Perseverance of Black Males in the 21st Century STEM Classroom An Autoethnography of a Black Male STEM Teacher
by
Donald G. Prier, II, BS, MAE
A Dissertation
In
Curriculum and Instruction
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Approved
Dr. Jeong-Hee Kim Chair of Committee
Dr. Dave Louis
Dr. Walter S. Smith
Dr. Mark Sheridan Dean of the Graduate School
May 2021
Copyright 2021, Donald G. Prier, II Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to first thank God, the Almighty, for his blessings throughout this research work that enabled me to complete this autoethnography dissertation successfully.
I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my research supervisor, Dr. Jeong-Hee Kim, Committee Chairperson and Chair for the
Department of Curriculum and Instruction here at Texas Tech University. I am very thankful for Dr. Kim’s outstanding job leading our research group through these challenging times when it seemed that our country was falling apart; her positivity and caring attitude kept our spirits high! Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Walter S. Smith, committee member and Dr. Dave Louis, committee member, both for providing invaluable guidance throughout this research. Under these three individuals, I have learned how to express my own dynamism, vision, and motivational techniques in a writing style that was foreign to me – they have deeply inspired me. It was a great privilege and an honor to work with them over the past few years and through the time of this COVID-19 pandemic.
I would also like to thank the students that I profiled for this dissertation.
Because of this project, I found myself reaching out many of them, some of whom
I had not been in contact with since the 1990s. Our brief conversations aided in the richness and quality of my recollections for this dissertation. Without these students, this work would not exist.
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Just the same, I would also like to thank all of my Black and White male
STEM colleagues who were available to discuss this endeavor, especially fellow
Phi Beta Sigma fraternity brother Edward Patterson. His counsel and editing suggestions were invaluable.
I am extremely grateful to my parents, and my younger brother and sister for their caring love, prayers, and sacrifices during a tenuous time throughout this journey where the economy was impacted by COVID-19. I would also like to thank them for aiding in ensuring accuracy in the rich details I provide in this work.
I would like to thank Monikka, a fellow nerd, a gameshow queen, and my wonderful wife of 25 years, and my daughters Lillian and Sydney for their love and understanding, as they supported this endeavor as editors to complete this research work. I am fortunate to have Monikka in my life for this work as she also aided in data collection as well as ensuring the quality and accuracy of this work.
Finally, my thanks goes out to all the people who I may have failed to mention, that have supported me to complete this dissertation research either directly or indirectly.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... ii
ABSTRACT ...... viii
LIST OF FIGURES ...... x
I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1
Background of the Research ...... 2
Statement of the Research Problem ...... 5
Purpose of the Research ...... 6
Research Questions ...... 7
Overview of the Research Design Methods ...... 7
Scope of the Research ...... 8
Significance of the Research ...... 9
Researcher’s Assumptions/Biases...... 10
Definition of Terms ...... 12
II. LITERATURE REVIEW ON THEORIES AND RESEARCH TOPIC ...... 17
Theoretical Framework ...... 18
Critical Race Theory ...... 18 African American Male Theory ...... 22 Possible Selves Theory ...... 22 Culturally Responsive Pedagogy ...... 23 Double Consciousness Theory ...... 24 Literature Review ...... 251
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Why an Absence of Black Males in STEM? ...... 26 Perseverance of Black Males in STEM ...... 34 Significance of Black males in STEM ...... 35 Chapter Summary ...... 37
III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND METHODS ...... 39
Narrative Inquiry ...... 39
Autoethnography ...... 42
Methods for Data Collection ...... 45
Ensuring the Quality of an Autoethnography ...... 46
Ethical Considerations ...... 49
Methods for Data Analysis ...... 50
Chapter Summary ...... 51
IV. MY STORY ...... 52
Where Does STEM Begin for Me ...... 52
Middle School ...... 62
High School ...... 71
Southern University ...... 79
The Teaching Opportunity ...... 81
My Mentor ...... 91
The Making of my FIRST Superhero – Victor Stone ...... 94
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Embracing STEM ...... 110
Santa Clara, CA - Santa Clara High ...... 111
Mountain View - Los Altos, CA - Alta Vista ...... 121
NAFEO at NASA Ames ...... 131
The Great North West ...... 137
Middle School STEM Experience in Houston, Texas ...... 143
Project 1-Avoyelles ...... 149
Project 1-Avoyelles, Bunkie ...... 157
My Return to High School ...... 166
Spring Branch ...... 174
Aldine Independent School District ...... 202
A New Plan of Action ...... 203 The Space Robot ...... 205 V. SCHOLARLY DISCUSSION ...... 208
The Research Problem Revisited ...... 208
CRT Applied - The Permanence of Racism ...... 208
CRT Applied - Whiteness as Property ...... 217
CRT Applied - Interest Convergence ...... 224
CRT Applied - Critique of Liberalism ...... 226
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Findings with Regards to Research Questions ...... 229
A Letter to Policy Makers, Scholars, and Practitioners ...... 235
Professional Learning Communities (PLC) ...... 236 Classroom Culture ...... 237 End of Course (EOC) Examinations ...... 238 Youth STEM Outreach Programs ...... 239 Undergraduate STEM Outreach Programs ...... 240 Future Research ...... 241
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 243
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ABSTRACT The master narrative, or master framework of every American school system that incorporates STEM into their curriculum emphasizes equality for all students –
“All means all!” If this motto and ideal holds true, then I would like to know why is it that Black males continue to struggle in their K -12 STEM classes. Is it a fair conjecture that the success of Black male students is a function of how these students are perceived by their teachers and how they are regarded by the existing educational system; to be inferior academically, behaviorally challenged, having no interest in
STEM courses, and lacking motivation? As a Black male STEM teacher, I would often find myself perplexed as I tried to assimilate this notion. For as long as I could remember, it was difficult for me to accept the idea that Black males in their STEM classes “just can’t get it!” If they could not “get it,” then how did I do it? And more importantly, how is it that students under my tutelage “get it?” Why is it that my Black male STEM students succeed where others have failed?
As a seasoned teacher of twelve years and a Critical Race Theory practicioner,
I challenge the master narrative of the American educational system. With this evocative autoethnographic study, I present and analyze my own education related stories; over 40 years of reflected personal and lived experiences. These experiences include those of my childhood, parenthood, professional engineering career, and as a
Black male STEM educator. Through these stories, I present problems in the educational systems that I personally observed, share counter tactics for navigating
viii Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 past these perceived problems, and ultimately share what success in STEM looks like for both my Black male students and for myself.
Key Words: African American, Black male student, counter-narrative, critical race theory, cultural awareness, culturally relevance, responsive pedagogy, master narrative, micro-aggression, motivation, multidimensionality, opportunity hoarding, robotics, STEM
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LIST OF FIGURES 1. Project 1-Avoyelles STEM Robotics Camp, 2017 ...... 16
2. Me and my mom. I was a baby once...... 53
3. Me and my Bro’ fixing the Lawn mower! ...... 53
4. Life in the 1970s...... 54
5. Anna Street – this is where I grew up...... 55
6. St. Gerard Elementary Catholic Church School ...... 55
7. The best place to get cookies in the morning!...... 56
8. Dr. Dad, me and my little Bro'! ...... 57
9. A man of many talents, but very few friends...... 61
10. Family photo of the Priers in the new house...... 62
11. My First Airplane – 1st Place in the Science Fair! ...... 68
12. Honor Roll Student ...... 78
13. Band Geek & Track Nerd ...... 78
14. High School Graduate Don Prier and “The Fellas!” ...... 79
15. Studying Space Shuttle Fuel Cell materials at Los Alamos Labs, NM ...... 80
16. They told me I would only be a janitor; I now have a BS in Physics...... 91
17. View from my office at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1993 ...... 93
18. Me and my mentor, Keith Jackson (far right) ...... 93
19. In 1999, I would always wear a white shirt –and no pocket protector...... 95
20. Foothill and Yerba Buena students practicing with our FRC robot - 1999 ..... 99
21. The Yerba Buena and Foot Hill engineering robotics clubs...... 100
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22. Results from the 2000 FIRST Robotics championship ...... 107
23. FIRST Robotics team hat ...... 108
24. Victor’s motivation – my & the solar car, San Jose Mercury News, 2000 .... 109
25. My little hero and scholar from Japan! ...... 114
26. The STEM Dream team! ...... 117
27. My first red Porsche 944. Students were dying to drive it! ...... 124
28. Adam and I took all the rulers on campus and used them on our robots...... 126
29. Adam (circled), sitting on the floor, did not like to take pictures...... 131
30. Natasha and Namor’s dream team, also known as Chilliwack 2007...... 141
31. Portland Regionals, 2012 – Next Stop World Robotics Championship ...... 142
32. The E.A. Olle STEM Dream Team ...... 144
33. Charles Xavier and his original algorithm for his first robot program...... 145
34. Robot arena for learning how to write simple algorithms...... 147
35. The Alamo Maze Project for the most advanced robotics students...... 148
36. Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana is marked in Red above...... 150
37. Black students of this region had their own schools...... 152
38. Large turnouts for STEM robotics and Avoyelles!” ...... 154
39. Marksville students presenting their handwritten algorithms...... 155
40. Students enjoying robotics and programming...... 156
41. Sydney (in yellow) - helping me teach class...... 158
42. Students performing calculations for their programs...... 158
43. Navigating Undersea robots was always on my mind...... 159
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44. Enjoying torturing these students with FUN robotics activities! ...... 160
45. More work for robotics students! The ruler is their friend! ...... 161
46. Preparing to expose Bunkie students to FUN STEM activities ...... 162
47. Students using rulers and geometry to control the robots...... 162
48. High performing student and award recipients...... 163
49. Posing with the Principal of Bunkie High and Bunkie Superintendent ...... 163
50. Monikka Mann and I, posing with the Mayors of Mansura and Bunkie ...... 163
51. Students received college planning information ...... 164
52. Lillian, Sydney, and me – in the news ...... 165
53. This is what community support from the neighboring towns looks like! .... 165
54. How did I get on OnPoint Television? I love working with kids! ...... 166
55. The great Bruce Banner! ...... 167
56. Bruce Banner, AKA The Hulk ...... 168
57. The Super Man, E.A. Olle’s engineering bridge tester...... 169
58. Green Hulk, popsicle bridge tester - designed by Banner & students ...... 169
59. Bruce Banner (center) in Junior ROTC ...... 170
60. Two of my past robotics students taking a picture with Mayor Sylvester Turner...... 174 61. Recruitment materials – Sydney and Lillian Prier ...... 175
62. Model teacher and Teacher of the Year Nominee – 3 years in a row...... 176
63. Teaching in action! ...... 176
64. The Spring Woods Robotics Club takes Houston, TX...... 177
65. We are the Champions! ...... 177
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66. SBISD School Board presents the Innovative teaching award ...... 178
67. The results of star power! ...... 179
68. Sylvester Turner’s 2019 Re-Election Campaign for Mayor of Houston ...... 179
69. Wally West – always overwhelmed with much work to do! ...... 180
70. Wally and Eddie’s creations...... 181
71. Eddie Brock thought he was Denzel Washington’s brother ...... 182
72. Year 1 FIRST robotics team. Both Wally and Eddie Brock are present ...... 184
73. Miles Morales and his teammates - getting ready for competition!...... 185
74. Miles M. is the tallest student on the team. Wally is on the right of Miles. .. 186
75. Eddie Brock (second on right) and Miles Morales (with glasses) ...... 187
76. Miles repairing a robot bumper at the FIRST regional qualifier ...... 188
77. Texas State Championship teams ...... 189
78. A deprecation of professionalism and racial tensions in the workplace...... 194
79. Miles Morales and Lillian go to Robot Prom – Spring, 2019 ...... 196
80. Miles Morales is getting ready to play D1 Basketball – his dream...... 196
81. FRC Rookie Inspiration Award recipients at the Texas State robotics championship ...... 196 82. There were not many Black male students - but we were family! ...... 197
83. Posing with Dr. D. Wallace and Dr. Bernard Taylor- student motivators ..... 197
84. Mr. Richards and Mr. Stewart is giving his approval on team comments ..... 198
85. Mr. Richards preparing to solder connectors on his robot...... 200
86. Posing with Dr. Walter Smith - always encouraging me to “Do Big!” ...... 205
87. Nanoracks’ press release for the Mars Demo-1 space cutting robot...... 206
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88. Nanoracks - Aldine CTE engineering student presentations...... 206
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION This is the year 2021, and I am still the only one of us in the room? I know that other Black males in STEM are just as good as me, if not better! Where are they?
When I was in school, I knew that I could not solve every problem in the science textbook or on the math class board, but I knew other Black males who could. Since this is the case, why have I always been the only Black American male present in the advanced classes in high school or the after-school robotics club? Why are there no
Black faces at the engineering robotics competition, the company engineering meeting, or the STEM planning committee meeting? Was it like this when my father was in school? What is happening to the Black males; am I to believe that Black males are not interested in STEM? As I write this dissertation, all I can think about is a lyric from a popular rap song by DMX where he also asks about the representation of Black men.
Over the span of forty years, I have continually found myself, and maybe (on a few, very rare occasions) one other Black male, surrounded in a sea of like-minded individuals who do not look like me – all focused on either creating or solving a
STEM problem. As far back as elementary school, I can remember that there was always one Black male student in the hard math or science class – and everyone else was either White or any other race but Black. I can also remember being in a group of underachieving students, and where they repeatedly told me that my math and science
1 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 skills were not good enough to become a scientist like my father. But, like my dad would say, “. . .boy, were they wrong!”
Background of the Research
I am an accomplished engineer and a seasoned high school engineering teacher in the greater Houston area. I currently hold a bachelor’s degree in Physics and a master’s degree in STEM Education. I am also a US FIRST robotics national champion coach and recognized leader in engineering robotics education in both the
Houston area and the Gulf Coast region. As a recognized leader in engineering robotics education, I intend to recruit and motivate all students to pursue a STEM career upon completing their secondary education.
Acting in an engineering teacher and robotics mentor's capacity here in
Houston, I have observed a lack of students entering STEM fields. There is a scarcity of Black males in my high school engineering classes, afterschool programs, enrolling in colleges, and ultimately entering STEM fields. Because of this recurring trend, I have frequently questioned what is happening to these students? Pondering, I found myself reflecting on one of my most recent interactions with one of my own high school robotics students who was ostracized, marginalized, and oppressed on the very campus that I served as the head of robotics.
Initially, assuming the role of robotics coach, I asked for an explanation as to why the captain of my robotics club was detained from one of our high school recruitment events. The STEM classroom teacher’s response was incomprehensible.
Out of compassion, I found myself assuming a parent's role and then requested the
2 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 formal documentation of the incident. In response to my request, no documentation could be located or provided by the teacher to explain why the student was detained.
As a result of the detention, the robotics team failed to complete their lunch time recruitment presentation in its entirety.
Upon returning to my classroom after the failed event, I found the robotics team captain outside of my locked door. The student was tearful in the hallway. The student repeatedly apologized for missing the event. The fourteen-year-old freshman student admitted that the teacher had singled out the only Black student in the gifted and talented (GT) math class because the teacher told them that they had not performed or acted like a gifted and talented advanced placement student.
The robotics captain explained that they had been singled out because they did not have their homework for that day. The student claimed that their original homework assignments had been left at home but could produce a photographed copy of the work where all of the math problems were rewritten and solved. The frustrated teacher did not want to accept the homework and demanded that they put all their class materials away. The student assumed that the teacher was preparing to send them to the office and wanted the materials returned to their backpack. The teacher wanted the student to place the materials in their assigned seat. In frustration, the teacher snapped at the student and said, “don’t you know the meaning of put your materials away means to put your materials in your desk? Are you thinking?” Sighing loudly, the teacher then told the student “you are not acting like you should be in this advanced class.” At the end of the period, the teacher told the student to stay after class for lunch
3 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 detention. The student tried to explain to the teacher, saying, “I have a robotics event, and I have to be there,” and immediately, the teacher responded with, “I don’t care.”
It turns out that the student did not have the original copy of their homework because the family house’s roof had failed, and water had gotten all over the kitchen table, books, and entryway the night before. The student’s parents had tried to contact the teacher, but the teacher refused to respond to the parents’ messages. Because of the teacher’s classroom management structure, students could not access the teacher except for during class time – and then too, it was challenging to have one on one time with the teacher. As a result, the student felt that they let the whole robotics team down by simply not having an opportunity to talk to the teacher and possibly preventing the situation that led to them being issued detention during lunch time.
This Black STEM student had no history of behavioral issues in any classroom setting and was known throughout the district for their school, district, and community achievements. What does it mean to a Black student when they are told, “…you are not acting like you should be in this advanced class?” How does a Black student’s parent prepare their child for these scenarios? Unfortunately, none of this matters to the student at the moment when they find themselves berated and scolded by a teacher in a room full of peers, all of whom were not Black.
The narrative that I have presented and the rest of the narratives and stories presented throughout this study are true stories about Black STEM students who have experienced discouraging and challenging circumstances in their academic environments. As a seasoned educator, I have faced many students with these
4 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 encounters. Because of my experience with these types of scenarios, I have found myself taking on the role of de facto champion for the Black and minority students in the communities that I have served. This is because I have navigated both successes and failures throughout my childhood and adult career. I have learned how to fail, and
I now know how to succeed as a Black man in America. Because of tools like the internet and social media, students can research who I am and what I have become so that they too can learn how to navigate to success in a STEM field. Those students who know me personally understand that my struggles as a child, a student, a college student, an engineer, and, most importantly, a Black man in America whose challenges parallel their own. For these reasons, I feel that I have a story to tell, which
I hope will inspire educational scholars and those who genuinely want to understand
Black students and their struggles for success in America. For this study, I will only focus on Black males who thrive for STEM opportunities after their high school careers.
Statement of the Research Problem
It is clear from the literature presented in the previous sections that there are existing problems within the secondary education system related to Black males in
STEM and their desire to advance. Black male students have expressed that sub- optimal classroom experiences contribute to their ability to complete STEM degrees
(Green & Glasson, 2009), and they bemoan the lack “of other Black male peers who shared their racial identity and strong commitment to academics” (Fries-Britt, 2017, p.
12). Based on my literature review, combined with my observations and experiences,
5 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 it has become evident that a problem continues to exist in the pipeline for Black male students as they transition through secondary schooling and into college. There must be some high school pivotal experience(s) that negatively impacts their ability to succeed in completing advanced studies in STEM once they start their college careers.
It is my intent to provide irrefutable evidence of these problems by sharing my own personal experience with Black male STEM students as well as present solutions for increasing the number of Black male students entering STEM fields after their high school career.
Purpose of the Research
Using autoethnography, I will explore my own personal, educational experiences with Black, male high school students, sharing my successes and struggles that led to their desire to want to continue in STEM fields beyond high school.
Employing critical race theory as my theoretical framework, I intend to present counter stories to demonstrate how Black male high school students can be motivated to become successful in the STEM fields and pursue their dreams of STEM careers after high school. For this study, I discuss my journey as a Black male, as a professional engineering educator, and a mentor attempting to create a path for the black male STEM scholars and teachers of this generation as they navigate the rocky road paved by systemic racism, economic injustices, and inequitable educational opportunities.
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Research Questions
Research questions to explore the research problem are as follows:
1. What is the lived experience of a Black male engineering educator like?
2. What counter-stories does the lived experience provide about Black male
students in high school?
3. What are the ways to encourage Black male school students to pursue a
STEM career throughout high school and beyond?
Overview of the Research Design Methods
At its essence, the research goal, through the use of autoethnography, is to present specific actions that teachers, school districts, community, and society can take to improve successful educational outcomes for Black American male students learning in the STEM classroom. For exploring this problem stated earlier, I propose using an Autoethnography as it allows me to present and discuss my own personal journey as a Black American male and a minority in STEM. This study presents events from when I was a student that no one but my family would have expected to succeed; to my current status of inspiring our next generation of Black male students here in the United States to remain engaged in STEM.
Autoethnography, as described by Maréchal, is “a form or method of research that involves self-observation and reflexive investigation in the context of ethnographic field work and writing” (2010, p. 43). Another foundational researcher in the field of autoethnography defines it as using “research, writing, story, and method that connect[s] the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political
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(Ellis, 2004, p. xix). A more succinct definition of autoethnography is the use of first- person narratives to conduct studies of a culture of which the researcher is a member
(Hayano, 1979).
Because this study is presented from a critical race theorist’s perspective, in this autoethnography I will include sections where personal accounts are presented in the form of storytelling; all of which will be supported from collecting, analyzing, and interpreting artifactual data. This process will create an opportunity for presenting deeper insight and providing a rich narrative (Kim, 2016) that will help other practitioners benefit from my experiences (Chang, 2008) as both a teacher and a practitioner. Accounts, both personal as well as from participants of different eras, would be presented in this autoethnography. Utilizing my own personal experiences may help guide both teachers and practitioners to a path of success with Black males here in the United States. The intent is to “offer a way of giving voice to personal experience for the purpose of extending sociological understanding” (Wall, 2008, p.
38) and allowing for understanding of how Black male students perceive their ability to be successful in the STEM classroom and beyond. The application of this process of inquiry and analysis will occur simultaneously, allowing for the identification of emergent themes.
Scope of the Research
The scope of this research study, using autoethnography, would be to investigate the personal experiences of my own encounters with the Black male STEM students with whom I have worked with for the purpose of sharing my journey as a
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STEM teacher working with Black male students. The scope of this research will be presented in the form of narratives. These narratives will allow for the presentation of my experiences as a Black male growing up and living in the United States, concentrating on my educational experiences from elementary school to high school.
As I present my own personal experiences, I will also present stories of my professional interactions with Black high school and college students that I have taught directly or encountered while engaging in robotics and STEM outreach. All participants discussed in this study were raised in the United States and are participants in the US educational system ranging from the 1990s to the present.
Significance of the Research
The significance of this autoethnography is threefold:
1. This research study will allow researchers, practitioners, and administrators
to gain meaningful insight into pedagogical tactics and strategies that could
help motivate Black male students to continue their pursuit of STEM
careers.
2. This study will contribute to the importance of counter-storytelling in
promoting equitable educational opportunities for Black male students who
have traditionally been marginalized.
3. It will foster the role of critical race theory in investigating racial
inequalities and inequities that Black male students have experienced and
in finding ways to better serve them.
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Researcher’s Assumptions/Biases
When working with autoethnography as the primary method of exploring a topic, there will inevitably exist some inherent biases or limitations to my recollections as I reflect over 40 plus years of my life. Based on my own positionality as a critical race theorist, I plan to present some of the biases of educators and students that I have experienced throughout my professional career and in the STEM classroom. Some of these biases include teacher deficit thinking, teacher micro-aggressions, missed opportunities due to opportunity hoarding, situational discounting, institutional racism, hate speech, stereotyping, and biological racism. Although I have been the victim of bias from others in many situations, I feel that exposure to these situations has made me a wiser and stronger guide and resource for students.
Regarding my positionality, I am a proud Black American male who has now embraced the knowledge and practices of a critical race theorist. My attraction to critical race theory (CRT) is fueled by the situations I have faced where I did not understand my rights or position in society. Now that I am a critical race theorist, I have a solid understanding of my position within the greater global society and the dominant White racial frame of America. I now recognize that America, to so many people, is synonymous with Whiteness, and I am at a disadvantage as the laws of this country were not designed for people of my race. Additionally, it is appropriate to view my position in society as multidimensional or having a multidimensional positionality.
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Multidimensionality is a method for describing a Black American male’s positionality (Mutua, 2012). Multidimensionality is the property of a model or construct that cannot be adequately described by measuring a single characteristic or quality (Mutua, 2012). Unlike intersectionality, which is typically used to describe the experiences of Black women in America that explore the intersection between gender and race, multidimensionality is used to denote or describe the much more complicated experiences of Black males. As an example, Mutua (2012) uses multidimensionality as a framework to study Black males’ experiences with gendered racism as a multidimensional whole, focusing on the intersection of race and gender within the context of being racially profiled in public spaces. As a result of Mutua’s study, it was found that Black males have a higher chance of negative interactions than women due to the belief that they more are dangerous.
As a Black American male of African, Native American, French, and Irish decent, I have had more than my fair share of incidents. For example, being followed through stores while shopping by security personnel, noticing that people clutch their purses closer to their chest, people quickly locking the doors of their cars as I walk down the sidewalk, seeing my children suffer from anxiety attacks when we are stopped by a police officer while driving, and being spoken to in a condescending manor while attending meetings of my profession – as if I do not belong. These are experiences unique to my position as a Black, minority male in America. It is challenging when others cannot see beyond the surface characteristics of my skin and gender. They neglect the additional facets of my dimension as a loving husband, a
11 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 nurturing father, a committed son, and a dedicated educator. It truly is not fair to me, or others like me, to be judged and condemned of wrongdoing before we even take a provocative action. The simple act of being is enough to mark us as ‘other’ and therefore something to be feared or avoided. This inherent prejudice towards othering and discrimination puts Black men back in the chains that we were supposedly freed from regardless of how hard we work to make positive impacts on our lives, and the lives of those around us. Our Blackness is being actively weaponized against us.
Definition of Terms
Blackness is a loaded term that can convey not only the state of living with colored skin, but from an artistic and philosophical perspective as meaning devoid of life or color. The very world evokes a negative reaction as one of course never truly wants to reach towards the blackness of the void - often associated with sin, ignorance, or evil – but rather society is often encouraged to go towards the light, to aspire to enlightenment or to live in a world of technicolor. Even in the film, The Wizard of Oz
(Fleming, 1939), the evil witch is dressed in blackness and it is only after Dorothy is spirited away to the land of Oz that the world is shown in a kaleidoscope of magical, gleaming color. In Poltergeist (Poltergeist, 1982), Carol Ann is exhorted to “go towards the light” and to turn away from the dark. The period in Western Civilization marked by the advent of rational thought and the dawn of the scientific method is called the Enlightenment and is compared to the misery of the Dark Ages.
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For the purpose of this study, for a male to be labeled as Black, does not necessarily mean that he is of African descent. It needs to be stated that in the United
States, Blackness is a social construct.
As a Black man, and as a Black male in society, it is only recently that my people started to reclaim the power of Blackness. Blackness is not something to be feared or ashamed of but is a source of power fueled by our perseverance as a people that saw us overcoming unimaginable odds and rising above the systemic oppression of society to claim our rightful place as a part of the tapestry of life.
Culture is defined as “a set of traits that are shared by the set and were transmitted, where traits are ‘characteristics of human societies that are potentially transmitted by non-genetic means” (Birukou, Blanzieri, Giorgini, & Giunchiglia,
2013, p. 2).
Diversity is a difficult topic to define as it too is a social construct, and the meaning can vary based on the context in which it is being used. As such, there is no real universal definition for diversity that can be broadly applied to all situations. For the purposes of this study, the working definition that we will use when referring to diversity is whether or not the total population under study, say for example all high school students studying STEM, has a mixture of constituents whose self-identified gender and race accurately reflect the statistical make-up of the population of the larger community within which this subset exists (Jones, 1999). For example, if the community where a school is located has 34% of the residents who identify as Black, then a diverse classroom is one where 34% of the students identify as Black.
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Equity in terms of the educational environment has been taken to mean that
“all children have an opportunity to survive, develop, and reach their full potential without discrimination, bias, or favoritism” (UNICEF, 2010, p. 5).
Hoarding is a defined as a disorder characterized by the unnecessary accumulation of goods or services with no intent to utilize them. For this scholarly work, hoarding refers to the accumulation and domination of opportunity in a social construct. Opportunity hoarding is defined as a sociological concept to explain a growing range of phenomena related to social inequality; this term refers to the control of resources, defined in any number of ways, that allow certain groups to exclude others from access to said resources or benefits accruing to them (Tilly, 1998).
Inclusion is another term that is often difficult to define, particularly in relation to education. For the purpose of this study, the definition I choose to use is that inclusion “does not only mean education for all groups. It also suggests placing specific focus on those students who are vulnerable to marginalization and exclusion and creating special strategies and measures for their involvement in education” (Oh
& Van Der Stouwe, 2008, pp. 592-3)
Opportunity Hoarding, for the purpose of this study, is a cultivation model of parenting where parents make it a point to intervene in their child’s education and have a presence in the school district through parent-teacher associations and school board meetings for the purposes of taking up all of the educational opportunities for their children without contest from the administration (Lewis-McCoy, 2014).
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Positionality describes how the researcher is positioned in relation to the social, cultural, and political environment that they are researching as part of a study
(Takacs, 2002). My positionality as a Black man, with a degree in STEM, who has lived through the Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, and
Trump administrations and who is now teaching students has a major impact on how I view the world and my experiences.
Social Construct is a term defined by Merriam-Webster as an idea that has been created and accepted by the people in a society. Essentially, a social construct means that society as a whole has collectively agreed up on an idea or concept but when individuals are asked about this idea, their unique perspectives may color their interpretation of the idea, but it generally falls within an acceptable scope.
Racism is yet another social construct that has a major influence on the lives of many people around the world, but for the purposes of this study the focus is on racism and its impact on the history, and current situations, in the United States.
Racism is based on the concept of whiteness—a powerful fiction enforced by
power and violence. Whiteness is a constantly shifting boundary separating
those who are entitled to have certain privileges from those whose exploitation
and vulnerability to violence is justified by their not being White ( (Society,
2011, p. 17).
STEM is defined as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Whiteness can be considered a social construct that goes beyond the simple definition of having white skin. It is generally accepted to be a social construct, but all
15 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 definitions of whiteness share key characteristics; namely that those with whiteness lack melanin but are perceived to be in a position of power, or superiority, when compared to other racial groups. “Whiteness creates an ideal race, with which to devalue and subsequently oppress other racial groups. Understood in this way, whiteness has a dual nature: privileging Whites and oppressing those outside the boundary of White” (Battey & Leyva, 2016, p. 51).
Figure 1 Project 1-Avoyelles STEM Robotics Camp, 2017
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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ON THEORIES AND RESEARCH TOPIC
As a teacher, my colleagues and I have never been presented with a professional development opportunity focusing on the challenges of the underrepresented. Many of my closest colleagues, who are White teachers, have courageously admitted that they do not understand their Black students. They do not understand their students’ lifestyles nor daily struggles. Additionally, these teachers do not understand the challenges that many Black students and their families face in their lives outside of the classroom. Now, with the emergence of COVID-19 and all the negative rhetoric by Donald Trump on social issues supporting police brutality against Black people, these challenges have become greater for the families of Black males (Walters, 2020). It is all being witnessed on a global scale.
These challenges have ranged from holding a job, getting to work, evictions and fighting daily with unreliable transportation to simply depositing a paycheck to eat
(Pincus, 1996). These outside distractions, along with insensitive teachers and highly competitive and unobtainable educational opportunities have made it very difficult for
Black males to focus on opportunities in STEM.
In this chapter, I will present educational theories and literature to support the importance of STEM education, the importance of Black males in STEM, the absence of Black males in STEM, and the ideas that support the success of Black males pursuing opportunities in STEM.
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Theoretical Framework
Critical Race Theory
Critical Race Theory (CRT) was originally an area of legal scholarship that used storytelling to show that racism is still very much a part of American society
(Bell, 1995; Ladson-Billings, 1998). For this study, CRT is grounded in five tenets, which are utilized as deconstructive tools for dismantling the dominating narratives in society. CRT provides a method for collecting and analyzing information for the purpose of improving issues like minority student retention and participation by asking students of color for their perspectives on the reality of their experiences (Bell, 1995;
Harper, 2009; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002; Yosso, 2005). CRT is an evolving theoretical framework that allows for the examination of society and culture as they relate to the categorizations of race, authority, and the law.
CRT is a legal, standardized scholarly framework or construct that supports storytelling and generates inquiry. The term Critical Race Theory evolved in 1989 after the congregation of several well-known social legal activists in Madison,
Wisconsin. The attending activists included Kimberlé Crenshaw, Derek Bell, Richard
Delgado, Mari Matsuda and Patricia Williams - all been identified as the leading advocates across the nation in various social science fields (Crenshaw, 2010). Their purpose was to work together towards developing a common legal process for managing racial issues; an acceptable process or technique that could aid in the examination of controversial racial issues that required legal intervention. Researchers in the early 1980s had already conceptualized the distinct forms of oppression that
18 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 they were experiencing. The Black Women’s Liberation Group was one group that already had been active in this area of study. As one of the most provocative leaders of the Women’s Liberation Movement, Crenshaw pointed out that “…although race and racism are at the center of CRT, we also view them as their intersection with other forms of subordination such as gender and class discrimination” (Solórzano & Yosso,
2002, p. 25).
