if the men make the decisions.

It was made clear that as women they needed to advocate for their equality in a male dominated system. For this reason, the educators agreed that they needed to work together as women to ensure that their voices are heard and they are viewed as equitable participants in the system. The voice affects not only justice judgments but is also associated with increased positive affect, decreased negative affect, and greater trust in authorities (Shapiro & Brett, 2005; Tyler & Blader, 2003; Van Prooijen, Karremans, & Van Beest, 2006; Van Prooijen, Van den Bos, & Wilke, 2004). These women didn’t learn to be change agents in a classroom; rather, they became change agents out of the necessity to be heard as women and to ensure the needs of their students were met. The opportunity to express one’s own point of view allows individuals to express their values to those who are in authority (Lind, Kanfer, &Earley, 1990; Tyler, 1987). DISCUSSION All of the women from our study articulated a lifelong commitment to social justice and equity issues that permeates both their professional and personal lives. They also expressed how their faith has been infused into their work as leaders and as agents of change. Here are three who described events that occurred in their lives as they strove to stand up for equity and social justice: There min wa time when me min fraid fu lose ma job. I was fraid that if I say something that did not please the people at the top that I could be punished underhandedly. I know now that it is important to stann up if I am going to live as a Christian and if I am going to help the children. (Educator X) I was once denied a position because I stood up against something I thought was wrong in the schools. I had to pray and ask for guidance on how to proceed. I decided not to fight the issue and wait for another opportunity. I regret not having done something about it; I guess I was afraid at the time. Now, nat me; sarry fu tark so but e help me git da piant acrass; me a stann up and say wa me haffu say. Me na kay. Fu me pickney need fu nayam and da pick-anega that come school eberyday deserve more; so I am prepared to continue, with God’s help to be an agent of change. (Educator Y) When I first started as an educator I saw myself as a leader. I am a leader and proud to say so. I got into this profession because I wanted to make a difference. Too many of us are complacent and are not prepared to buck the system. I have always been comfortable about what could happen if I stan up. That is how change happens; someone deciding not to be fraidy fraidy.

Religiosity and Spirituality in Educational Leadership Programs     243 If you say you truss Gad then you na haffu fraid tall. He a go tek care a you. (Educator Z)

These narratives caused us to reflect upon a statement by Rogers (2002) that: Perhaps the most compelling stories that have emerged from generations of political leaders are those that involve personal transformations in which individuals move from fear to fearlessness, and from individual discontent to a sense of collective unity and strength. Such changes often involve individual development and transformation in an interactive and collective context. (p. 365)

Social justice expectedly should lead to social action. Therefore, as social justice agents (counselors are expected to assume the role of a leader, advocate, and collaborator for the system they are a part of. They are also expected to be social agents for change in their communities for individuals who are disadvantaged (Lee, 2007). Additionally, they are encouraged to work with policy makers and legislators to combat isms. Lee continues that counseling for social justice is not only a professional imperative but it is also dedicating one’s life promoting access and equity for all. Stein (1998) wrote: To situate learning means to create the conditions in which participants will experience the complexity and ambiguity of learning in the real world. Participants will create their own knowledge out of the raw materials of experience, i.e., the relationships with other participants, the activities, the environmental cues, and the social organization that the community develops and maintains. (p. 1)

The praxis or reflective action of leadership for social justice can be found within educational leadership through the intersections of our research, scholarship and teaching; conference presentations; and organizational initiatives. Social justice is a distinct line of inquiry which has generated numerous publications with a focus on leadership. Our teaching should have significant impact on the leadership for social justice. It is in our universities and K–12 classrooms where social justice and moral leadership are studied adopted and practiced. We use our influence as professors, teachers, counselors, mentors, and other school leaders to promote leadership for social justice. It is imperative that we use our beliefs as a way to work toward a more equitable and just education system and society. Sefa Dei (2002) supports this notion: For those of us who teach, research, write, study, and, in fact, “produce knowledge” about Human communities, it is useful to know and remember that the sources and uses of data are not apolitical. There are always profound social and political contexts and consequences for our constructions of knowledge. All knowledge are contingent in particular social and political contexts.

244    B. MARINA and A. EDWARDS-JOSEPH Therefore, in our teaching practices we must always be conscious of the socioenvironmental and political contexts of data gathering [knowledge production]. In many parts of our world people’s freedoms have been taken away as they teach critically and politically. (p. 9)

Linda Tillman (Dantley & Tillman, 2010) is a scholar that utilizes ethical frameworks to prepare administrators to work with schools, parents and communities. Her assignments cause students to reflect and think critically about their work as future leaders and from a socially just perspective. Michael Dantley (Dantley & Tillman, 2010) utilizes the ideologies of critical spirituality, moral leadership and transformational leadership to engage students in provocative critical reflective sessions. These forms of social justice praxis are intertwined into their classes. Warren Bennis suggests: Leaders learn by leading, and they learn best by leading in the face of obstacles. As weather shapes mountains, problems shape leaders. Difficult . . . [people], lack of vision and virtue . . . , circumstances beyond their control, and their own mistakes have been the leaders’ basic curriculum.” (as cited in Kouzes and Posner, 2002, p. 17)

Preparation programs in educational leadership must be willing to move from rhetoric to make social justice a part of the language for educational leadership. Conference presentations and organizational initiatives are venues to bring together diverse viewpoints for the purpose of seeking to improve educational leadership as a means to address equity concerns for underrepresented populations throughout P–20 education. Leaders for social justice must consider their moral (spiritual) positions to deconstruct and reconstruct educational practices and systems. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS We must understand that what we have all too often attributed to luck or coincidence or our own ability, belongs to the workings of a spiritual essence. It is important to understand how women of African ascent cope with stressors to maintain positive self-esteem and professional efficacy while facing adversity. We carefully considered the words of our Africana sisters to deepen our understandings for coping with stressors under similar circumstances but in different spaces. Social justice is not easily obtained, but can be subtly negotiated by women who combine hard work and an awareness of God and neighbor as essential to ascendancy. It is here that we find difficulty and struggle with why and how we are or have been typically subtle in our quest for the greater good—can we in fact go boldly (confidently, not boisterously) before the social, cultural, and political systems? African and

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African American women leaders whose work is informed by serving God and community form a chain of successes that make evident the degrees of inclusion and exclusion that deprive some students of equitable education and social justice. Our Caribbean sisters made it very evident to us that we must move beyond the self-awareness level of social justice to a level of systemic awareness, propelling us to intentional action. Their stories are a clarion call for women of African ascent to reassess their programmatic impact through our ways of being and knowing. Their stories demonstrate how the inherent tenacity of these women, coupled with their commitment to social justice, working in a male dominated system, has the temerity to stand up for what they deem to be necessary for advocacy. It is a demonstration of their commitment to the students they are called to serve. The very idea that spirituality informs the process that women of African ascent use to interpret and transform lives makes this amalgamation of social justice and educational leadership deserving of further interrogation. As we serve as program directors for school counselors, school administrators and higher education administrators, the addition of African spirituality will bring about a different dimension to the discussion of educational leadership. It is increasingly important to prepare a generation of educators who see themselves as advocates and servants of communities with people of diverse backgrounds. We can influence our programs by • referencing research and case studies that have a spiritual dimension, • emphasizing religious/spiritual sensitivity in teaching and training, • including religion and spirituality in diversity/multicultural courses and training, and • requiring projects that include ethical/moral/spiritual dilemmas Spiritual parlance can serve as a catalytic device to the quest for social justice in education. Today, there are many social issues that call for social action on the part of the education profession. As teachers, counselors, researchers, and mentors of African ascent, we can take responsibility for social change with a spiritual philosophy; we can propel others to bear witness to their beliefs to help change the persistent structures of injustice in education and in society. We have discovered new and different voices that have added to the traditional notions and discourse of preparation and praxis for educational leadership and we have experienced a renewed sense of purpose for our work. It is our hope that both men and women may come to embrace the need to work within the context of knowing that what he or she does as a leader in any education discipline, is a contribution to something higher than him or herself. The emphases on purpose and meaning and the essence of spirituality moves us to a more global, inclusive interconnectedness

