TEACHING AS A WHOLE-PERSON: INFLUENCES OF EDUCATOR LIFE EXPERIENCES ON DISCRETIONARY DECISIONS FOR BLACK STUDENTS

Teacher racial identity in the United States has profound implications for the discretionary decisions teachers make concerning Black students. Studies have shown that there is a strong relationship between teacher cultural diversity, beliefs, normalized practices in schooling, and student achievement (Ball, 2018; Beijhaard et al., 2000; Civitillo et al., 2019). Moreover, many researchers have failed to explore the centrality of lived experiences as they play out in the teachers’ instructional moves occurring in American classrooms. To date, limited scholarly research has investigated the “scholarship of self” situated in and saturated by broader historical, sociopolitical, and cultural environments (Ball, 2018). Hence, this dissertation critically explored the life texts of suburban elementary school teachers to understand the influence of their in-the-moment discretionary decisions concerning Black students. Using an intersectional qualitative research approach, this study combined narrative inquiry, observational fieldnotes, and reflective conversation to engage teachers in a personal excavation of the beliefs, values, and assumptions that influence their decision making. The findings from this study have provided a H.E.A.R.T. framework for teaching designed to center love and help teachers disrupt past practices and develop new routines and procedures to improve schooling for Black students.