My use of critical race theory, for this study, is based upon five principles.
These five tenets of CRT are: counter-storytelling, the permanence of racism,
Whiteness as property, interest conversion, and the critique of Liberalism (DeCuir &
Dixson, 2004; Ladson-Billings, 1998).
Counter-storytelling is the process of utilizing a story telling technique for the purpose of presentation and legitimization racial and subordinate experiences of marginalized groups (DeCuir & Dixson, 2004; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Parker &
Villalpando, 2007). Under the auspices of CRT, utilization of counter-stories can both expose and critique the dominant male, White, heterosexual ideologies – all of which perpetuate racial stereotypes. Counter-stories allow one to present personal accounts, composite stories, and narratives of people of color (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017).
The permanence of racism, the second tenet, is a concept that states that racism is viewed as a permanent part of American life (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017). It shall continue to be evaluated and analyzed as it is part of our history; racism cannot be ignored as it is part of everyone. In Derrick Bell’s (2018) book, Faces at the Bottom of the Well, he presents the African American’s positionality as they struggle for equality
19 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 in society. Bell grimly indicates that African Americans are destined to struggle so long as the majority of whites do not see their own well-being threatened by the status quo (2018).
Whiteness as property is the third tenet of critical race theory. Whiteness as property states that the law embodies and legitimizes the benefits that accrue to citizens just because they are White. In America, this means that whiteness is considered a “Treasured Property” in a society based on social cast (Delgado &
Stefancic, 2017). Having whiteness means that a person has assumed privileges and benefits that have become a valuable asset. According to Cornel West, back in the
1960s, having the status of whiteness was something fought for and protected by those who sought to attain it (1995). People who embraced whiteness expected and relied on the benefits that came with their status; and over time, these expectations were affirmed, legitimated, and protected under law. Under American law, in protecting established expectations based on white privilege, property interest in whiteness forms the background in which legal disputes are framed, contended, and adjudicated
(Delgado & Stefancic, 2017).
Interest conversion, the fourth tenet of CRT, is the idea that the interest of
Blacks in achieving racial equality are accommodated only when it converges with the interests of Whites. According to Derrick Bell and his reflections over Brown vs.
Board of Education, he postulated that interest convergence is the idea that the interest of Blacks in achieving racial equality is accommodated when it converges with the interest of White people (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017).
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The final tenet utilized for this study is the critique of liberalism. The critique of liberalism stems from the idea of neutrality of the law, color blindness, and equal opportunity (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017). Unfortunately for liberalists, critical race theorists do not buy into liberalism as it is the framework for addressing racial problems in America. The problem is that liberalists believe that America is colorblind, all Americans are colorblind, all Americans are equally treated, (Delgado
& Stefancic, 2017) and have an equal opportunity for reward for their hard work.
Many Americans believe that the electing of Barack Obama was the beginning of a post racial state of social advancement (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017); for me, it was the beginning of a period where no matter how hard I worked, I would find myself unemployed due to the privileged group’s opportunity hoarding and apparent social injustices.
Using CRT as the framework, it is my intent to discuss my journey as a Black male, as a professional engineering educator, and as a mentor attempting to create a path for the Black male STEM scholars and teachers of this generation as they navigate the rocky road paved by systemic racism, economic injustices, and inequitable educational opportunities – these disadvantages serve as the underpinnings of CRT. “There is not a canonical set of doctrines or methodologies to which all CRT scholars subscribe” (Ladson-Billings, 1998, p. 12). By utilizing an allegorical format, I will explore and demonstrate the application of these principles in efforts to inspect my experiences as Black male student and educator with aims to glean potential recommendations as to how we can improve Black male student success in STEM
21 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 fields. Additional supporting theories will act as filters allowing for clarity and coherence throughout this work.
African American Male Theory
I will be examining myself in this study using the African American Male
Theory as an extension of critical race theory. African American Male Theory, or
AAMT, is a framework that can be used to articulate the position or trajectory of
African American boys or men in society by drawing on their enslavement experiences, and by capturing their spiritual, social, psychological, educational development and position (Bush & Bush, 2013). Even though the focus will be on the educational development aspect of AAMT, spiritual, social, and psychological elements and themes are to be presented throughout the work.
Possible Selves Theory
In regard to the trajectory of Black American males, it is necessary to utilize the Possible Selves Theory as another filter to provide clarity and coherence to this work. Possible selves theory is a type of self-knowledge that pertains to how students think about their potential and about their future (Markus & Nurius, 1986). It is important to incorporate possible selves theory in this work as it introduces the student to their positionality in the STEM classroom, giving them an idea of what or who they would like to become or whom they are afraid of becoming.
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Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Because this work primarily focuses on education, it is necessary to introduce
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. Culturally Responsive Pedagogy originates from the pre-existing frameworks of Au and Jordan (1981), Cadzen and Legget (1981), and the work of Mohatt and Erickson (1981). In Au and Jordan’s (1981) publication, Teaching
Hawaiian children: Finding a culturally appropriate solution, the authors combine the cultural backgrounds of their students into their reading instruction. Au and Jordan identified their pedagogy process as culturally appropriate. Cadzen and Legget coined the term culturally responsive pedagogy to describe similar language interactions of teachers with linguistically diverse and native American students, respectively. Due to the relevance or cultural appropriateness, student achievement increased.
The same year, Mohatt and Erickson (1981) noticed similar results as Au and
Jordan and decided to coin the term culturally congruence. In all cases, these scholars discovered that by providing culturally relatable processes in their lessons, like imagery, awareness of cultural appropriateness, and utilizing cultural language patterns in teacher led activities, it led to an increase in engagement, academic ability, and improved student performance. In regard to Black American males, it is important that the classroom teacher has an understanding of their culture and the community that they serve. Without the understanding of the cultural climate and background of
Black male students, a teacher may not be able to effectively engage the student yielding a decline in student performance and achievement.
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To improve the quality of culturally responsive pedagogy, Dr. Gloria Ladson-
Billings introduced culturally relevant pedagogy. Cultural relevance focuses primarily on (1) ability to develop students academically, (2) a willingness to support cultural competence, and (3) the creation of sociopolitical competence (Ladson-Billings,
1995). Ladson-Billings' motivation, like my own, is driven by personal accounts as an educator, a parent, and a student. Ladson-Billings takes CRP to a whole new level as she indicates that a classroom teacher should develop all activities, lesson plans, instruction, and pedagogical techniques on the student’s social climate, environment, and background. Like Ladson-Billings, my objective is to challenge existing paradigms that accept the idea or notion that teachers cannot succeed at producing highly educated African American students (Ladson-Billings, 1995), and for this study, Black male students who want to pursue careers in STEM.
Double Consciousness Theory
Double Consciousness theory or technique will be featured throughout this study as it is a significant concept that is related to both the CRT and White Racial
Framework. In order to survive in early America, or the Dominant frame, Black
African Americans found it necessary to abandon their beliefs and ideas to blend into the broader social context, which was driven by Whiteness in America. The Double
Consciousness technique was first recognized and identified by W. E. Dubois. Dubois, a Black African American sociologist and a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), proclaimed that people of color in the
United States were in an endless state of struggle due to inherited connection in Negro
24 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 culture and American culture (Bruce, 1992) – basically, we were defined to be Black because of the color of our skin. The authorizing of institutionalized discrimination was all protected by legislation to socially construct the African American’s identity as Black (Feagin, 1991). This socially constructed identity discouraged imposed negative perceptions of African Americans by the majority and the status quo. The enduring effect of these socially constructed identities underwrote how African
Americans would recognize themselves, ultimately necessitating a double consciousness - a resulting, negative self-image formed by the prevalence of negativity promoted by the majority in the United States. This study will present examples of where Double Consciousness was utilized by myself as well as the Black
American males of this study.
Literature Review
In this section, I will expand on some of the educational theories detailed in scholarly literature that 1) support the absence or decline of Black males in STEM, 2) support the success of Black males pursuing opportunities in STEM, and 3) discuss the importance of Black males in STEM. It is my intent to discuss my own personal journey as a Black male, as a professional engineering educator, a STEM educator, and a mentor attempting to create a path for Black male STEM scholars and teachers of this generation as they navigate the rocky road paved by systemic racism, economic injustices, and inequitable educational opportunities.
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Why an Absence of Black Males in STEM?
Writing this section of the proposal, I find myself reflecting on a video by
Carolyn Ellis and Arthur Buchner regarding the purpose of autoethnography. In this video, Ellis and Buchner state that the purpose of “autoethnography is to give space to voices, experiences, and knowledge of the people in the periphery” by creating writings that evoke discussions (Buchner, 2010). To perform this task effectively, I have also been charged with incorporating the tenets of critical race theory. Using the tenets of critical race theory will allow me to explore and present evocative, thought- provoking notions and ideas that my Black male students and I have perceived and experienced in the STEM classroom. From the perspective of an education scholar, I will share motivational factors that led to their success as well as share the voices of my students who have experienced inequitable and missed opportunities in the K-12 education systems that are believed to lead to the absence of Black American males in
STEM.
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, is a book by Richard Delgado and Jean
Stefanic and provides a brief introduction to the field of critical race theory (2017).
This book presents the origins, leading voices, and the five tenets of Critical Race
Theory (CRT). Upon reading this book, I was presented with many racial slurs and stories of racism which I am familiar with that exist in American culture. The book introduces the concepts of colorblindness, legal scholarship, legal cases, Whiteness, dominance, the dominant frame, the construct of race, and the rollback of affirmative
26 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 action. As I read this book and started to understand the tenets, I began to evaluate my own personal lived experiences as well as my students’ experiences in the classroom.
As I made my way through the book, I reflected on these stories and began to analyze my own American positionality more closely. I began to reflect on experiences of the past where I was a victim of opportunity hoarding and began to question and understand my own Blackness. Like my students, I believed that meritocracy existed; I would be rewarded for my “efforts” in the STEM classroom.
My efforts included my strive for acceptance by the use of my troubled and imperfect double consciousness (Bruce, 1992). As a strong believer in meritocracy, why was I not included or allowed to participate in the STEM enrichment programs of my time?
After finishing the book, I concluded that I would use counter-story telling to explore my lived experience of a Black male engineering educator while infusing the counter- stories of my past STEM students. This CRT text presents legal and scholarly terms that I had not been familiar with for describing the social construct within which I live as a Black American male in the STEM community, and now I will use them to share my voice and those of others. Using counter-storytelling, I intend on presenting some of the inequitable situations where my students and I were subject to the bias of white privilege and exclusion in the educational system. Additionally, I will present identifiable motivational methods, or techniques, that I have learned from reading the works of great educational scholars that I believe encourage Black male school students to actively pursue STEM careers throughout high school and beyond.
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In efforts to further understand my perceived lack of inclusion and imperfect double consciousness in the dominant social construct, I chose to read Joe Feagin’s book, White Racial Frame (2020). Joe Feagin, who is an American author and scholar, describes the United States of America’s infrastructure or backbone as a dominant framework that is systemic and racist. Feagin examines how and why the white racial frame emerged in North America, as well as how and why it has evolved over time. In this book, Feagin denotes that the framework is fueled by stereotyping, bigotry, and racist ideologies derived from Eurocentric culture. The book identifies which racial groups are framed within it as well as how the White Racial Frame (WRF) has operated in the past and in the present for both white Americans and Americans of color. He describes a series of accounts where people of other races and ethnicities are criticized, marginalized, and discriminated as well as provides narratives of inclinations to discriminate. Navigational strategies for resistance are presented as well as the theory of Whiteness; and how it is deeply ingrained in the minds of
Americans. For this study, Whiteness will be examined as it is a primary factor, or tenet, that affected my growth in STEM as well as the growth of my students. The theory that Feagin presents in his text is significant because it presents the concept of
Whiteness and its impact on the consciousness of Black Americans.
For this study, I will be examining the concept of Whiteness as well as examining several strategies that minority students have used to recognize, manage, and resist the negative influences of Whiteness; and how Whiteness can affect their pursuit of a career in STEM throughout and beyond high school.
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In a scholarly paper by Bryan Hotchkins (2016), African American Males
Navigate Racial Micro-aggressions, a study is performed on Black American males and how they manage classroom environments where they are experiencing discriminatory practices by the teacher. These practices included micro-aggressive techniques yielding deficit-thinking. The participants of this study are students at
Friends High School, which is 70% white. The behavior patterns of the teacher and students are recorded and analyzed using qualitative coding techniques. The analytical constructs of CRT are utilized for evaluating the data for ultimately determining if the teacher that they engaged with routinely performed monolithic targeting. Additionally, this paper introduced tactics utilized by the students to avoid confrontation to maximize the learning opportunity. Integrative mobility is one of the most currently popular techniques utilized by Black male students to survive the hostile classroom environment. Integrated mobility, a technique that is part of Black counter framing, is an action taken by Black males where they form meaningful alliances with racialized populations that are not within their same social circles. This technique allows for meaningful and safe engagement in the classroom without interreacting with the source of discrimination. A variation of this tactic is currently being embraced, utilized, and demonstrated on the streets of Minnesota, New York, Houston, and other cities as people of all ethnicities have come together forming alliances, such as the
Black Lives Matter movement, to protest the current killings of Black males in the
United States by corrupted police officers and bureaucrats (Hope, Keels, & Durkee,
2016; Holmes IV, 2020).
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The article, It takes more than academic preparation: A Nuanced look at Black male success in STEM focuses on the results of several national reports indicating that the representation of Black males in STEM is very low over twenty years to the rest of the population (Fries-Britt, 2017). She then performs a study of her own to determine what is contributing to the low number of Black males in STEM. She has concluded that it is not our ability to learn the material. As a result of her study, she determines that self-confidence, developing meaningful relationships, recognizing stereotypes, bias, and racism impact the success of Black males in STEM. The Black males of the study were in situations where they were the only ones enrolled in advanced placement classes at the high school levels, a disadvantage in a social learning environment. The Black males that managed to develop meaningful relations at the high school level also did the same at the collegiate level yielding success and completion of a degree in a STEM field. She also mentions that after interviewing one of her Black male study participants, it was stated that “he would rather have a relationship with a teacher who wanted to teach because he perceived this as a commitment that the teacher cared about his well-being” (p. 13). These teachers were mentors. Additionally, and unfortunately, these students admitted to accounts of racial disparities and accounts through their high school academic preparation, and if it were not for their mentors, they would not have made it through.
Developing supportive relationships in an educational environment typically starts with the teacher. Conventional wisdom states that “all teachers care” (Noddings,
2005) , but students, particularly minority students, are often confused when a teacher
30 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 treats them unfairly. Indeed, research has shown that Black male youth have positive learning outcomes when they are exposed to caring teacher-student relationships
(Hunter & Stinson, 2019). So why are these caring relationships so hard for teachers to develop if it is clear that teacher caring is vital to student success? When the majority of teachers that a student encounters are from a different culture, then the teacher must
“acknowledge the Whiteness and of their political and cultural assumptions”
(Thompson, 1998, p. 524). Without considering both their backgrounds and that of their students, teachers will have a hard time being perceived as caring by their students. Caring does not exist if there is no confirmation on the part of the cared-for, meaning that despite the best intentions, a caring student-teacher relationship does not exist if the student does not accept or acknowledge the caring being provided by the teacher. When a teacher focuses too much on supporting the prevailing norms of
Whiteness and disregard the positive characteristics of their African American students, then there is no way that they can truly support and encourage the students for whom caring is vital for future success. Acts of teacher caring need to be informed by culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory in order to combat the prevailing mindset that Black male students cannot be successful.
Another area that impacts the success and motivation of black students involves the differences between education and schooling. Schooling is “intended to ensure that status quo power relationships are maintained” (Shujaa, 2003, p. 179) , and based on this, one can see that it is closely tied to sustaining the historical bias towards whiteness and the White Racial Frame that has dominated American society since the
31 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 founding of this country. Educating Black male students needs to veer away from schooling and its fundamental drive towards conformity of thought and uniformity of purpose – the purpose being to maintain the supposed superiority of the politically dominant culture and imposing its worldview on the masses. Education is a different process, grounded in the ability to develop a strong knowledge base that can then be applied to critically think and solve, important problems within our world and society.
By becoming better educated, one can determine their own goals and the associated criteria for success, separate from those of others, and develop their own relationship to knowledge, culture, and power. When Kunjufu (1995), notes that Black male students show a marked disinterest in learning that coincides with the end of their elementary school years, it was traced to a lack of enthusiasm tied to a change to instruction based more on rote memorization instead of problem-solving; this is a clear rejection of schooling in favor of education. And when education is not present, neither is their interest or motivation.
In the article Does STEM stand out? Examining racial/ethical gaps in persistence across postsecondary fields (2019), Catherine Riegle-Crum, Barbara King, and Yasmiyn Irizarry present the concept of opportunity hoarding. Opportunity hoarding is a framework where members of an in-group secure and subsequently maintain access to a resource that is both limited and highly valued—in this case, controlling access to highly prized positions in the STEM field by controlling all of the gate-keeping educational opportunities. As mentioned in this article, sociologists of education argue that a clear example of opportunity hoarding exists when groups
32 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 create social advantages through educational segregation. Since education is considered a highly valuable resource (Anderson, 2010; Lewis & Diamond, 2015;
Lewis-McCoy, 2014), requirements or barriers are created by the dominant frame
(Feagin, 2020) and placed ultimately limiting the number of Black male students from participating. As a result, the in-group creates and maintains stereotyped assumptions and beliefs regarding the attributes of the members of the out-group; and based on my own personal and professional experiences, Black males, who are considered the out- group, miss out on these STEM enriched social learning educational opportunities.
Understanding the concept of opportunity hoarding is foundational to understanding inequality. Tilly (1998) presents a theory of categorical inequality between social groups. Within the opportunity hoarding framework, members of an in- group secure and subsequently maintain access to a resource that is both limited and highly valued—one that provides an advantage at present and into the future. Because of this type of hoarding and White privilege, minority students are not only driven out of STEM but out of college altogether. This study includes situations where White privileged students and their parents have worked with teachers to guarantee their acceptance into advanced college preparatory STEM classes at the expense of equally capable minority youth. As a result, these capable minority youth find themselves either unprepared for college STEM classes or underperform and change to a non-
STEM major. If these students chose to leave school, it is believed that this is due to feelings of exclusion (McGee, 2016; Seymour & Hewitt, 1997), although roughly 20% of Black, White, and Latino students all declare a STEM major their freshman year.
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Upon graduation, 43% of the White students who declare STEM as their major graduate, whereas only 22% of the Black STEM students finish.
The literature presented above has shown that one can conclude that opportunity hoarding leads to a failure in academic preparation for not just Black male students but minority students as well. In addition, the lack of caring relationships between students and teachers further diminishes the chances that a Black male student can successfully navigate the educational system without negative impacts.
Without proper academic preparation yields a reluctance in support from fellow White students/teachers at a predominately white institution. Without the support of White students/teachers of a predominately White institution, a minority student will either chose to change his major or potentially drop out. This is a very observable failure mode in the educational system; I have both experienced and witnessed it, and this is why I have a story to tell.
Perseverance of Black Males in STEM To increase the number of successful and properly prepared Black male high school students to pursue STEM fields, I believe that education scholars should gravitate and adhere to the works of Gloria Ladson-Billings and others who pioneered culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP). I believe that all teachers should be prepared to let go of ontological ideas about Black male students and try to create a nurturing cultural climate that is all-inclusive to all learner types. In Ladson-Billings' book, The
Dream Keepers, she presents and reflects on the experiences of teachers and Black
American students. Through CRP, she presents stories that support the concept that
34 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 culturally relevant teaching is not a matter of race, gender, or teaching style – it’s about understanding the culture of the students. What is fascinating is that she discovers that all of the teachers of her study have transformative experiences in their pedagogy that resulted in improved student learning (2009) but only after their understanding of the need to focus on the Black student’s unique strengths and what each child brings to the classroom. In The Dream Keepers, Ladson – Billings (2009) demonstrates that it is necessary for teachers to make cultural connections that are specific to the student. In her work, she consistently emphasizes that both the student and the teacher have to be prepared to learn about themselves and their own positionality with respect to their own cultures. Additionally, students and teachers need to be prepared to understand how their positionality intersects within their own communities - which falls under one of the constituents of an autoethnography
(Hotchkins, 2016).
Unfortunately, not all teachers embrace the ideologies that Gloria Ladson
Billings presents in The Dream Keepers, and as a result, since 2009, there still exists a lack of performance from Black males in school; and it is very visible when analyzing the performance of Black males and the achievement gap. Because of this miss in performance, a limited number of Black male students are afforded enrichment opportunities. As a result, an opportunity gap forms.
Significance of Black males in STEM The following section presents the idea of why it is important to have Black males in STEM. To give perspective some to the number of Blacks in STEM,
35 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 currently, Black Americans only make up around 12 percent, or 39,720 of the total
331,000 STEM degrees awarded in the United States (Snyder, De, & Dillow, 2017).
Additionally, Black American men only make up one percent of all K – 12 teachers in the United States (Levingston, 2018). If you divide 39,720 over 50 states, that means that only 794 Black Americans in each state theoretically have a STEM degree in
2017. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), there are
132,853 K-12 schools in the United States. If all 39720 STEM graduates decided to go into education, they could theoretically fill .3 STEM positions, 1/3 of a person, in each one of the schools in the United States. The reality is that not all Black Americans who graduate from college with STEM degrees want to be teachers. A Black teacher in the
United States may be considered an “endangered species” (Smith, 2004) , and I recognize that I am one of those few.
To aid and provide a little more perspective to the number of Blacks in education, in the 1950s, at least fifty percent of all professional educators were Black
(King, 1993). By 1980, this number had dropped significantly due to changes in the desegregation laws of the 1960s and massive school consolidations. In many cases, when schools closed due to consolidation, Black teacher jobs were eliminated. In the
1980s, with Ronald Regan as president, he and his administration had devised a plan to reduce the national budget by dismantling and restructuring the Department of
Education (Jacullo-Noto, 1991); This restructuring led to a reduction in federal funding for K-12 schools in suburban regions as well as Historically Black Colleges and Universities or HBCUs. Historically, HBCUs were the largest employer of Black
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American researchers and students (Jacullo-Noto, 1991). This reduction budget and elimination of educational opportunities drastically affected the number of potentially employable Black American teachers (de Martinez, 1988) and students.
In the paper titled The Long-Run impacts of same-race teachers, Seth
Gershenson and his team (2018) have performed a study focusing on the performance of Black male students who have been given the opportunity to have a teacher of the same ethnicity. His study has proven that Black primary-school students matched to a same-race teacher perform better on standardized tests and face more favorable teacher perceptions. In this article, it is shown that assigning a black male to a black teacher in the third, fourth, or fifth grades significantly reduces the probability that they will drop out of high school. This test proved that even the most economically disadvantaged black males performed well. Additionally, his study proved that having at least one black teacher in the primary grades increases the likelihood that students of low-income status aspire to attend four-year colleges.
Based on the statistics that I have provided, it is actually very difficult for
Black male students or any students of color to have the opportunity to have a teacher of the same ethnicity. For this reason, I chose to write this autoethnography and tell my counter-stories from the perspective of a critical race theorist.
Chapter Summary The related literature presented above in this chapter was included to frame the context for the research conducted in this study. This chapter provided the theoretical framework and supporting theories that have guided my exploration of topics relevant
37 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 to the success and motivation for the Black male students in STEM, along with relevant information on the cultural influences of racism in the American educational system. Although the body of literature addressing educational inequities related to
Black students is growing, the study will contribute to this area by discussing the specific challenges faced by myself and Black male students in STEM, particularly in the formative secondary school years.
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Chapter III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND METHODS The purpose of this autoethnographic research study is to present my own personal experiences and my professional interactions with Black high school and college students that I taught while engaging in STEM outreach. It is my intent to study and present insights into pedagogical tactics and strategies that could help motivate Black male students to continue their pursuit of STEM careers. For this study, rich narratives and counter-storytelling will be used to provide examples of equitable educational opportunities for Black male students who traditionally have been marginalized. Embracing my role as a critical race theorist, I will employ critical race theory to investigate racial inequalities and inequities that Black male students experience; My ultimate goal is to help other educational researchers and teachers better serve this population of students so they can complete their dreams of becoming
STEM scholars.
For this study, recollected personal accounts are to be provided for analysis.
These personal accounts will be supported by collected artifactual data for analysis and interpretation. The process of inquiry and analysis will allow for the identification of emergent themes. Before delving into the application of autoethnography, I will first discuss what narrative inquiry is as autoethnography is a part of narrative inquiry.
Narrative Inquiry For this autoethnography, the utilization of narratives will allow me to offer perspectives on events and permits my memories to be fully present in the moment
39 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 toward shaping the future (Lewis L. W., 2007). Utilizing narratives is a method that provides the catalyst for answering the question, “What is happening here?”
Narratives provide the reader and author with a more profound understanding of a social setting and help construct meaning. The more I write, the more insight I develop regarding who I am as a Black male STEM teacher. My objective is to have readers situate themselves in the stories I write. Ultimately, I intend to evoke the reader to make connections from within, allowing my writing to shape both their minds and futures.
Narrative inquiry will be used throughout this research study. Narrative inquiry transcends the typical, limiting framework of positivistic qualitative inquiry and begins to veer into the areas of post-qualitative research due to the ability for a narrative to have a multiplicity of meanings and outcomes (Penn & Frankfurt, 1994;
LeGrange, 2018). Narrative inquiry is lauded for its “approachability, artistic quality, and non-pedantic nature” (Kim, 2016, p. 1). The qualitative method of narrative inquiry is more suitable than the use of a quantitative method for this study because
“Complex human concerns cannot be understood by testable observation, general principles, and standardized knowledge . . . qualitative research … explores the complex issues of what it means to be human” (Kim, 2016, p. 4). If traditional qualitative research techniques, which arose from the positivist tradition of applying scientifically based techniques to support evidence-based educational research, continue to drive all dialogue related to student success and achievement, these
40 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 findings will continue to be flawed and incapable of capturing the dynamic nature of the human condition (Le Grange, 2018).
For this study, narrative inquiry is focused on both knowledge of the issue, the challenges of Black males in the U.S. educational system, and being able to tell others about the issues that have been experienced. By its very nature, narrative inquiry is interdisciplinary because it combines fact-based observations with storytelling, a combination of not only describing what happened but including the feelings that arise or the impact of experiencing what happened. The narrator, or I as the researcher, in this case, is providing my first-hand knowledge of an event and using storytelling to share a perception of the related events. However, the meaning or impact of the narrator’s story can be completely different for the listener or reader of this narrative.
Both actualities are in tension and are present at the same time.
There is no question that narrative inquiry is an accepted type of post- qualitative research; it is broadly accepted as a rigorous research methodology, particularly in the field of education. It is my intent to employ the narrative inquiry technique to showcase the “lived experiences” (Kim, 2016, p. 15) of my students as part of my own experience. The value of reflecting on classroom experiences, both as an educator and a student, is commonly accepted as one technique for understanding the complex interaction of the classroom learning environment. By sharing my authentic stories of the experiences of students and myself as a teacher, I am better able to assess the impact of a seemingly new pedagogical technique for the need to
41 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 modify instructional practices to improve the educational outcomes for Black STEM students.
Autoethnography Autoethnography, one subset of narrative inquiry, is a form of ethnography that makes the researcher’s life and experiences the focus point of the research (Reed-
Danahay, 1997). An autoethnography is a process that requires the analysis or study of an autobiography. An ethnography is a research approach that focuses on the social and cultural aspects of the life of communities, institutions, and other settings. When I think of autoethnography, I think of someone writing an authentic autobiography and then going back and studying it for different meanings and emerging themes.
Autoethnography, as described by Maréchal, is “a form or method of research that involves self-observation and reflexive investigation in the context of ethnographic fieldwork and writing” (2010, p. 43). Another foundational researcher in the field of autoethnography defines it as using “research, writing, story, and method that connect[s] the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political (Ellis,
2004, p. xix). A more succinct definition of autoethnography is the use of first-person narratives to conduct studies of a culture of which the researcher is a member
(Hayano, 1979). These types of autoethnography include analytic, evocative, performative, interpretive, and critical (Kim, 2016, p. 153).
Autoethnography is a type of autobiographical, narrative inquiry (Kim, 2016, p. 121), but to successfully use this technique requires that a solid theoretical foundation is present. Once this foundation is provided, a call to action is included,
42 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 and my personal stories are similar enough to others so that they can learn something from my own struggles and successes. The narrative should provide insight on a broader social and/or cultural movement in order to distinguish this work from a simple story written to merely share my thoughts. By using myself and the understanding I have gained through my personal experiences, the ultimate goal is to provide some critical insight to others about the issues and social problems faced by a particular facet of society.
Ellis states that autoethnography “usually features concrete action, emotion, embodiment, self-consciousness, and introspection” (2004, p. xix). Without critical analysis of not only myself but the situations I present in my work, this autoethnography will never be elevated from mere storytelling. I understand that this use of autoethnography is more challenging than relying on traditional forms of qualitative research because I am both the researcher and research subject! I am required to justify to the reader why this work is meaningful, critically analyze the aspects of my own cultural experiences that have directly impacted my own personal experiences, state my own flaws and shortcomings, and find a way to objectively analyze my motivations, feelings, and actions. To do this, I have to rely heavily on reflexivity as the researcher.
Reflexivity “in qualitative research is affected by whether the researcher is part of the researched and shares the participants’ experience” (Berger, 2015, p. 219).
Reflexivity is also defined as the act of self-conscious consideration. The principle of reflexivity questions past activities and the circumstances of those activities. This
43 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 process will be used as a review of self while taking into consideration the impacts of others on my experiences and recollections. Reflexivity can be both instrumental and provocative as it involves an active analysis of past situations and events with the explicit purpose of achieving understanding (Lynch, 2000). I firmly believe that this process is necessary as it can lead to change in thought or behavior. Since I am choosing to engage in autoethnography, it is important that I acknowledge the need for reflexivity since I am making myself the “object of my own gaze” (Kim, 2016, p.
249). I have to critically analyze myself, my actions, and my research approach continually so that I can ensure that my work can go through examination by the research community and that the work I produce is rigorous in its pursuit of quality and ethical content.
For this autoethnography, my intent is to apply the principle of reflexivity to reflect on how I interact with my students and how my life experiences have shaped who I am as a Black male teacher, hoping to positively influence the Black male
STEM students. In regard to observing the pictures, videos, newspaper articles, and in examining the student commentary, I have determined areas that could be improved as well as areas where I soared as an educator. Regarding cultural awareness, I have determined that I work well with the students that I teach as well as the teachers with whom I work. Utilizing reflexivity has enabled me to determine what went well in the places that I worked and what could be improved in regard to being a successful teacher hero who consistently practices culturally responsive and culturally relevant pedagogy to one day be the best teacher on the planet!
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The objective of investigating in the natural setting is to interpret the phenomena in terms of the meanings people in the natural setting make of their experiences. For this study, it is the meanings I formulate while constructing my identity as a professional engineer and STEM teacher that will hopefully inform the pedagogical practices of other STEM educators so that future Black male students are capable of achieving greater success and the best possible career outcomes.
Characteristics for this autoethnography are (a) data collection in the form of words and pictorial evidence, (b) observing outcomes as a process rather than a product, (c) focusing on how the participants make sense of their experiences, and (d) expressiveness in the language (Creswell, 2003). The qualitative researcher’s goal, my goal, is to better understand human behavior and experience (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007).
This qualitative study is conducted using autoethnography, an expanding form of researching and writing about the self (Ellis, 2004).
Methods for Data Collection
For this study, observational, external data is archived data. The observational data is a collection that started in 1977 to the present, and it is based on my own personal experiences growing up to the classes I have taught with Black male STEM students. Additionally, I have a collection of pictures, newspaper articles, student vignettes, TV show videos of my professional and personal STEM activities as well as theirs. Each set of videos and pictures are STEM in nature but are not related as they focus on various tasks that students were being asked to perform as well as events in which I have participated. The collection of all data is STEM-related.
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As mentioned above, the archived data includes voluntarily shared student commentary. This commentary includes details regarding their impressions of their daily task, its implementation, and the quality of the authentic activity provided to them in my classes as well as other classes. This commentary also includes voluntary opinions about their STEM teachers and how they are navigating questionable situations that left them feeling discouraged. I did not realize at the time how these experiences would be significant to my research objective as these supporting data sources would contribute to the validation of my teacher identity. Additionally, video data and pictures, along with the student narratives, will allow me to make an argument as to the best ways to support Black male students’ motivation in STEM. It is my intent to provide a Chapter 5 analysis and discussion to focus on the retainment or abandonment of certain teaching practices currently utilized in motivating Black male STEM student learning.
