Abstract
“Black boys themselves regularly acknowledge their teachers’ deficit views about them, an internalization with potentially disastrous implications for their self-esteem, academic accomplishment, professional success, and emotional health . . . This means an intentional shift to . . . focusing on strengths, potentials, and possibilities . . . In doing so, teachers can find joy in teaching Black boys by rejecting profiles of them as ‘broken’ rather than asset-rich learners.” (Bryan, 2021, p. 29, p. 29)
Toward a BlackBoyCrit Pedagogy: Black boys, male teachers, and early childhood classroom practices by Dr Nathaniel Bryan is not only a book for our times but one that has been needed for generations as the strengths and needs of Black boys have been misunderstood and dismissed not only in typical curriculum but in the ways Black boys are often viewed and treated in early childhood classrooms. As a Black male, I connect intimately to the experiences of students and teachers described in this book. I was a kindergartener like Maurice, Roland, Braden, Joshua, and Ameer whose words define not only their experiences as Black boys, but helped Bryan create portraits that show the strengths of their Black male teachers. Later in life, I became a Black male teacher like Mr Javien, Mr Tal, and Mr Henry whose characteristics informed the BlackBoyCrit Pedagogy that Bryan conceptualized and introduced in this book. Consequently, the stories in this book ring true and provide a critical framing for all educators who strive to embrace the wholeness of Black boyhood, manhood, and malehoods. Like many educators, I have also asked questions about the kind of pedagogical transformation needed to effectively teach Black males (Jackson, 2016). This book provides unequivocal answers as it poses a new BlackBoyCrit Pedagogy with strong examples of classroom practice that support Black boys and rich descriptions of why a new pedagogy is necessary.
The book opens as Bryan describes his own kindergarten teacher who, trusting the brilliance of his students, identified and built on the knowledge the children brought to his classroom. He believed in them and thereby instilled in them a belief in their own worth and abilities. This introduction is followed by Bryan’s expert and accessible explanation of the history and current landscape of the education of African American boys, drawing from the insights of Black Critical Theory and Black Male Studies. This provides a necessary foundation to BlackBoyCrit Pedagogy and educators’ theoretical and pedagogical knowledge, and an entrée into subsequent chapters that take readers into the lives of five Black kindergarten boys and their Black male teachers. Those chapters, brilliantly crafted as Bryan used insights from the children and their families, paint portraits of strong teachers. The characteristics of the teachers – as told through the eyes of the children and families - become the foundation for BlackBoyCrit Pedagogy offered as an antidote to Black boys’ experiences within typical, white-dominated, white-derived, and white-benefitting curricula.
The closing chapters focus on play and literacy through Bryan’s conceptualization of BlackBoy (Play) Literacies. Again, these are elements of the book that educators everywhere will relate to and can learn from. The anecdotes and lesson plans inspire me as I co-create spaces for Black boys and boys of Color in a community called Harambee where they play and explore language and literacy each week. Similarly, Bryan’s book will speak to caring educators everywhere who commit to creating spaces where Black boys can “express all types of emotions” (p.158) and are not misunderstood, miseducated, labeled, and/or destroyed because of mischaracterizations of their interactional and emotive styles and lack of recognition of their strengths and abilities.
Frantz Fanon (2004), one of the most profound fighters against anti-Blackness in the mid-20th century, wrote about the importance of challenging oppressive systems - not by replicating those systems but by “mak [ing] a new start, develop [ing] a new way of thinking” (p. 238). This is what Bryan (2021) asks us to do, informed by students, families, and community members as “integral partners in the academic and social enterprise” (p. 173). This focus on rejecting and replacing oppressive systems through collaborative engagement is highlighted as essential in the work to heal, humanize, educate, and thereby lift Black boys by working together to identify and overturn policies and practices that reflect anti-Blackness. As Bryan writes, “We cannot afford to fail at this; Black boys across the nation long to (re)member, and to experience the kind of teaching and learning that center their realities” (p. 174). This book is indeed a must read for teachers, administrators, and teacher educators, providing the background and practical examples basic to (a) understand the need for change and (b) give courage and confidence that will support educators’ engagement in collective revolutionary endeavors that will “challenge the norm in early childhood classrooms” (p. 174). We do so understanding that, when Black boys and Black men are well, the Earth will be well.