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and we join the many voices that call for a renewed spiritual grounding of the African identity and consciousness. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. According to the authors, what is the beginning step or level for an effective educational leader concerned about social justice? In what ways can this step or level be implemented in an education leadership program? 2. What were the concluding points the authors derived from interviewing Black Caribbean educators? 3. What have you seen or would like to see in terms of religion/spirituality to advance and promote social justice in an education leadership program? 4. What are your concerns about the contextual interweaving of religion/spirituality with activities in an educational leadership program? REFERENCES Ametrano, I. M., & Pappas, G. P. (1996). Client perceptions of counselors-in-training: The effects of sex and gender role orientation. Counselor Education and Supervision, 35, 190–203. Asch, S. B. (1959). A perspective on social psychology. In S. Koch (Ed.), Psychology: A study of a science (Vol. 3, pp. 36–38). New York: McGraw-Hill. Basit, T. (2003). Manual or electronic? The role of coding in qualitative data analysis. Educational Research, 45 (2), 143–154. Blake, W. M., & Darling, C. A. (2000). Quality of life: Perceptions of African Americans. Journal of Black Studies, 30 (3), 411–427. Bradley, C. (2005). The career experiences of African American women faculty: Implications for counselor education programs. College Student Journal, 39, 518–527. Byrd, D. (2001). African American women and self-esteem: A developmental perspective. Master’s Thesis, University of Georgia, 2001. Crenshaw, K. W. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, pp. 139–67. Dantley, M. E., & Tillman, L. C. (2010). Social justice and moral and transformative leadership. In Leadership for Social justice: Making revolutions in education (pp. 19–34). Davis, K. (2008). Intersectionality as buzzword: A sociology of science perspective on what makes a feminist theory successful, Feminist Theory, Vol. 9, 67–87. Dei, G. J. S. (2002) Spiritual knowing and transformative learning. New Approaches to Lifelong Learning (NALL), Working paper #59, retrieved from www.nall.ca

Religiosity and Spirituality in Educational Leadership Programs     247 Delfatorre, J. (2006). What is past is prelude: Newdow and the evolution of thought on religious affirmations in public schools. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, 8, 641–698. Desmangles, L. G., Glazier, S. D., & Murphy, J. M. (2003). Religion in the Caribbean. In R. S. Hilllman & T. J. D’Agostino (Ed.), Understanding the contemporary Caribbean (pp. 263–304). Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner. Dillard, C. B. (2006). On spiritual strivings: Transforming an African American woman’s academic life. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Dinsmore, J. A., Chapman, A., & McCollum, V. J. C. (2000). Client advocacy and social justice: Strategies for developing trainee competence. Paper presented at the annual conference of American Counseling Association, Washington DC. Doohan, L. (2007). Spiritual leadership and reflection. The international journal of servant leadership, 3(1), 281–301 Fraser, J. W. (1999). Between church and state: Religion and public education in a multicultural America. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin. French, R. R. (2003). Shopping for religion: The change in everyday religious practice and its importance to the law. Buffalo Law Review, 51, 127–199. Gibson, S. K. (2004). Being mentored: The experience of women faculty. Journal of Career Development, 30, 173–188, doi:10.1023/B:JOCD.0000015538.411442b Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers. Hill, N. R. (2009). An empirical exploration of the occupational satisfaction of counselor educators: The influence of gender. Journal of Counseling & Development, 87, 55–61. Hoffman, R. M. (2006). Faithful self-definition and gender self-acceptance in women: Intersections with feminist, womanist, and ethnic identifies. Journal of Counseling and Development, 84, 358–372. Jost, J. T., & Kay, A. C. (2010). Social Justice: History, Theory, and Research. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology (Vol. 2, 5th ed., pp. 1122–1165). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Kiselica, M. S., & Robinson, M. (2001). Bringing advocacy counseling to life: The history, issues, and human dramas of social justice work in counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development, 79, 387–397. Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2002). Leadership the challenge. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. Lee, C. C. (2007). Conclusion: A counselor’s call to action. In C. Lee (Ed.), Counseling for social justice (pp. 259–263). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Lee, C. C., Armstrong, K. L., & Brydges, J. L. (1996). The challenges of a diverse society: Counseling for mutual respect and understanding. Counseling and Human Development, 28, 1–8. Lee, C. C, & Hipolito-Delgado, C. P. (2007). Introduction. In C. Lee (Ed.), Counseling for social justice (pp. xiii–xxii). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Levitt, D. H. (2010) Women and leadership: A developmental paradox. Adultspan Journal, 9 (2), 66–75.

248    B. MARINA and A. EDWARDS-JOSEPH Lind, E. A, Kanfer, R., & Earley, P. C. (1990). Voice, control, and procedural justice: Instrumental and noninstrumental concerns in fairness judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 952–959. Lugg, C. A. (2004) One nation under God? Religion and the politics of education in a post-9/11 America. Educational Policy, 18(1), 169–187. Lugg, C. A., & Tabba-Rida, Z. (2010). Social Justice, Religion, and public school leaders. In C. Marshall & M. Olivia (Eds.), Leadership for Social justice: Making revolutions in education (pp. 139–155). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Marina, B. L. H., & Fonteneau, D. Y. (2012) Servant leaders who picked up the broken glass. Journal of Pan African Studies, 5(2), 67–83. Mattis, J. (2002). Religion and spirituality in the meaning-making and coping experiences of African American women: A qualitative analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 309–321. Retrieved from http: //onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/10.1111/1471-6402.t01-2-00070/pdf Mattis, J. (2000). Religion and African American political life. Political Psychology: Special Issue: Psychology as Politics, 22(2), 236–278. Retrieved from http: //www. jstor.org/pss/3791926 McCall, L. (2005) ‘The Complexity of Intersectionality,’ Signs, 30(3):1, 771–800. Medina, S., & Magnuson, S. (2009). Motherhood in the 21st century: implications for counseling. Journal of Counseling and Development, 87, 90–96. doi: 10.1002/ j.1556-678.2009.tb00553.x Merriam, S. B. (2002). Qualitative research in practice: Examples for discussion and analysis. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Miller, D. (1999). Principles of social justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Montada, L. (2002). Doing justice to the justice motive. In M. Ross & D. T. Miller (Eds.), The justice motive in everyday life (pp. 41–62). New York: Cambridge University Press. Ngunjiri, F. (2011). Women’s Spiritual Leadership in Africa: Tempered Radicals and Critical Servant Leaders, New York: SUNY Press. Nugent, F. A., & Jones, K. D. (2005). Introduction to the profession of counseling (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Ratts, M. J. (2009). Social justice counseling: Toward the development of a “fifth force” among counseling paradigms. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education, and Development, 48, 160–172. Rilke, R. M. (1934). Letters of a young poet. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Robinson, T. L. (2000). Making the hurt go away: Psychological and spiritual healing for African American women survivors of childhood incest. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 28(3), 160–176. Rogers, K. L. (2002, Summer). Life questions: Memories of civil rights leaders. The Journal of African American History, 87. (Summer, 2002), pp. 355–368. Seem, S. R., & Johnson, E. (1998). Gender bias among counseling trainees: A study of case conceptualization. Counselor Education and Supervision, 37, 257–268. Sefa Dei, G.J. (2002). Rethinking the role of indigenous knowledges in the academy. In NALL working paper, No. 58.