Ensuring the Quality of an Autoethnography Traditionally in educational research, generalizability and validity are utilized, referring to the possible duplication of findings in a similar study and the degree to which a study can accurately reflect or assess a specific topic. Because this study is an autoethnography (Feldman, 2003), these words should be replaced or augmented with quality.
It is the quality and rigor of this research study that aims to capture the audience; in this case, it is presented after long preparation and deconstruction, historical philosophies, and presentation of experimental concepts (St. Pierre, 2018).
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Utilizing both authenticates the literature’s believability, coherence, and credibility, thereby replacing accuracy as a warrant for validity (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). This study has been prepared with the understanding that each story’s generalizability will always be tested (Ellis, 2004) by readers as they determine whether a story speaks to them about their experiences or the experiences of others whom they might know.
Feldman (2003) recommends the utilization of four critical points, or criteria, to strengthen the rigor and validity of an autoethnographic study. These four points are:
(a) provide clear and detailed descriptions of how data is collected and what qualifies as data, (b) provide precise descriptions of how the data is constructed, (c) provide multiple sources of the data, and (d) provide clear evidence that the research produced provides added value to the body of knowledge for the profession.
Feldman posits that as educators, “we must study ourselves to understand the ways that we construct who we are and to change those ways, if necessary, in becoming better teacher educators” (2003, p. 27). Feldman wants educators to understand that using the narratives of studying oneself translates into research literature of significant value because of the quality and rigor they possess.
For this specific study, autoethnography is utilized to provide an opportunity for readers to draw from the author’s experience for enlightenment and understanding of a particular culture during a specific time period. This use of autoethnography analyzes culture, behavior, and human interaction and enables the researcher to create an objective understanding as both informed insider and analyst outsider (Cunningham
& Jones, 2005). The intent is to provide descriptive details, standards of ethical self-
47 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 consciousness in the form of narratives, as a moving and evocative story that will stimulate change and social action (Ellis & Bochner, 2000). Additionally, the intent to produce an autoethnography with just as much rigor as any legitimate qualitative research project should (Bochner, 2000).
This autoethnography involves a conversation with myself about my identity as a Black male, as a STEM student, as an engineer, as a husband, as a father, as a son, and as a STEM teacher who has developed and evolved as a result of the experiences that made up the different phases of my life. This study will provide you, the reader, with several evocative narratives to show my evolution as I constructed my identity using daily reflection as well as a reflection to construct this study. In these narratives,
I plan to include high levels of detail with the reader so that the reader can understand how key occurrences and events affected my ability and skills to connect with Black male students utilizing reflexivity. These occurrences naturally include questions about identity construction that I ask myself about my past reality, the truth of my present, and the possibilities of the future. I ask myself questions like: “Is this really who I am?”; “Does this story tell the reader what I need for them to know and is it believable to them?”; and “Have I opened up enough to the reader so that they understand how I got here with these Black male students?” Questions, similar to those being asked, are critical for me to answer so that the reader feels my work is trustworthy and credible (Feldman, 2003). I will analyze my reflections through the course of this study to determine if the proper qualitative process and rigor are present,
48 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 so that common themes are clearly articulated and triangulated through the process of coding (Polkinghorne, 1995).
Ethical Considerations Ethical considerations will be made for the supporting qualitative study. For example, students, teachers, and others who are mentioned throughout the study are identified using pseudonyms. By employing the use of assigned pseudonyms as fictional names, I am providing anonymity to the groups of people, places, and individuals mentioned in this research study.
To guarantee that this study is not considered fiction, this study includes recollected details of my lived experience by providing rich, detailed descriptions of my interactions with my Black male student study participants as well as the study contexts - including geographic descriptions (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Additionally, I will include archived data in the form of pictures, newspaper articles, and references to other media appearances where my students and I have appeared in order to address potential questions of credibility.
To establish transferability for this study, I provide recollected details and thick descriptions (Anfara Jr, Brown, & Mangione, 2002) of the environment and people in it. For this study, I will provide pictures and descriptions of the students with whom I work, how they dressed, and their specific interests and hobbies. By adding these details, I will attempt to ensure transferability by enabling future researchers to observe similar successful outcomes for other Black male students.
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By engaging in self-study and providing rich, orderly discourse on my interactions with Black male students in America, these rational reflections, or narrative cognitions, of myself and of students allow me to construct a reality
(Polkinghorne, 1995, p. 9) driven by perspectives regarding acceptance in schools, communities, extra-curricular activities, and their workplaces. In this reflected reality,
I will share the details as to how we were impacted by the current events of the period
– our collected and individual positionalities with regard to the master framework that defines “our America” (Staff, 2016). I believe that utilizing this practice of reflexivity in this way satisfies Anfara et al.‘s requirement of confirmability in a research study.
Methods for Data Analysis In this autoethnographic study, the researcher will be the primary data source.
Because of this detail, I have learned that I will not need an IRB. My educational and professional experiences presented for this study are recounted by memory, self- observational (e.g., videos and pictures), field notes and writing, newspaper articles,
TV appearances, and external data (e.g., student comments) (Chang, 2008). The presentation of my memories, self-observational, and self-reflective data capture the past and present perspectives of my lived experiences. The external data source of student personal experiences as well as their experience while I provided instruction gives additional perspectives and contextual information as I write the narratives and search for similarities between our various lived experiences. Given the key theoretical framework of critical race theory, the five tenets of this theory provide a guide that can be used to analyze my narrative and those of my students.
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Chapter Summary The material presented in this chapter supports my planned use of autoethnography as a research study. The content of this chapter introduces qualitative techniques for analyzing and interpreting the narrative data that I plan on using for this study. Selection of autoethnography from the perspective of a critical race theorist was considered the logical choice as it allows for self-examination through counter-stories; it allows for the exploration of topics relevant to the success and motivation of Black male students in STEM along with relevant information on the cultural influences of racism in the American educational system.
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CHAPTER IV MY STORY In this chapter, I will present my personal educational experiences with Black male high school students, sharing my successes and struggles that led to their desire to want to continue in STEM fields beyond high school. Additionally, I will employ
Robert Nash’s guidelines for writing scholarly personal narratives (Nash, 2019) to ensure structure and scholarly engagement. Counter-stories will be presented to explore techniques that I utilized to motivate Black male high school students to continue pursuing STEM throughout and after their high school careers. These stories, based on my reflections and recollections, will provide details that aided me in creating successful pathways for my Black male STEM scholars, navigating rocky roads paved by systemic racism, economic injustices, and inequitable educational opportunities. It is not my intention to focus purely on my own experiences, as I will also share my experiences as well as the voices of my past students and colleagues. As
I share these experiences, I intend to unveil nuances that hinder the performance of
Black males in the STEM classroom; Why is it that Black males are not persevering in
STEM?
Where Does STEM Begin for Me
We were poor. And I never knew we were poor, but I was always happy! I did not realize we were poor until after we moved from North Baton Rouge. I did not realize that the black and gold-plated gates on people’s front doors with decorations were burglar bars. How did I know; why did I care to ask? I was happy.
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Figure 2 Me and my mom. I was a baby once. We lived in North Baton Rouge off Plank Road for almost ten years. We had friends, we had bullies, and we had lots of cars. My dad always would get a new car.
These new cars would either be brand new or come from my uncles, his friends, and even the man across the street – and they were always broken. These cars were always cool to me because I got to work on them with my dad. I would give him the keys when he asked, the seatbelt, and sometimes a screwdriver to start the car. One time we had to fix the dashboard in one of them, and I helped him by using a wire coat hanger to hold it in place. I was happy because my dad would go out of his way to include me in his projects.
Figure 3 Me and my Bro’ fixing the Lawn mower!
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My mom, on the other hand, probably thought I was a technology terrorist. She would always complain about things like the washing machine breaking, the hole in the bathroom floor, and her Dollar Store brand clock that never worked like it was supposed to. In many cases, it was discovered that I had something to do with things breaking. For example, it was discovered that I had cut the wires on the washing machine, made the hole in the linoleum covered bathroom floor, put water in the lawn mower gas tank and pulled the clock apart to see how it worked – but could not figure out how to put all the pieces back. I was always trying to see how something worked.
It was not too long before my parents realized that I was talented with technology. I knew how to not only fix things around the house, but I also knew how to efficiently pull things apart. My dad could always find his tools in my toybox and with certainty knew I had taken something apart – he just needed to figure out what it was before my mom found out. From an early age, my parents believed that I would become some type of scientist or engineer.
Figure 4 Life in the 1970s.
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Figure 5 Anna Street – this is where I grew up.
Since we lived in a rough part of Baton Rouge, my parents believed it would be best for me to attend a Catholic school. I attended to St. Gerard elementary school.
As an alternative to going to public schools, my parents believed it would be safer, and
I would get a higher quality education because of the diversity in staff. I believed that if I went to a school like my father, I would be just as smart as him and go to college; I would be rich one day and have lots of cars like he did.
Figure 6 St. Gerard Elementary Catholic Church School I started Catholic school in the first grade. I had lots of teachers that could speak all kinds of languages. My favorite was Sister Cabrini. Sister Cabrini was a nun from Germany somewhere on the St. Gerard campus – yes, I thought Germany was on
55 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 the campus. Every morning, she would come by and see how I was doing – and give me and one of my female friends named Mel cookies. Not only could she speak many languages, but she could also draw, and liked to help me with my homework. Many times, I was sent to her classroom to work on my math because the teachers in my math classes behaved as though I just could not get it. In my math classes, my teachers made me sit in the back of the classroom every day on the far side of the room – the only male Black student in the whole classroom. They did not care if I went to sleep, and more than often, I would. They never seemed interested in showing me how to solve problems, and at one point, I figured out that if I did not do my work when a principal was in the room, then I would get sent to Sister Cabrini’s room.
Figure 7 The best place to get cookies in the morning!
Sister Cabrini quickly figured out that I had a talent for math and that I was good at science. My favorite was geometry – working with geometric figures. At an early age, I understood simple concepts like circular objects were stronger than rectangular ones, and I could count really high. When I would go to Sister Cabrini’s
56 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 room, she always made a deal with me - if I got my math work done right, then she would allow me to read to the class aloud or draw. Of course, I worked hard in her room all the time and, in many cases, would get my work done before my other classmates did. She enjoyed the way I would read parts of the Bible in class because she was fascinated with my proper and eloquent use of English.
Unfortunately, not all the kids felt the same way she did about my reading.
One day after a few weeks, I found myself in confrontation with three Black male students of the Orange Squares because of the way I would speak. The Orange
Squares were a group of students who were tracked together and identified as the underachievers in my grade. We only took social studies and language arts classes together – never any STEM classes. These kids would say things like “you talk like a white boy” or “why do you talk like that – so proper?” This didn’t stop me from working well in class, but I began to realize that not all people liked me because I was different.
Figure 8 Dr. Dad, me and my little Bro'!
By the time I reached the third grade, I did not get along with any of the kids.
The White kids would pick at me because I looked different, and the Black kids
57 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 picked at me because I spoke differently – and my grades started suffering. My math teacher kept me after school one day because I failed a multiplication test. She knew I did not like her, and I told her I did not like her. She then immediately hit me with a
Husky pencil on my knuckles because she thought I was disrespectful. Husky pencils are wooden pencils that are larger in diameter than traditional pencils. In Catholic schools, nuns would use them to discipline students. I was ashamed of what I had done and scared; I had received detention, and the teacher called my parents.
I’ll never forget this – it was a dark, stormy, rainy day when my mom arrived.
She had just gotten off work and walked in with her favorite brown umbrella, which appeared to be broken. When I saw her, she immediately asked, “What did you do?” I told my mom and the math teacher that I was tired of the kids picking at me, and I did not like the teacher. My math teacher told my mom that she was very disappointed in how I reacted to the students in my class picking at me because of the way I spoke.
She also indicated that I was doing very poorly in her math class. My math teacher was disappointed that I was struggling because she had heard about me from her sister,
Sister Cabrini, and was initially excited to work with me due to my aptitude for science. What no one realized is that I simply needed someone to spend time with me reviewing fractions and multiplication tables. The teachers used to refer to these as times tables when we were learning multiplication.
My dad, who was patiently waiting in the office this whole time, quietly entered the room just as my math teacher was stating that I needed help with my math.
She did tell them that the science teacher on the other hand said I was very strong in
58 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 science. She said that it was obvious to her that someone had been spending a lot of time with me because I was very strong in my science knowledge and knew a lot about the planets and chemistry. My parents seemed to take comfort from this encouraging comment from the teacher. My math teacher also recommended that I be placed in her more rigorous math class because she felt that I could handle it and she volunteered to make this change with their (my parents’) approval. I said a prayer at that moment because I knew that Sister Cabrini, my champion, was one of the teachers in the tougher math class. Even though I got in so much trouble when I got home, I was happy to know that I would finally be in Sister Cabrini’s class to learn math.
After several long conversations with Mom and Dad, they told me that I could not play outside with my friends until I started “acting like I had sense.” They made it clear that I had to finish practicing my instrument and complete all my homework before they got home each day. Every night my mom, who had a background in business education, drilled me on math “times tables” and doing fractions. She used to go crazy trying to get me to understand how to cut cakes and pies into pieces because I just couldn’t seem to get it. It wasn’t until she one day brought home a dozen Krispy
Kreme doughnuts that I understood fractions. My mom had me go back and forth, removing fractions of doughnuts from the box - constructivism. She told me that I could have a doughnut every time I got a question right – this was a form of behaviorism. I was motivated to participate in this activity because I loved Krispy
Kreme doughnuts. When I could explain to her that eating half a dozen of doughnuts was six doughnuts, it was clear that I had finally mastered fractions! My dad worked
59 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 with me as well, as he discovered the best way for me to understand inequalities was that your teeth are always trying to bite the bigger number and that the open part of the symbol should represent my mouth always trying to eat the larger number which represented the larger quantity.
Within a few weeks, my parents discovered that the best way for me to learn was through approaches that appealed to kinesthetic learners; I had to be able to physically engage with the concept for it to stick; I had to touch it; I was a tactile learner. This also meant that for me to be successful in school, I would need to be in a classroom environment where teachers provided opportunities for me to experience this method of learning rather than pure direct instruction.
At one point, my parents did not have to help me anymore. My mom listened to Sister Cabrini and her sisters’ advice and realized that I was underserved in my regular math classes. My mom realized that the majority of the regular math classes were mostly made up of Black students, and many of my teachers were not nice and were not interested in teaching me. Many times, they would not speak to me nor call on me in class. Sister Cabrini explained to my mom that I was too smart for the tutorials; the problem I was facing in school was that my math teachers were not interested in helping me when I struggled in class – that’s why I always would go to her class. Sister Cabrini, like my parents, would also give me candy as a reward for my hard work. In no time, I went from having mediocre grades to pulling ST grades.
ST stood for Strong effort. It was a weird grading scale, but I understood that if I didn’t make at least one in math or science, then I would have a hard time sitting
60 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 down. I worked really hard every day and ate lots of candy until one point when my mom complained about my dental bill.
By the time I got to the fifth grade, I was recognized as one of the smartest and most talented students in my classes. I got lots of awards too! I was promoted from the orange square group to the blue diamond group. The blue diamonds were recognized as leaders in the classroom, and I was the only Black male blue diamond in my class. Blue diamond students were allowed to walk around, talk in class, and work on group projects. Even though I had become a blue diamond, I eventually was not accepted by the other students in my class no matter how hard I tried.
Figure 9 A man of many talents, but very few friends. My acceptance in our neighborhood was not much better – and my parents witnessed this. The other kids that went to the public schools did not like me because they said I did not talk like them. I was picked at quite a bit because I was told that I
“talked funny” or “talked like a White person.” I was told that I would talk proper by many of the kids, so as a result, I stopped playing with other kids in the neighborhood;
I kept to myself. I soon realized this wasn’t a White or Black thing; it was a me thing.
After talking to my parents about it, they decided it was time to move.
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Middle School We finally moved to another side of town. My parents were so proud of their new home – and we had White and Black neighbors. Many times, as we drove down the street, folks would stop what they were doing and stare; many would wave hello.
Our home had a huge front and back yard with trees and fences. What was strange to me at the time was that none of the houses had iron bars in the front or on the windows
– but all of the houses were made from bricks! I also noticed that there were lots of kids playing outside, either riding their bikes or playing ball in the street. I also noticed that people were parking their cars in “driveways” or under carports. This was a strange concept to me as we always parked our car in the front yard. It was also weird to see White people walking their dogs on sidewalks – we did not have sidewalks at our other home. Shortly after moving into our new home, my mom and dad decided that they would buy my brother and me bicycles so we could ride in the neighborhood like the other kids.
Figure 10 Family photo of the Priers in the new house.
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Family photo of the Priers in the new house.
My brother and I would ride our bikes all the time! Many of the kids in the neighborhood would watch us ride by but would not speak to us, but we did not care because my mom and dad would let us ride our bikes all over the neighborhood until eight at night. Everything seemed to really change for my brother and me – until the new school year started. It was 1982.
I started the sixth grade in 1982 at Valley Park middle school. During that year, a special report written by the secretary of education was presented to President
Ronald Regan regarding the quality of the educational system in the United States.
The report is called A Nation at Risk (Bell T. H., 1983). The purpose of the report was a demand for education reform in the United States. Basically, the secretary of education had performed a study and learned that the quality of education had been on the decline since Sputnik and the space race. I did not understand the implications of the report until I realized that I was not going to go to our neighborhood school; but instead, I would be bussed to another rough side of Baton Rouge. This neighborhood was much worse than where I grew up.
Valley Park was very far away from our new home. I remember one morning complaining to my parents about the clothes I wore and the morning bus ride. They explained that, as a result of the report, there was a need for equal opportunity in education for all students. The belief was that no one community should have access to better technology and teachers than the other. To me, it was crazy because the new
White kids I had just met would be going to the rough part of town for an education
63 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 and vice versa. I thought it was funny, but just the same, I understood that transporting students from one community to another in the city would promote cultural tolerance, awareness, and equality. In my case, since I had never attended a public school, this would be a new opportunity to start over and make new friends – and maybe become socially accepted.
Well, as I mentioned before, Valley Park or “The Park” was considered one of the roughest parts of East Baton Rouge parish. The neighborhood where the school was located was surrounded by boarded-up houses. Many times, as we drove through the neighborhood, you could hear people shouting for no apparent reason. There was lots of gang activity; one of the gangs was called the Smurfs. The school was built on top of a landfill, and it always would stink outside in the parking lot. The school was an old one-story building, and it was sinking; there were cracks everywhere.
Even though the school was in a rough part of town, sixty percent of the students were White. There was always gang activity in the surrounding community at any hour of the day. My brother and I were not excited to attend Valley Park because we were familiar with the area as it was always on the news for drugs and gun fighting. I remember the first time we drove through the neighborhood to visit the school - I mentioned to my dad that “this area can’t be that bad.” I told him that I noticed all the houses with the bars on the front doors. My dad took a moment to remind me that the bars were to stop people from breaking into their houses. I asked him why it is it we don’t have them on our new house. His response was that we were in a safer part of town now. I asked him, “why didn’t we have them at the other
64 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 house?” His response was, “why do you think we kept getting robbed?” It bothered me remembering that we had spent almost eight years in one of the roughest parts of
Baton Rouge. He also was frustrated because even though we had moved to St.
George, a safer part of Baton Rouge, he still found himself having to let us go to a rough area to get an education. His predictions were correct, as Valley Park was a rough adventure for my brother and me.
Valley Park, although the student body was sixty percent White, the other forty percent included some of the most hardened kids from its community. These kids were always getting into fights and making the local news. In my first year, I was bullied and robbed at least three times before Christmas. My dad was always coming up to the school to talk to the teachers and the principal about problems I was having because of the way I spoke and my lack of social acceptance. Something really changed for me after the last time I was bullied - my dad had told me that it was ok for me to fight back!
Not too long after my dad gave me a speech on defending myself, I found myself in a locker room with a student that wanted my lunch money. Instead of me fighting the student, I told the student that I did not have any money, but I would make a deal with him. I told him if he gave me a break, I would help him pass the math test that we had coming up at the end of the day. I told him that if he failed, I would buy him lunch. This student was a football player and would routinely beat-up students – just taking their money. After punching me in the chest, he agreed to my deal – but I would have to buy him lunch and give him my lunch money for that day too. We both
65 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 took the math test at the end of the day. The following morning, I ran into the student just after leaving the library. The student, James, asked where his lunch money was? I asked him if he had checked with the teacher to see how he did on the test. He told me that he had done just that right after he had gotten off the bus in the morning.
Chuckling, he said, “thank you.” At that moment, I realized I had made my first true
Black friend; it was so easy. Later, James admitted that he had been having problems with “less than and greater than.” I told him to pretend that the brackets were like Pac-
Man and always hungry like him. Pac-Man was only interested in eating the larger number. James made a perfect score on the test. James then asked me would I help him pass the next test – and I agreed. He passed with an A, and all his friends found out.
In the weeks that followed, I found myself in the library each morning with all of James’ friends – it was the whole football team. All of them were asking for me to help them with their math. At one point, James started helping the other students with me because there were just too many. Finally, one morning, my principal came into the library with my math teacher and asked how I was doing? I told him I was fine, and I was helping other students with their math. He told me that the football coach wanted to give me a job as a tutor for the football team. The football coach had learned that I was keeping his players out of academic trouble as well as behavioral trouble by helping the students with their math class. I agreed to the job. Officially, I had the title of Water boy, and I got to wear a football team jersey with the number
Zero!
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As I began to become popular with the students around the campus, I found that the students who knew me would stand up for me during conflict and confrontation. Both Black and White students worked together and always seemed to work things out where there were issues. The sad thing was that not too long after I thought I had found my stride at The Park that I found myself in conflict with my science teacher; he did not like me. Mr. Rayban told me to my face after class one day that he did not like me. The students knew he did not like me, and many times would tell me to stop talking when I was not talking. Mr. Rayban, a tall White male, would many times ignore me when I would raise my hand and never would answer my questions when I had them. I would complain to the principals about him, but it seemed as though things were not getting better. At one point, my dad came up to the school to talk to him, and the teacher did not show up at the meeting. This science teacher was tearing up my grade, always taking off more points on my papers than the other kids who sat in the front of the room. I found myself starting to hate his class and science class – and then one morning, I had an idea.
Mr. Rayban, the science teacher, made all the Black students sit in the back of the room, so I got to know all of them and work with them in the library. Additionally, what the teacher did not know is that I was friends with a student named David W., who was White. David’s dad and my dad worked at the same chemical company and in the same division. David and I knew of each other outside of school – and lucky for me, he sat in front of me and understood what I was going through.
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Regarding my idea, whenever one of the Black students in the class had a question, I would pass a note to David, and he would ask the questions. First, it was
David, and then a White girl named Crystal who would ask questions for us. In return, we all started studying together before school and at lunchtime. Since David was really strong in math and I was strong in math and science, we both started working with the football players in the science and math classes. The library was always packed in the mornings. As a result of teamwork, we all received good grades in the science class, and David and I received awards for being outstanding students for always tutoring in the library. David became my first true White friend at Valley Park middle school.
Figure 11 My First Airplane – 1st Place in the Science Fair!
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David and I were friends and competitors. For example, since David decided to build an airplane that had a 63” wingspan, then mine had to have a 70” wingspan.
David and I became the best competitors. In our eighth-grade science classes, we were always looking to see who would do better on quizzes and tests. Everyone knew that it was always me versus him on a test. My 8th-grade teachers knew it as well, and they made the test really hard and tricky. As a matter of fact, we competed against each other in every class, including music – he was also in the band. David and
I had all the same interests. As mentioned earlier, if David would build an airplane, I had to build a bigger one; and I actually did – and won the science fair with it. As a matter of fact, outside of school, David and I would meet at each other’s homes and build all kinds of rockets, fly airplanes, program computers, and build robots; at one point, we could not be separated. Unfortunately, not all White students were like
David W.
Near the end of my eighth-grade year, I found myself in trouble again with a
White kid that was trying to bully me because I did not talk like the other Black kids at the school. I noticed he looked very familiar, but I was not certain. Like before, he picked at me because I “spoke proper.” In frustration, I told my friend James and
David what had been going on. A couple of days later, I heard that James had been in trouble for fighting. I went to the office and learned that James was going to be suspended for fighting the White student who wanted my lunch money. I spoke to the principal about what happened, and he decided to call James back to the office. James told the principal about the bullying situation. The principal then called the student,
69 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 whom James had fought down to the office to also verify the story. The student admitted that he had indeed tried to fight me earlier that week – but he did not want it to go that far because he said I was a nerd. Our principal offered us a deal – no one would be suspended if everyone agreed it would not happen again. The White student, whose name was Chance, accepted the deal – and so did James. As I walked out of the office, I realized where I had seen the White student before – he lived in my neighborhood. Our principal let them go with a warning slip – but they still had to have their parents come up to school for disciplinary consultation. Disciplinary consultation was one step away from being paddled at school!
The next day, I ran into Chance in the hallway, and he apologized again. He admitted that he knew who I was because my brother and I had played football against him and some of his friends in the new neighborhood. He admitted that he was not really going to take my money; he just was trying to clown with me because he knew I liked his sister. Two weeks later, my brother and I were invited to Chances’ house after learning where they lived in the back of my new neighborhood.
My eighth-grade year went by really fast. It was a sad time for me because many of my friends were transitioning in different directions. As a matter of fact, my friend David had gotten accepted into Scotlandville Magnet High school, and I had gotten accepted into Baton Rouge High school. Before we went our separate ways, we made a deal that when we would meet up again, we would be going to the same colleges. Regarding James, he wanted to play football at Istrouma High, and then play
70 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 college football. I lost touch with both of them not too long after that because once I started that high school, “things got get real!”
High School I was really strong with computers. The summer before high school, I spent a lot of time working with Tandy, Commodore, and Atari computers. My friends, who at one point were mostly White, would come over to my house to have coding and programming parties. We would stay up all night and write programs we found in
Compute magazine. My motivation was driven by a desire to write my own adventure games and one day own a Porsche sports car-like all scientists and engineers did. The irony is that after I started Baton Rouge High School (BRHS), I struggled to have decent friends. I found myself again struggling with both Black and White students and teachers because of the way I spoke – but the cool thing about Baton Rouge High was it that it had students of other ethnicities. Even though I had a tough time starting out at BRHS, I ultimately found a cool set of friends - and they were Asian!
Because of my interest in Transformers, Voltron, and computers, I started a robotics club at Baton Rouge High School with the help of my Science teacher. It was
1984, and Apple was really starting to take over in the computer market with the
Macintosh. At BRHS, we had lots of Apple computers, but we did not have robots… we made them. We would take radio-controlled cars and pull them apart, then repurpose the pieces. We would do experiments with the serial cables on computers to control these robots. I knew that I needed to understand electronics, so my parents bought me several Radio Shack electronics handbooks, and my uncle Lester gave me
71 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 an analog multimeter. In addition, I made a new friend David Yang. My friend David
Yang would meet me every morning to go to the computer lab to make something.
David Y. and I were both musicians, in the chess club, and in the same science class.
David Y. was very funny, competitive, and used lots of dry humor to get his points across. We both liked comics, including Batman, Iron Man, and Aqua Man; well, I did not care for Aqua man too much because he did not have any special gadgets…yeah, he talked to fish. David Y. was a lot like my old best friend David W. from Valley
Park Middle School because he was also crazy about computers. When I had free time, I would meet up with David Y. in the BRHS computer lab, and we would write programs on Tandy and Apple computers that would make the computer talk or move the robots we built the night before. To me, going to my science class and robotics club meetings was my escape from reality, a place I could go, and a place where I would not think about my Black and White classmates and several of my teachers who did not like me.
In contrast to my science teacher, my ninth-grade Algebra teacher was the worst. Unlike my science teacher, my math teacher always acted like she did not have time to talk to me. I went to her several times to share with her my interest in math and science, and she demonstrated that she just never had any interest in talking to me about anything. She would have lengthy conversations with other students in my robotics club – but not me. I noticed that she would rarely call on me in class – but only call on all the White students that sat right around me. She would never answer my questions in class – but would ask me to stay after class or after school to get help.
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It was impossible for me to stay after school to meet with my teachers since I rode the bus to the other side of Baton Rouge every day. No matter how hard I studied, I would always fail her tests due to technicalities. When I would ask for help during class, she never had time to help me, or she would ask me to ask for help from my classmates – which did help! She made many condescending remarks about me during class in front of my classmates about my problem-solving techniques. As a result, my classmates often were not motivated to help me – I was marginalized. It seemed that the only time she was interested in talking to me during class was when our principal would show up. My parents would frequently travel up to the school to talk with my math teacher about my performance, and she would never have a meaningful dialog with them about me and my performance – always concluding conversations that alluded that I was not doing my homework, or I was slacking off in class. I ultimately took the initiative and talk to my science teacher about my struggles in her class. Somehow, this idea backfired; and before I knew it, I was removed from the robotics club – the very club that I started. He said my grades were too bad, and I needed to spend the mornings studying math. At least I still had my friend David Y.
After my abrupt and unconditional “retirement” from the robotics club, my grades really fell. As before, I was not accepted by just about everyone except David
Y. Our friendship became strained because the only time I would hang out with David
Y. was at the end of each day before catching the bus. We continue to study together over the phone, checking answers against each other’s homework answers – but it was not the same. Because of the frustrations I had with BRHS; I declined to return. It
73 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 would be two weeks later when I contacted David Y. to let him know that I was not returning to BRHS – and he was upset. A week later, I heard from David Y. He told me that he was considering going to my new high school – Woodlawn. He told me that after he and his dad would return from their vacation and looking at colleges, his dad was planning on enrolling him. His plan was that we would start a new robotics club at Woodlawn high, and he may even join the Marching band. His was a difficult issue for me to comprehend, being that David Y. played the viola!
I knew that marching band practice started three weeks before school started – it was going to be a short summer. In David Y.’s absence, we moved into a new house.
This house was the smallest of the houses in our new neighborhood. Back then, when a family moved, they would receive a new phone number from the phone company.
My family's new phone number was not easy to remember, but I was excited to share it with David Y. - so I left it on their answering machine as well as details to the upcoming Marching band practice.
Marching in the sun in early August in Louisiana is difficult. Even though we started early in the mornings, the sun was burning me by 10 AM. Initially, there may have been over fifty musicians on the field every day, but by weeks end, we were down to the upper thirties in number. On the last day of the first week of marching band practice, I asked the band director if he had heard from my friend David Y. or his dad. My director indicated that he had not, as he was aware David would be starting band halfway through the first week – but had not checked in. After getting home, I called David Y.’s home and was able to reach his aunt. After telling her who I was, in
74 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 a very low voice, she told me that David Y. would not be coming to Woodlawn – he had been in a serious car accident with his father, and only his father survived.
My sophomore year would be my first year at Woodlawn high. All of my teachers were White, and just about all of them were mean – except for Mr. Wood!
Mr. Wood was the Bill Nye of the late eighties to me. He was my favorite teacher out of all the teachers at the school. Mr. Wood was a middle-aged White track coach who taught Chemistry and Biology. I remember wanting to be like Mr. Wood at one time in my life because he would tell us some of the coolest stories about when he was a scientist and worked for the government. Although my father had a Ph.D. in
Chemistry, I thought Mr. Wood was “way cooler!” What was it about his classes that kept me engaged from the beginning to the end of the period?
Mr. Wood was a master of creating a constructivist classroom culture driven by inquiry, cognitive dissonance, and argumentation - all initiated by a powerful hook that would set the tone (Lemov, 2010). Mr. Wood’s hooks were incredible – my favorite was “jumping on a wing.” He told us that he would do his own stunts, and one time a movie company paid him to walk on a wing while an airplane was flying. None of us believed him until he showed us a videotape of him getting on and getting off after the stunt was over. He actually jumps up and down three times on the wing before climbing back into the cockpit of a stunt airplane. We were asked to try and understand why he did not fall off! Mr. Wood would then create an experiment for us to perform, an experiment that would maintain the authentic context of the learning task (Wilson, Jonassen, & Cole, 1993). What I also liked about Mr. Wood is that he
75 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 seemed to always have an answer to a complex scientific question. Every day I would go and hang out in Mr. Wood’s classroom, and he always had time to talk to me. I could also talk to Mr. Wood about my other classes and teachers, and he always knew exactly what to do to make things better. Eventually, I found myself making friends with the students in his classes as I always felt welcome. I also found myself getting along with other teachers who would originally not give me the time of day.
