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Teach Us To Teach You: Experiences Of Black Males In Urban High Schools In Georgia, Judy Ward

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Why do we not ask our students what they need from us as teachers? This study is a look at my teaching through the eyes of my former students - ten black males in two urban high schools in Georgia. My research relies on critical race theory (Bell, 1992; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 2006) as a lens to analyze how institutional racism creates obstacles to black male achievement. I explore how an “opportunity gap” provides the foundation for an achievement gap between blacks and whites (Tate, 2008; Ladson-Billings, 2006a) that prevents black males from achieving academic success. I use counter-storytelling (Bell, …