Religiosity and Spirituality in Educational Leadership Programs     249 Shapiro, D. L., & Brett, J. M. (2005). What is the role of control in organizational justice? In J. Greenberg & J. A. Colquitt (Eds.), Handbook of organizational justice. (pp. 155–177). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Steele, J. M. (2008). Preparing counselors to advocate for social justice: A liberation model. Counselor Education and Supervision, 48, 74–85. Stein, D. (1998). Situated learning in adult education. CS: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, Columbus, OH. SP: Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. (ERIC_NO: ED418250). Stewart, B. M. (2006). Women in African Caribbean Religious Traditions. In R. S. Keller & R. R. Reuter, (Eds.), Encyclopedia of women and religion in North America (pp. 116–126). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Tyler, T. R. (1987). Conditions leading to value expressive effects in judgments of procedural justice: A test of four models. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 333–344. Tyler, T. R., & Blader, S. L. (2003). The group engagement model: Procedural justice, social identity, and cooperative behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 349–361. Van Prooijen, J., Karremans, J. C., & van Beest, I. (2006). Procedural justice and the hedonic principle: How approach versus avoidance motivation influences the psychology of voice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 686–697. Van Prooijen, J., Van den Bos, K., & Wilke, H. A. M. (2004). Group belongingness and procedural justice: Social inclusion and exclusion by peers affects the psychology of voice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 66–79.

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CHAPTER 10

THOUGHTS ON NARRATIVE AND RESEARCHING RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY Noelle Witherspoon Arnold

ABSTRACT This paper highlights the methods used to provide a way to better understand and mesh the varying and various aspects of the human experience and the integrative and intersecting functions of religion and spirituality in the life story. Particularly, this paper highlights the specific ways in which Womanist theology served as theoretical framework, rationale, and method for a viable technique for examining religious or spiritual issues in educational research. The tenets of womanist theology served as scaffolds of the methods, and were used to explore the intersections and to guide analysis. This paper offers thoughts on how theology and conceptualizations of narrative research can be used to examine and interpret issues surrounding spirituality and/or religion and education. There is something about life that compels oral history and narration —James Cone (1997) Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 251–267 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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The question of appropriateness of methods and methodology is central to research.1 This paper highlights the methods I used to provide a way to better understand and mesh the varying and various aspects of the human experience and the integrative and intersecting functions of religion and spirituality in the life story. Womanist theology served as a theoretical framework, a rationale for inquiry, and a strong informant of the methods and procedures used to research the religio-spirituality in the lives and work of Black female principals. The tenets of womanist theology scaffold methods, were used to explore the intersections of race, gender, culture, religion and spirituality, and guided analysis. This research also sought to expand the conceptualizations of auto/biographical research to include spiritual narrative as a form of narrative research to particularly examine and interpret issues surrounding spirituality and/or religion. The following describes how womanist theology formed the theoretical, ontological and epistemological platforms in the process of research and thoughts on the use of theology methods in educational research. “Life history and narrative approaches have emerged as important research over the last decade . . . and offer exciting alternatives for connecting the lives and stories of individuals to the understanding of larger human social phenomena.”2 Narrative inquiry and narrative analysis of lives have gained popularity in recent years and often take the form of first-person accounts. Genres of “stories of experience” include life history, oral history, life narrative, auto biography and other forms.3 Narrative research commands particular and historical significance for expanding and transforming knowledge.4 Martin states, The interweaving of religious, biblical, theological, and sociopolitical thought and reflection as it often emerges in autobiography, biography, and other narrative forms, documents processes . . . wherein one can chart the evolution of the self-evolving from the more “private” citizen to the more “public” . . . leader.5

Theological, spiritual, and religious concerns of are located in their varied life experiences.6 For this study, were referred to as spiritual historians7 and their stories as spiritual narratives. While not based on the premise that everyone is religious, this study acknowledged a historio-cultural communality among some experiences of groups of people. Further, life story and narrative often appear as a collection of discrete events. “Unlike most of our research methods, that abstract dimensions, sort out variables, and name factors, narrative works the other way by pulling seemingly disparate things together.”8 Because of the intersection of contexts, identities, and the master narratives of society upon the individual, the focus of this research to explored the intersection of sociocultural narratives and multilayered meaning systems—gender, religion, race, educational leadership,

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social justice, and schooling—through the lens of the religio-spiritual stories of Black female principals. While this paper does not offer all the methods used or the findings, it does refer to the original chapter to illustrate the purpose of the paper. In this research, Womanist theology was conceptualized as a methodological approach that moved historic and contemporary spiritual narratives from solely aesthetic, literary, and theological traditions to other disciplines such as education. Womanist theology promotes the tenets of radical subjectivity, traditional communalism, redemptive self-love, critical engagement, appropriation and reciprocity, and Spirit-love. This paper emphasizes how a theological frame grounded research methods, research texts, thematic emersion, and analysis, to conduct inquiry outside theology. A “New” Narrative: From Life History to Spiritual Narrative Atkinson describes life story as “an autobiography, with one person having guided another through the telling of the story.”9 Tierney defines life history as a story that “revolves around questions pertaining to one’s life.”10 Life history has also been described as “the history of a life, a single life, told from a particular vantage point.”11 However, rather than focusing on a definition of life history, unifying ideas of life history may be achieved by focusing on the purposes or philosophy behind examining lives. Most researchers agree that the basic premise of life history lies in examining “how individuals talk about and story their experiences and perceptions of the social contexts they inhabit.”12 Because of the religio-spiritual nature of this narrative research, the work was named as spiritual narrative. To free spiritual narrative from being largely situated in the areas of literary theory, history, and theology and to provide a link to education, the research was conceptualized this way: I. Qualitative Research A. Narrative 1.  Life History a.  Spiritual Narrative The use of a theological frames offered congruency with the narratological ideal: 1. It explicitly recognizes that lives are not hermetically compartmentalized . . . and that consequently anything which happens to us in