Mrs. Bosch was not like Mr. Wood; not at all. Mrs. Bosch was my Pre-
Calculus teacher and the only Pre-Cal teacher at my school. Upon arrival, after the first day, I was assigned to a seat in the back of the classroom with one other Black male and two Asian females. At this point of my high school career, it did not matter where I sat; I was determined to do well, and in the first six weeks, I did.
Unfortunately, things got bad fast.
It did not take long for the material in the class to get difficult. My study group was my two Asian friends and my friend Rodney, who was Black. It was not long before I started to notice that I was being graded tougher than my classmates. My immediate reaction was to talk to the teacher and ask her why my grade was so low, but I didn’t. Instead, I figured I would just work harder to pull up my grade. After I received the second test, I realized that I had been graded unfairly again. I tried to ask the teacher to review the problem during the class, and she refused. At the end of class, I asked the teacher to explain why I lost so many points on my work even though I had the correct answers. Her response was that I needed to come after school to talk to her about it.
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I went to see Mrs. Bosch after school. She seemed to be so nice to the other students; all of them were White. When it was my turn to talk to her, her mood changed. I asked her why I had lost so many points on the exam, and her response was that she believed that I had cheated. She then wanted me to show her how I solved the problems – which I did! She seemed to be frustrated. I asked her would she give me the points back – and she said no. She then said that since I was first chair in the marching band, I needed to quit the track team and focus on the band. As I mentioned before, her husband was the marching band director of our high school. In confusion, I asked why; Pre-Calculus has nothing to do with the band. She wanted me to focus on the band to guarantee that we would win the state marching band championship tournament that year – and it would not happen if I did both band and track. Before I could respond, she turned to another student and started working with them.
I told my parents what had happened. They immediately contacted the school and the teacher, requesting a parent-teacher conference. Two days later, we met with the teacher. She told my parents that I had lied – that my classroom performance was due to me not showing enough details in my solutions and not showing up for tutorials. My parents were furious – but my parents are very smart. After we got home, my parents came up with a plan; go talk to the track coaches, Coach McCall and Mr.
Wood, to inform them of the situation. After talking to my track coaches and track team leads, Willie E., Frank O., Steve F., and Todd W., we devised a plan where I could attend all the band practices and would unnoticeably attend the track practices afterward. I would literally turn right, driving out of the parking and make the block;
77 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 and then when I was certain that my Band director was out of sight, I would pull into the parking lot near the very practice field where I had been marching and playing to attend track practice. I was successful in this endeavor – but only because my track coaches and friends understood my plight. Before I knew it, my grades had gone back up, but the best I would get is a C grade in Pre-Calculus. I was frustrated, but it was ok because it would not affect my ability to attend Southern University, the same school my parents attended.
Figure 12 Honor Roll Student
Figure 13 Band Geek & Track Nerd
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Figure 14 High School Graduate Don Prier and “The Fellas!”
Southern University One of the best things I could have ever done was to attend Southern
University. Attending Southern allowed me to finally figure out what I wanted to do in life as well as appreciate everything my parents had done for me. Even though
Southern is a historically Black college and university (HBCU), it was diverse, and it regularly celebrated diversity at every level. At Southern, I met many other students that struggled throughout high school as I did. Many while in high school, were placed in situations where their teachers wanted them to 1) feel inferior in the classroom amongst their peers, 2) feel that no matter how hard they tried to fit in, they would not,
3) feel that they would have to give up something they loved, to satisfy the teacher’s demands or requirements to pass a class, 4) believe that they are doing things in the best interest for all students, and 5) understand that it was either the teacher’s way or the highway. We also had many discussions with our professors about Whiteness, what it really means, and how important it is to be true to who I am – a proud Black
79 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 man. By being around students who had been presented with similar experiences, it helped me grow stronger. When I finally began to become happy with who I was and stand out as a leader and mentor on campus is when I was contacted by the
Department of Energy.
It was at the end of my third year at Southern when I was recruited to work for the Department of Energy as an engineering intern. Every summer and Christmas break, I would go off to California to work for the United States government’s national laboratories. These government laboratories are known for their contributions to big science, including the Atomic Bomb. I initially enjoyed the glamor of working for the government as I was treated very well. For example, I was flown first class to
California, and I was always picked up from the airport by a limo. I remember saying to myself, not bad for a kid that was told that the best they would ever be is a janitor.
While I was excited to work for the labs, I did not feel a true commitment from the experience and my employer. Because of this uncertainty, I began to consider other opportunities that would offer just as much prestige – even if they did not pay as much.
Figure 15 Studying Space Shuttle Fuel Cell materials at Los Alamos Labs, NM
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The Teaching Opportunity As I mentioned previously, I worked at the government laboratories, which were far away from home. The issue back then was that I would only be paid if I were present and onsite. This meant that I needed to find a part-time job to sustain myself when I was not in California. And then one day it happened… I met a girl that presented me with an opportunity to work at a church school program that met on Saturdays. I have to share something my mom used to say, “there’s always a girl.”
I was excited because this was an opportunity to make money during the school year while I was in college and away from Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
The church school program was run by Mrs. Victoria Reed, a retired School Board member, and teacher. Because of my reputation in the Physics department at Southern, she hired me to work with the Black males who are enrolled in her program.
I had never taught before, but I was willing to try because I always felt that I wanted to give something back to the community. From the beginning, I was very excited because I would have an opportunity to share some of my cool experiences.
Additionally, I felt like I had an obligation to work with these young men because I wanted them to succeed where others failed. Let us not forget about the girl here.
My class only had four students. These students were both attendees of the church as well as students who attended local schools around the church. This section in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is not considered one of the best sections to live in. The neighborhoods are very rough, the people who live in this area have low-paying jobs, and the majority of them do not possess a high school diploma. I know this neighborhood because, for the first eight years of my life, we lived in it while I
81 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 attended the catholic school. Unfortunately, the kids in this area struggle in STEM courses because their parents cannot help them, and many of them have part-time jobs after school. It did not take long for me to realize that I did not have a connection to these kids.
Each class was 4 hours long with a break. One of the things that I quickly noticed was that the kids look for every opportunity to get up and leave the classroom. No matter what story I told them, no matter what story I shared with them, they appeared to not be interested or engaged – as though they wanted me to believe I was being rejected by them. After the first two Saturdays, the Center Director asked me to stay after school to discuss how things were going. I told her that I was struggling to keep the students engaged. I told her that no matter how hard I tried to get them interested in the subject, they would just check out. She indicated that she noticed that as well. then she finally asked me, “Do I want to continue?” I told her I am very interested in helping these kids because I don't want to see them turn it into nothing. I told her that I wish that they could experience some of the things that I have experienced while working as an intern for the government. She proceeded to ask me what it is that I believe I am doing wrong. in my response, I told her that I was only doing what I had seen done in my science and math classes in high school. She asked me, “how did you do in your math and science classes in high school?” I told her that
I did well in the classes where the teachers like me, and I did poorly in the classes where the teacher did not like me. She then asked me, “how did I know that the teacher actually liked me?” I was confused by her question. I then responded, saying I
82 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 do not know. She did ask me to describe what my favorite teachers did for me to like them? I told her that my favorite teachers would call on me most of the time when I knew the right answer, and they never made me feel stupid. I also told her that my favorite teachers would often reward me for my performance by allowing me to work on Special Projects during class time. My favorite teachers also would congratulate my friends and me when we did great on tests and homework assignments. When I would do well on a test, she would call out my name and grade or put my name on the board. My favorite teachers asked me questions like “what do you like to do in your spare time as well as what do your parents do for a living?” She asked me, “how did it make me feel?” I told her it made me feel good.
She then proceeded to ask me about my worst teachers. She asked me why did I not like them and why did I feel that they did not like me? I told her that the teachers that did not like me would never call on me when I knew the right answer, makeup obnoxious comments when I got the wrong answer, and give me extra work but would not give me credit for it. These teachers would talk about stuff that I was not interested in, nor could afford or relate to. Additionally, my least favorite teacher would never answer my questions in class but would make me come after class to get the answers to my questions. Then Mrs. Reed asked me, “how did the other kids behave in the class?” I told her that at one point, no one would ask questions. I also told her that at one point, the teacher moved me to the back of the classroom, where I could barely hear her. It got so bad that I was scared to ask questions in that classroom.
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Mrs. Reed then told me what the students thought. The students feared me.
The students feared me because they believed that I was going to fail them, and I acted just like their worst teachers. She also indicated that based on what she observed, I was acting like the teachers from my own worst educational experiences.
I found myself struggling to make the drive home because I did not want to lose the job. I liked the kids and the other teachers that I worked with. Mrs. Reed gave me a lot of constructive criticism, which I found to be very difficult to palate. On the drive home, I kept thinking that I wanted to perform better as a teacher. I knew that if I could just reach them, they would perform! How could I foster the classroom environment that the students felt comfortable in? What was the magic trick that I needed to do to get my students to walk away from my class with a positive experience in learning? I quickly realized that I had to establish a positive atmosphere where the students would have no choice but want to grow. But how do I do that?
What could I change in my teaching practices to encourage them to grow in math and science like me?
That afternoon, I told my parents about my discussion with Mrs. Reed. My mom laughed at me as I complained about the kids and what had happened that day.
She told me, “don’t you know how to take constructive criticism?” Then she started laughing and asked me, “What did I do to teach you?”
My mom is something else! I must mention her in this section because she has had a huge impact on my people skills throughout my career. She has lots of secrets and techniques for success but will only share them when they are needed. She
84 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 actually explained that I was doing the right thing by complaining about what had happened and trying to reflect. But she also recommended that I take some time and go do some research on great teachers and their teaching style. I remember asking myself, “Is that it?” Before I could ask her anything else, she chuckled and walked out of the room. Immediately, I asked myself, “What was I doing wrong? Why can’t I connect with these kids? How can I improve their quality of learning? How do I motivate them to want to learn? In other words, there was a serious problem with my pedagogy.
I became very concerned about my pedagogy. Another week went by, and I bombed with the kids; I did not connect with them. At the beginning of class, I asked them questions about what their parents did and what did they want to do when they grew up. One kid answered drug dealer. I asked him again, and he was serious. Of course, the other kids laughed, and I felt stupid. I knew deep down that I wanted to grow as a teacher, but what the hell was I doing so wrong?
I decided one day to ask the girl that introduced me to the program to come with me to the class and watch me teach. This way, she could help me examine my teaching practices to determine what I was not doing properly to facilitate student learning. My friend came in, sat down, and proceeded to fall asleep. So, I continued to try and teach. At the break, I excused the kids and woke my friend up. I asked her, what happened? She said that I was boring and acting like a college instructor. I never looked at her the whole time, nor the kids, so she fell asleep. She asked me, “what do you remember about your favorite math or science class?” I told her that my best
85 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 teachers made the class fun, the same way my mom did when she would teach me math. She said, “try being yourself instead of the other teachers in your past. It looks funny and fake.” She said, “these kids know you are from around here… you don’t have to act smart. You be you!” She also recommended that I “do some research on teachers who work with disadvantaged students.” She also went on and said,” if that didn’t help, then you need to ask your momma.”
That evening, I went to the SUBR library with a buddy of mine, Edward
Patterson. Ed was a very smart physics major and part of Phi Beta Sigma. Sigmas are known to be great STEM educators, including George Washington Carver, and he had a lot of ideas regarding literature from educational scholars. There were not a lot of papers, but the majority of the papers I read focused on the academic performance gap or Achievement gap and how Black and minority students were behind. I read several of these papers as well as interviews from newspaper articles about Black boys and men in education. And then I found an article in Ebony magazine featuring the absence of Black men in the industry. This was the first time that I realized that Black males were in danger regarding performance in school; they were being left behind all of the other groups. That was also when I learned that many Black men were ending their academic careers prematurely by going to prison. In many of these papers and articles, I noticed that there was a lot of focus on teacher-student interaction and lack of it. In several of these papers and articles, it was concluded that the Black students were more responsive to teachers that looked like them; but there was a decline in the number of Black male teacher role models.
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When I got home, I told my mom where I had gone. She asked me about what
I had learned, and I told her I was still confused as to why I could not connect with these kids. She told me that it is probably because of the way I talk; she was joking.
She also told me it could also be that I am not making it fun, and I am probably not offering any type of awards for their work. She asked me about how she used to make pies and cakes for me to discuss fractions, and I just couldn’t get it? Then I remembered; when my mom would make the activity incredibly silly, I would grasp the concept. If I did a good job, I would get candy as a reward. She also reminded me that recognition for my hard work was always a motivator, just like in the Catholic school I attended. When we worked hard in class or did well on a test, we would get candy and recognition as a reward. Mom told me that it does not matter how smart I am to the kids; I need to focus on letting them believe they are just as smart, if not smarter, than me.
She also mentioned that she believed I might have found my niche as a teacher.
She could tell that I liked teaching better than being an employee for the National
Labs. She said that if I wanted to become a math or science teacher, then I needed to come up with a philosophy that encouraged them to want to learn like I did. She said,
“Once you figure it out, everything else will fall in place… and that’s the bottom line.”
I spent the weekend pondering on what would be my philosophy and classroom practices as a teacher. What did she mean by a philosophy? I had
Philosophy in college. I spent time focusing on what gave me the confidence to major in something as hard as physics. Why did I major in Physics? What did my teachers do
87 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 that made me so strong in math and science? How do I get these kids to engage in the material? What did my mom do that made learning so fun? Does giving candy to kids make them smarter? How do I change my ways of facilitating learning? How can I keep this job?
The following Saturday, I overslept. I drove all the way to work, just knowing
I was going to lose my job. I didn’t even have time to get candy. I had never been fired before, so I made some assumptions. I assumed that they would probably meet me at the door with a check and tell me to get lost; meet me in the parking lot and tell me to go home! Just as I pulled up to work, I decided that I did not care anymore. I walked in, and it was quiet. I could hear a church service going on, but I still got my material and walked into my classroom. Just as I entered, I saw the students working quietly, and Mrs. Reed was working with one of the students. Just as I went to sit down, Mrs.
Reed asked, “were you out drinking with the boys?” The kids cracked up. She then asked me if my shirt was a fake polo. I could not understand why the kids thought it was funny until I realized my shirt was on inside out. I could not do anything but laugh at the way she asked me. Before I could leave to go fix it, she had gotten up laughing and walked out of the room. The kids kept joking and clowning with me.
They were amused that I showed up looking silly. In return, I started picking back at them to make them stop. I told them I made the polo shirt myself! I was failing miserably, but I noticed it entertained them. I had to laugh with them. As a matter of fact, I noticed they kept on working while clowning me and asking questions about
88 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 me. This continued the entire morning. To my surprise, they finished up all of their work.
As the morning quickly started to end, I just knew that it was going to be my last day at the program. I knew Mrs. Reed was going to show up with my final check, but she did not; she had gone immediately after I had arrived that morning. I waited around and then left. Halfway home, I started trying to evaluate what I had done so differently that day. I had not given them candy. Was it me wearing the shirt incorrectly? Was it because I was late? Did she talk to the kids to get them to act right? What was it that made the rest of the morning go so well?
On the following Saturday, I showed up on time. I was ready for the kids with new material. When I tried to engage students, they seemed as though they were not interested. There was nothing I could do to get them to start working. In my frustration, I started to work some of the problems from their handout assignment. Just as I was finishing up one of the problems, I realized I had screwed it up and slipped by saying, “this is horse shit!” The kids cracked up and said, “you cannot say words like that in the church.” They then started to laugh. One of them volunteered to help me solve the problem and found the answer. I was shocked, and he could tell. I then took a chance and told him that I would give him a Smarties candy roll if he would go to the board and explain the problem. He accepted my challenge and then went to the board and solved it perfectly in front of all the other kids. The other kids in the room followed along the whole time. As a matter of fact, I never had a chance to intervene as the kids carried on the whole dialog explaining the problem to each other. As each
89 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 one of them chimed in, I would slip them a candy roll. Just as the kids were finishing up, I noticed Mrs. Reed. I had not realized that Mrs. Reed had walked in earlier and watched the entire exchange.
She was impressed with their performance. She first asked me had I been drinking again. Of course, I responded jokingly. She said, “I think you are starting to figure it out.” She also said, “the problem that you have been having is that the kids never saw the human side of you. They all know you are smart, but you intimidated them.” She also indicated that Black male teachers are role models, yet most of the time are not approachable. She saw me giving them candy for their efforts and stated,
“that was magical to them.” Mrs. Reed said she wanted me there because they wanted a knowledgeable person that could act as a role model to them. Just the same, she knew of my story growing up on Plank road from another church member, a rising star. They needed someone like me who would click with them as well as inspire and motivate them. Then she gave me a check. And just as I was about to leave, she said,
“don’t be using curse words in the Lord’s house!”
Mrs. Reed continued to mentor and train me to work with the kids. I learned of their struggles in their schools and why it was important that I should consider teaching; I was good at it, somewhat smart and good with kids. I kept the teaching job until I graduated from Southern University, but I would not go into teaching just yet.
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Figure 16 They told me I would only be a janitor; I now have a BS in Physics. About five years ago, I reached out to one of my old colleagues and inquired about Mrs. Reed and the kids I had taught. My colleague did not know much about what has happened to Mrs. Reed but was happy to share that one of my students in the program graduated from LSU and currently works in a laboratory at the Department of
Environmental Quality.
My Mentor Along the way, through my undergraduate experiences, I was fortunate to have several really great mentors. The most influential mentor was my supervisor from
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL). He was very strong, very smart, and sometimes militant. He had graduated from Morehouse, an HBCU; He then went on to both Georgia Tech and then Stanford. My mentor, on various occasions, shared with me that he had the same types of encounters. People picked at him because he sounded like a White man and looked like a White man – but he was a proud Black man and male role model for other young Black males interested in Physics. My mentor
91 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 understood my struggles as an undergrad and gave me a job at LBL when no one else did. He once told me:
…Donald, I gave you that job because of your technical competence. That, and your cost is much cheaper than the valve we need for our experiment in CXRO.
About ten years later, I asked him the same question: Why did you give me that job? He said:
…. Donald, I gave you that job because it was obvious to me that you needed a mentor. You reminded me of myself when I was your age. I made lots of mistakes when
I was an undergrad, and sometimes you need someone on the outside to give good feedback. Oh yeah, and I figured it would be cheaper to hire you and have you design a system that used a cheaper valve for my beamline system… I wanted to save money.
Hiring you and having you make one from scratch is cheaper than buying the expensive all-purpose valve.
Working for my mentor almost drove me nuts most days in the beginning. The first day and the last day were my best days. On the first day of work, I was presented with my own office and lab space in the Center for X-ray Optics building, right next to the Advanced Light Source – an electron storage ring. The view from my office windows was spectacular because, from my office, I could see both the San Francisco
Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. Because the lab was so high up, you could see everything.
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Figure 17 View from my office at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1993
Figure 18 Me and my mentor, Keith Jackson (far right) My mentor was and still is a micromanager. He managed me the whole time I worked at LBL, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos National Laboratories – and he was not my boss at the other two labs! My mentor always wanted to know what I was working on and when I would be ready for my next task. I took a beating working for him; I would stay at work until midnight on Fridays getting reports done and turned in.
The tradeoff was that I had been given one of the best opportunities in my life.
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Besides having a great view of the San Francisco bay area, I was presented with an opportunity to learn about people from a different part of the country as well as from different parts of the world. This was a life-changing experience.
My mentor wanted to make sure that when I left LBL, I would 1) never lose a scholarship again, 2) become a mentor for students, and 3) go out and get a Ph.D.
What I liked about my mentor is that he never took no for an answer and was always willing to push the envelope when it came to achieving the impossible. I always knew when I was getting on his bad side because he would start talking about blowing up teddy bears, and I knew I was doing a great job when he would either send Spider-
Man comic books or postcards for me to share with my kids from the various research laboratories around the world.
The Making of my FIRST Superhero – Victor Stone After graduating with a degree in Physics from Southern University and A&M college, I followed my first love by continuing to work for the Department of Energy as a scientist and an engineer. Several foundations under the DOE and NSF had supported my education, so it just made sense to continue to work for them. The problem for me was that the locations of these projects became less glamorous every time I was reassigned. Just to give an example, I started my career with first class rides on airplanes and in limousines, and a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge from my California DOE office. When I decided to end my government career, I had been working in an underground laboratory next to an explosive testing ground that was located at the top of a plateau in the middle of New Mexico with ginormous spiders.
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Because of the nature and location of some of these projects, as well as their potential to be defunded, I fiercely began to look for other opportunities. Honestly, it was the tarantulas and scorpions that I was afraid of. With that said, I resigned from the DOE system in December of 1998 to accept my first public school teaching job - in Cupertino, California.
Figure 19 In 1999, I would always wear a white shirt –and no pocket protector. The late nineteen-nineties were the coolest time to become a teacher! I believed that because of my experiences as an engineer and my personality, I would connect with all students. I was so excited – I worked right down the street from Apple computer in Cupertino, California! I was also excited to tell my parents I bought my first Porsche! I remember asking myself on the second day of school, why had I not done this earlier! I worked this job for six months as a substitute teacher with hopes that the job would become permanent. As my luck would have it, the teaching position ended at the end of the year, and I was out of work.
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A couple of weeks after losing my job, I was contacted by a Black principal in
San Jose, California. She wanted me to come work at her school because she felt I would probably have a strong impact on the diverse student population. Because I felt it was a rare opportunity to work at a school where the principal was Black and female, I accepted.
It did not take long for me to observe that many Black students in this part of
Northern California were facing situations that were similar and even far worse than what I had experienced in regard to poverty and opportunity. Not only the Black students but the Asian and the Hispanic students were impoverished as well. There were not many White students at my school; the climate was completely different from my first teaching job in Cupertino. Things were rough at school. There were always fights. Many times, there were student fights before school, and every now and then, there were both student and teacher fights after school. Yes – students fighting teachers.
I cannot say it was always the student’s fault because I had witnessed several situations where a White teacher’s intervention negatively affected minority students, and in most cases, these affected students were Black and Hispanic males. What I am describing here are situations where both Black and Hispanic students were negatively impacted by a system that did not provide the support necessary for them to develop their self-confidence, achieve intellectual growth, and garner the enthusiasm necessary for learning advanced content; instead, these students were exposed to hostile conditions where the outcome always favored the teacher. What I had been witnessing
96 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 was a system that promoted micro-aggressive actions (Hotchkins, 2016) that may have been the root cause(s) related to many Black male students being identified as singled out, depressed, combative, underperforming, and underachieving. I questioned if I still found myself witnessing Black students being exposed to and witnessing the same circumstances in my own youth when I was a student. I asked myself every day, is this still happening? I would also ask myself, how did I persevere? I then asked myself, what can I do to make a difference?
Having reflected on these observations and how similar they are to my own personal experiences of the past, I decided I would try to do something about it. Being that it was the nineties, I struggled to find high-quality scholarly publications that focused specifically on the underachievement of culturally diverse students. (Ford,
1996; Reis, Hebert, Diaz, Maxfield, & Ratley, 1995). My struggles were fueled by the inability to source information. With a little luck, I was fortunate to gain access to the
Stanford University library system, and within minutes, I discovered the works of
Donna Ford, Ph.D. In much of Ford’s work, she indicates that culturally diverse students faced unique barriers to their achievement. Based on my personal experiences, I agreed completely with Ford’s findings but wanted to verify this with work from other researchers – and gain a deeper understanding. Besides Ford, research from Reis and McCoach also concluded that the construct of underachievement in gifted students differs across cultures (Reis & McCoach, 2000). I present this point because my experiences working with underachieving gifted Black males pointed to the fact that in many cases, these students did not initially perform
97 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 well in my class because they had too much to worry about outside of school. After absorbing the works of these researchers, I began to try to incorporate several of their suggestions into my own pedagogical practices. To my amazement, I discovered that
Black students in my Physics classes demonstrated higher performance levels by having higher test scores than my colleagues' Black male students on our district standardized test. The magical turnaround really started when I began incorporating real world, community relevant projects like the solar cooking project, the grid solar power project, and my favorite – the FIRST robotics program.
The FIRST robotics program has always been special to me because of how I was introduced to it. I was approached by a very brave White female English teacher from an alternative school in my school district. She learned of the great successes I had with the Black and minority students and the Project Based Learning Tool
(PBLOT) (2018) at my own school; She wanted me to support her team as a second head coach. Since she was friends with the principal of my school, I felt a little pressure to help her, but I decided to participate and work with her on the condition that my students could be part of her team as well. She accepted the deal. We had a team of eleven students, and the three Black students on the team were from my own school. Two of my students were male.
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Figure 20 Foothill and Yerba Buena students practicing with our FRC robot - 1999 One of my students was named lead mechanical; he was also a football player.
For this dissertation, I will identify him as Victor Stone. Victor was exceptional on the football field, as well as in my Physics and Electronics classes. But for some reason, he was always in trouble with his math teacher. Victor was a large, bright-skinned
Black student from a rough part of San Jose, California. Every now and then I would see him in the mornings at Starbucks, making and selling coffee. He was an expert with the coffee press. Victor was big into comics and loved drawing the characters – and his favorites were Cyborg and Batman Beyond. Victor had a thing for electronics and figured out how to get a hard drive to play music way before Apple had released their MP3 player known as the iPod! Victor also worked with me to write a program to control televisions and garage doors with my Palm Pilot. Victor was a natural programmer, and he loved the Matrix movies and model airplanes. I had the hardest
99 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 time with Victor because he wanted to be on my robotics teams but could not because he would always try and skip math.
Figure 21 The Yerba Buena and Foot Hill engineering robotics clubs. His math teacher was a White male in his late forties, and at the time, I was closer to Victor’s age. It was clear to me why there was a disconnect between Victor and his teacher – his teacher did not have a connection with him. On many occasions,
Victor would come and see me about the teacher. He thought the teacher was a racist because he would never call on him in class and would always put him out for talking out of turn. I asked him if he told his parents. He said:
…My dad is always working. I don’t really know what he does, but he
can’t ever make it to school to meet with my teachers. I hate him!
He indicated that this had been going on for several months and at one point, I decided to approach the teacher to understand the teacher’s perspective.
Mr. Lex Luthor is the pseudonym I have chosen for Victor’s math teacher. Mr.
Luthor as I mentioned earlier was a much older White teacher with an obsession for
100 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 tobacco. Mr. Luthor was also an early retired electrical engineer with deep pockets due to his significant contributions to the semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley. He was a friend of Mr. Holston, fellow engineering teacher and robotics coach, and Mr.
Luthor was very strong in math; he probably should have been teaching my Physics class. I asked Mr. Luthor why Victor was not doing so well in his class.
Victor knows this stuff… he knows all the material, but he refuses to do
the homework problems. He says the problems are boring and stupid. He also
said that I give them too many problems to do. He also called me a racist
because I failed him for not doing his homework. I do understand that he
cannot be on your robotics team with a failing grade… I want to help him
because I believe he has lots of potential.
The funny thing is as I write this story, I remember realizing that the same math books Victor used were the same books I used in high school – all versions written by my friend and hero Dr. Edward Burger – a leader in education for his innovative work in developing electronic mathematics textbooks. At the time Victor was in school, this technology and product had not existed yet – but would have drastically affected his willingness to learn! But, as an alternative, I knew that MS
Excel was available, and it was so powerful. Excel would be a great way to spice up a math class. With this in mind, I recommended that Mr. Luthor talk to Victor and tell him that he was committed to helping him become a successful engineer like he was. I also recommended that Mr. Luthor allow Victor to do his Pre-Calculus work in MS
Excel. Mr. Luthor was completely onboard.
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One week later, Victor stopped by my classroom because he wanted to show me something and get some help with his work. Victor showed me how he had produced several sine and cosine wave graphs of various amplitudes using MS. Excel.
I asked him, what was this all about.
Mr. Prier, I spoke to Mr. Luthor. He said he wanted to be my friend
and wanted to see me build robots like the ones in Star Wars. He said for me to
do that would mean that I would have to learn wave functions and stuff so I
could talk to Electrical Engineers and Physicists like you. He told me that the
stuff we were doing in his class allows me to do that… Let me show you.
Then Victor went to the back of my classroom in my robotics area and turned on my old Hewlett Packard function generator/oscilloscope. He then showed me how he could use it with a resistor and capacitor and all kinds of regular and square waves.
His math teacher showed him how to use a piece of cutting-edge technology and more importantly showed Victor how he could produce the same quality of work in his homework. Mr. Luthor was showing Victor the significance of the material he was
“learning by doing.” Mr. Luthor was also demonstrating cultural relevance pedagogy by introducing Victor to the use of Silicon Valley semiconductor technology and supporting mathematics that would be critically relevant to his career path.
Victor’s grade went up quickly; actually, they all skyrocketed. Since Victor became academically eligible to participate on my robotics team, he started showing up every day. Before school, after school, at lunch, and on the weekends, I would either see Victor or he would call me about the big robot. The truth is, we really
102 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 needed his help with programming because in the first round of the competition, we had been burned by our lack of functionality. Even though Victor had struggled in math, he was one of the best programmers at YB. Working with the lead programmer at Foothill (Team 255), the alternative school, they managed to write a program that increased the output of one of the motors on our robot allowing it to lift itself during competition. Only a few in the country could do this back in 2000 and we were one of them; After failing miserably at the first qualifier in San Jose, we were invited to another qualifier -"pulling it off” and qualifying for the world competition in Orlando,
Florida.
The week before the World Competition we worked hard on the robot. We had engineering groups from NASA Ames helping Victor and the rest of the kids. The engineers brought samples of their robots and controllers to the school to use for optimizing our robots’ design. My students worked all night long redesigning parts for better mechanical advantage and lift speed and at one point, it seemed that Victor was doing everything – and then I got a phone call. I had learned late that Wednesday evening that my wife had a serious illness that required immediate attention and she would need to be hospitalized. I shared this news with the team and informed them that I had worked to get them this far and that they would have to depend on the other coach and themselves. Victor was not happy about this.
Mr. Prier, they are not going to listen to me. They only listen to me when you
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are around. If you don’t go, then we are going to lose. I can’t program that
thing all by myself! What if I mess up the code again?
I encouraged Victor to not think about the negative – just focus on what will happen. I told him that he needed to see himself at the finish line holding the silly trophy and laughing at those guys in Palo Alto who did not make it. I reminded him that no one at the competition will know anything about that robot but him – he is automatically the expert! Later that night, Victor’s dad called me and asked about how my wife was doing. He had just put Victor on the airplane. He said Victor was afraid that he would mess things up, but he was determined to not let us down. Then Victor’s father said:
It has been a blessing for you and your wife to come into our lives and
help our son. I cannot believe that he pulled that F up to a B in Pre-Cal. You
knew just what to say to get him motivated to learn and try. I have not seen him
work this hard in a really long time. We really thank you for helping him with
his programming, his relationship with his math teacher, and his math… I’m
just so happy to know you.
I told his dad if the kids performed poorly, then he and his wife would have to buy a coffee maker for my classroom – since his son broke mine. Alternatively, if the kids did well, then Victor will have to repay us with free coffee in the mornings from his part time job. Victor’s dad accepted my deal.
It was early Saturday morning when we arrived from the hospital; my wife’s procedure was successful. Shortly after, we received a phone call from one of the
104 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 assistant coaches of the team – Mr. Holston. The late Mr. Chuck Holston had gone to the competition in my place. It was a good move since he was strong in mechanical design and was formerly an engineer with Lockheed. Mr. Holston told me that Victor wanted him to call me to let me know that they had qualified for the semifinals. Victor also wanted to know what they should do because one of their motors was going out. I made a decision to drive it until the wheels fell off! There was no time to go back and rebuild anything. Two hours later, I received a phone call from the other head coach,
Jen Westendorff. She wanted to see how my wife was doing and said that we were going into the final matches. She wanted to also know what to do about the failing motor. I told her to leave it up to Victor to make the call. Victor could change the amount of power in the program to not burn out the motor, but just the same, the robot only needed to run one more time. After I hung up the phone, I went downstairs to learn that my daughter had stuck her hand in the VCR – and it was stuck. She was laughing because she had wanted to see the Teletubbies on TV and thought she could catch them in the VCR. As I tried to remove her arm from the VCR, I could hear the phone ringing in the background. After a couple of minutes, we were able to free my daughter’s hand from the machine. Then I remembered I had missed the call.
