They Do It for the Culture: Analyzing Why Black Men Enter the Field of Special Education
Using racial formation theory as the ballast of this study, I interviewed seven Black men who were in preservice special education teacher preparation programs about what motivated them to enter the field. Data collection methods and analysis focused on participants’ educational trajectories and introductions to the field of special education. I found that Black men in this study chose to enter special education as a result of varying influences, including prior experiences working with children or the suggestions of mentors. All participants indicated that they were “doing it for the culture”; that is, their career choices were in response to a pressing desire to be agents of change, primarily driven by an awareness of the needs of Black boys who are disproportionately represented in special education programs across the United States. Finally, I explore implications for future research and practice.Abstract
Contributor Notes
Author Bio
Dr. Christopher J. Cormier is a post doctoral fellow at Stanford University in the Stanford Graduate School of Education. He is a former special education teacher who left teaching because of his disappointment with the inhumane treatment of his minority students and unethical practices that often plagued special education. As result he embarked on a mission to become an academic to explore empirically based solutions to these issues. The primary threads of his scholarship are documenting the motivations of Black teachers to enter and remain in the profession by looking at the social contexts of schools in which Black teachers work. He also investigates racial disparities in special education particularly the overrepresentation of marginalized students in special education programs both domestically and internationally. A final thread of his scholarship assesses the mental health of teachers and identifying predictors of stress and burnout disaggregated across race and gender lines.