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one area of our lives potentially impacts upon and has implications for other areas too. 2. It acknowledges that there is a crucial interactive relationship between individuals’ lives, their perceptions and experiences, and historical and social contexts and events. 3. It provides evidence to show how individuals negotiate their identities and consequently, experience, create, and make sense of the rules and roles of the social worlds in which they live.13 Research methods and methodologies depend upon what a researcher wants to know. This particular research sought to examine the particularity of each individual principal, but it also examined the ways in which religion and spirituality reflected communality of experiences, culture and worldview and the ways in which religio-spirituality was reflected in their work. In as much as life history narratives are the stories of people’s lives, spiritual narratives are the stories of people’s spiritual lives. SPIRITUAL NARRATIVES Historical conversion narratives, memoirs, poems, sermons, and public addresses of Black females from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries informed much of this research. Moreover, the Womanist ethos also transcended the boundaries of auto/biography to extend to diverse works by Black female authors. Many of these works contained religio-spiritual themes within and are often included among the genre of spiritual narratives. The spiritual narrative evolved through the narratives of people of color as means of self-examination and a way to examine society and the world. Furthermore, many spiritual narratives are concerned with personal and professional identity and theological concerns.14 Many authors of the spiritual narrative began to write about and contest the conditions in which they live, the relationship between God and people, and their racialized, gendered, and religious roles and identities. These spiritual narratives were no longer just about the “language of God,” but the actual “working of the Word” in daily life and practice. While spiritual narratives tell much of the life history, there is a particular focus upon the life as it is lived now by faith, after conversion. Much like historic spiritual narratives, this research sought to add to the narrative research umbrella by examining the various theological ways lives are personally and professionally defined and the ways in which it influences daily practices and outcomes. The term narrative has been used by qualitative researchers with a variety of uses and meanings. Narrative can be seen as a story or interview data as told to the researcher, the societal structures and discourses in which the

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story is situated; the way in which the story is told, and the “end-product” of the research text itself.15 Individual life and spiritual stories and episodes provided the data of religion and spirituality as lived experience. FROM TENETS TO RESEARCH Radical Subjectivity Radical subjectivity has been described as the “anecdotal evidence of Black women’s lives.”16 Radical subjectivity denotes the ability of Black women to name their own subjectivity in light of intersecting oppressions that they face. What does it mean to discuss and “prove” ordinary spiritual realities when they cannot be proven in a scientific manner? Many researchers acknowledge “the power of life history and narrative to go beyond scientific and empiricist standards that they believe continue to dominate other qualitative methodologies.”17 The premise of this research rested in its ability to apply a womanist theological, theoretical, and methodological approach. The tenet of radical subjectivity complemented the nature of what narrative offered: an ability to name oneself in narrative while applying theoretical and identity frameworks that are a part of the greater religious, spiritual, professional, political, and other sociocultural narratives of society. Womanist theologians preoccupy themselves with the everyday, ordinary “stuff” of lives to drive narrative and give voice to the many facets of history, culture, and spirituality of individuals and these facets’ effect upon their lives. Much like theology, narrative engages micro and macro level themes and allows individuals to move beyond a naturalized discourse. Rather for this particular research, narrative served as the primary conceptual category in understanding issues of epistemology, representing personal identity and displaying convictions.”18 In the same way, radical subjectivity also highlighted similarities to “being positioned” and “positioning self.”19 This research privileged the sense-making processes of the participants and their particular identity claims.20 In fact, in some ways these narratives were “unapologetically subjective,”21 focused on the way people do narrate lives, not the way they should.22 Narrative tends to work well with sensitive topics such as theology.23 Lee and Renzetti suggest that sensitivity in research may occur when “research intrudes into the private sphere or some deeply personal experience or where researchers are investigating religious practices, articles or beliefs, subject to profanation.”24 This made theology a good support for researching the religio-spirituality of Black female principals. Narrative became a way to explore intersecting realities such as race, culture, gender, and religious differentiation in a way some other qualitative methods and frames

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could not and thus became emancipatory and empowering Womanist theologians’ interpretation of radical subjectivity enabled the research process to make use of the spiritual narrative to “read” the religious narrative and make it its own. Traditional Communalism Traditional communalism recognizes the relational bonds groups and the hybridity of experiences.25 Traditional communalism recognizes the uniqueness of the individual, but connects seemingly disparate experiences and identities among the individual and others.26 In this same way communalism affected the way I initially positioned myself as the researcher and co-narrator, the way I collected data, and the interaction with the participants. Traditional communalism in womanist theology encourages “researcher and participant field interdependency, researcher involvement with and immersion in events and situations, personalizing phenomena and a lack of distance from topics and subjects.”27 Peterson recognized that the theoretical and sometime the theological perspective of the who, what, and why of research are important to the ways in which we conduct research. The commitment to traditional communalism and narrative research required a recognition of the strong mutuality in the researcher–narrator relationship and the mutuality among the participants. Paying attention to communalism during the research served to link womanist theological methods and connected with participants in ways that did not embody a call for researcher restraint.28 A commitment to a womanist methods and traditional communalism necessitated engagement in the research in a different way than traditional positivistic research. Rather than compensating for researcher restraint and objectivity, this research involved “weaving the stories of both the researcher and respondents.”29 Conducting “theological” research problematized traditional modes of research increased reflexivity. A part of this research involved the construction of narratives, the analysis of those narratives, and the “authenticity” or legitimacy of the research. Moreover, It might be said that the narratives revealed in a research study are themselves by-products of the relationship of researchers to respondents. The mutual gaze, subtle signs of agreement or disagreement, silences, smiles, frowns, and comments related to shared or diverse experiences all lend shape to the story being told . . . Certain assumptions of similarity may lead to embellishments on themes that might be avoided were the listener someone completely different and vice versa.30

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While the above quote could have led to an over-preoccupation with issues of authenticity and validity, radical subjectivity and the other womanist theological tenets highlighted the values of stories and the researcher’s position. To interpret one another’s religious or spiritual stories carries an obligation to nuance it and respect it. The effectiveness of this relationship impacts the telling of these stories. Redemptive Self-Love The interpretation of self-love foregrounded the worth of theological experience without measuring them against societal norms. Self-love serves communally and seeks reconciliation with the dominant culture, yet it is also protests this culture that systematically and institutionally assaults the worth individuals.31 When working with issues of religion and spirituality, there are two basic assumptions.32 One is that the researcher must have a basic attitude of “respect toward the tradition-its stories, texts, revered heroes, and traditional interpretations.”33 Also, when utilizing a religious of theological approach, the researchers should have a deep knowledge of the religion and spirituality, if not in the paradigm itself. The two ideas presuppose that there is worth in the researcher coming from inside an arena of religion or spirituality. Religious criticism and womanist methodology view the truths of the stories not as partial, but as more complete by the researcher’s participation in it.34 Instead of truths, insider/outsider status is completes or at least keeps the research moving around, in, and through the hermeneutic circle. Hendry has said that the narrative and the telling of it should be considered a spiritual act, one in which we have faith in the story.35 I argued that we have faith in the storyteller, but not because researchers are such great tellers. There must be a suspicion in this telling that keeps reflexive praxis at the forefront of researching theologically. Some of the issues surrounding theology, narrative research and research in general can stifle methodologies and methods. Conversely theological methods can offer a resistance to this stifling. The commitment to redemptive self-love required redemption of the story from traditional stances of research and promote those that demystify this process. This demystification occurred by utilizing methods, methodologies, and analyses that honored the peculiarity of the theological story. When using theological and narratological methods, learn to appreciate the “glitch.” However, these glitches offered moments not to over-examine rigor, truth, method, or facticity. The glitch served as an opportunity to attend more closely to the story, rather than focusing on the “authenticity” of theology. In womanist theology, there is no requirement for “authenticating,” but an honoring as participants tell what they know and how they know it.