My wife and I tried to check the voice mail on our old black Sprint phone. It had an antenna that you would have to pull up to increase the reception – but it did not work. Just as I got frustrated, the phone rang. I don’t think Death Metal music existed back then, but if it did, my students were good at demonstrating it with all their shouting through the phone – I could not hear a word they were saying. It was so loud
105 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 where they were; and then the phone cut off. Before I could return the call, they called back, and it was Victor on the phone. When he called, I asked him why are you crying, what has happened? I could barely understand what he was saying. He said:
Mr. Prier, I am not crying on the phone, I’m not a baby! I am calling to tell you that we won the match, and our team won the national championship… I wish you could see this, we won! Mr. Prier, our team won! Mr. Holston then got on the phone and verified that our gear system held up and burned up just as the robot did a pullup.
It was smoking when the match was over, but we won. They told me that Victor was on fire in that last round of the competition commanding the kids with instructions and they were performing like champions – all they could do is just stand back and watch what looked impossible.
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Figure 22 Results from the 2000 FIRST Robotics championship We won the US FIRST robotics national championship with a bunch of diverse at-risk students from an underserved part of San Jose, California. A few weeks later, I was invited to NASA Ames with the kids to receive a special award from FIRST robotics. It was at NASA Ames when I finally realized how real all of this had been because I was introduced to both Dean Kamen and Woody Flowers by my very own student, Victor. I was also presented with an award as well as some cool electronics.
All I could think about is how proud I was of Victor and the team.
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Figure 23 FIRST Robotics team hat As I reflect on this story, I now recall that Victor went on to graduate from UC
Davis in electrical engineering after earning a scholarship from FIRST and Intel.
Additionally, because of our performance, my robotics program was awarded $20,000 plus another $100,000 for struggling minority students with promising academic potential.
A few years later, I remember attending an awards ceremony and bumping into
Victor. I remember the first thing Victor told me:
Mr. Prier, my dad always wanted me to become an engineer and you have helped me to make it happen. You helped me see the positive in tough situations and more importantly, you taught me not to give up under pressure. After I saw that picture of you and that solar car in the Mercury news, I wanted to be like you – and my dad said if I listened to you, then I could. Thank you for pushing me to believe in myself.
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Figure 24 Victor’s motivation – my & the solar car, San Jose Mercury News, 2000
I told Victor all I cared about is getting my free coffee in the mornings… and if he broke our deal, then I would send Big Tiny after him!
109 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
Embracing STEM San Francisco Bay Area traffic was some of the worst traffic I had ever experienced in my life. My routine of getting to work by 6:30AM was challenged every day with the dotcom boom of the late nineties. And even though I had become very popular among the students at my school – especially the Black males, I was starting to realize that the cost of living was going up faster than teachers’ salaries; we were beginning to starve.
In August of 2000, I decided that it was time for a change and accepted an engineering position at Space Systems Loral. I was hired as a Mechanical Design
Antenna engineer. I was responsible for designing composite components for Ka, C, and X band satellites. I was responsible for designing the composite feed horn systems for customers including DirecTV, EchoStar, TelStar and IntelSat. I also designed a corrosion experiment for the International Space Station. It was a great job opportunity because not only was I sending items into space, but I was also invited to be the mechanical design lead for the at one time fastest solar car in the world. The team was called Solar Motions. Working on the solar car was great because I loved cars and I was able to have Victor involved for a short while. I gave Victor a job making composite parts before he went off to school.
This job was fabulous every day except for Fridays. On Fridays is when I had to sit down with management and provide status on all my projects. I hated Fridays because Thursday afternoon is when I would discover that my subordinates had not met their goals for the week. I always thought that these meetings were called “Tiger
Team” meetings because I felt that my management was vicious and oftentimes, I
110 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 would walk out bleeding due to my subordinates often refusing to take direction from me. This did not bother me too much because of the amount of money I was paid, and
I liked the prestige of being part of the Tiger team. What did bother me was that I was the only Black male engineer in the room. At our aerospace company, the term Tiger
Team referred to a group of highly skilled individuals who are brought together to solve complex technical problems. The name was also appropriate because I found that my subordinates were like cats and I was always trying to herd them. It did not take long before I found myself missing my students.
After the destruction of the World Trade Center, there was a serious downturn in the San Francisco bay area economy – and work started to slow down. I wanted to get let go from my company because of the huge payouts. So, I started looking for a teaching position and found a little more than that – I found a teaching position in the
Santa Clara school district that also allowed me to work at NASA Ames. The irony is that the day I was offered the opportunity was the same day I was let go from Loral with so much money that I could take half the year off and travel – so we flew to
Disney World – a couple of times!
Santa Clara, CA - Santa Clara High About two weeks after my return from Disney, I went to work in Santa Clara,
CA – at Santa Clara High School. It was close to my home and close to NASA Ames.
My plan was to work there for one school year and then find a school closer the following year to shorten my commute to NASA once I was told to report to work.
The bad news for me was that within one week I realized I did not like the principals
111 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 and I really did not like the job I was promised.… not at all. I believe that I was hired for this job because there were no other Black teachers on the campus, and they wanted to show that their district was diverse. The principal that had the position told me that I would be teaching pre-engineering classes and science classes, but I later learned that I would only be teaching Chemistry and Physical Science. The principal had told me just enough for me to accept the job and as an unseasoned teacher, I had believed him. I did not know how I was going to make it through the year; I did not like Physical Science because it has a biology element to it, and I don’t like playing with food!
It did not take long for me to discover that many of the administration nor students liked me. Whenever I sent a kid to the office for being disrespectful, or disruptive, the administration would simply send them back and would want to have meetings with me after school to tell me what I was doing wrong; I honestly felt this was a form of harassment but had no additional methods of supporting my claims beyond the referrals I had written. The students were aware that I was having trouble with the administration and would openly make jokes and comments like “they were trying to get me fired” or would use racial slurs in class. Many of these kids were real
“trouble-makers.” I realized that things were really bad for me when I received my first evaluation and it indicated that I had underperformed in all categories; I refused to sign the evaluation threatening to quit immediately. All I could think about is how much I had given to the kids of the surrounding communities prior to this specific
112 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 teaching job; all the people who mentored, coached and invested in me and believed in me. I did not sign the form, but I did not quit.
What was it about Santa Clara that made me want to leave? I left Santa Clara because I did not feel that I was valued as a positive contributor by my colleagues and administration. For example, I felt that my positionality was compromised the first time I presented a referral to the office. Even though I was subjected to the same professional training that all teachers are required to perform before entering the classroom, it was made clear in the beginning that I had no voice in this professional capacity. I felt that the principals and their predominately White administration discounted my claims because I was reporting that the White students were the ones being disrespectful in my classes; an unusual scenario, contrary to the prevailing narrative that has White students being typically disciplined for objective offenses while Black students are disciplined for offenses such as disrespectful behavior (Osei-
Yeumasi & Pinetta, 2019). I often wondered if had I been a White teacher, would the administration have supported my claims of mistreatment and performed a more meaningful intervention; or maybe, the districts’ rules and policies for removing students from a class for disruptive behavior were written for all students but White ones? I just recently learned that referrals for disruptive behavior of this nature can lead to exclusionary suspension, i.e., in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions and exclusions (Osei-Yeumasi & Pinetta, 2019). Or just maybe had I not written these referrals on these “troublemakers” then maybe I would not have received such a poor
113 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 evaluation - some type of special Interest Conversion deal (Delgado & Stefancic,
2017).
Figure 25 My little hero and scholar from Japan! One day after school, one of my physical science exchange students from
Japan found me in the computer lab and said she wanted me to meet her friend who worked at the school; I accepted her proposal, thinking her friend was a student. She introduced me to a woman named Gerri Forte. It turns out that Dr. Geraldine Forte was a seasoned assistant principal who had just taken an assignment at the school. She was friends with my old principal from Yerba Buena and told me that she knew of my
114 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 robotics accomplishments in the San Jose schools as well as why I left teaching the first time. She told me she was asked to join the school to support a plan of inclusion for Black students, but she had no power to change things regarding the administration and personnel and their behavior toward Black students. Just as she was walking out of our meeting, she gave me one of the most powerful pep talks. She reminded me that
I am there for the students! She also affirmed that she would be my advocate as long as I continued to push myself to be the best teacher like I had done once before – the best teacher on the planet! I explained to her that I was worried that the teaching experience would jeopardize my NASA Ames opportunity, and she said she had a plan. She said,
…Don, I need you to continue to strive to be the best teacher on the
planet… you need to be that teacher that kids will talk about even when you’re
gone for being the best! I need you to bring in that creative side just like you
did in San Jose. I need you to focus on the kids and do that thing you do to
make them talk about you! Make them laugh and make it fun. I also want you
to focus on our Black student population because the kids in your classes need
you for support and guidance. I have heard how these other principals talk
about our kids – all those old stereotypes. I don’t believe them! If you see a
barrier, you break it. If there is anything you need, supplies, whatever, I’ll get
it for you. You just need to be the best teacher possible. I’ve got your back!
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I went away from the meeting fired up. I consulted my teaching buddy and long-time friend, Hakeem Oluseyi, for pointers and came up with some of the craziest experiments. Additionally, I had Dr. Oluseyi and other guest speakers from the Bay
Area come in and talk to the kids, including my wife, who at this time had recently appeared on the TV game show The Weakest Link. Reflecting, I developed activities and lessons based on their input and my favorite skill – robotics. This rocked my classroom! I created activities that allowed for students to perform analysis and experiments like real scientists – and we used LEGO electronics and controllers for data collection. The Black students thought I was evil because they were the first students that I used as my guinea pigs to learn robotics and demonstrate the experiments. I kept telling them that, rather than being guinea pigs, they were my
“prized pigs.”
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Figure 26 The STEM Dream team! The students were very excited to use robotics components in my class – but then something cooler happened… they wanted to use the components in their math classes as well! This was way beyond what was required from the district. Before I knew it, I had become popular in the science department with all students. The Black students were really interested in robotics and asked me to start a robotics program at the school – so I did.
Unfortunately, there were not any Black girls in the club – but we did have some Latino and White students join. My popularity on campus grew even more, and then one day, everything got weird. When I arrived at school one Friday morning, I was asked to wait in the parking lot. The school bell rang, and the announcements had started, but I was not allowed to leave the parking lot to go to my classroom. About 10 minutes after the announcements were over, Dr. Forte came and found me. She said,
117 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
…baby, I need you to hold your head up high when you go to your
room. Someone vandalized the wall near your classroom. You need to ignore
what they wrote. We know who did it, because we caught them on video. You
just go to your room and be the best teacher on the planet.
As I went around the corner to go to my room, it looked as though someone or something had messed up the ground near my classroom and the door was open. As I got closer, I noticed the wall near my classroom door looked funny – it had been sandblasted. As I got closer, I realized that over a span or length of 15 feet, I could just make out the word “NIGGER.”
When I entered the room, one of the Black male students had been crying – he saw what had been done, and he knew who did it. After class, he told me that he saw the White student with a can of spray paint on campus the day before. The White student had been waiting for us to leave our robotics meeting, and then he proceeded to paint the wall. Later that day, two other Black students stopped by – they were upset as well because they said the White student who did the painting was just sitting in the main office like nothing had happened. They said,
Yes, we knew it was him who did that. He said you was a nigger to the
boy next to me. I heard him say it, but I was afraid of him. He was always
talking bad about you and wanted to get you fired because you gave us too
much work. He just didn’t like you.
I stayed in my classroom for the remainder of the day, and besides the students, not a single teacher stopped by to see how I was doing. I was fine with that
118 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 because, at the end of the day, I was still committed to becoming the best teacher on the planet – even if it meant going somewhere else after the school year was done.
It was on December 13th; I had reached that superstar teaching status. All of my classes were running smoothly, and I had no issues with students misbehaving. I had great students – they ran my classroom. I had some students that would clean my room before and after classes. I had my Black students help me put my lessons up on the board, and most importantly, the students would come in at lunchtime and run their own study groups. I was impressed with the Black male students because they were always trying to come in at lunch to program robots – but on December 13th, it was a crazy day because I gave all of my students the best demonstration ever during
7th period!
All of the students knew that we were expecting our second child around that
December date – and I was excited because I knew it would be soon. On the 13th, while not thinking straight, I tried to do an experiment where I would mix a couple of salts together and ignite them. I would only do this experiment for the kids if they could tell me what the ingredients were as well as how much to add. For some reason, probably because it was Friday the 13th, I could not get the experiment to work at the beginning of class. I was starting to get upset because I could not get the experiment to work, and I had promised I would make it work as a reward for all the work they had been doing for me that week. With five minutes to go, the head secretary walked into my classroom and told me that I needed to leave the campus and go to the hospital – it
119 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 was time to have the baby. I told the kids I had to leave, and I needed to clean up quickly. Just as I was about to start cleaning up, one of the students said,
Oh Mr. Prier, you broke your promise. I thought you didn’t break
promises. But its ok, we forgive you! …We understand.
I chuckled in response to the student and then proceeded to brush the chemicals together in my hand and then in the dish to dispose of them. Just as I brushed the chemical dust into the dish with my bare hand, a large hot purple cloud appeared that shot up straight to the ceiling. Then it started raining in the class as the bell rang. The kids screamed as loud as they could from the spectacular sight. I screamed because I was startled and was burning from the raining acid droplets! It was a great day for me because my kids were great, and my daughter Lillian was born.
From the new year and going forward, my kids worked hard for me. As a reward, I would show them movies. When the district provided standardized tests, my classes would score the highest – my kids were motivated and energized. And then... it happened again in May – I was asked to wait in the parking lot by a bunch of students.
This time, they had a surprise for me.
When I got to my classroom, I was greeted by several minority seniors and a couple of White students from my classes, some of my robotics kids, and two teachers.
They told me that they wanted to see my face when I received my award. I asked them, an award for what? Then, at the back of the classroom entered Dr. Gerri Forte with a certificate; I had been nominated and won “Teacher of the Year in Science” at
120 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
Santa Clara High School. I was so happy to receive the honor – but I knew in my heart that my plans were not going to change.
Ultimately, I felt sorry to leave Santa Clara but, it was too much of a rough ride for me. It was not the school I wanted to work at; I wanted to be at a school where the kids needed help at all levels and be at a place where I felt I had the full support of the staff and felt safe. I learned that Dr. Forte also had left Santa Clara – but only to become a professor at San Jose State University.
Mountain View - Los Altos, CA - Alta Vista I finally felt I had made it – I moved to Alta Vista High School in Mountain
View, California. It was one of the best alternative schools I had ever worked at because the kids needed teachers to believe in them as well as teachers who were connected to help students find opportunities after graduation. The school was very diverse yet had lots of spirited students who were looking to grow outside of the normal setting of what people thought high school should be. Many of the students at this school had made mistakes in the traditional setting but were looking for a second, yet better, chance to grow academically. I was a magnet for all of the students because
I was good at creating inclusive environments for all learner types; even those who had made mistakes in their lives regarding their behavior.
It did not take long for me to find my way around the campus – all the classrooms were in portable buildings. The buildings were old, but the rooms were incredibly clean! Within the first couple of weeks, I had selected students to be leaders for various activities to support my classroom, as well as activities around the school.
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Because this paper focuses on Black males, I will focus on the growth of a student who I will call Teth Adam or just Adam.
I selected Adam to be one of my classroom leaders because I knew he needed a strong mentor to guide him. He was a student from a broken home in Mountain View;
Adam’s parents were divorced but still lived together due to inadequate economics.
Adam was an athlete who had been removed from the traditional high school for having a grade point average of less than 1 point on a four-point scale as well as a class disruptor. This was tradition for Adam as he was in both my math and Physics classes and he was not interested in learning anything. I spoke to him many times, and one day he admitted that he had given up because he felt out of place. He was older than the rest of his classmates but never seemed interested in talking to many of them because he believed that he could not relate to their interest. I knew he did not care about his appearance because sometimes he would wear the same clothes to school from the day before; most of the times he would wear a red and black plaid shirt and a corn roll hair style. The school staff and I had regular meetings about our students and
Adam was one of the students that we discussed often because no one really understood him or how to motivate him to succeed.
I stood out from the other faculty members of the school; and I am sure you, the reader, can guess why. One of the things I learned quickly is that students inherently will want to talk to teachers that looked like them if the student feels isolated – and this is all it took for me to get through to Adam. In deliberation, Adam admitted to me that he was hurting inside because of his parental situation. While it
122 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 was true that is parents were not together, they did the best for him. I remember one of the first conversations I had with him.
…My dad works on buses downtown. Every time they break, they call
my dad to come and fix them. After he fixes the buses, they let him go. When he
isn’t working on buses, he works at Candlestick Park and the San Jose Arena
selling hotdogs… he can’t sell beer. My mom is a janitor at San Jose State.
Adam was a Black male who had been held back a couple of times. He was a great football player when he was in middle school, but his world fell apart after his parents started fighting over their financial situation and struggles to keep a steady income. Adam had also been in foster homes due to domestic violence at home but always managed to return to his family – but always at a new address each time.
Adam’s family did not have reliable transportation because they kept buying used cars that broke down. It was difficult for him watching White and Asian students drive to school in their parents’ fancy cars and watching how other students dressed. He felt like he could not keep up.
We have nothing, Mr. Prier. My mom and dad don’t have credit and we
move every few months because my dad can barely pay the rent. My cousin has
a degree and can’t get a good job, so he works at Target up the street. Why do
I need to go to school or college; I ain’t gonna get a job even if I have a
diploma or a degree!
Adam and I would go back and forth almost every day discussing why he had given up in school and how he felt – that the system was not designed for him to
123 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 succeed. He said he refused to go back to the regular schools after the teachers made him feel like a criminal. Adam was in trouble many times because he was trying to get kicked out of school at first. After he turned 18, he realized that some of the things he had done could get him thrown in prison and decided to straighten up; but because of his record, he was considered too bad to return to the regular school. He knew the system was set up where he didn’t have much of a choice but to graduate from high school to avoid going to prison.
One day, I had an idea. I proposed that if Adam helped me start and run a robotics team at the school, I would help him get a tech job either at NASA Ames or elsewhere in Silicon Valley. One of the conditions was that he had to pull his grades up. I also promised him that if he pulled his grades up by the end of the semester, I would let him drive my red Porsche sports car. I remember the look on his face! Adam accepted my offer because he knew I was serious – I had let one other student drive my Porsche and make donuts in the parking lot.
Figure 27 My first red Porsche 944. Students were dying to drive it!
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The results of this intervention were noticeable within a week. Adam started arriving to school on time. In the mornings, Adam and all of the students were required to stand in line to be let into the school. I knew Adam was getting there early because he went from being one of the late arrivals to being near the front of the line.
Since I parked near the entrance of the school, the kids knew what car I drove, and this is also how I knew he was getting there on time all of the time. This became a consistent pattern with him. And then one day, something really cool happened - he asked me for help with one of his classes before school started.
Adam wanted help with his other math class; they were working on measurements. I went to my classroom and retrieved a yard stick to help him complete his assignment. He had to take measurements of various objects and so, since my car was parked near the entrance, we took measurements of the wheels, the length of the car, and the steering wheel. Within five minutes, other students started to participate.
They started doing their homework in the parking lot with Adam by taking measurements of the fence, the length and width of the parking spaces, etc. The kids had calculators and began doing the conversions in the parking lot. I let them put their books on top of my car so they could write down their answers.
Later that day, I was visited by the principal of the school. He offered to take me to lunch because of what he saw going on in the parking lot that day. He also wanted to know why Adam had been working so hard. So, I told him of my deal. I’ll never forget what he said:
125 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
Prier, you are nuts. That’s a really nice car! Man let me tell you…
don’t be in that parking lot when that kid takes the car. I bet he is going to try
and spin the tires on that thing. I definitely wouldn’t. Is it a stick? …well, let’s
just make sure that neither you are I are standing out there when he takes it.
The next day was our staff meeting. Teachers were talking about the parking lot event and how I had the students doing their homework before class. Teachers mentioned that they wanted to help but did not know if they should have gotten involved. They said that even the Superintendent saw the kids working – and loved it.
The next nice piece of news was that one of the teachers indicated that Adam had gone from being a disruptive student to a high contributor in class. I remember the principal looking at me laughing and telling me “there is going to be the smell of burned rubber outside really soon!” They also wanted to know who was stealing the rulers from the classrooms?
Figure 28 Adam and I took all the rulers on campus and used them on our robots.
Because of my good relationship with these students, I learned that they loved video games – and so did I. I found out that they loved video games by talking about a
126 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 gaming system that I had recently purchased – a special edition yellow PlayStation and Grand Turismo. Grand Turismo was the hottest game that came out that year and I happened to get lucky and purchase a copy. The kids thought that this was really cool…and so was I. Adam kept asking me if I would bring the system and the video game to school, but I could not come up with a good reason – and then, a great idea hit me. After playing the game a few hours, I learned that the Grand Turismo game would provide performance statistical information by car manufacturer – this could allow the students to have the opportunity to work like automotive engineers and perform calculations. This was hot because it was enough good information that I could create a lesson around the game.
On Monday and Tuesday, I decided to take the scaffolded approach – slowly introducing the kids to key concepts, but then I would go off on a tangent by the end of the period to have a discussion on high performance cars – both days. I felt that some of them would think I simply was going off topic, but I knew the majority of them including Adam would be dying to talk cars. I waited until Wednesday to open a lesson on high performance cars. The exciting part for me was that I would be teaching the kids about acceleration, power to weight ratios, velocity and torque – but the lesson would be disguised as a competition between groups in the class. I asked them who was their favorite manufacturers. After determining who liked Hondas,
Dodge, Porsche and Mercedes, I broke them up into groups and had them finish up the class by having them use the internet to provide details as to which car they thought was the fastest in the quarter mile.
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The next day was phenomenal – I had the principal, Bill Pierce, come and observe this lab. The kids initially thought they were in trouble when they saw the principal sitting in the room at my desk. Their whole attitudes changed when they saw the principal and me pull the TV sets from the back of the room – both TVs connected to two game systems; Yes, I owned two PlayStation systems! Adam and the rest of the students went nuts! Once I had the systems set up, I had the principal pick his favorite car and I picked my favorite car from the game menu, and then we raced them (the glory days!). Then we showed the students how to calculate acceleration and time using the video game provided statistics. And then I let Adam race me; he went completely nuts! He picked a Porsche 911 and I picked an older red Porsche – and he won the race. He then took data from the game and performed his calculations. Now that Adam was an expert, he could go around and show students how to perform the automotive engineering lab I had created. My principal was impressed observing the level of Adam’s participation in my class. It was one of the best days ever for those kids, the principal, and me.
As the weeks went by, Adam continued to make progress as he had pulled his grades up to passing in all his classes. Adam’s teachers had indicated that I was one of the best things to happen at the school because not only Adam, but all the kids in their classes who were friends of his were working hard. Since Adam had been working so hard, I decided to take him and his girlfriend Queen (this is a pseudonym) for a ride in my red Porsche. After they were secured in the car, I took them for a ride around
Mountain View and into Palo Alto. After driving on some of my favorite roads, I took
128 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 them across Highway 101 to show them my second job – at NASA Ames, Moffet
Field. They were really excited because they had never had the opportunity to see and touch the aircraft and spacecraft at the facility – you could only see them from the highway. I took them into a couple of wind tunnels and had them talk to me about how they believed they worked – a way for me to determine if they learned anything in my classes. They proved to me that they had been paying attention in my Physics classes.
And then, we did something really cool – we did an experiment.
There was a service road which was not used by the facility. The service road used to be an old landing strip at the facility. I had Queen get out with a stopwatch.
We went to the other end of the airstrip and I jumped out of the car to hop into the passenger seat – and told Adam that he was going to drive. Adam got in and when
Queen waved, we took off down the strip. We made the trip in a little more than 15 seconds. After we crossed the finish line, I got out of the car and then asked Adam to do it by himself – and he did. Adam crossed the line in something closer to 12 seconds. I asked him what he thought about the experiment. Adam struggling to speak said,
Prier, you have been like a dad to me. I didn’t believe you would let me
drive your car…we built robots. I never did anything like this before. I did not
think you were serious at first, but you have made this one of the best years in
my life. I got to race your Porsche and I got to drive it fast and did not get into
trouble. Prier, my teachers like me now and I like school. I am so glad I
129 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
listened to my parents and teachers about you. Thank you for all of this… I just
don’t know what I am supposed to do next.
I told Adam that he just needs to believe in his teachers and graduate - we are here to help. I assured him that none of us want to keep him in school forever. Adam’s girlfriend started crying after she heard him speak. I asked her what’s wrong… did you think we were going to run over you with the car? She said,
No Mr. Prier! I am happy because you are just over the top. You make
us laugh at your jokes; you clown us and you make us happy and want to come
to school. You always want to know how we are doing and what we are doing.
You always reward us for working hard, and you make learning in your
classes really fun. I wish all of my teachers were like you. I wish you would
have been my teacher much sooner.
That year, I was nominated for teacher of the year at my school and in my district. I knew that I would not win because I was a new teacher. Winning that title was not important at this point because I had already realized that I was not into teaching for the fancy titles; I was in it to help kids grow. I was happy knowing that my reward was making a significant change and impact in one young Black male’s life, as well as all of his school friends – and the staff I worked with at the school. We were so proud of Adam because when Adam graduated, he went on to get a job after his graduation from our school at Intel, as a computer technician.
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Figure 29 Adam (circled), sitting on the floor, did not like to take pictures.
NAFEO at NASA Ames I mentioned that I was afforded the opportunity to work at NASA Ames. I was hired to work at the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education office at the NASA Ames facility. It was a program that operated successfully on the
East Coast but had no presence on the West Coast until 2002. The program was run by
Director Keith Jackson and I was hired as the Assistant Director and Technical
Consultant to the program. It is significant to add this detail to my dissertation because the primary purpose of the program was to create research opportunities between research organizations at NASA and minority serving institutions in the United States.
These MSI’s and HBCUS included Native Americans, Black and Puerto Rican students.
As the Assistant director of this program, it was my responsibility to locate highly qualified researchers and their students from universities and match them to a research project that at the NASA Ames facility. Additionally, it was my job to introduce these students to potential lifelong mentors in STEM. These mentors included Dr. Bob Twiggs (inventor of the CubeSat), Dr. Hakeem Olyseyi (inventor of technology for imaging the first images of the surface of the sun), and Dr. Noe Lozano
(School of Engineering Dean at Stanford University). In the time I held the position, I
131 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 was also fortunate to employ one of the Black high school students that participated in
FIRST robotics competition and the San Jose Tech challenge. These students had the opportunity to work with other aspiring undergraduate and graduate STEM students from across the globe. Additionally, these students were invited to work on NASA sponsored projects and learn about spacecraft experimentation techniques. In addition to my role as Assistant Program director, I was the program’s Technical Consultant.
As Technical Consultant, it was my role to teach students and professors about payload system requirements – how to design an experiment that would successfully make the journey into space without falling apart due to vibrational and environmental conditions.
As prestigious as the program was, it encountered a lot of resistance from other education programs at NASA as well as their personnel going as far as making threats to complain to the California Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for operating our organization on the NASA Ames Campus. It did not take long for me to find myself in various meetings with the Ames Center Director who strongly worked with us to support our program and resolve frivolous claims. Even though we had his support, other organizations did their best to make our students, as well as our administration, feel unwelcome and make us feel as though we did not deserve an opportunity to share the same clean California air with them. Things got really serious when my organization and I were harassed in an encounter at the NASA Ames
Exchange Lodge.
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During the summer of 2004, I was asked to put on a party for our soon to depart interns and our newly promoted Civil Servant graduate student at the NASA
Ames Exchange Lodge (NEL). The NEL has a historical presence because many great
NASA test pilots have stayed there including pilots for space missions and pilots for air shows that included the Blue Angels. After reviewing and understanding all of the requirements for hosting the party, we contacted the space center director and the space center housing coordinator to host the party – and obtained signature approval.
The party was to start at 7:00pm sharp on Friday. My students were instructed to arrive at 6:45pm to help me set up for the party. Our students were also encouraged to bring students from other NASA sponsored programs to participate. It was a big deal because many students from around the world were showing up with some of their favorite dishes to share with their new friends and hopefully lifelong colleagues.
Around 7:30, we had approximately fifty students and professors in attendance.
Everything was going well until a I noticed a woman with uncombed red hair meddling with the students’ dishes. I cautiously approached this woman and asked her who she was. She said that she was the Lodge residential associate. In return, she asked me what we were doing there. I told her that we were having a party for the interns. She responded stating that interns were not allowed to have parties – and then she walked off. The students told me that this woman normally will not let them use the swimming pool after 8:00pm even though the pool area and patio area is supposed to be available to them until 10:00pm. I informed them that I know of the rules because I was the person that was responsible for their lodging in the program.
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After this dialog with the students, we continued to share stories of our cool project experiences when right around 8:00pm, the woman returned. This time, she came and found me while I was talking and said that we need to shut the party down. I told her, No. She said, in front of the students,
If you don’t shut this part down right now, I am going to call the police.
She immediately walked off. My students were starting to get upset and collect their items. One of my Black students indicated that one time when his parents had come to town and she had done the same thing to them – forcing them to leave the patio area.
Just as the student was wrapping up his story, I saw a Mountain View police officer arrive on the scene. I asked him if I could help him. He said that he had received a complaint that we were disturbing the peace. I responded to him indicating that we were having a party for my organization and the students had not been disruptive. He then mentioned that the woman in red hair, whose name I found out was Robin, said that we were having an unauthorized party and since it was unauthorized, we would have to be leave immediately or be arrested. At that point, students started grabbing their dishes and leaving. The officer then asked me for my driver’s license. I asked him why do I need to give you my driver’s license; I have not been driving. In that instant, another officer stepped behind me and asked me to walk to his patrol car. Just as I started walking in the direction of the car, the student who just became a civil servant said this is stupid! The officer that originally was talking to me grabbed the civil servant and hand cuffed him. They walked us to the police car and then put him on the ground. While one officer was running my license, the other stood over the civil
134 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 servant. After five minutes, the officer came back and returned my license. He told me
I needed to leave immediately. I asked him about my student who was on the ground as they picked him up – they put him in the police car. They then drove away.
I immediately called Keith. After explaining all of the details, he called the
NASA Ames center director. Keith called me back and told me that they were going to go get the student from the Mountain View jail. Around an hour later, I heard from
Keith who explained that since the civil servant student demonstrated that he refused to cooperate with them, they arrested him, and he would have to stay in jail for forty- eight hours. This was devastating.
It was around 9:00pm on Sunday night when I heard from Keith again. He told me that they were not going to press charges and had let the student out. The center director indicated that he would do everything in his power to ensure that the civil servant would not lose his status and privileges because of the fact the Mountain View police department should not have been called to solve a NASA related issue – NASA has its own police department. I remember Keith saying, “their guns are bigger!”
Keith also wanted to see me bright and early on Monday morning… 9:30am!
I would normally get to work around 7:30am and this time I noticed Keith’s car in the parking lot – but I did not see him in his office. Around 10:00am, he came in with the civil servant student; they had just left a meeting with the Space center director and the Space center director of lodging. He told me that at 9:30, Robin was terminated from her position.
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I later saw the Space center director. He told me that he was disappointed with me because I had not invited him to the party. Had I done that; nothing would have happened that night. He also commended me for my professionalism and promised to reimburse me and the students for any money we lost from the event – which he did.
The short-lived program was considered a success by me and many others as we were able to get one hundred percent of the visiting groups who we invited to
NASA in valuable partnerships with various long term research faculty groups, including work on the Curiosity rover. Even though the program only lasted 2 years, we were proud to have created a pathway that would ultimately allow HBCUs and
MSIs an opportunity to participate in space research.
Expanding on this topic, the incident at the lodge was an example of the permanence of racism and the pervasiveness of White Privilege because my students were exposed to a scenario where they did not understand their rights and were ready to forfeit an opportunity to network. I believe that this notion is prevalent due to the fact that since I did not look like a traditional manager at NASA and they did not look like the traditional employees of NASA Ames, they would be treated and served as delinquents to the Mountain View Police department. In the instance which the students’ party was interrupted, they forgot that they were employed by NASA and they had just as much of a right to attend the party as the lodge manager or myself – they all had to have their NASA badges on their person, or they would not have been able to access the lodge pool area.
