How Black Educators Are Inspiring the Future of Education
Four Black educators share their purpose and how they empower students who look like them.
Author: Ebony Chisholm
Four Black educators share their purpose and how they empower students who look like them.
Author: Ebony Chisholm
Having a Black teacher in the classroom can positively impact a Black student's education, leading to more graduations and degrees.
The National Bureau of Economic Research found that Black students who are taught by at least one Black teacher in elementary school are 13% more likely to enroll in college; the likelihood nearly triples when they have two Black teachers during their elementary education.
Hiring more Black educators not only benefits Black students — but also other students of color, fostering better classroom management and student success.
Jarvis Lundy, Head of Future Black Teachers with TEACH, spoke with educators Dr. Precious Symonette, Deoin Jamison, Jabali Sawiciki and Judy Touzin about their inspiration for becoming teachers, how they stay motivated on hard days and the importance of Black representation in the classroom.
Here's what TEACHing on purpose, with purpose, means to each of them:
Similar to her fellow educators, Judy Touzin, former educator turned principal turned doctoral student, wants to provide support for other educators to ensure their students receive the proper education and representation. “For me, my idea of representation is giving students the opportunity to see somebody who looks like them who has had maybe some of the same lived experiences they have had, loves on them, believes in their brilliance, affirms them and exposes them to things they may not have exposed to and seeing their eyes light up with a sense of possibility and wonder.”
Dr. Precious Symonette, of Miami, Florida, is a 2016 Teacher of the Year and a 17-year teacher veteran. As a creative writing teacher, Dr. Symonette enjoys providing her students with new experiences and opening their eyes to expressing themselves through writing.
“I have seen my students walk into my room absolutely hating writing, or hating going to school, hating themselves for that matter, but man, when they have a different experience with—and I don't even want to say like the ‘right teacher,’ because I don't think I'm the only amazing teacher in the world, but I love what I do and I think that's very contagious. That changes the trajectory of a student's life.”
Jabali Sawicki, former educator and founder of the country’s first, all-boys charter school and Zearn, an online math program, being a Black male role model in the classroom for young Black male students is a large part of his purpose as an educator.
“The most rewarding part of teaching is my ability to center my authentic identity as a Black male teacher and have that be the source of the most powerful connections to students in their process of centering their own Blackness in spaces that aren’t often celebrating Blackness.”
Black male teachers only make up two percent of the teaching workforce. Studies show that the effect of having a Black male teacher, especially between grades 3 and 5, decreases the dropout rate among Black boys by 30 percent and increases the likelihood they’ll go to college.
TEACH honored Black teachers and highlighted the importance of having diversity in the classroom by hosting the “Teach on Purpose” webinar where four Black educators shared their teaching journeys and plans to inspire the next generation of Black and brown teachers.
As South Carolina’s 2023 Teacher of the Year and the state’s first Black male teacher of the year, English teacher Deion Jamison is intentional about using the recent accomplishment to recruit and retain more Black male educators. That’s part of the reason I’m here today and why I got into education.”
Jamison also prioritizes where he teaches in order to support his own community. “Especially communities that look like me. I make it a point to teach in schools in which the demographics reflect my own personal identity.”
While each of the featured educators have their own respective teaching experiences, they all agreed on the importance of having more Black representation in schools.
"And as I look forward, I think about our children [and how] We need to have the deepest respect and reverence for them because they are the ones that are going to create a world that solves all the problems that our generations have created." -Jabali Sawicki
By diversifying the teacher workforce, all students will be able to experience richer and more inclusive education that will foster a more empathetic and culturally aware society.