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Critical Engagement: The “Nitty-Gritty Hermeneutic” Critical engagement as conceptualized by womanist theologians requires that one “recognizes the poignancy of theological positioning.”36 Critical engagement offers a “nitty gritty hermeneutic,” one that seeks to interpret and unpack the realities of everyday life in society and how we present those realities to others.37 This included taking everyday experiences, without “sugarcoating” oppressive realities, but naming these realities as valid epistemologies. Womanist theology served to “outwit, outmaneuver, and out scheme” dominant social systems and structures and involves “debunking, unmasking, and disentangling” dominant ideologies.38 Hermeneutics is closely related to interpreting narratives and “hermeneutic interpretation is embedded in theology.” It also shuns simple reductionism. Theological perspectives, provided important frames for this study, and rested on hermeneutical, interpretive principles. “The forms that narrative representations take are related to the purposes for which their authors use them and the audiences to which they are directed.”39 There is a general political and moral implication of writing about others, naming their experience, creation and analyses of narrative. Theological research rarely results in line-by-line, micro-level coding. In contrast to narrative analysis, more traditional types of research rarely examine the individual as a whole.40 The oft-used “coding” process can detract from hermeneutical interpretation. Narratives are primary and irreducible. They are not imperfect substitutes for more sophisticated forms of explanation or understanding, nor are they unreflective first steps along the road which lead toward the goal of scientific or philosophical knowledge. The meaning-making at which stories aim is a primary.41

For narrative researchers, “the meaning is in the story and the interpretation of the story by the researcher.”42 “The narrative method requires that the story be told, not torn apart in analysis.”43 Viewing the data as a holistic narrative was a valuable approach in analysis and counteracted the culture of fragmentation that can be prevalent in conducting research.44 The womanist theological ethic stresses that knowledge is constructed out of experience first; it is from lived experience that theoretical inferences can be posited and tested. It needs to tell without much tampering.”45 Narratives “do not present neat, chronological accounts of women’s lives.”46 Theological narratives also are rarely neat. Moreover, my research did not attempt to present neat accounts or categories of spirituality. In fact, womanist theology is highly self-critical of categories of spirituality and religion and methods of analyzing as well. The womanist theological “hermeneutic of suspicion” is ever present in interrogating the intellectual and identifying space it occupies and the methods by which one analyzes.47 This

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hermeneutic of suspicion required that the narratives not be treated as offering fixed ideas of themes and interpretation. Appropriation and Reciprocity Theological approaches to society have not only been invested in knowledge production and reconstruction for themselves, but also for other scholars and those who remain on the margins.48 Appropriation and reciprocity recognizes intertwining nature of things: narratives, people, ideas, and the things that have “gone before,” including history and previous scholarship. We all live cross-institutionally, cross-situationally and cross-experientially. Appropriation and reciprocity demanded that theological processes should be dialogic across disciplines, beliefs, genders, methods, theories and histories. Spirit-Love This last tenet of womanist theology serves as a unifying idea of this research. Love of Spirit by Walker’s standard is not intrinsically religious or Christian. However, Womanist theology begs a response to questions surrounding religious spirituality and its impartation to the lives and work of leaders, educational and otherwise. More than just denoting the journey of a few or a scholarly trend or fad, theology has become an answer for many in studying religious spirituality.49 Research can benefit from the development and use of an array of analytical frameworks that allow us to understand why individuals behave in certain ways. Researchers can utilize religion and narratives to focus not only upon accumulation of data, but on how certain knowledge and truths for the individual lead to certain choices. Theology promotes “testimony and witness.” Testimony and witness become usable processes to recount stories of their personal religious experiences and daily practice to highlight how these beliefs affect all areas of life and work. WOMANIST THEOLOGY IN ANALYSIS: A “HERMENEUTIC OF SUSPICION” Just as it is not always clear what counts as narrative, it is sometimes just as difficult to explicate how one does narrative analysis.50 According to Mischler, there are three types of narrative analysis. Narrative analysis can be done by examining reference, function, or structure.51 Reference describes the analysis of the relations between events and their presentation and

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representation. In particular, reference examines the relationship “between what was told and the interpretations and actual texts that they mean to interpret.”52 Function describes the reasons for which a story is told, what it is meant to do, and why it is told at a particular time. Structure concerns itself with formal, structural properties of a story involving matters such as sociolinguistics, story organization, and literary elements. Viewing analysis in an either/or manner is counterproductive to the theological exercise. The theological narrative is one that varies in its function, but is one that may transcend oppressions and quandaries.53 The hermeneutic of suspicion in womanist theology allowed multi-units of analysis and honored no one “right” way to interpret narratives.54 Hermeneutics rests on the tradition of interpretation that acknowledges the collaborative, engaging, and dynamic principles of narrative. Within womanist theology, there is a resistance to any “right way” to interpret. Because of this, the womanist hermeneutic became the lens, posture and position from which to interpret. The Nitty-Gritty Theology: The Womanist Way of Interpretation Religion and spirituality may be best explored through the use of stories.55 Sometimes the story is so compelling that standard social science formats do not fit.56 This idea has been echoed in the works of leading scholars of narrative theology. Narrative theology begins with the narrative-stories, myths, proverbs, and sayings.57 Narrative theology is based upon actual and everyday spiritual events and life experiences of people, whether in written or oral form. This relatively new theological construct highlights the impact of the storied nature of the Bible and religion as it is played out in the lives of individuals. Narrative theologians posit that these texts make it difficult to conceal gender, class, race and other important sociocultural issues by claiming a universal religious or spiritual experience.58 In its overlap with womanist theological commitments and those of narrative research, these narratives tell and analyze the religious story by examining experiences or issues in context and implication for people in that context; identify life experience as the principal locus or source for theological reflection, and orients one towards understanding, but also transformation and practice.59 A hermeneutic of suspicion recognizes the dynamic, complex nature of religio-spirituality; the constant re/framing of identity, religion, spirituality and culture. A hermeneutic of suspicion allows the researcher and the researched to engage in an on-going work of writing and rewriting life in light of their worldview. Even in the interpretive process, one recognizes that the interpretive possibilities are still open.