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The shameful part of this story is that our only Black male civil servant was arrested for demonstrating that he had the right to attend the party. The problem for him was that his behavior, while protesting, was considered disruptive – a trait that in the normal school system would lead to isolation; and in his case, it was 48 hours of jail time. And due to the outrageousness of the circumstances that landed this Black male civil servant in jail, all charges were dropped – but only after his losing 48 hours of his life behind bars.
The Great North West We left California the following year because we were tired of the crowding and the cost of living was too much for us; we moved to Washington state. My wife and I accepted jobs at the Intel corporation, but I did not like mine. As a result, and withing a couple of months after having our youngest daughter Sydney, I decided to take a Math teaching job in the Tacoma Public school district. In the section of
Tacoma where I taught, there were a lot of low-income families. These students were very pleasant, but attendance was always low at school because many had jobs to help their families.
Shortly after starting my new teaching job at Lincoln High School, the John
Hopkins University School of Education’s Center for Social Organization published a study (Johns Hopkins University School of Education, 2006) that identified Lincoln high school as a “drop out factory” (Everett Herald, 2007). Based on an analysis of
U.S. Education Department statistics by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, my school, and several other Washington State High Schools would lose 40 percent of
137 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 their entering freshmen before they reached their senior year. This was a very disturbing article to me because I noticed that the majority of the students at my school were Asian and White; and based on the traditional stereotypes, the school would be expected to be a success.
Even though I did not have any Black students in my classes, I found myself having a lot in common with these students as I also had grown up in an area similar to theirs. Many of the students I taught had parents who either worked more than one job or were unemployed. I developed a strong relationship with many of the students.
One took a strong interest in me and my accomplishments. She was a star on the basketball team and a star in my Pre-Calculus class. Her name was Natasha.
Natasha, also known as T-Mac by her classmates, was popular because she was accepted by everyone. She was popular with both the nerdy students and the rougher, more gangster population on campus. She was able to successfully navigate the various dynamics of the different social groups although she was a White female.
She was proud to let people know she listened to both classical and rap music and had a Black boyfriend. Natasha came from a home full of stress, but she was proud of what she had. Natasha was a senior in high school and held a perfect 4.0 grade point average. Natasha had only two objectives in high school; keep her grades up as high as possible and make her boyfriend keep his grades up. To satisfy the requirements of this study, we will refer to Natasha’s boyfriend as Namor.
Namor was a six-foot three athlete that missed his opportunity to play basketball his senior year in high school because he could not keep his grades up.
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Namor went to Foss High School, which was nicer and had a larger Black population than our school but was also mentioned on the “drop out list”.
When I met Namor, I assumed that he was a basketball player. Even though he was very nice, he had problems academically. He told me that I was probably one of the first Black teachers he had ever seen to teach a Math class. Namor told me that he wanted to get into the associate’s program to be a Paramedic, but his grades were not good enough to get into the math and science classes he needed. Natasha wanted to get an associate degree as well at our school, but she was a math class behind and had needed to have completed Pre-Calculus her junior year. I told both him and Natasha that there were other ways to achieve their goals; they just needed to be creative.
Because their career paths were focused on STEM, I pitched the idea to them that we should start a robotics team at Lincoln. Natasha thought it was a great idea because she had a business-like personality and Namor said he liked working with power tools. Before I knew it, I had twenty students that wanted to start a robotics team. Aligning with the math curriculum, I assigned Natasha to manage the cost of the materials as well as finding sponsors who would donate to our team. Natasha and
Namor worked together with Monikka (my wife) to develop a business plan and proposal presentation to send to potential sponsors.
As time went on, as Natasha began to stand out as a leader, Namor started to miss more robotics meetings; and then he quit. Natasha was devastated. She said he quit because he had given up. She said between the challenges he had academically, not being on the basketball team, not being able to participate in the paramedic’s
139 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 associates’ program, and the bad press about the dropout rates in Tacoma was too much for him. Namor lost interest in his dreams. I tried to reach out to Namor by going by his home and calling him, but he never responded to my messages.
I felt like I had failed this Black male student as a coach and a mentor, but I was pleased to watch Natasha and the rest of her team grow - never giving up on her dream for the school nor the team. She wanted to prove the news wrong as she was not going to be another statistic. And before we knew it, we had a lot of money, a robot, and a victory.
Ultimately, the Everett Herald would publish a story identifying Lincoln High as a “dropout factory” (Everett Herald, 2007) but it was ok, because I can honestly say that these talented students had lots of heart to overcome adversity. Even though I lost one student, I touched the hearts of the remaining students and their community.
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Figure 30 Natasha and Namor’s dream team, also known as Chilliwack 2007.
I resigned as a Math teacher at the end of the school year. I did continue to coach other teams in Washington State, but only after I returned from working in
Germany as an engineer.
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Figure 31 Portland Regionals, 2012 – Next Stop World Robotics Championship I was fortunate to earn an opportunity to work as a test engineer at RECARO, the original plant where the first Porsche 911 was produced. Upon my return from
Germany, my wife and I decided to start a company that presented opportunities for continued engineering work in Washington State, Oregon, and Germany. And even though I loved engineering, I continued to miss working with students in the classroom. Feeling the need to work with students again, especially Black male students, I decided to enroll in Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, determined to obtain a master’s degree for the purpose of learning how to mentor students in
STEM. Immediately after entering the Master of Arts in Education (MAE) degree program, I realized this was one of the best decisions I had ever made in my life. I discovered that my instructors were presenting societal issues in class which was at the forefront of educational research, especially material related to critical race theory and equity in education. Because I was so excited to participate in this program, I decided to step down as an Aerospace engineer, and immerse myself into the content. My instructors were phenomenal. My favorite professors were Elaine Coughlin and Anita
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Boudreau. Professor Coughlin was of Jewish descent, and Professor Boudreau was of mixed race, being of Jamaican and South African descent. I remember some of our classroom discussions and feeling like I was on fire and empowered! I have no idea how I got into Pacific University, but I felt transformed. I graduated with straight A’s and set a record at the school by completing their 2-year program in 9 months. It was as though those professors knew exactly what magic potion to give me, but when they were done, I felt supercharged and ready to take on any problem – I felt as though I had been transformed into a superhero for students! After completing their program, I realized that there was no way I would ever return to industry as I felt I was prepared to help all students succeed in STEM! Now I knew how to become the best teacher on the planet!
Middle School STEM Experience in Houston, Texas After arriving in Texas, I obtained a middle school teaching position in
Houston. Teaching at Olle Middle School was a challenge as I had never worked with kids this age in any of my previous teaching experiences. The first year I taught at
Olle, I was teaching Algebra to eighth graders. Science was what I was originally recruited to teach, but somehow, I was teaching a subject that most of the students dreaded. There were a lot of challenges at Olle, particularly from the administration, but somehow, I made it through the first year.
My second year at Olle was my first year as a Ph.D. student at Texas Tech
University. And if that was not exciting enough, it is also the year that I moved out of the Math department to focus on growing and teaching a STEM engineering robotics
143 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 program. Creating an inclusive classroom environment is a skill that I always felt was one of my strongest. As a firm believer in differentiated, constructivist pedagogy, I knew it was important to develop lessons and activities that appealed to a variety of learner types. However, in this classroom at Olle Middle School, I was faced with a classroom composed of students that presented a novel challenge to my desire to reach every student; I had a class that was a mix between gifted/talented (GT) students and
Life Skills students.
Figure 32 The E.A. Olle STEM Dream Team
I loved the principal of this school because she understood my affinity for challenges. So, with her help, I set up a classroom that met the requirements of the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We created a classroom that had a robot arena at the center and used colors to make it attractive for student engagement. My motivation for making these changes was driven by my toughest client who I will identify as Charles Xavier. Charles Xavier was a three-foot-tall Black male Life Skills
144 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 student who was confined to a wheelchair. I knew this student from my first year as I would see him in the cafeteria every day. On my lunch duty days, Charles would routinely ask me about STEM subjects, including Voltron, the Xmen, Transformers, robotics, and prosthetics. Although he had health issues, he loved talking about robots in cartoons with other teachers, students, and my principal. One day during lunch, he asked me why is it that he could not have robotics classes. I promised him that I would one day teach robotics at the school – and if we get the class, I wanted him to be one of my students.
Figure 33 Charles Xavier and his original algorithm for his first robot program.
Originally, I had not put any deep thought into the idea of teaching the robotics course until the second summer of my employment. Upon returning to school, I introduced the idea of having a mixed classroom of regular students, GT students, and
Charles Xavier – and it was approved.
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I remember the look on Charles Xavier’s face when he entered my room – it was priceless! He was so excited that he would be doing robotics with his buddies and me and excited that he would be learning how to program robots to move. After the first day of class, I remember the principal asking me, “How did it go?” I told her it went well, and Charles Xavier was excited to be in there. I told him that he reminded me of my favorite X-men, Professor X. Professor X was bound to a wheelchair in the
Marvel comic book series, but he could control all the X-men with his mind; his mind was powerful! I knew that Charles Xavier read the X-men series at home with his mother and believed that he too could be like the Marvel comics book hero Professor
X. My principal responded, indicating that Charles Xavier had been struggling in his math classes and his writing skills were not the best, but my class would give him that confidence to become more successful. I sensed that she was trying to prepare me for the challenges that I would be facing with Charles, but I was already prepared for this challenge. I still was interested in hearing any recommendations or suggestions from this principal as I was always ready to walk to the end of the earth for her and these kids… and she knew I loved that student because he was a fellow nerd!
In my robotics classes, I first started off teaching students about algorithms for autonomous operating robots for navigation. I would draw them on the board. The algorithms were a type of process flow diagram (PFD) made up of arrows, circles, and boxes. The kids would write down what I had put on the board every day in their notebooks. I know that Charles Xavier had challenges writing, so I had him sit with a
GT student and use MS PowerPoint to create their PFDs. When the other students saw
146 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 what Charles Xavier was doing, they wanted access to computers so they could also make their PFDs on the computer. My principal and I laughed at this - so we went out and found laptops for all the students in the class.
Figure 34 Robot arena for learning how to write simple algorithms. After teaching algorithms, we focused on geometry, measurements with rulers and wheels. Since I knew Charles Xavier had penmanship problems, I told him that he and the GT student could do their calculations using MS Excel. When the other students found out that Charles Xavier was using spreadsheet software to do his calculations, they all demanded to use Excel as well. After a few class periods, I decided to allow them to use Excel to do their distance and rotation calculations. The principal and I were laughing in the background because this was part of our master plan.
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Figure 35 The Alamo Maze Project for the most advanced robotics students. Before I knew it, the class had become incredibly competitive. The students, at one point, were required to program LEGO robots to autonomously traverse a maze.
Charles Xavier could program the robot by himself and led the class for the majority of the year. As a matter of fact, students were required to make presentations in class, and he made a presentation on the Various Controlling Methods for Steering Robots. I asked why did he select that topic? He said,
I am probably the most qualified student to make this presentation
because I am stuck in a wheelchair. I think I am a robot sometimes, and I have
to control my motion. I control my motion by controlling the wheels on my
chair, and it takes a lot of thinking. I believe that since I know the most about
how to drive and turn with two wheels, it should be my topic to present.
Charles Xavier ran this class to the end of the year by doing amazing work; he had figured out how to use all types of sensors and steering mechanisms that I had not
148 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 taught. Not only did he do well in my class, but he started doing really well in his math class too. His math teacher was fine with him using the computer to write and make his calculations. At one point, there wasn’t any type of math that he could not do in Excel. He literally excelled!
The work that Professor X did was so profound that it changed the image of the school. Not only was his work drawing attention from the school district, but it also drew attention from the Greater Houston robotics community, which ultimately charged us to hold a US FIRST Robotics tournament at the school. This activity then led to national attention as we started receiving visitors from universities across the country and celebrities from the Discovery Channel. The level of this work was so significant to the STEM community that my wife Monikka Mann, an aerospace engineer, Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, an astrophysicist from the Science Channel, and I teamed up with a professor at Texas Tech and wrote an article in the eTET refereed journal, and it was accepted! The featured article is called Life skills students in the
STEM classroom: Robotics as effective project-bast learning (Prier, Mann, Oluseyi, &
Hite, 2018). I was so proud of Charles Xavier, the real-life Professor X!
Project 1-Avoyelles Because of this positive experience and all of the positive praise, I decided to go another step further. After borrowing money and robots from my daughters Laura,
Lillian, and Sydney, I decided that I would take my robotics teaching skills to another level by offering an introductory robotics course to children ranging from 6th to 9th grade. I was trying to determine: What kinds of students would show up if I offered a
149 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 free summer class in robotics? Would they be all younger or older? What would these students look like? Would I have any Black male students show up? And would these students try and complete the program, or would they quit?
I would choose two locations in a different state where no one knew of my talents as an educator and limit the number of student participants to 18 (eighteen) students total - 9 (nine) boys and 9 (nine) girls. After consulting my mother and my
Aunt Thelma, I chose Avoyelles Parish - a rural spot in Louisiana where my parents are from.
Figure 36 Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana is marked in Red above.
Ta Pariosse Avoyelles, Avoyelles Parish in French, is located in central
Louisiana and is near the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers. The total population of this region is a little over 40,000 people. Many educators reading this work may be familiar with Avoyelles Parish as not too long ago, it is featured in a movie based on the book 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. The book 12 Years a Slave is an autobiography and real-life story of Solomon Northup, a free Black man who was
150 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 drugged and then sold into slavery in central Louisiana back in 1841. Both Bunkie and
Marksville have trail markers identifying significant landmarks relevant to Solomon
Northup’s historic plight throughout the region. The Northup Trail ends at a historic courthouse in Marksville, Louisiana, as it is the site where Northup regains his freedom. And so, we chose Marksville first!
Marksville is a town of a little over 2200 people. I have always loved
Marksville because of its small size and how modern it seemed to be compared to the rest of the towns in the area around it! Although much smaller than some of the surrounding towns, it has always been one of the most progressive in the region. To aid in helping me understand the level of technical competence of the kids and parents,
1-Avoyelles administrators provided survey data which was obtained from their collecting applications for their summer STEM program that we would be featured.
Based on the results of their survey, it could be concluded that 70 percent of the parents who would have their student participate in the program had service jobs, and only 15 percent of all the parents and their kids who would attend the program were familiar with computer use and 3D printing technology. Based on the details from the survey, it would be safe to conclude that these service jobs required the parents to be on their feet for extended periods of the day. I do recall one Marksville parent, who had a job as a banker, was a great help in getting the students familiar with the computers for their programming.
As I mentioned earlier, I have family that lived in Marksville. As a matter of fact, I get excited about this place every time I hear its name because I think of my late
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Aunt Marion and all of her kids who lived there. Some of my best memories of my own life came from that place and playing with my Aunt Marion’s children. Over time, all of my Aunt Marion’s children went on to go into STEM fields and are all now successful role models. In regard to professional employment, my Aunt Marion was a writer for the town and the region and did an outstanding job keeping up with historical events of that time.
Right down the street from where my Aunt Marion lived is Mary McLeod Bethune
High school, the site where I would teach robotics in the 1-Avoyelles summer STEM program. There is a lot of family history on that school site as my aunt Marion, her children, my parents, and the majority of the Black students of the 60s and 70s that lived around Marksville attended MMBHS.
Figure 37 Black students of this region had their own schools. This school had a very strong reputation in academics and athletics as their students excelled in just about everything. Unfortunately, this all came to an end in the early 80s after serious renovation as all of the buildings except the gymnasium burned down. Because the gymnasium was detached from the school and was not affected by
152 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 the fire, it was turned into a community center for the local youth; and it was the perfect place for our STEM robotics camp.
How many students were going to attend the camp was my worry. This was the first time I had ever done a STEM camp in Louisiana. Because so many people think that Black people are lazy, this idea of no one showing up started to float at the back of my mind – I was worried as I did not want to see that happen.
To my satisfaction, my hopes came to fruition; within the first 10 minutes, we had students show up. The issue here is that we had 11 female students arrive, and I only had space for 9. I contacted the center program director and asked if she could confirm the roster count. We walked to the back of the center, where she located the roster. It had nine girls and nine boys. She asked, “what are we going to do?” I told her that maybe I could expand the team sizes for each robot, and we agreed. As we walked back up to the front, we noticed a line of people at the door, as well as my own daughter Sydney walking towards me fast. I asked her what was wrong? She said,
“Dad, I thought you said we would only have 18 kids in the program. Right now, I count 26... and I think there are some more people in the parking lot.”
Stunned and in disbelief, I went up front and noticed that I actually had 28 students show up, and some of them were even White and Asian! I would not even have believed that there were Asian people… in Marksville? And then, I also noticed that thirteen of the students that attended were Black males ranging from grades of 6th to 11th. I was speechless because I did not know how I was going to facilitate all of these students. I was also struggling to understand what happened in regard to
153 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 managing the roster and advertising. It was so funny watching my daughter Sydney bouncing around managing the attendance; she, too, was trying to determine how we would facilitate a large number of students.
Figure 38 Large turnouts for STEM robotics and Avoyelles!”
Using some creative classroom management skills, I was able to facilitate all of the students – I chose not to turn any of them away on the first day. I figured that
154 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 the less serious students would eventually leave from boredom – well, one would think this. And by day three, I did lose three students – they were 11th graders. They chose to leave the program because they had to work. The rest of the students that attended showed up early every single day because they wanted to make sure that they had a robot and computer to work on, and there would be no issues with them having access to them.
Each day, I introduced more difficult material. The students had to write out algorithms by hand, learn how to operate the robots, and then program them. My
Black male students were not fazed by my endless sets of instructions. Many teachers from different places asked how did I manage all these students? In this case, they all were motivated to graduate to the mazes.
Figure 39 Marksville students presenting their handwritten algorithms.
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Figure 40 Students enjoying robotics and programming. Once the students could successfully write their programs, they would graduate to the next room and go out to the stage to test their robots. The mazes all required well-structured algorithms depended on good calculations by the teams’ field engineers. The good calculations were then given to the teams’ Computer Scientist for good programming. Assuming the robot was managed properly by the teams’
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Mechanical engineers, the robot would go where it was supposed to go. All students had assigned task and role – and they were determined to be the best at them. They were all motivated to be the best because on graduation day; they would be showing off their work to their parents.
Project 1-Avoyelles, Bunkie Unlike Marksville, the town of Bunkie, Louisiana, is rural and small. Bunkie
High School or Bunkie Magnet High has a population of roughly 500 students and about 4000 people in the community. In regard to the demographics of the school,
Bunkie is 55.4% Black, 41.5% White, and 2.2% Hispanic. Life before, a survey was administered to the parents and students. It turns out that over 50% of the parents had professional jobs that did not require them on their feet all day. As a matter of fact, most of the parents who had their children attend the program were from other small towns in the parish, including Marksville and Mansura. Like before, my program would only allow for a total of 18 students. And like before, I had almost twice as many students show up; we had 29 show up, and I did not turn any away.
It was challenging this time, with so many students working, because we operated in the cafeteria. We had three tables full of students. To make things operate smoothly, we created sections and stations for students to access, each one to be accessed chronologically but only after demonstrating mastery. The students chose their positions within each team and worked hard.
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Figure 41 Sydney (in yellow) - helping me teach class.
Figure 42 Students performing calculations for their programs.
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Figure 43 Navigating Undersea robots was always on my mind.
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Figure 44 Enjoying torturing these students with FUN robotics activities!
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Figure 45 More work for robotics students! The ruler is their friend!
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Figure 46 Preparing to expose Bunkie students to FUN STEM activities I was surprised working with this group as each day; it seems that they were teaching me something new about my robots – things I did not know about nor how to do. I was very proud of this group because they were surviving my torturing them with fun activities!
Figure 47 Students using rulers and geometry to control the robots.
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Figure 48 High performing student and award recipients.
Figure 49 Posing with the Principal of Bunkie High and Bunkie Superintendent
Figure 50 Monikka Mann and I, posing with the Mayors of Mansura and Bunkie
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Figure 51 Students received college planning information
What I really liked was that at the end of the program, I was introduced to the mayors of Bunkie and Mansura, as well as the Bunkie high principal. In addition, we had representatives from LSU, the University of Kentucky, and Stanford set up booths for the kids and hand out information about their school programs. As a result, from so much positive praise from the community, my daughters, Lillian and Sydney, and I were interviewed by the local newspaper, Avoyelles Today, and made an appearance on Carlette Chrismas’ TV show On Point Talk of Alexandria, Louisiana.
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Figure 52 Lillian, Sydney, and me – in the news
Figure 53 This is what community support from the neighboring towns looks like!
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Figure 54 How did I get on OnPoint Television? I love working with kids!
My Return to High School I really enjoyed the two years I spent teaching middle school and the summer programs; we did such incredible things. I really found myself missing the students and faculty after leaving to go to an all-Boys school in downtown Houston. To protect me from future headaches, I will refrain from using the name of this HISD school. I made the mistake of taking the position because I was told that I would get a signing bonus for taking the job, even though it would be an opportunity to work at a high school that was predominately made up of Black male students. Because of my success with Black male students in the past, I thought I would accept this challenge.
This appointment lasted 1 (one) year. Although I am still on speaking terms with the principal of this school, he will never be able to pay enough money to return.
When I arrived at the school, I was told that I would be teaching robotics to high school students. What I learned after being employed was that I was only told half the truth – I would be teaching middle school students robotics and engineering
166 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 classes and would have to teach robotics to high school students at the end of the day…for $25 per hour, up to $10,000. There was nothing I could do since I had already left the middle school behind and already had signed the new HISD contract.
I have to be honest… I met some incredibly smart and talented Black male students while serving at this school. I was impressed with them back then, and I am impressed with the ones that I still hear from and work with regularly. As a matter of fact, most of the best students that I knew that went there left the school to attend other schools after I left. One of these students, whom I chose to call the David Banner for this dissertation, left an impact on me. For those who are not familiar with David
Banner – his alter ego is comic book hero Hulk!
Figure 55 The great Bruce Banner!
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Figure 56 Bruce Banner, AKA The Hulk
Bruce Banner is a tall, dark, and strong Black male student who is very intimidating to most teachers and students. I love this student because since I met him, he did outstanding work for me in my classes as well as on my robotics teams. He was a very good dresser and always ready to work hard. Bruce Banner was a leader in my classes and, in many cases, helped me to resolve conflicts between students due to his commanding and towering stance – like the Hulk! Unfortunately, his parents could never be there when he had problems at school – so he worked hard and stood up for himself in any challenge. I assumed the role of mentor for him, and my family has grown very fond of him and his potential.
In my classes, I noticed that Bruce Banner always gave me more than what I asked for when it came to doing his assignments. One time I gave Bruce and the rest of the students an assignment to go out and build the strongest bridge from popsicles. I also told the students that simultaneously, I would be designing a bridge tester. Within two days, Bruce had completed the design of his bridge and provided engineering
168 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 drawings for his bridge. Because he was going hungry to learn about engineering, I asked him to help me design the new bridge testing tool. This bridge tester would be more advanced than the one we made for Olle middle school.
Figure 57 The Super Man, E.A. Olle’s engineering bridge tester.
Figure 58 Green Hulk, popsicle bridge tester - designed by Banner & students
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Bruce was a natural leader in my class as he never turned in late work and was always looking to get ahead to help other students with their work. Bruce Banner was always reading the board and trying to get the most out of the assignments I provided to the class. I even let him lead lessons in my classes because he demonstrated what and how a model student of that school should behave.
Unfortunately, Bruce Banner was not as successful in all of his classes. His other STEM teacher provided a very different classroom environment that was affecting Bruce Banner’s attendance.
Figure 59 Bruce Banner (center) in Junior ROTC Several times, Bruce Banner would stop by upset. He would complain about a science teacher that seemed to let the students say anything in class that would ultimately disrupt his learning.
…I was in the class with my first “white” teacher. It’s typical that a
teacher will go “don’t say that it’s offensive” no matter what color they are…
but that wasn’t what I received. What I got was “you will be called some
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things you don’t like in life. “Maybe in her mind she might have been trying to
teach me something, but in mine, it was just her picking on the black kid who
was just called a “N” by a white student. How am I supposed to feel
comfortable in a class where if I’m called out by that word, I just get told in so
many words “deal with it. “
This event had a devastating effect on Bruce Banner, and he disappeared for almost two weeks from school. After he explained what had happened, I first verified the incident with his grandmother, who had basically given up as the principal did not seem to want to take action. And then I got an idea. Since Bruce Banner was the president of the 8th-grade class, we ran a “no profanity campaign.” With the support of the students, we created a system that when a student heard racial slurs and profanity, they could confidentially contact buddy teachers on the campus who would offer the offenders 1) a referral, 2) campus cleanup, or 3) disqualification from student events.
The catch with this process is that if a classroom of students were found in violation of this plan three times, the class as a whole would not be able to participate in these events.
What this plan did is force the students to take responsibility for themselves if the teachers failed to act. In a matter of a month, we had 100 percent cooperation of the students. I was proud of Bruce Banner and his team for working with me to devise a plan. Even though the plan worked, Bruce Banner’s teacher’s attitude did not seem to change.
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To keep Bruce Banner motivated, I promoted him to the captain of one of my robotics teams. Bruce Banner’s team did really well and had almost qualified for the
FIRST Robotics world championship. Shortly after the robotics team ended, I spoke to his history teacher. She said that having Bruce Banner involved in robotics was one of the best things he could have done. She said that Bruce Banner really stood out in her class by presenting exceptional work – his writing was phenomenal and very colorful.
She did mention that he said that he was not happy with his science teacher many times and admitted he was struggling. Additionally, she indicated that Bruce Banner’s parents, even though they were separated, wanted to pull him out because they were not happy with his relationships with the majority of his teachers and the climate of the school. She was not certain that Bruce Banner would return to the school the following year.
Over the summer, I learned that Bruce Banner had indeed left the school. I told him that one of my colleagues from the school said that he did not like any of his teachers besides me, his Math teacher, and his History teacher. I asked him why? He said,
Mr. Prier, you know I get along with almost everybody, but none of my
White teachers liked me. It was like they had a clique. The one good teacher I
liked died, and they fired the other one. None of my STEM classes were taught
by Black teachers, and the one teacher that taught high school robotics was
just like No. I did not like him when you were there, and I really did not like
him after you left. His wife also taught at the school, and she did nothing when
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students would complain about the use of the N-word in class. I told my mom,
and I didn’t want to go back… and that was the end. She transferred me to
Yates! Now, I love all of my teachers – Black, White, Indian… I think he’s
Indian.
I told him I understood his decision, and I was still proud of him. Since that conversation, Bruce Banner has been in my teaching life since 2016. He continues to volunteer and act as a mentor for all my Houston area school STEM programs and is highly involved with Greek organizations that have STEM functions in the area as well. I asked Bruce Banner if he would return to the school that I purposely fail to mention. He said:
Mr. Prier, you know how I am. If I go back to that school, my mom,
aunt, and grandmother would have to go down there and have it out with the
principal. You couldn’t give me a million dollars to go back to that school.
Well, maybe two million.
I have always been proud of Bruce Banner, and I am proud to say that he is now a senior in high school with a very high grade-point average. He wants to attend the University of Houston, but he is not sure if he is going to go into engineering - but that is ok with me.
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Figure 60 Two of my past robotics students taking a picture with Mayor Sylvester Turner.
As a matter of fact, I am proud of all the students that I taught that year.
Unfortunately, I still see them – representing other schools and competing in the same robotics tournaments my newer teams compete in. The joke that many coaches and sponsors in the Houston area share is that I produced a bunch of tech-monsters because when I take my newer robotics teams to compete against these ex-students, we lose very badly. By the way, I never got my signing bonus; but I did have one of the best times of my life working with those kids!
Spring Branch Spring Branch was a fun place to work as it provided the perfect pathway to stardom for myself, my own kids, and my students. When I ran away from the school that I choose to now forget about in HISD, I was hired on the spot. From the beginning, the administration admitted that they wanted me there because the students
174 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 needed to see someone like me that they could relate to. Our principal’s motto was
“All Means All,” as it was her way of saying that they promoted an all-inclusive environment for all learners – music to my ears! What surprised me is that I had not realized that Spring Branch was mostly White and Latino. This detail did not bother me at all as I loved working with all the students. What did bother me was the fact that most of the Black students that I encountered seemed to be struggling in their STEM courses, and many days I found myself wondering, why were they struggling?
Figure 61 Recruitment materials – Sydney and Lillian Prier
As promised, I was hired to teach engineering classes and was provided an opportunity to start a robotics program. What I quickly learned was that the school did not have money for the robotics program. Since we did not have money to attract students to join the robotics program, I had to go above and beyond in my classes to writing proposals and winning money to build equipment which would in turn attract the right students to join; I created exceptional lessons from the start.
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Figure 62 Model teacher and Teacher of the Year Nominee – 3 years in a row.
Figure 63 Teaching in action!
All of my student-centered lessons were authentic, differentiated in nature, and driven by a plethora of ill-posed objectives. Ill-posed instruction is a lifeform that spawns authentic solutions to problems – some of which can warrant patents. It was not long before students and administrators were talking about my lessons, teaching style, and my ability to get students to perform. By the second semester of my first
176 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 year, I went from having very small engineering classes to huge classes; I had to start turning students away. In regard to robotics, I had found my kids! Working with these kids, we smashed Houston in FIRST FTC robotics and advanced to state.
Figure 64 The Spring Woods Robotics Club takes Houston, TX.
Figure 65 We are the Champions!
Because of all the popularity and achievements, I was nominated for teacher of the year – obtaining a record number of nominations for our campus. As a matter of
177 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 fact, I was nominated teacher of the year three years in a row with a record number of nominations from teachers and students – but never won. In consolation, I did get an award for being the most distinguished and innovative teacher in the district – and then the roller coaster took off again.
Figure 66 SBISD School Board presents the Innovative teaching award
I suddenly found reporters from TV stations and the newspapers following us when we competed in robotics competitions. We were on TV, in newspapers, and I was even asked to be part of two political campaigns.
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Figure 67 The results of star power!
Figure 68 Sylvester Turner’s 2019 Re-Election Campaign for Mayor of Houston In my classes, the majority of the students were Latino, with just a few White students and maybe one or two Black students. Since this dissertation focuses on
Black male students, I will now present them and the challenges they faced.
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My favorite of the five students of Spring Branch that I taught and mentored over the past three years was Wally West, also known as the comic book hero Flash.
Wally and I have so much in common. Wally wanted to start a robotics club on campus, but since he was a senior, he felt he did not have much to contribute. Wally grew up in a rough part of Houston initially and moved to a more affluent part of town by the time he had reached middle school. The middle school he attended, which shared the same block as the high school, had some very tough students that used to pick on him because of the way he spoke. When he would tell on these students, the teachers would talk to the students, who would then turn around and try and beat him up for telling on them. The nickname Wally was appropriate for him because he spent a lot of time running away from these kids who picked on him. Wally was and still is a nerd!
Figure 69 Wally West – always overwhelmed with much work to do!
In my class, Wally stood out and would crack me up every time he started talking. One day I kept him after class and told him that since he was making my
180 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 engineering class look like a joke, I wanted him to join my robotics team. He said no. I asked him why and he said,
Mr. Prier, it is too late for me to join robotics. I want to major in
computer science in college, and I don’t know how to build anything. Besides,
my friends are in computer science, and I just won’t have time.
I said to Wally that if he did not join my robotics team, I would beat him up every day and take his lunch money. He cracked up! He asked me, “why him.” I told him that it was because I saw a lot of myself in him, and I believe that he would be an asset to the team because of his programming skills. Wally asked me, “do computer scientists do robotics?” I told him that I wanted to teach him about all the aspects of robotics engineering and how computer science is the heart of robotics. He said he would only join if I got his friend Eddie Brock to join.
Figure 70 Wally and Eddie’s creations
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Figure 71 Eddie Brock thought he was Denzel Washington’s brother Eddie Brock was a student in my second-period engineering class. Eddie
Brock was very quiet and an athletic ladies' man. I had seen him on campus, and he always had a different girlfriend. On the following Monday, I ask Eddie Brock what he does after school. Eddie Brock said,
I am having problems with one of my math classes. The teacher is
mean… never calls on me when I have a question in class. When he does try
and answer the question, I don’t know what he is saying, and he tries to make
me look stupid. He always tells me to come after school for tutorials – and in
most cases, he has a whole bunch of us Black kids in there, but he’s not
answering any of our questions. I am barely passing the class, and I believe
he’s only passing me because I’m on the basketball team. If I fail the class,
then I will lose my basketball eligibility and possibly my chances to get a
scholarship to Texas A&M. My teacher can’t teach and is forcing me to learn
all the material myself… I am burning out, Mr. Prier.
