Читать книгу More Than an Ally - Michael L. Boucher Jr. - Страница 21

It is important to ground the approach presented in this book in empirical research. The method is available in other works (Boucher, 2013, 2016, 2018; Boucher & Helfenbein, 2015). To study the relationships of solidarity built by White teachers of African American students, teachers were interviewed and observed using a technique called photo-elicitation (Boucher, 2018). This technique allows for the observation of interactions between the teacher and an African American student. The photos taken during the observation are then shown to the participant, who is able to theorize about pedagogy and practice. These photos were then intentionally destroyed as their purpose was only to elicit responses from the teacher participants.

The Participants
Pseudonym	Gender	School	Grade	Degree	Years of teaching	Persona
Frieda Kohn	F	Central	9–10	MA	22	The Warm Demander
Bianca Romano	F	Central	7 & 11	MA	2	The CareBear
Mark Johnson	M	Westview	11	BA	9	The Fighter

Each session began with the simple question, “What is happening in this photo?” From there, teachers would tell their stories and their truths about their teaching and how they built solidarity relationships with students. Included in this book are vignettes from three of the participants in the study. These participants demonstrated some form of solidarity with their students, but in very different ways. Two are female, and one is male. All are White teachers of different ages. All of them taught high school in segregated schools with largely African American populations in a medium-sized city in the Midwest. The grounding of the framework in both research and theory can aid White teachers in their quest to build a more equitable classroom where African American kids, and their teachers, succeed, thrive, and find joy in learning.

1.

I have chosen to use they, them, and their in replacement of he/she or other gender binary phrases, especially when referring generally to people or students and gender is not part of the discussion. Also, this use has been recently added to the seventh edition of the APA manual.