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Particularly helpful to this research was Bruner’s position that “narratives consist of a landscape of action organized around a theme or problem or trouble with respect to the way that things are expected to be, as well as a landscape of consciousness that specifies goals, motivations, emotions, and beliefs of the actors that instigate the action.”60 Floyd-Thomas believes that the researcher’s interpretive thoughts in examining theological matters can be organized by: 1. Theo ethical Analysis-Reflecting upon events, resources, and discourses that have been influential in shaping faith and ways one has and can reconcile disparate issues that emerge. 2. The Past-Attending to past and historical events, people, constructs, contexts, and how these impact one’s values (ethos), feelings (pathos), reasonings (logos), and concerns (theos) 3. Causation-Examining the religio-spiritual narrative in light of cultural context and social location of current situations, religious heritage, social action, and vocation and purpose in life. 4. Ethic of Liberation-Asking the question of how the religio-spiritual can help resolve the dilemmas of the privileged and the othered in society.61 The points above helped to scaffold my thinking in the process of my analysis, but this paper does not propose finding a theological “framework” which is counterproductive to the individual process of explaining and defining spirituality. MEDITATIONS As much as this research was about examining religion and spirituality in the lives of others, it was also about a gender-cultural and spiritual way of doing research. Much like feminist or Black feminist methods and methodologies, I proposed a new methodology and method by synthesizing womanist theological scholarship in following theological ways of conducting narrative research. I have shown how I drew upon womanist theological tenets and from “traditional disciplinary approaches and transform them in order to understand those very people whom normative disciplinary approaches render invisible.”62 How I interpreted my research methodology and methods through the lens of Womanist theology informed the processes and procedures I undertook. Throughout the research, a nagging question always remained: how could I convey participant worldviews without coming across as if I knew their story better they did? 63 Mitchem states,

262    N. W. ARNOLD Methodologies are not benign: Scholars have commitments in their work. Generally the commitments of womanist scholars include, among others: centering black women’s experience; social analysis . . . ; exploring the authentic shape of African American religious life; deconstruction of all oppressions that stunt human growth. Reaching this level of commitment does not happen accidentally; arriving at this place becomes a part of the methodology itself. Therefore, as part of the method, womanists will often spend time stating portions of their own autobiographies. This disclosure names their formation processes.64

This research added to the current research in a field outside of theology, but also added a new dimension to the traditional genre of spiritual narratives. Although womanist theology was employed to analyze difficult intersecting concerns for years, its usefulness in educational research is still not obvious. Although the push for alternative research methods, narratives and viewpoints for educational research has been promoted, the process has been slow-paced. “Wisdom can be found in autobiographies, speeches, novels, poems, sermons, testimonies, songs, oral histories-in their lives.”65 Theologies can help educational researchers delve deeper into the workings of theology but also social issues that are present in our society. NOTES 1. B. D. Shultz, “Leveraging Eclectic Arts as a Rationale for Multiple Modes of Inquiry,” Curriculum and Teaching Dialog 10, nos. 1 and 2 (2008): 233–250. 2. J. A. Hatch and R. Wisniewski, Life History and Narrative (London: Falmer Press, 1995), 113. 3. S. B. Merriman, Qualitative Research in Practice: Examples for Discussion and Analysis (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002), 286. 4. Oral Narrative Research with Black Women, ed. K M. Vaz (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1997). 5. C. J. Martin, “Normative Biblical motifs in African-American Women Leaders’ Moral Discourse: Maria Stewart’s Autobiography as a Resource for Nurturing Leadership from Black Church Tradition,” in The Stone that the Builders Rejected: the Development of Ethical Leadership from the Black Church Tradition, ed. W E. Fluker (Harrisonburg: Trinity Press International, 1998), 57. 6. S. Y. Mitchem, Womanist Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002). 7. The term life historian is suggested by Marjorie Mbilinyi (1989) as an alternative to the objectifying labels of “informant”, and “subject”. Some other researchers have also considered the use of collaborator and/or participant to promote research collaboration. In the case of this research I use the term spiritual historian. 8. W. C. Roof, “Religion and Narrative,” in Review of Religious Research 34, no. 4 (1993): 1–13.

Thoughts on Narrative and Researching Religion and Spirituality    263 9. Atkinson, P. (1992). Understanding ethnographic texts. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 2. 10. W. G. Tierney, “Self and Identity in a Postmodern World: A Life Story,” in Naming Silenced Lives: Personal Narratives and the Process of Educational Change, eds. D McLaughlin and G Tierney (New York: Routledge, 1993), 1. 11. Y. Lincoln and E. Guba, Naturalistic Inquiry (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1985), 115. 12. I. Goodson and P. Sikes, Life History in Educational Settings: Learning from Lives (Buckingham: Open University Press, 2001), 1. 13. Goodson and Sikes, 2. 14. (Gates, 1991) 15. Henry Lewis Gates, Jr., “Introduction: On Bearing Witness,” in Bearing Witness: Selection From African-American Autobiography in the Twentieth Century, ed. idem. (New York: Pantheon, 1992), (Atkinson, 1998), (Tierney, 1993), P. H. Hendry, “The Future of Narrative,” Qualitative Inquiry 12, no. 4 (2007): 487– 499, and D. J. Clandinin and M. F. Connelly, Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000). 16. K. G. Cannon, “Structured Academic Amnesia: As if this True Womanist Story Never Happened,” in Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society, ed. S M. Floyd-Thomas (New York: New York University Press, 2006), 16. 17. Hatch and Wisniewski, 1995. 18. S. Haurwas and L. G. Jones, Why Narrative? Readings in Narrative Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), iv. 19. M. Baumberg, “Positioning with Dave Hogan,” in Narrative Analysis, eds. C. Daiute and C. Lightfoot (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2004), 136. 20. Ibid, and S. Stanley and M. Billig, “Dilemmas of Storytelling and Identity,” in Narrative Analysis, eds. C. Daiute and C. Lightfoot (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2004). 21. Ayers in Hatch &Wisniewski, 1995, p.118 22. Goodson and Sikes, 16. 23. Ibid. 24. R. M. Lee and C. M. Renzetti, “The Problems of Researching Sensitive Topics: An Overview and Introduction,” in Researching Sensitive Topics, eds. idem. (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1993), 5. 25. S. M. Floyd-Thomas, Mining the Motherlode: Methods in Womanist Ethics (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2006) and D. Stewart, Three Eyes for Journey: African Dimensions of the Jamaican Religions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). 26. Mitchem. 27. G. Smitherman, Talk that Talk: Language, Culture, and Education in African America (New York: Routledge, 2000), 87. 28. L. R. Bloom, Under the Sign of Hope: Feminist Methodology and Narrative Interpretation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998) and M Q. Patton, Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods (London, Sage, 2002). 29. P. Cotterill and G. Leatherby, “Weaving Stories: Personal Autobiography in Feminist Research,” Sociology 27, no. 1 (1993): 67–80. 30. Ibid, 280.

