Do You Hear Me Now?

As Black History Month comes to a close, we want to recognize Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who began what is now an historical yet monumental event. Woodson discussed how we can create an educational system that would best serve Black students based on their circumstances, gifts, talents, and historical and contemporary contexts (e.g., lived experiences). In this spirit, we discuss some practices by which educators and helping professionals can best assist Black students in being academically successful as well as improve their mental health and wellness.

Dr. Erik HinesWe will not extensively cover the issues Black students encounter as the research literature is replete with it. However, we will highlight that Black students are more likely to be suspended or expelled, experience adultification, underrepresented in rigorous courses, overrepresented in special education, and tend to disengage from school due to the feeling of being unwelcomed and/or not culturally connected with the curriculum. Moreover, Black students may not succinctly communicate their needs and the issues that they encounter, thus their behaviors may be misinterpreted by educators. For example, a Black boy in kindergarten may talk or move around in the classroom when the teacher is lecturing or not stand still in the lunch line. Some educators may see this as the student being off task or not adhering to the rules or norms rather than seeing the child through a development and cultural lens. In other words, boys tend to be more active than girls. Equally noteworthy is that Black people are often movement oriented and full of verve. Relative to Black girls, many are honest — blunt and direct. This can result in referrals to the office for being ‘talkative, rude, and disrespectful’ when, culturally, the oral tradition is operating. Unfortunately, the layer of race may bring a multitude of negative biases such as misperceiving this culturally different Black boy and girl as defiant and not engaged in class work when really they may be exceptionally smart and not challenged by the school work. These same educators may see these behaviors as antithetical to their beliefs of a ‘typical’ or ‘normal’ student’s disposition (e.g., quiet, obedient, and docile). As a result, Black students are often disciplined, misdiagnosed related to receiving an unwarranted deficit-based label.

We urge and challenge educators to truly understand what their minoritized students are communicating through their behaviors. Thus, the first half of the title — ‘Do You Hear Me Now?’ — questions whether educators are really listening to what students are saying or trying to say through their actions, behaviors, and responses. Do educators really want to understand Black students in a way that will affirm their existence and acknowledge their humanity in order to address their needs? How do educators adapt to their Black students' learning styles, dispositions, and academic needs rather than having students try to adapt to the educator? Doing so can and does bring biases, misperceptions, and different cultural characteristics and values to the learning process. The colossal result is a mismatch with student communication and engagement.

As it pertains to assisting Black students, educators should use an ethical, cultural, and equitable decision-making model to identify their concerns, problems, issues, and misinterpretations. The proactive and culturally responsive model should preclude educators from making decisions rooted in biases and beliefs that result in stereotypical caricatures of students and anti-Black racism. Given our backgrounds in school counseling and educational psychology, we will use the ethical decisionmaking model of the American School Counseling Association with a specific application to Black students. In this model, educators must:

1. Determine the problem(s);

2. Recognize and understand the factors that contribute to the problem (e.g., cultural mismatch, historical context of school or personnel, power dynamics, worldview, beliefs, biases, over-or underrepresentation in certain school contexts, etc.);

3. Apply ethical standards of one’s profession; Recognize the role of students’ developmental level and age to eliminate adultification;