I come as one but i stand as ten thousand: supporting the Lone Black Educator by cultivating white allies and co-conspirators

Findings from Travis J. Bristol’s research article, “To Be Alone or In a Group: An Exploration into How the School-Based Experiences Differ for Black Male Teachers Across One Urban School District,” found that Black teachers who were in “Groupers schools,” those with four or more Black male teachers in the building, had a different experience than teachers who were in Loner-schools, those with one Black teacher. Loners from the Bristol study believed that being a Black teacher created apprehensions towards them from their white colleagues and reported having a greater desire to leave their schools than those teachers who were in buildings where there were groups of Black teachers. These findings are a forewarning for predominantly white school districts, buildings, administrators, and colleagues, to pay closer attention to the “Loners” in their building and begin to recognize how this can be an issue for Black teachers and further, impact future recruitment and retention levels for this population. This study examines the Lone Black Educators' lived experience/s to better understand their “position,” outlook, and approach to their role. The phenomena of this subpopulation were captured using a survey and qualitative interviews. Descriptive statistics and theme analytics captured and summarized the data from three sets of participants: Lone Black Female Educators (survey participants), Lone Black Educators from an urban school district, and white allies of the Lone Black Educators in the urban school district. The findings from this study disclosed four critical components that have shaped the negative experience/s of being a Lone Black Educator; they include: (a) a lack of belonging within the school building culture, (b) microaggressions endured by white colleagues, (c) having to intervene more often on behalf of Black students due to being a Lone Black Educator, and (d) working in an oppressive system as educational leaders. This study provides another perspective of the Lone Black Educator experience; that ...