Band 13, Heft 1 - Special Issue: Having Our Say: Building New Identities through Teacher Preparation Co-Guest Editors: Satasha Green, Ph.D & Jamilah Jor’dan, PhD

The purpose of this comparative study is to ascertain the experiences and perceptions of four Black males enrolled in teacher preparation programs, one at a Predominantly Black Institution (PBI) and three at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). Findings provide insight for Colleges of Teacher Education to understand the barriers that prevent Black males from successfully matriculating and entering the teaching profession.

While Bilingual Education has traditionally been associated with linguistic diversity, the rise of the number of African-American teacher candidates in a Bilingual Education program at a mid-west Predominantly Black Institution (PBI) is causing the authors to reevaluate the input of this program’s curriculum and the output of the candidates’ understanding. The focus of this article is the training and preparation of bilingual educators at a PBI. The first section focuses on theoretical aspects of bilingual programming, and helps the reader understand how demographics and legislation have a strong impact on the educators who obtain licensure to work in the field of Bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) Education. The second section focuses on (1) results obtained in a review of national and state demographics, (2) results from a survey highlighting the experiences of teacher candidates in a Bilingual Education program at a PBI in the mid-west, and (3) results from interviews with teacher candidates regarding the experiences of these same candidates. Results are used to draw conclusions about program strengths and weaknesses to improve and broaden the understanding of the instructional methods needed in this Bilingual Education program curriculum.

Librarianship is a profession that facilitates individual and community access to information. The profession is committed to the belief that librarians should reflect the communities that they serve. However, librarianship struggles with the lack of racial and ethnic diversity among its practitioners. Much of the responsibility to diversify the profession has been given to Library and Information Science education programs that produce practitioners. The need to diversify the profession, strategies that have been used to diversify profession and the unique role that Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs) can play in diversifying the profession is described.

This paper serves as a beginning conversation of how two White males perspectives’ were shaped and how those perspectives evolved while attending and teaching at a Predominately Black Institution (PBI). Their initial understandings of Whiteness are introduced. This is an ethnographic study that utilized personal narratives from a college professor and a doctoral student as they explore Whiteness at a PBI.

There are more than 22,000 Montessori schools in over 100 countries worldwide. Beginning in the 1950s the American Montessori movement was primarily a private pre-school movement. There are more than 5,000 schools in the United States; over 500 of these are public. Montessori schools are an increasingly popular choice in the U.S. for public school districts looking to improve their educational outcomes. Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs) can play a pivotal role by integrating Montessori education within their teacher preparation programs. As the demand for Montessori education increases there will be a need for more highly-qualified, culturally and linguistically diverse teachers who have the appropriate credentials and can implement the Montessori approach. Scientific research confirms that children who attend Montessori schools are advantaged academically, socially and emotionally. Communities such as Milwaukee and Chicago are now implementing Montessori education through public schools as part of school reform efforts making the educational approach more accessible to African American children.