264    N. W. ARNOLD 31. C. T. Gilkes, “The Loves and Troubles of African-American Women’s Bodies,” in Troubling my Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil and Suffering, ed. E. M. Townes (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 239. 32. B. R. Warnick, “Bringing Religious Traditions into Educational Theory: Making an Example of Joseph Smith, Jr.,” Educational Theory 54, no. 4 (2004): 345–364. 33. Ibid, 347. 34. Z. N. Hurston, Jonah’s Gourd Vine (New York: Harper Perennial, 1990). 35. Hendry. 36. M. S. Copeland, “A Thinking Margin: The Womanist Movement as Critical Cognitive Praxis,” in Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society, ed. S. M. Floyd-Thomas (New York: New York University Press, 2006), 208. 37. M. L. Harris, “Womanist Humanism,”” in Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society, ed. S. M. Floyd-Thomas (New York: New York University Press, 2006), 211. 38. Copeland, 228 and Cannon, 138. 39. J. Rosiek and B. Atkinson, “The Inevitability and Importance of Genre in Narrative Research,” Qualitative Inquiry 13, no. 4 (2007): 499–521. 40. Ezzy. 41. L. O. Mink, “History as a Fiction and Modes of Comprehension,” New Literary History 1 (1970): 541–558. 42. Lichtman, 165. 43. H. H. Mitchell and N. C. Lewter, Soul Theology: The Heart of American Black Culture (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986), 8. 44. P. Atkinson, Understanding Ethnographic Texts (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1992). 45. Floyd-Thomas, 72. 46. Munro, 12. 47. Floyd-Thomas, 208. 48. Floyd-Thomas, 11. 49. Floyd-Thomas, 7. 50. C. Dauite and C. Lightfoot, Narrative Analysis (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2004). 51. E. G. Mischler, “Models of Narrative Analysis,” Journal of Narrative and Life History 5, (1995): 87–123. 52. M. J. Chandler, C. E. Lalonde, and U. Teucher, “Culture, Continuity, and the Limits of Narrativity: A comparison of the Self-Narrative of Native and NonNative Youth,” in Narrative Analysis: Studying the Development of Individuals in Society, eds. C. Dauite and C. Lightfoot (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2004), 253. 53. Ibid. and Mitchem. 54. D. S. Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (New York: Orbis Books, 1993). 55. J. Healey and D. Sybertz, Towards an African Narrative Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996). 56. J. F. Gilgun, “Fictionalizing Life Stories: Yukee the Wine Thief,” Qualitative Inquiry 10, no. 5 (2004): 691–705.

Thoughts on Narrative and Researching Religion and Spirituality    265 57. Healey and Sybertz. 58. P. Gibbs, “Narrative and Context in a Practical Theology for Papua New Guinea,” Australian Journal of Theology 9 (2007): 1–24. 59. Ibid, 6. 60. K. Nelson, “Construction of the Cultural Self in Early Narratives, in Narrative Analysis: Studying the Development of Individuals in Society, eds. C Dauite and C Lightfoot (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2004), 93. 61. Floyd-Thomas, 166–167. 62. Floyd-Thomas, 3. 63. Delpit,1995 64. Mitchem, 77. 65. Troubling my Soul, 11.

REFERENCES Atkinson, P. (1992). Understanding ethnographic texts. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Baumberg, M. (2004). Positioning with Davie Hogan. In C. Daiute & C. Lightfoot (Eds.), Narrative analysis (pp. 135–157). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Bloom, L. R. (1998). Under the sign of hope: feminist methodology and narrative interpretation. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Cannon, K. G. (2006). Structured academic amnesia: as if this true womanist story never happened. In S. M. Floyd-Thomas (Ed.), Deeper shades of purple: womanism in religion and society (pp. 19–28). New York: New York University Press. Chandler, M. J. Lalonde, C. E. & Teucher, U. (2004). Culture, continuity, and the limits of narrativity: A comparison of the self-narratives of native and nonnative youth. In C. Dauite & C. Lightfoot, Narrative analysis: Studying the development of individuals in society (pp. 245–266). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Cone, J. (1997). God of the oppressed. New York: Orbis Books. Copeland, M. S. (2006). A Thinking Margin: The Womanist movement as critical cognitive praxis. In Stacy Floyd-Thomas (Ed.), Deeper shades of purple:  Womanism in religion and society (pp. 226–235). New York: New York University Press. Cotterill, P., & Leatherby, G. (1993). Weaving stories: personal autobiography in feminist research. Sociology, 27(1), 67–80. Dauite, C. & Lightfoot, C. (2004). Narrative Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Ezzy, D. (2002). Qualitative analysis. London: Routledge. Floyd-Thomas, S. M. (2006). Mining the motherlode: methods in womanist ethics. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press. Floyd-Thomas, S. M. (Ed.). (2006b). Deeper shades of purple: womanism in religion and society. New York: New York University Press.

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ABOUT THE EDITORS

Noelle Witherspoon Arnold, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri. Prior to that appointment, she taught elementary school, and served as an administrator at the district and state level. Her research interests include religion and spirituality in education, leadership for social justice and advocacy, leadership socialization, womanist and feminist research methodologies, and the intersection of race and gender in educational leadership. Noelle’s most recent articles have appeared in the International Journal of Leadership in Education, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, the Journal of Educational Administration History, Equity, and Excellence in Education, the Journal of Negro Education, Teachers College Record, and the Journal of Educational Administration. Melanie C. Brooks, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and holds a joint appointment in the departments of curriculum and instruction and educational leadership and counseling at the University of Idaho. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand and holds a PhD in Sociocultural International Development Education Studies from Florida State University. Dr. Brooks began her career as a high school teacher and a librarian. She also has experience coordinating international education programs for students and teachers. She has conducted research in Egypt, Thailand, the Philippines, and the United States using sociological theories as a way to understand issues related to religion and conflict in education. Her work is published in Educational Policy, Etc.: A Review of General Semantics, Religion & Education, Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 269–270 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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Teachers College Record, and has forthcoming articles in Planning and Changing and Educational Management Adminstration & Leadership. Bruce Makoto Arnold, PhD graduated from Louisiana State University specializing in American cultural history, Asian-American history, and African and African-American history. His research centers on cultural interactions and hybridizations that arise from contact between different ethnic and racial groups in, over, and within particular temporal, spatial, geographic, or cultural and social environments. Mr. Arnold is particularly interested in the cultural impressions imprinted upon children and how these impressions form into reality and memories and subsequently affect future generations. Mr. Arnold has served as an instructor for both American and East Asian history courses at several colleges and universities. Mr. Arnold is a member of the American Historical Association (AHA), the Organization of American Historians (OAH), the Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY), and the American Studies Association (ASA).