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I asked him, did you talk to your parents about this – any alternate plans for school? He said,
“…Going to Texas A&M has been my dream. My parents can’t help me
if this falls apart. My father goes to different grocery stores to put soda
displays, and my mother is a DSD receiver at a Kroger. They can’t do nothing
for me, man.”
What I realized is that it benefited the teacher to require students to attend lunch and after-school tutorial sessions because it appeared to the administration that the teacher was a dedicated educator. In Brock’s defense, I knew he was in a bad situation because the majority of the students who had taken Calculus from this teacher previously had complained that the teacher didn’t truly know the material and just wanted the students in there to give the appearance that he was teaching. In actuality, the teacher was no more helpful in these out-of-class sessions than they were during the regularly scheduled class periods.
I asked him how Wally is doing in the class, and he said that “Wally has an A.”
So, I made a deal with Eddie Brock. I told him that if he came after school, then Wally and I would help him with the material. And as luck would have it, he accepted the deal. To make sure that both Wally and Eddie Brock showed up for class, I spoke to the Calculus teacher informed him that both Wally and Eddie Brock are not to come to the Calculus class after school anymore because we needed to make sure Eddie Brock got help with his Calculus.
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Figure 72 Year 1 FIRST robotics team. Both Wally and Eddie Brock are present
With both Wally and Eddie Brock on my robotics team, I pushed them hard and made them work. We would start every day at three-thirty and finish up at five.
While they were doing Calculus, the other students were designing robots, and at one point, they would join in. Many of the students in my classes were the students who I believed needed a little something extra, and I told them that I would fail all of them with F minuses if they slacked off. I remember Eddie Brock saying:
“So, how are you supposed to be helping us if you are threatening us
with F minuses? That sounds like something my mom and dad would do.”
I told them that his problem was time management. Instead of him finding a new girlfriend every day, he needed to be focused on learning his math. I spoke to these young men as though I was their parent – and it was working. And then there
184 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 was the other basketball player that thought he was Michael Jordan… I will call him
Miles Morales.
Figure 73 Miles Morales and his teammates - getting ready for competition!
Miles Morales was another basketball player that thought he had it all. He was and is truly gifted, but somewhat selfish. He could be a ball hog on the basketball court and just the same, in class never gave anyone else time to speak – like Eddie
Brock. Even though Miles Morales was younger than Eddie Brock and Wally, he could do their work in half the time they could. Miles Morales was added on the robotics team to drive the robot.
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Figure 74 Miles M. is the tallest student on the team. Wally is on the right of Miles.
I treated all three of these Black male students like my own sons. It got a little weird when I discovered that Miles Morales had a crush on my daughter Lillian, but it was ok as long as he showed up to robotics after school. Between the four of us, we were able to get Eddie Brock’s math grade up to where he was eligible for extracurricular activities. He passed the semester with a B plus.
I always put pressure on these young men to work when they were in my class.
My motto was to work hard in my class and play harder on the basketball court. Both
Eddie Brock and Miles Morales were magical on the basketball court, and as a matter of fact, one game Eddie Brock got possessed and forget he was on a team and hit a half-court shot – ignoring the coach’s directions. The coach got so mad at him that he did not let Eddie Brock play the last few minutes of the remainder of the game. This looked bad to the recruiters, and Eddie Brock was worried.
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Figure 75 Eddie Brock (second on right) and Miles Morales (with glasses)
A few days after later I spoke to Eddie Brock and he said he wanted to show everyone he could make a difference. I told him that he had lots of opportunities to do that, but it is not always about you – maybe it was someone else’s moment and maybe you ruined it for them. I had needed to talk to Eddie Brock because I had noticed that his grades had started to slip in his classes anyway.
I told Eddie Brock to remember that he is on a team and everyone has a job.
When people don’t follow directions, then you lose games. You need to learn to work as a team – the same way we are working with you to see you pass that math class. He agreed with what I said and left. A few days later, I ran into the teacher whose class
Eddie Brock had been struggling in. The teacher told me that Eddie Brock had screwed up on a test but pulled his grade back up. Eddie Brock was working well and listening in class, and participating. Miles Morales, on the other hand, started to realize that the material in his math class was getting harder, and he began to struggle – but
187 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 then something cool happened… the other guys started helping him when I was not available. They were starting to work together as a study team. They finally started to figure it out – they needed to learn to work together and support each other in order to be successful. As a matter of fact, at one point, all of them had the equivalent of a four-point grade point average.
Figure 76 Miles repairing a robot bumper at the FIRST regional qualifier Because they worked so hard for me, I volunteered to write letters of recommendation for the schools of their choice, and they were accepted into all of the schools they applied to. Eddie Brock chose to attend Texas A&M because he wanted to continue playing basketball while Wally was just a nerd who was following in my footsteps. So, I talked Wally into going to Texas Tech. Both Black men are doing well now – it has been three years since they have left high school and hopefully soon, they will be starting their internships at computer science companies.
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Figure 77 Texas State Championship teams
Miles Morales, who had a crush on Lillian, had another year left in high school. He was demonstrating that he was a good basketball player but not the best team player. He was having problems with his English teacher and Calculus teacher. I decided to go and talk to both teachers, and I learned that Miles Morales was suffering from “senioritis” in the English class and having a difficult time with the Math teacher. The math class was Calculus, and he did not care for the teacher. He and I had to have several conversations about schools because he was getting scholarship offers, and then they stopped. He said that his nerves were starting to get the best of him. His complaint was that the Calculus teacher needed to take control of her class. The
189 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 students in the class were not taking the class as seriously as he was and saying all kinds of vulgarities before and after class while standing in front of her.
… almost every day, I would hear the word n*gga. This became
commonplace, whether it be in the classroom, passing from class to class, or at
lunch. Again, this was largely said by Hispanic people who have no right to
say the word. In the classroom, it did not bother me to the point where it
affected my grades or my work, but I know others who were. I am positive my
teacher heard the Hispanic students say these slurs. …no attempts were made
to correct this behavior. …until I realized my identity of being a Black man,
Hispanics saying n*gga bothers me even more now.
I explained to Miles Morales that for some reason, people are trying to use this term freely without understanding what it means; they think it is fashionable. They use it inside of the classroom and at school, where they figured out that no one seems to care, and the number of Black students is low. When I was in school, it was forbidden to use it, but back then, the Black student population was almost 40%. I am thinking that since there are so few of us here, they think no one is going to do anything about it. And then I assured him that I would.
As a result of the conversation, I sent a formal email to the principal and her staff making the complaint that teachers are allowing students to use racial slurs inside the halls and classrooms and are not doing anything about it. I provided specific details of incidents as well as the locations the incidents had occurred. I believe that,
190 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 because it was me that sent the email, it probably reminded them of an incident that happened to me when I tried to address the use of racial slurs in the classroom.
The incident that continues to disturb me, even though it happened three years ago, involved the teacher in the class next door to mine. As part of the CTE department and robotics coach, I was given a key to access the machine shop next door so that my students and I could repair or fabricate parts as needed. One afternoon, my students and I overheard the students in the class next door loudly using racial slurs, including the “N-word.” As a responsible educator, I walked to the classroom next door to determine whether the teacher was in the classroom and why these students were clearly misbehaving. When I entered the classroom, I saw the teacher was in there and not doing anything to correct the students’ behavior. I asked him if everything was okay and if he heard what his students were saying. He did not respond to my questions and just stared at me. I returned to my classroom, feeling very uncomfortable about the exchange I just had with my peer teacher, and I immediately contacted the school administration to intervene. The administration was also silent.
After getting no response from my messages, I decided to go to the Main Office and make a complaint in person. By the time I got there, I had discovered that the other teacher had made a complaint about me disturbing his classroom. He did admit to the assistant principal that the students were using inappropriate language in his classroom, but the bigger issue was that I had disturbed his classroom. As a result, of this, I wanted to resign on the spot. The assistant principal tried to broker a compromise of having the students come to me and apologize. He stated that it was
191 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 important for me to be a part of the team there at the school, and he did not want me to leave. I offered to give up access to the machine shop because I felt it was an unsafe environment for my students and me, if the other teacher permitted such unruly behavior, and I would find other resources for the students to develop their machining skills. The principal insisted that I continue to use the machine shop, and that’s when he agreed that he would speak with the shop teacher to make sure these types of incidents would never happen again. The following day, the students that were using inappropriate language did come to see me apologize for their actions, and the teacher did as well.
Under the assumption that everything was resolved, one of my students requested access to the machine shop. I decided that I would machine the part that they needed. When I tried to enter the machine shop door using my key, I discovered that the door would unlock but would not open. I asked the student to go find a janitor to check the door, as we could hear people inside, but the door would not open – as though it had been intentionally barricaded. After trying the door, the janitor informed me that there was another entrance to the machine shop that we could try. Using this other entry to access the machine shop, we noticed that all the lights were on, but no one was there. Just as the student and I approached the general access door (the one I had a key to), the other teacher appeared and stated, “I told them about you, and you’re forbidden to be in here.” Then he walked around me and stood in the doorway, which blocked me from having access to the hallway and my classroom. I told him that if he did not move, I was going to call the police. His response was, “Go ahead.” I
192 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 told him that he needed to move, and I will. He moved out of my way just as I went to grab the doorknob. However, as I was reaching for the door, his hand darted in and pulled something out of the lock that fell to the floor. It appeared to be a small Allen wrench that he used to jam the lock. Upon further inspection, it appears as though he drilled a hole in the locking mechanism to prevent the door from opening, although it was unlocked. I returned to my classroom, but the student who was with me in the machine shop was so disgusted with that teacher’s behavior that he grabbed his stuff and left campus. I tried to call the main office about this situation, but no one answered the phone.
Within a few seconds of me hanging up the phone, the other teacher who drilled the hole in the lock had entered my classroom. He started cursing, yelling, and invading my personal space; in fact, I was concerned that he was going to physically assault me in my classroom with students present, including my two daughters and a
Black male student, John Stewart. My older daughter left the classroom to try and get help from campus police while this was happening, but she could not find anyone since it was after school. I didn’t say anything initially to the infuriated White male teacher because I was not trying to provoke him; my only request to him was that he please leave my classroom. Eventually, I guess because he didn’t get the fight that he was looking for, he left the classroom. I was still unable to get anyone on the phone, so I documented everything in an email to the principals of the school.
No response ever came from the administrators of my school about this incident; I even went as far as including pictures of damaged property that resulted
193 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 from these incidents. What makes it even worse is that this was actually the second time that this particular teacher had tried to discourage me from using the machine shop; the first time he jammed a small ink pen cartridge in the lock so that when I turned the key, ink squirted out and left a large ink stain on my shirt. Originally, I had assumed that the ink was a prank by a student but then realized that it was him. It was hard seeing that the negative experiences of my students were being encouraged by other teachers on our campus, and this incident supported my argument that civility and respect were lacking on the part of students and teachers alike.
Figure 78 A deprecation of professionalism and racial tensions in the workplace.
So, when Mr. Morales asked me for my help, I was the ideal person to try and escalate his concerns because I had firsthand experience of how a teacher did not promote a civil and professional classroom. After sending the email, one of the principals asked what should be done about it? My recommendation was that all staff undergo sensitivity training. This was met with serious resistance, but I did not care because I, too, had felt victimized from these types of incidents; I continued to press the issue. After the fourth round and me naming other teachers who agreed with my
194 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 claim, the campus principal admitted that other teachers were complaining about the overuse of racial slurs and the use of the N-word on campus and promised that they would offer sensitivity training. And as promised, we were required to engage in sensitivity training during our preservice, one week before the 2018 school year started.
I met Miles Morales a couple of days after I had made my complaint to the administrative staff and informed him of their plan. He said,
…Mr. Prier! I didn’t believe you had it in you. You made them do
something good! …man, I can’t believe it. They usually don’t listen to us!
Wow!
I told Miles Morales that the key was just putting things in writing and being willing to have a productive, positive mindset when discussing racial issues – I just stay cool and hold my ground. I told him that when I spoke to my administration, I indicated that it wasn’t just students being affected by this, but the teachers as well. I also indicated to our school’s administration that schools are to be considered safe places to the public, and professionalism at every level should be our expectation….
And they agreed.
To cheer him up, my daughter asked him to Robot Prom. To also cheer him up,
I allowed him to drive my Porsche SUV – but only if he pulled his Calculus grade back up to an A.
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Figure 79 Miles Morales and Lillian go to Robot Prom – Spring, 2019 To my surprise, he did it! He got an A in calculus. As a matter of fact, Miles
Morales graduated with a 3.9 on a four-point scale and decided to attend my first alma mater, Southern University – where he got to play Division One basketball!
Figure 80 Miles Morales is getting ready to play D1 Basketball – his dream.
Figure 81 FRC Rookie Inspiration Award recipients at the Texas State robotics championship
196 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
Figure 82 There were not many Black male students - but we were family! In addition to Miles Morales’s challenges, I also had John Stewart and Reed
Richards; they were also great robotics engineers on my team and in my classes. Both
Mr. Stewart and Mr. Richards, also known as the Green Lantern and Mister Fantastic, struggled in their STEM classes due to issues outside of school that were out of their control. They were best friends and they both believed that the best they could do was join the military after graduation. I was not trying to see this happen and made it a point to get involved with their career paths as much as possible.
Figure 83 Posing with Dr. D. Wallace and Dr. Bernard Taylor- student motivators
197 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
Figure 84 Mr. Richards and Mr. Stewart is giving his approval on team comments
On several occasions, I felt really bad for Mr. Richards and his family because
I knew they did not have much of anything. Over the three years that I worked with
Mr. Richards, I have witnessed him facing situations where his parents both lost their jobs and their home. There was one particular case where I had to intervene because his math teacher, who is Hispanic and now a friend of mine, was not aware of his situation. Her complaint was that Fantastic would not talk during class and never ask questions. From his perspective, he thought she had a problem with him and the other black students in her classes; And his assumptions we based on what he witnessed in class.
198 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
She thought everything was fine until she noticed his performance was lackluster. I asked Fantastic about the class, and he said:
I don’t know what’s going on in her room. Most of the time, I can’t
figure out what we are doing that day because I can’t find the daily activities.
She don’t put nothing on the board. We don’t have textbooks, and none of us
know what’s going on. Being in there makes me feel stupid… she makes me
feel like I am too slow to be in there, and I felt like I'm not supposed to be
there.
When he proceeded to say that she must be racist, I cut him off. I explained to him that just because a person is tough and from a different ethnicity does not mean they are racist. And then jokingly, I said maybe they just don’t know how to teach.
This made him laugh. I asked him if he had told her about what was going on with his family outside of school. He said, “no, because she acts like she doesn’t want to know me.” I then explained that the teacher is actually a good colleague and a friend of mine. I recommended that he see her after school and try to talk to her again – but this time, try really hard to be positive.
Two days later, Mr. Richards came in to tell me he had spoken to his math teacher. He said she was upset with him and told him:
“…You should have told me what was going on in your life. I know how challenging things can be for you students. In my case, I was blessed with a young
199 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 child whose father is not in her life. I know what it means to struggle! If you would just talk to me, I would help you.”
Mr. Richards seemed to be upbeat about his situation. He shared with me that the teacher admitted she was tough on him because she wants the kids to think she is a tough person with high expectations. She told him that she wants kids to try hard; she wants to give them a taste of what college and the world may be like for them after they graduate.
Once Mr. Richards realized that his teacher was giving him a life lesson, he began to relax, trust her, and ask meaningful questions. As a result of this conversation, his grade went up high enough to maintain eligibility on the robotics team. He passed the class with a B.
Figure 85 Mr. Richards preparing to solder connectors on his robot.
200 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
Things did not improve too much for Mr. Richards’s family life over the following years. I had to work with him and stay on top of his grades and academic performance. I used to tell him, what good is it that you are an expert in robotics but have no grades? The problem was that he was missing a lot of time in school because he had no way to get to school due to his parents’ work schedule. I found myself talking to many of his teachers to ensure that they made arrangements for him to finish their classes with decent grades. Near the end of his senior year, things got really complicated for his family; It was now March 2020, and COVID-19 was running loose.
Mr. Richards and several other senior students in this study communicated to me that they were forced by their family situations to go out and get jobs in either fast food preparation or places where people were required to be within close proximity of each other, all to help their families stay afloat. The phone call that touched me the most was the one from John Stewart where he asked,
“…why can’t they find a job that will allow them to work from home?
...I don’t want to go out and work in this, and I don’t want to die from this
thing.”
In many cases, many of my students were not able to return to school and finish on time and had to settle for finishing up over the summer. I did not give up on
Mr. Richards or Mr. Stewart. As a matter of fact, I was on the phone with both of them when they turned in their final homework assignments to ensure that they would
201 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 graduate on time. I am pleased to announce that they will be going to the University of
Houston on STEM scholarships. Mr. Stewart wants to major in mechanical engineering, and Mr. Richards wants to major in either physics or computer science.
Aldine Independent School District After the summer of 2020 and with the virus going out of control, I thought I would take a chance and follow my dream of moving to a school district with a large
Black student population. I figured this was the best time for me to move because, as they say, the best time to leave is when you have reached the top! So, I applied for a job which is one mile from my house – and I got it. It’s in Aldine!
Aldine is 58 percent Hispanic and around 38 percent Black. Black teachers make up 42 percent of all teachers. Aware of these statistics, I wanted to find an opportunity that would allow me to explore the common stereotypes: 1) are Black students inferior academically and lack motivation, 2) is it true that we have no interest in STEM courses, and 3) does having at least one Black teacher affect Black student success and motivation?
Reflecting back to the hiring process, I remember the principal of the first school that I applied to immediately contact me and encouraged me to contact the head of the Career and Technical organization. Within one day, I was interviewed by a male and female principal, one Black female and one White male. This was one of the best interviews I had ever had, as I felt as though I would be considered an asset to the district. Within three (3) days, I was offered a job.
202 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
In no time, I found myself in meetings with the administration at every level.
Every other word from these administrators was focused on the welfare of the children and teacher performance; I loved it! After being overwhelmed with positivity, the challenges of COVID-19 prevailed as we were to set work within our organizations to discuss successful learning environments for virtual students, hybrid students, and special education students. This was a challenge for me as I did not know what to expect. My skills at structuring differentiated lessons and activities would be put to the test.
In no time, I discovered that I would be teaching engineering and design to students at three different locations and of various aptitudes, GT students mixed with
Special Education students! The recommended activities that I found for these classes were not designed for hybrid learning, and all required customization and adaptation.
Many of the students struggled to do the activities because they required a lot of teacher intervention and reteaching. Within the first two weeks, I was burned out, and my hybrid attendance rates were dropping; I needed a new plan to engage the students.
A New Plan of Action One Saturday night, I went upstairs to my daughter’s room and asked her what she was doing. She told me she was addicted to a racing game on her Xbox One. I asked her what it was about, and she told me it was a driving simulator, and you would get to pick out the cars. She let me play the game, and I found it addicting. After playing the game, I thought about all the work I had to do, and then I came up with an idea: why not make the activities like games? This reminded me that I had previous
203 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 success using racecars to motivate my students in the classroom. As a result, I created activities and lessons that were centered around some of the most popular sports cars that I liked. My favorites were the Audi race cars. In many of these activities required calculations for tire pressure and loading. I noticed that just about all the students completed them. Motivated by the level of participation, I created several others with really nice pictures of cars that I liked – and they did the work. My online attendance rate also increased. Before I knew it, about 90 percent of the students were doing my online activities. In the process, I was able to introduce students to dimensional analysis, measurements, and creating isometric drawings. Since students did not have access to the preferred Autodesk Inventor 3D modeling software, I was able to find
Onshape – a 3D modeling software package that could be used on a cell phone. Many struggled to use the software, but I got some amazing results. At this point, you are probably asking yourself, what does this have to do with Black male students?
My Black male students were doing outstanding work with the software. Not only were they turning in the work, but it was very impressive work. The students were able to take sketches and turn them into 3D drawings and models. Just when they were doing their best work with the software was when the students had the option to return to the classroom for in-person instruction.
To my surprise, I found these students exceeded my expectations by smoothly transitioning to Autodesk Inventor. Three students seemed to push the limits of the class by not only completing the assignments on time but also helping other students. I asked the students how they felt about their experience, and they all indicated that they
204 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 were happy being back at school and they were enjoying my projects. I asked them if there was any other type of project they could do as a class? Their response was that they wished that we could do a space project because they had been keeping up with the news, and space exploration seemed so popular that they wished they could be part of it. I told them I think that I had an idea and the perfect project in mind!
The Space Robot When the rest of the engineering community thinks of Houston, they think of the Space Program. What most people don’t realize is that there are many opportunities to get students involved in some amazing projects. However, Aldine ISD had no way to access these learning experiences for their students in the past.
Using my experience as an Aerospace Engineer and inspiration from the World
Moon Project (Trundle, Willmore, & Smith, 2006) and TTU professor Walter Smith, I was able to identify a real-world and meaningful opportunity for my students. This opportunity is to work with the Houston-based space manufacturing company,
Nanoracks LLC, to develop a cutting-edge metal fabrication robot that will be launched in Summer 2021.
Figure 86 Posing with Dr. Walter Smith - always encouraging me to “Do Big!”
205 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
Nanoracks has a history of working with High Schools and promoting equitable access to Space. After numerous communications, it was decided that G.W.
Carver High School of Aldine school district in Houston, Texas, would be selected to work on this new and novel space robot that could cut materials in outer space. On
November 16, at 2:05 PM, Nanoracks presented a press release titled, G.W. Carver
High School Partners with Nanoracks for Mars Demo -1 Space Mission.
Figure 87 Nanoracks’ press release for the Mars Demo-1 space cutting robot.
My students were ecstatic to learn that we would be working on a real space project! Three days later, the students were greeted by a Nanoracks’ project manager via Zoom to describe the requirements of the project.
Figure 88 Nanoracks - Aldine CTE engineering student presentations.
206 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
Currently, my engineering students are using the detailed sketches provided by the company to develop a 3D model prototype of the newly developed robot concept.
In addition to this, my students are creating the test samples, also known as coupons, for the cutting robot; they will be sent into space! Because these students understand the importance of the parts and how they will be used for engineering tests, they are motivated to work hard. This project is very touching for me because my own daughter Lillian Prier is involved, and it makes me think about our conversations when she was much younger doing the World Moon Project together in 2016 – my first year as a grad student at Texas Tech.
I believe that this high-profile, real-world activity will open new doorways for my students; as a matter of fact, these students were featured on all the local news stations because of their involvement and performance. Because of the magnitude of this project, people from different communities here in Texas have offered personal scholarships to my students. Because of their involvement, they now will have their own connections with a potential employer in the space program as well as the opportunity to learn more about an industry that, by its historical design, is hoarded by only a limited group of people. It is my hope that my Black male students and all my students have the opportunity to forge a pathway into this group, a group whose membership normally does not include people who look like my students and succeed.
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CHAPTER V SCHOLARLY DISCUSSION
The Research Problem Revisited The master narrative or master framework of every school system that incorporates STEM into their curriculum emphasizes equality for all students – “All means all!” If this is true, then why is it that Black males continue to struggle in their
K -12 STEM classes? Is it a fair conjecture that the success of Black male students is a function of how these students are perceived and regarded by the existing educational system; to be inferior academically, behaviorally challenged, having no interest in
STEM courses, and lacking motivation? In this section of this dissertation, through the lens of a Critical Race Theorist, I challenge the master narrative by presenting and analyzing my counter-stories from my personal lived experience as a Black male
STEM educator. I presented problems encountered in the educational system as well as convey what success in STEM looks like for both Black male students and for myself.
CRT Applied - The Permanence of Racism
At the start of each day, and at the moment I step into my classroom, I find myself pondering over the wellbeing of my students and the struggles they may have faced since the last time I saw them. I work with students of every ethnicity, but unfortunately, it is my Black male students who seem to face the most turmoil. Many of the Black male students, whom I either mentor or educate, come from broken homes and have financial difficulties. Many of their parents struggle with inadequate
208 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 means of transportation and unhealthy work conditions, and many of my Black male students have unfavorable jobs where they are subjected to racial disparities and marginalization daily. I make it a point to make myself available every day to discuss their successes and failures with the hope that I can help them navigate so many of these tumultuous situations by creating a safe and cultured classroom of caring.
Claims of the existence of racism are a frequent, recurring topic for myself and these Black male students. Many of these students complain of racial issues that they face either at work, where their parents work or within the school. Because of my experience with racism, I work to help them understand its permanence, how it controls the political, social, and economic realms of American society (Feagin, 2020), and how to navigate past it. From the perspective of CRT, racism is regarded as an inherent part of our society and civilization, privileging Whiteness over people of color in education and other social institutions. These institutions are places where diversity action plans become ineffective because the pervasive evils of racism are often ignored or discounted in these spaces.
The permanence of racism becomes apparent when seeking opportunities for growth. Many of these students aspire to not only excel in their STEM classes but also in their extracurricular activities like basketball, robotics, and football. Unfortunately for many of these students, STEM classes are viewed as the hardest classes in their schedules. I share their stories with each other as I explain to them that I too have found myself suffering from missed extracurricular opportunities due to gatekeepers, who were primarily White teachers in my time, making it difficult for them to succeed
209 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 by creating artificial barriers to limit my success. Like them, I have shared my reasons for not wanting to go to school anymore because I could not get along with these teachers, and I did not know why I did not fit in (Oyserman, Brickman, Bybee, &
Celious, 2006)? Why could I not get access to higher levels of education where I had been told that the teachers were better and actually taught? Over time, I began to realize that there is a distinction between education and schooling – and it was OK to hate schooling!
Most educators and students get confused by believing that schooling is the same as education – it is not! Schooling is a process of acquiring values, morals, beliefs, and habits; As education is the process of acquiring knowledge and skills
(Bush & Bush, 2013) Many times I share with my students,
“So, what if I am happy with my beliefs; what if I am happy believing I
was rich? Was it ok if I felt and believed that I was rich spiritually (Belton,
1995)? Would I really need the school system to tell me that I am poor, and I
should act like it?”
I tell my students this all the time! As I mentioned at the beginning of Chapter
4, I start off by indicating that when I was a child, we (my family) were poor, but I was happy. My family, which was at the low end regarding social-economic status
(SES), was happy because they produced two spirited and intelligent Black males, and one of them was very interested in STEM. Like my students, I did not understand what having a lot of money was back then because I was happy with our SES, but this did not become an issue until I want to further my education in STEM.
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Unlike my Black students, back then, I was not ashamed to stand in the free and reduced lunch lines (Long, 2017) to get my breakfast because I did not understand the social impacts of SES. These days, my Black male students complain of being embarrassed to stand in these lines while other ethnic groups have breakfast and lunch delivered to them from outside services if not the truly affluent parents; this was observable in districts that I served where minority students are the minority ethnic group on campus. Conversely, I have noticed that many of my students in dominant minority school districts where I have served could care less about standing in these lines; this is not an issue as most of these low SES students wear expensive tennis shoes and use technology daily – e.g., cellphones. I came to the recollection that these
Black students are not trying to compete to demonstrate that they are not poor; they do it because they are rich in spirit! Unfortunately, their spirit does not pay for the necessary STEM technology.
Many of these parents who have seen me create high-profile opportunities for students have gone out and invested in this necessary STEM technology. Because of my presence on high school campuses, I have found myself having very serious conversations with parents regarding investing in technology for their student’s success; and in several cases, I have received this access to technology for free. After talking with these students, many have admitted that there is a sense of confidence that comes with having the right technology in a STEM class; and many have thanked me for making the suggestions to their parents for obtaining the technology. By making reasonable recommendations, they had been given access to technology that aided in
211 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 their grades improving. After reading some of the works of Gottleib, it has been indicated that having a higher SES directly correlates to increased chances of planning to pursue a career in STEM (2018), and I believe this has a lot to do with the students access to technology at an early point in their high school career. Upon reflection, the realization of this concept became apparent to my parents back then when I began to strive for educational opportunities that required more financial commitments, such as buying expensive calculators and computers to keep up with the coding and programming clubs, etc. – you could not participate without these mandatory items.
Many times, I tell my students that my life included an extended period of low SES, and achieving all that I have achieved in my STEM career is actually an anomaly; and
I persevered!
The condition of my happiness was based on knowing that my parents supported me and my educational goals – they cared. Always looking beyond the permanence of racism, my parents created a caring environment that was progressive and open to educational enrichment. I use the term progressive because back then, my parents did not place emphasis on who our childhood friends could be, nor did they discourage me from socializing with anyone. This was a big deal if you were Black and from that region of Louisiana where they grew up. Because we are of African descent, as my father put it in his book, my ancestors were enslaved by the tens of thousands; many “who were tortured and died during their hell on earth and those who lived [their] lives in constant fear of violence against themselves and their families.”
(Prier D. , 2016, p. 3) In my home, I did not know to fear other people. And even
212 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 though my parents carried the “severe emotional and psychological scars” (Prier D. ,
2016, p. 11) during my childhood, these effects were not apparent in my upbringing.
Regarding enrichment, my parents were willing to be late on rent or do without lunch to see me have access to the necessary technology and opportunity… when it was available.
To have known me as a child, a Black person of that era would most likely have believed that I had suffered from a mental illness disguised as color-blindness, ignorant to the glaring “racist policies that perpetuated social inequity” (Ladson-
Billings, 1995). From a scholar’s perspective, it would be acceptable to deduce that I initially had made myself socially acceptable, while completely ignorant to the perception of my multidimensionality of being a “bestial, unintelligent, uncivilized, immortal, criminal, dangerous, lazy, oversexed” (Feagin, 2020, p. 55), and rebellious individual as it had not become apparent to me yet. If I had known of my perceived positionality back then, I would have been scared of myself every time I looked in a mirror.
By the time Black male students reach middle school, they are not only aware of their SES and the permanence of racism, but they are also aware of microaggressions from their teachers. For example, in a classroom setting, when Black boys are told that they should speak well, or proper, or try to sound like their White peers, then these adults and peers around them have signaled that the Black male students as their authentic selves are insufficient. This recurring action ultimately becomes instilled as part of the Black male’s survival adaptive behavior; this is known
213 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 as Double Consciousness (Pittman, 2016), or code-switching. This adaptive behavior occurs to combat the concept that Black students are somehow intellectually inferior or that they are only worthy of second-class citizenship in American society, and they should speak a proper way to demonstrate their acceptance of whiteness. Many of my
Black male students and I have succumbed to this practice. The assumed superiority of
White cultural values/communication styles (Henfield, 2011, p. 147) is particularly evident in schools that have a majority White population. This condition includes influencing the quality and accuracy of the learning material (McKinley Jr, 2010) as well as the value the district places in opportunities for student growth. Because of this, Black male students, from this very formative age, could start developing a
“strong sense of resentment for White people” (Henfield, 2011, p. 149) which may have negative consequences on their future educational and social experiences. I have been dealing with students struggling with this condition for years as they strive for success in a system that claims to deny the permanence of racism.
Many times, facing the realization of a biased system, I found myself in a state of oppression and began to underachieve. My oppression, which led to depression, was fueled by my questioning the quality of the educational system and its teachers, being accused by teachers of cheating, or being singled out in class for being a disruption in the classroom for asking questions about the quality of the content. I believe these encounters existed because my teachers probably assumed that my parents would not do anything if I continued to get in trouble in their classrooms
(Harris & Goodall, 2008). While it is true that middle school boys are often viewed as
214 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 a restless group, I wonder if my behaving like a typical adolescent male who sounded
White was being interpreted as “a sign of an inherent, vicious, insubordinate nature … as a threat to order [that] must be controlled” (Ferguson, 2000, p. 86). Because of
African American Male Theory (AAMT) and its scholarly acceptance, I now understand the circumstances I was facing drawing the conclusion that this teacher automatically assumed that I had a “blatant disregard for classroom rules and learning” when truly my only problem was attempting to learn while Black.
As mentioned in chapter 4, conditions for me did not improve much regarding my relationships with other students and the White teachers. I realized that things were not going to change because of my understanding and acceptance of the permanence of racism (Bell, 1995) in school. There were many days that I would go to my parents for advice, and they always told me to focus on being the best person I could be
(Ticknor, Frazier, Williams, & Thompson, 2020), and things will get better. Their advice was that I needed to focus on the opportunity to pursue a higher level of education, and these issues would go away. Being told to focus on the possibilities of a better future state is a key component of the possible selves theory. Obtaining the life of this “future Don” motivated me to work hard as a youth and persevere despite the system, the American Educational System, and its microsystems being stacked against me due to the color of my skin and the permanence of racism.