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Gerald Campano is an associate professor and Chair of the Reading/Writing/Literacy Department at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. His research and teaching focuses on practitioner inquiry, literacy and identity, and community partnerships. Dr. Cassandra Chaney is an associate professor in Child and Family Studies at Louisiana State University (LSU). Dr. Chaney is broadly interested in the dynamics of African-American family life, yet under this umbrella her interests are focused on the narratives of African-Americans in dating, cohabiting, and married relationships; the ways that religiosity and spirituality support African-Americans; as well as the representation of African-American masculinity, femininity, couples, and family dynamics (e.g., structural and functional dynamics) in popular forms of mass media (i.e., television shows, music videos, songs). Given the unique challenges of Black families, her research provides recommendations regarding how policy can better meet the needs of Black families who experience heightened rates of incarceration, unemployment, weakened family structures, and racism. Most important, her scholarship is rooted in a strengths-based perspective and is devoted to emphasizing the various ways that Black families remain resilient in the face of these challenges. In addition to publishing several sole, first-authored, and collaborative manuscripts in various national and international journals, she has also presented her research during local, state, and national conferences. Dr. Chaney recently coedited the book Black Women in Leadership: Their Historical and Contemporary Contributions Critical Perspectives on Black Education, pages 271–275 Copyright © 2014 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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with Dr. Dannielle Joy Davis (Peter Lang Publishers) which explores the leadership experiences of Black women within macro level (such as education, industry, and social services) and micro level (such as family and individual churches) contexts. The interdisciplinary work examines leadership practices, highlighting the historical and current triumphs and barriers of Black women in these roles. Dr. Arline Edwards-Joseph is an assistant professor of Counselor Education at Georgia Southern University. She holds a doctorate degree in Counselor Education from North Carolina State University and a Master’s degree in Counselor Education with a concentration in School Counseling. Dr. Edwards-Joseph has worked both in the United States and in the Caribbean as a counselor in various settings. Dr. Edwards-Joseph’s research interests include: International Students and Counseling, Counseling in the Caribbean, and Global Issues in Counseling and Counselor Education. A recent publication of hers, “Recruiting and Training Paraprofessional Counselors in Developing Nations” was published in an international peer-reviewed journal. She also has other publications focusing on Caribbean issues in counseling. Dr. Edwards-Joseph holds professional affiliations at the state, national, and international levels. She has presented at state, national, and international at conferences. ß∑La Monica Everett-Haynes is a trained journalist who spent years covering aspects of the K–12 and higher education sectors in Washington State, Texas, and Arizona. Toward becoming a higher education scholar, EverettHaynes has studied topics thematically related to ways individuals transcend challenges within those university structures that pose challenges. Of note, her studies related to student experiences have considered religious and spiritual beliefs held by African-American and U.S.-raised African students attending predominately White institutions and also the resilient nature of students of color. She also has studied internal communications among and between administrators, faculty, and staff during times of fiscal change. Everett-Haynes is a doctoral student at the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education. Ted Hall is an assistant professor in the department of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education at Indiana University, Bloomington. His research and teaching focuses on new media, culture and identity, and community literacy. Dr. Nicholas D. Hartlep was previously an Advanced Opportunity Program (AOP) Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, an “Urban 13” University, where he earned his PhD in the Social Foundations of Urban

About the Contributors    273

Education in 2012. A former public school teacher, he has taught in Minnesota and Wisconsin as well as abroad in Quito and Ecuador. He is also an author, and is currently working on his third, The Model Minority Stereotype: Demystifying Success (2013, Information Age Publishing) and fourth book, The Model Minority Stereotype Reader: Critical and Challenging Readings for the 21st Century (Cognella Publishing, 2013). He is an Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations at Illinois State University (Normal, IL) where he teaches courses on the Social Foundations of Education. His work can be read online at http://hartlep.tateauthor.com, and he can be followed on Twitter @nhartlep. Dr. Hartlep currently serves as the past-chair of the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Graduate Student Council (GSC). Dr. Khuram Hussain is a former New York City school teacher who currently serves as assistant professor of Education at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He received his PhD in 2010 from Syracuse University’s Cultural Foundations of Education. He serves as a Commissioner for the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, NY where he is also a community dialogue facilitator on race and racism. His scholarly inquiry focuses on the capacity of schooling to both reproduce social inequality and equalize educational opportunity. His current research focuses on the social history of grassroots school reform movements, the history of critical multiculturalism, and Muslim contributions to the intellectual life of American society. In his work with future teachers, he aims to prepare educators to integrate culturally relevant pedagogy within their repertoire of best practices and develop a personal understanding of the significance that difference plays in the classroom. Irrekka L. Khan, PhD has served as an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Khan’s expertise includes various roles in the public school system and higher education. As an administrator and a professor of practice, she has taught numerous face to face and online courses in leadership preparation to domestic and international students on topics including public school administration, data, improving school programs and performance, principal internships, instructional leadership, school and community relations, and topics in American and international education. Her research interests include helping leaders understand themselves, effects of personality on performance, diversity training for educators, workplace culture/climate, and deciphering psychosocial aspects of contemporary issues in American culture. She also enjoys researching chronic disorganization amongst various subgroups. Dr. Khan serves as a consultant, mentor, and motivational speaker.

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Dr. Brenda Marina is an associate professor for Educational Leadership and coordinator for the MEd Higher Education Administration program at Georgia Southern University. She holds a doctorate degree in Secondary Education and a master degree in Higher Education Administration. Dr. Marina previously worked in higher education administration as an assistant dean and an academic advisor. Dr. Marina’s research interests include: leadership though mentoring, women in leadership, multicultural competence in higher education, and global education issues. Her publications have included book chapters entitled “Managing Diversity in Communities, Workplaces, and Society” and “International Perspectives on Accountability and Accreditation: Are We Asking the Right Questions. A recent article, “Servant Leaders Who Picked Up the Broken Glass” was published in a trans-disciplinary peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Dr. Marina holds professional affiliations at the state, national, and international levels and has presented at state, national, and international conferences on issues related to her research. Dr. William C. McCoy, an alumnus of Northern Illinois University, is the resident ethicist for NIU’s College of Business. He is responsible for coordinating and directing the BELIEF Program, the college’s premiere ethics program with top ratings by Business Week. Dr. McCoy is first and foremost an educator, having worked for various institutions of higher education including Beloit College, Cardinal Stritch University, and Globe University. In addition, he has experience in the nonprofit and corporate sectors. He has a wealth of leadership and coaching experience with accomplishments in a variety of management roles including manager of Management Development & Corporate Quality for Wisconsin Physicians Service; managing director of both INROADS/Wisconsin and INROADS/Oklahoma; and vicepresident of the Center for Sight & Hearing. Dr. McCoy presently serves as the chair of the BELIEF Corporate Advisory Board, the BELIEF Faculty for Ethics group, and the advisor for the BELIEF student group entitled LEAD. Whitney Sherman Newcomb, PhD is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Her research interests include: leadership preparation and mentoring, women’s issues in leadership, social justice in leadership, and ethical leadership. Dr. Newcomb’s work has been featured in journals including: Educational Administration Quarterly, the Journal of School Leadership, the Journal of Educational Administration, Educational Policy, and the Journal for Research on Leadership Education. She received the 2011 Distinguished Scholarship Award for VCU’s School of Education for her contribution to research and the 2012 Distinguished Teaching Award for her excellence in teaching. Dr. Newcomb was presented with the Emerald Literati Award for

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Excellence for the Outstanding Special Issue of 2011 for her work as guest editor of “Globalization: Expanding Horizons in Women’s Leadership,” a special issue of the Journal of Educational Administration. She also received the 2011 Social Justice Teaching Award from the Leadership for Social Justice SIG of the American Educational Research Association “for work that represents exemplary commitment to teaching that promotes social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in the field of educational administration. Lisa Nieuwenhuizen, PhD was born a child of poverty in rural southern Missouri. Through her affinity for school she overcame many obstacles in her young life. At the University of Missouri, she earned a bachelor’s degree in teaching, a master‘s degree in Curriculum and Instruction, and an educational specialist degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, before completing her PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.   An advocate for children of poverty for over 20 years, Dr. Nieuwenhuizen continues to work for social justice in public education, through various avenues, including chairing her school’s multicultural committee, working to expand teacher and administrator knowledge of equity and social justice, and mentoring secondary assistant principal in her district and aspiring principals around the state. She and husband Tim have twin daughters, Lindsey and Madison. An avid soccer mom, Dr. Nieuwenhuizen loves spending time with her family at the girls’ soccer games. Lenny Sánchez, PhD is an assistant professor in the department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum at University of Missouri. His current research focuses on students as activists and justice-oriented literacy teaching and learning in schools.