Unfortunately, microinvalidations of a system that pretended to accept me continued to be part of my life. It was incredibly disheartening for me to see that the only way I would be successful in my classes was to accept the permanence of racism
215 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 and now interest conversion; I would be forced to accept unfair second or third place achievements, to abandon my own efforts and aspirations, to survive the system and satisfy the teachers personal interest. Essentially, if I did not act White and refused to do what the teacher demanded, I was going to suffer the permanent consequences of failure; I was being forced to comply with America’s concept of schooling. The pervasiveness and “insidious nature of racism and how it manifests in a variety of educational contexts” (DeCuir & Dixson, 2004, p. 29) was not something that I really understood when I was a teen; but now, as an educator, I feel that it is my mission to try to counteract the effects of racism within the educational context. I don’t want to see that happen to Black male students or students of any other ethnicity.
Like myself, I think of my student Victor Stone as he described what he felt were times when he was being discriminated against in his math class due to his skin color and, as a result, was turned away from opportunities to excel. His performance was hindered by the recognition of a system that did not serve him. By hearing his story, I felt that I could relate – I felt compelled to do something to support him. This was one of the first times where I felt that I could not only act as a teacher but also as a mentor. As a mentor, I realized that l could help him recognize and develop strategies to navigate difficult situations with teachers who actually did maintain an educational environment that was influenced by the permanence of racism.
As I have mentioned before, mentoring is one of the strongest tools I have as a teacher to counteract the effects of the permanence of racism on my Black male students. Proper mentoring, using culturally responsive caring, teaches students to
216 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021
“develop confidence, pride, a sense of responsibility, and critical consciousness”
(Jackson, Sealey-Ruiz, & Watson, 2014, p. 400). By forming relationships with my
Black male students, especially those who were on my robotics teams, I was able to find relevant ways to engage them in focusing on their possible selves so that the possibility of their future would motivate them when they felt that the system was against them.
CRT Applied - Whiteness as Property I want to start this section by saying that everyone strives for Whiteness; this goes beyond America as whiteness implies purity without imperfections. I remind my students that they should strive for Whiteness – in education! I am sure you, the reader, is trying to understand what this means?
Whiteness as a property is a tenet that originated from the embedded racism in
American society, where the notion of whiteness operated on different levels, such as the right of possession, the right to use and enjoyment, the right to disposition, and the right of exclusion (Ladson-Billings, 1995; DeCuir & Dixson, 2004). To put this in perspective, one could say: I make the rules because I was here first, I own the establishment, and I decide who gets to have playtime and who doesn’t. This concept would be acceptable to any person only if they had a choice - to simply leave the establishment if they are not happy with the rules in which it operates. This is clearly an example of the US educational system, and unfortunately, leaving the school system that you are assigned to and required to attend per your zip code is against the law. What compounds this problem is that the majority of all school district decision
217 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 makers are White. In regards to CRT, Ladson-Billings notes in her work that it was a
British notion that who ever was the land or property owner makes the rules for the property (1998).
My parents had a clear understanding of this ideology as we grew up in a diverse, low income neighborhood where the majority of the property owners were
White. Back then, no one liked to pay taxes, and honestly, most people these days don’t like paying taxes either. To make a short story even longer, the majority of the money collected from property taxes in my neighborhood was going to the public schools which were predomantly White – and these decisions were being made by the locally run school board; run by the property owners of the neighorhood where I lived.
Since my parents recognized that the majority of the public schools near our home were unfit and did not meet the expectations that they had for me regarding a
STEM education, they chose to place me in the local Catholic school that I mention in
Chapter 4. The Catholic school appeared to be the best solution to their educational requirements because they believed that Catholic schools could provide a caring atmosphere; a diverse atmosphere of students and faculty from various regions of the country and the world – many of whom my parents believed would have no interest in racism. What they did not anticipate was that many of the students that attended the school came from affluent White families who assumed the roles of decision makers for the school – because they had a whole lot more to give to support the school.
These fortunate students would make tithes to the church every week, unlike my own family. As a result, we discovered that the families of these students were offered
218 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 opportunities for directing the direction, structure, and quality of the education;
Additionally, these students were offered opportunities before the rest of the students who attended the school. An example of this was my missing the rite to become an altar boy. Because these opportunities were considered high profile in the school, many of these students were afforded special perks and privileges beyond this prestigious duty. And when there was a situation where one of these students wanted to participate in an activity or STEM opportunity where they didn’t quite measure up academically, their parents would put pressure on the administration (Riegle-Crumb,
King, & Irizarry, 2019) to ensure that their students were allowed into the best groups in the math and science classes – openly exercising their “right of exclusion for the right of possession” (Ladson-Billings, 1998). Because I was on Donald and Mary
Prier’s lower-class financial plan, I did not receive any special rights, privileges, or opportunities; I was always placed in the lowest group, like the Orange squares, regardless of my standardized test scores.
It would be the fifth grade when I would begin to understand the concept of
White privilege and opportunity hoarding. Reigle and Tilly present the concept of opportunity hoarding as a foundational component to understanding inequality
(Riegle-Crumb, King, & Irizarry, 2019). It was evident that opportunity hoarding was present as I have the clearest memory of noticing that all the starting players on the basketball team were young White males as well as the altar boys – and we never won a basketball game in our division. It was also noticed that the majority of the students and their parents would attend closed social functions with the teachers outside of
219 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 school where my family was never invited, resulting in not having access to those teachers and administrators who made decisions for student participation in activities and events (Riegle-Crumb, King, & Irizarry, 2019, p. 134).
From the start of my sixth-grade career, I found myself observing Whiteness, the permanence of racism, opportunity hoarding all together. Even though I switched schools back into a tough part of town which was predominantly Black, I found myself now being ignored by many of my 6th and 7th grade White STEM teachers.
Like many of my own students, back then, I found myself being a target of deficit thinking and the teacher’s assumption of deviance (Henfield, 2011, p. 151) with no clear means of challenging it. The teacher would water down the lessons to the point that many of the Black and minority students would check out or fall asleep in the classroom. In a paper by Malik Henfield and Ahmad R. Washington, they make note that “in the classroom, deficit thinking manifests as a preoccupation with African
American students’ differences and categories these differences as impediments to learning (Ford & Grantham, Providing access for culturally diverse gifted students:
From deficit to dynamic thinking. , 2003). There is a belief that the deficiency orientation “focuses on what one believes members of another group lack” (Sleeter &
Grant, 2007, p. 40). In essence, this means that the STEM teachers I had assumed that since we were Black and minority, they needed to make the content easier for us to learn it – this was their system. The problem for me was that my parents worked with me and were fully aware of the content standards and felt that I was getting a subpar education in my math and science classes. I remember an incident in one of my
220 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 science classes where I gained enough confidence to ask the teacher meaningful questions that were specific to the content; this resulted in the science teacher becoming combative and retaliating. I was not trying to determine the quality or level of understanding that the teacher had of the content – I just wanted to learn!
Whiteness became more apparent when I inadvertently found an ally
(Hotchkins, 2016) in middle school, who was White, to ask my questions to the teacher. It was observed that the teacher would only call on him and other White students in the class, making me and the other Black students feel excluded and isolated. The teacher was engaging in constant microinvalidations against me in the classroom. A microinvalidation is a type of verbal or nonverbal interaction that serves to “exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a person of color” (Sue, et al., 2007, p. 274). Microinvalidations, along with other types of microaggressions, are forms of implicit racism brought about through subtle but still disturbing discriminatory practices. This school displayed the disadvantages many minority students faced, such as being negatively impacted by a system that did not provide the support necessary for them to develop their self- confidence, achieve intellectual growth, and garner the enthusiasm necessary for learning advanced content; instead, these students were exposed to hostile conditions where the outcome always favored the teacher. I remember so many times wishing that I were White or if someone could do something about this situation. I remember saying to myself, if I ever become a teacher, I would never treat any student this way.
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In Chapter 4, I mention that I had the opportunity to see the rejection of
Whiteness firsthand from a teacher’s perspective while working with Black male
STEM students, and I was the teacher being rejected! I noticed a major disconnect between myself and my students at the beginning of the teaching assignment. This is a very complex problem to understand without appropriate mentoring. My mentor teacher was a Black female who explained to me the problem was that I did not speak or dress like them. Additionally to the students, the fancy car I drove to work did not look like the car of an educator from that part of Baton Rouge; the students were intimidated by this new experience as my Whiteness led them to mentally check out.
Ms. Reed, the Black female who mentored me, initially tried to prepare me for the group of students that expressed a case of opposition, or what education scholars would define as oppositional culture identity (Ogbu, 2004). This oppositional culture identity seriously had me at my wit's end as they appeared to have an interest in aspiring in school; in actuality, their behavior demonstrated that they rejected schooling but did not reject an opportunity for an education. To these conflicted Black male students, getting good grades in school was perceived as “acting White” (Ogbu,
2004, p. 1) even though they were highly capable. The situation was compounded since I appeared to promote the image of Whiteness as a success which meant they had no interest in me as their teacher. This is an incredibly important topic to address, potentially for future study. Because I had great mentorship from a Black master teacher, I had an opportunity to train under her, ultimately succeeded and connecting with these students to the point that they wanted to become successful in school. The
222 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 solution, in this case, was to understand the students’ perspectives, which I could easily do as I was once in their very shoes.
The only other student that I can think of who appeared to rebel against the established system was Adam. As mentioned in the prior chapter, Adam’s objection to schooling was due to what he perceived as a White school environment rejecting him.
There may be some truth that Adam was being discriminated against based on his skin color – but I cannot prove it because I was not there to witness it. What I do know is that there was a time when I was a student that I felt anti-establishment as I was against the school system because I felt that it did not accept me. As mentioned previously in Osei-Twumasi and Pinetta’s study, the outcome for disruptive behavior for Black students is isolation – a disciplinary action of the Zero-tolerance era. Back then, zero-tolerance policies were considered a “threat to all youth and to any notion of equal educational opportunity” (Kim, 2010, p. 22). Because of Adam’s rejection of the educational system, and it appears to reject him, combined with coming from a rough home life due to internal family problems, his academic ability was negatively impacted, and this ultimately led to his removal from the traditional school setting.
Because I stood out as a strong Black role model to Adam as a caring, warm demander and mentor, he felt he was finally able to “speak his mind” in my presence instead of
“act out.” This resulted in his performance increased greatly.
There are many disadvantages that Black and minority students face on top of the expectation of making passing scores on standardized tests. I believe that these students are negatively impacted by a system that does not provide the support
223 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 necessary to develop their self-confidence, achieve intellectual growth, and garner the enthusiasm necessary for learning advanced content; instead, these students are exposed to conditions where the outcome tends to favor the more affluent White families within their district.
CRT Applied - Interest Convergence
Every single Black male student that I have worked with in my teaching career has also had a story regarding interest convergence and a teacher. Interest convergence
“stipulates that black people achieve civil rights victories only when white and black interests converge” (Shih, 2017). Equitable treatment under the system is only ensured when a clear benefit is provided to the majority class, and those advances are stymied when there is no value to be gained for the group that is in the dominant position. All actions are viewed through a lens of self-service on the part of the White structure already in place, not because it is right or moral to support the needs of the minority group. As a youth in high school, I had STEM teachers that would ignore me when I had questions, that would take points off my work for no apparent reason, or who would accuse me of cheating on their assignments. One math teacher lied to my parents about how I performed in her class and caused my removal from the robotics club. Interest convergence became apparent because the only time this teacher would allow me to have a decent grade in her class was when I spent more time at band practices since her husband was the band director. Once, I asked her would she give me the points back – and she said no. She then said that I needed to quit the robotics and track teams and focus on the band. She wanted me to focus on the band to
224 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 guarantee that our school would win the band championship tournament that year, which would bolster her husband’s standing at the school – and it would not happen if
I did robotics, band, and track. I felt silenced, isolated, and alienated from my peers due to this teacher’s actions (Hotchkins, 2016). When she denied what she said to me after she was forced to justify her actions, I was bothered and my concerns ignored, a classic way of silencing the voices of Black students within the education system
(DeCuir & Dixson, 2004, p. 26). It’s discouraging to realize that Black students are
“one of the most disenfranchised and underachieving segments of the nation’s K-12 student population” (Howard, 2003, p. 5), and this teacher’s behavior reinforced this in a way that I didn’t fully appreciate at the time. She used her position of authority and influence to unjustly force me to abandon my ambitions and goals because my personal choices were not in her best interests.
Since I’ve become a teacher and a mentor, I have discovered that Black students still find themselves being victimized by the evil of interest convergence similar to what I’ve described above. In fact, every single Black male STEM student that I have encountered has presented a horror story where I have had to intervene. In the autoethnography section of this paper, just about every Black male student that I worked with describes a scenario where their academic performance has been identified as lackadaisical when the demands and interests of their teacher did not align with the interests and passion of the student. In some cases, kids complained that they were not getting the help that they needed to be successful at mastering the
225 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 material but were passed in a class because they were a standout on a school sports team or other activity.
CRT Applied - Critique of Liberalism
All means all is a lie. The hoax of equality has caused more harm than good.
The myth of affirmative action is that it did not work as well as envisioned to help the most vulnerable populations in our country. When White anarchists can desecrate our most sacred institution, our democracy, while Black Lives Matter protestors fighting for the right to live their lives free from police brutality are tear-gassed and shot with rubber bullets when they peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights, it only shows that for all our touted racial advances, our country still suffers from the infestation of hate and racism. The Critique of Liberalism is a tenet that comes from the notion of color-blindness, the neutrality of the law, and equal opportunity for all
(Delgado & Stefancic, 2017). The existing power structure pays lip service to the idea of addressing racial inequalities under the auspices of enacting liberal policies but uses this supposed liberalism to continue oppressive actions. Colorblindness, a mechanism of CRT’s Liberalism, allows the dominant group to ignore racist policies and perpetuate social inequity, which can be found in the lack of inclusivity in the academic curriculum (Ladson-Billings, 1998) and student development theory used by some student affairs professionals in higher education.
Over the duration of my teaching career, I believe that the Critique of
Liberalism and the notion of color-blindness has had the greatest negative impact on the growth of Black males in the school system and their growth in STEM. I
226 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 confidently make this claim because I witnessed Black male students, including myself, being marginalized, disrespected, and not recognized for our claims of inequity in the STEM classroom (Hotchkins, 2016). Besides myself, many students I have mentored have found themselves ignored by several teachers and administrators who demonstrated that they have no interest in resolving controversial situations where racial turmoil was present – a blind eye. In too many situations, students empowered by Whiteness and who used racial slurs in my classroom were given a free pass for their behavior by a predominantly White administration, who failed to act on addressing these issues. In my case, my administrations’ negligence allowed these empowered students to exacerbate the situation by writing the word Nigger as large as they could on the wall outside of my classroom. To my Black male and minority students, this disdainful act perpetuated feelings of social unacceptance, distrust for the educational system, and ultimately, a feeling of isolation.
By neglecting to stand up for the minority students, the teachers and administrators who were not just White in appearance demonstrated the attributes of
Whiteness by not imposing the famed Zero-tolerance disciplinary policies; Policies to be implemented on the notion that they are for the safety and well-being of the majority of the students (Kim, 2010, p. 22). They hid behind the concept of color- blindness, a racial ideology, and mitigation tactic that imagines that the only way to eliminate discrimination is by treating individuals as equally as possible, without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity. Color-blindness here failed to resolve the issue because the administration's inaction showed that they did not understand the
227 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 magnitude of why these situations should not be treated as a trivial matter. The Black students who were present during this event were hurting, and these educated professionals demonstrated that they were not interested in building relationships with the Black male students in their classes. This act of exclusion, a direct result of the notion of Whiteness as property, leads to Black male students feeling marginalized and isolated – as there were no clear guidelines for mediating this situation, and no one to oversee that the mediation took place. And when there are circumstances where controversial situations regarding race occur, the students feel as though they have no one to support them.
Because I advocated for my students, they would find me with the intent of discussing race in my classroom (Ford, 2014), as well as my success as a Black male in STEM as many of them, were presented with challenges that they did not know how to deal with. Because of my presence as an adult who was trying to understand the emotional trauma they were exposed to, these students wanted to not only discuss race but also learn how to navigate racial barriers (Hotchkins, 2016), a tactic also observed and identified by Feagin. Feagin describes the utilization of a Black counter- frame that enables “individuals and groups to effectively counter recurring white hostility and discrimination” (Feagin, 2020, p. 166). Because of my perseverance, I was assuming the role of a mentor, not just for my Black male students, but for all students - a strong role model for success.
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Findings with Regards to Research Questions
So, what is the lived experience of a Black male engineering educator like? As a Black male educator, I feel a large sense of both responsibility and regret. Both feelings weigh heavily on me at times, and this is what motivated the research that led to this dissertation. I believe that it is a heavy responsibility because there are so few
Black Male teachers in the United States. While approximately 17% of the students in
K-12 in the United States identify as Black, less than 6.5% of the teacher population are Black with Black Males making up only 2.4% out of 3 million of the total teaching population in the United States (Mapp, 2010, p. 31). It troubles me when I am not able to connect with a Black male student in a timely manner when they consider abandoning their pursuit of STEM education due to the perception that there are problems in the educational system. Having been “the only one in the room,” I am motivated to seek out these students by having a large presence on the campuses I serve, but only with the intent of engaging and keeping these students focused on obtaining careers in STEM. With this understanding, I can confirm that it has become accepted knowledge that Black male teachers enhance Black males’ academic and social development in a positive manner (Brown & Butty, 1999), and I understand that it is my responsibility to guide, support, and mentor them.
A challenge I face every day is knowing that I live in an America that is motivated by systemically racist views of Black people as lazy, unintelligent, and criminal (Feagin, 2020, p. 55). Even worse is watching the Trump administration promote policies and ideas that run counter to the concept of equitable meritocracy
229 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 that this country was founded upon. When Black Lives Matter protestors are subjected to tear gas, rubber bullets, and armed police forces to simply allow Trump to have a photo opportunity; and while Trump supporters, with the blessing of a sitting United
States President, can storm the Capitol building with a minimal show of force on the part of the police, is there a more evident way to show that our country is still separate and unequal? With the rejection of science and a virus that is running rampant in the
United States that has largely affect the working minority population in the United
States, are we actively discouraging our youth from embracing STEM education?
How do you teach students that their votes, voices, and experiences matter when those who would disenfranchise a majority of the population are allowed to destroy property, disregard education, and impede democracy with impunity?
Contrary to this Eurocentric belief, whenever I teach robotics or STEM activities, I find myself running around trying to manage more students – more often
Black students than our STEM departments can comfortably facilitate. These students do not want to sit in their seats; they ask too many intelligent questions and write programs while I am talking; All are actively engaged and participating!
Most often, I find myself working with students who are in need of teacher care, as defined by Hunter and Stinson (2019), meaning that the teacher needs to adhere to the themes of motivation, culture, confidence, discipline, concern for futures, and environment. These six themes are key features of the classroom environment that I attempt to foster. In the capacity of warm demander, daily, I have learned to demonstrate that I am my students’ biggest cheerleader; but I also provide
230 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 non-abrasive constructive criticism where needed. As a successful Black male teacher, all of my students can see a Black male in a positive light and as a leader, navigator, and listener. Listening to the needs of my students, I learned how to create a classroom culture where every activity is designed to prepare them for their future in a world where STEM is critical for having a high quality career and way of life after they graduate.
Daily I see Black male students in need of caring teachers, navigators, who are willing to go the extra mile in order to develop a relationship with them, demonstrating that the teacher cares about them. As a caring teacher, I have to counteract the narrative that Black male students have teachers that “do not believe in their abilities” and who feel that these students are “problematics and inclined toward criminality” (Hunter & Stinson, 2019, p. 27). It is important to me to have my students believe that they have a teacher, leader, and navigator that they can trust and who can relate to their unique lived experiences; A STEM teacher that they can trust to listen to their concerns, unlike those teachers who try to make Black male students, overall, feel like they are “unliked and unwanted in schools by their teachers and administrators” (Townsend-Walker, 2012, p. 325). Black male students need teachers who care about them, respect them, and teach them to the best of their ability. Any teacher that fails at one of these three things can ultimately do more harm than good.
In regard to my second research question: What counter-stories does the lived experience provide about Black male students in high school? The stories I shared, both my own and those of my Black male students, demonstrate resilience as well as
231 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 present the ways in which the current educational system continues to fail these students inside the classroom and in the outside world as well. The tragedy is that most teachers do not realize the impact that they are having on their students. They run their classrooms without any aspects of care or understanding of their students as unique individuals. The American Psychological Association has found that “black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent” (American
Psychological Association, 2014). By removing the presumption of innocence, people in authoritative roles often dehumanize Black males and do not give them the benefit of the doubt in many situations; essentially convicting them of intentionally provocative behavior when that is not their intent at all (Goff, Jackson, Di Leone,
Culotta, & DiTomasso, 2014). The importance of my counter-stories is that I am able to present first-hand accounts of successful student counter-narratives to challenge the dominant frame. I believe that because of my accessibility, my credentials and publicity aided in students accepting the creditability of my stories. Because of my positionality on campuses as an accomplished Black male in STEM, I have been able to form connections with my students by sharing my stories of achievement and failure; I was able to share my personal experiences with academic discouragement. I exposed them to situations where when the odds were stacked against me, how I persisted, and how I would give it my all. At times, it was a struggle to reach these students, particularly when I would come across a Black male student who had been discouraged to the point that they lost all interest in school and STEM. When this
232 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 happened, I found that my stories, my counter stories, would ultimately aid them as they navigated the educational system as well as the sometimes-impoverished conditions that they faced daily. Because of my presence on their school campus, they were able to watch me defy the odds of Whiteness and privilege in order to create incredible opportunities for them and their communities. These first account stories and narratives are proven stories which, and in many cases, have led to outcomes where the dominant frame was defeated, and student success was exploited in the most positive light with newspaper articles, TV appearances, and greater opportunities in
STEM.
In regard to my third question: What are the ways to encourage Black male school students to pursue a STEM career throughout high school and beyond? Earlier in this chapter, I presented evidence that Black male students’ academic success is strongly correlated to the presence of mentoring and caring from their teachers. The presence of Black male teachers allows for dialogue between the student and the teacher. This is an opportunity for accomplished teachers to share navigational tactics, or the Black framing (Feagin, 2020), in order to aid in student success. In addition, the presence of more Black teachers is shown to lead to increased student persistence, engagement, and achievement. To support my “larger than life” presence on campus, I use Robotics. Robotics to many students is glamorous because it allows students to be creative and leads to opportunities in STEM fields. Robotics is simply one tool, so I go farther than robotics. A tactic I use religiously is seeking out other STEM teachers on the campus and invite them to become involved with my robotics activities. Many
233 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 of these activities are cross-curricular, and many cases require the other STEM teachers to visit my classroom and participate. By demonstrating that my classroom is open to teachers of all ethnicities, the students tend to relax and ultimately realize that these teachers want them to succeed just as I do. By inviting other teachers into my classroom, these teachers are exposed to a classroom that is designed to hook and capture student interest. While these teachers are in my presence, they see me providing a caring, nurturing classroom environment where students are encouraged to dream big – a warm demander. Additionally, I show teachers the importance of providing usable skills to students for their achievement and persistence in STEM for ultimately seeking out a STEM career. Without believing that it is possible to achieve their goals, Black male students will falter against a system that has been intentionally and traditionally designed to marginalize and exclude them; these science, technology, engineering, and math students need to not lose sight of the importance of an
American education regardless of the system’s management and its faults.
The most recent high-profile opportunity that I created for my students was at
Carver High school; I created a partnership with the space company, Nanoracks, LLC.
Because of this partnership, which now involves the City of Houston, I have created opportunities for these students to gain employment in a field that is not known for being diverse with the opportunities normally hoarded by students who have graduated from highly selective schools from affluent parts of town. This is not the only time that I worked with students from impoverished areas where we found a pathway to bypass the opportunity hoarders (Tilly, 1998), and in all cases, my students have been
234 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 active participants in obtaining these opportunities. For this reason, my students feel motivated to continue seeking opportunities in STEM. This is what success looks like!
A Letter to Policy Makers, Scholars, and Practitioners
Black males are in trouble. I am writing this letter to address policymakers, educational scholars, and practitioners about a critical, existing problem: improving the perseverance of Black males struggling in STEM. With this dissertation, I would like to report to the American people and the communities that I have served and studied that we cannot take pride in what our schools have currently accomplished regarding the preparation of our Black males pursuing careers in STEM. The numbers are just too low and as I have demonstrated in my research, problems continue to exist in the US educational system.
To improve the academic and career outcomes of Black male students in
STEM, I propose recommendations based on the research provided through the preceding autoethnography. My primary recommendation to improve Black male student achievement and success in STEM is the creation of an opportunity culture for growth within the classroom, as this can impact all students regardless of their cultural background and academic interest.
The common thread between the recommendations I provide below is that they are all grounded in the belief that administrators, teachers, mentors, and those in supervisory roles need to develop a caring relationship with these Black male STEM students, empowering them with a vision of possible positive selves. Again, the recommendations I present from this are intended to provide pathways for
235 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 policymakers, scholars, and practitioners to better understand the challenges Black males in STEM face and to provide a pathway for increasing the number of Black males who will persevere in STEM fields.
Professional Learning Communities (PLC)
School districts should require all administrators, preservice student teacher trainees, and practicing educators to engage in active professional learning communities (PLC) and professional development (PD) opportunities developed by leading university programs with the intention of introducing their staff to the needs of
Black male students, their families, and their communities. Presentations made by these independent leaders in social welfare and social science would introduce teachers and administrators to the cultural inequities and issues rooted in the often-low socioeconomic status of Black students, as it has been found in studies that educators are “not able to engage in empathy for the plight of individuals who have been systematically discriminated against through the thoughtful usage of social and political policies” (Bryant, Moss, & Boudreau, 2015, p. 10). These PLCs would be tailored to address the cultures represented by the unique and various ethnic groups in the community, as each group has its own unique struggles! For newly appointed teachers, I have often observed that they do not understand the plight of Black students and the challenges that their families are facing outside of the classroom. As mentioned previously, challenges can include families struggling to keep a roof over their heads, to hold a job because of the need to fight daily with unreliable transportation, or simply opening a bank account to deposit a paycheck… to eat.
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One issue that may arise is the management of teachers who refuse to accept cultural differences of the underrepresented lifestyles and their struggles. Because of this nuance, it is my recommendation that student surveys should become an active part of a teacher and administrators evaluation process and be reviewed in PLC/PD sessions. With these quarterly surveys, teachers and administrators would be able to determine if their performance is adequate regarding embracing the needs of the students in the community which they serve. This should be a transparent process since teachers and administrators are public servants. As a public servant, I believe that these teacher and administrator surveys should be available to the school board every year to determine the level of necessary professional development necessary to the employee’s sustainment.
Classroom Culture Inquiring about a student’s opinions of the classroom environment can be an efficient and effective method for teachers and administrators to assess a student’s motivation in the STEM classroom; this is practiced by teachers who have undergone warm demander training. Warm demanders are teachers who understand the significance of student feedback, particularly Black male students. Based on my research, I indicate that the interpersonal relationships that Black male students have with their STEM teachers are critically important if the goal is to enhance and improve student performance and persistence in STEM. In surveys where students responded that STEM is too hard or that they cannot get it might need to be placed with other teachers for these students to form a stronger personal connection which will motivate
237 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 them to achieve. If this option is not available to these students, then the practicing teacher should undergo an evaluation and be required to attend warm demander PD opportunities necessary to their sustainment.
Additionally, I believe with the appropriate amount of professional leadership from a teacher with a warm demander training; students will visualize and accept their learning environment in a way that allows for curiosity and inquiry, will be noticeable changes in student engagement and performance in all their classes – not just the
STEM classroom. But if the classroom does not encourage students from all backgrounds to be comfortable presenting their ideas and asking questions, student engagement will not be available for all learners. It is Harper (2009) who noted that there is a correlation “between student-faculty interaction and success in STEM, especially among students of color. Hence, peers and faculty are pivotal to their persistence and are at the center of the framework” (p. 71).
End of Course (EOC) Examinations
In regard to the existing use of End of Course (EOC) examinations, although I do not believe that these exams fully display the full educational growth and potential of a student, I do believe that all students should be required to take them without opportunity for exemption as student results should be part of the teacher and administrator’s evaluation process. In several of the districts I have served, favored students, especially those in STEM classes, are exempted from these exams due to perfect conduct and attendance. Ultimately, this means that the student, teachers, and administration have no idea whether the student has truly mastered the STEM content.
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My major concern is that the qualification process for student exemption from their final exams is dependent on student attendance. In other words, if the student misses too many days of school, no matter how well they understand the content, they are required to take the STEM EOC exam. So, what does that mean for high achieving
Black males whose struggling families cannot get them to school? Unfortunately, I witnessed this for three years while living in Texas, and these students who are typically forced to take these exams due to lacking attendance are Black or minority students.
Additionally, I believe that the results of these EOC standardized tests should also be considered in addition to student-teacher surveys. I do not believe that standardized tests alone are adequately helping the teacher and their administration understands the whole child. If these policies are implemented, then Black students in public schools will be more engaged because they would have an opportunity to share the quality of educational experience, as well as their emotional and social connection with the teacher like my Black male students, did with me.
Youth STEM Outreach Programs
It is also my recommendation that school districts create district-supported after-school opportunities for Black males to continue pursuing their interest in
STEM. Because I have observed firsthand that many Black students aspire to be the first individual in their families to attend and graduate from college, many of these students do not have any family members that can aid in supplemental instruction at home. The district-supported opportunities would provide students with access to
239 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 teachers with a desire for and proven capability in focused STEM fields. A teacher with a desire for focused STEM fields would be those teachers who are passionate about specific STEM subject areas and careers. A teacher of this caliber would reinforce curriculum content as well as provide extended educational opportunities, which could include discussions with industry professionals and coordinating field trips. These teachers would act as guides with the sole purpose of preparing students for specific majors and fields. These teachers could be recruited from preservice programs, including Teach for America, and teachers from alternative certification programs with STEM backgrounds. As mentioned previously, these teachers could be presented with district scope and sequence materials to assist in the production of authentic activities with a goal of improved content retention by the students. I believe that creating these types of opportunities for aspiring teachers would also present an opportunity for them to understand the needs of the Black male student, their families, and the communities they wish to serve.
Undergraduate STEM Outreach Programs
Regarding having equal opportunity, I propose a federal initiative to ensure that Black male STEM students are introduced to leading scientists at facilities where there exists a documented low minority presence in STEM fields. This federally funded program would allow for the presence of field offices based at facilities such as
SpaceX, NASA Ames, JPL, Boeing, Government Research Labs, and Universities – all federally funded facilities themed with cutting-edge programs that would traditionally not be accessible by students of color. The purpose of these field offices
240 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 would be to place these Black male STEM students with these potential employers to
1) promote diversity at the site, 2) continue to pique their curiosity in STEM, and 3) present a gateway for making meaningful contributions to the scientific community.
Black male students who would participate in this Federally funded program would be interns from Federally funded institutions in the United States that cannot offer the requisite cutting-edge training and resources to obtain employment at these Federally- funded facilities. Because these students are interns, these students would ultimately have the opportunity to accept employment at one of these participating federally funded facilities upon graduation or return to their participating universities with new rare and unique skillsets for improving the intellectual climate of their home university. In essence, programs such as this address the problem of opportunity hoarding and assist in creating a truly level playing field for the Black male STEM student.
Future Research
Student motivation has been identified as a key element in improving academic performance and learning attitudes among Black male students attending urban high schools. From this research study, it can be posited that how a Black male teacher interacts with their minority students, particularly Black male students, can strongly influence student motivation, academic achievement, STEM persistence, and ultimately the quality of life for these students and their families. If Black male students believed that there is no hope for them, would they continue to express interest and excel in a difficult subject area, or does the relationship with the Black
241 Texas Tech University, Donald G. Prier II, May 2021 male teacher have the ability to change their attitude about their competence and capabilities? If a larger number of Black male students are surveyed, would the results be similar?
In conclusion, this study has provided a unique opportunity to explore my own personal experiences as an American Black male STEM teacher and professional. As I conducted this study, I fully realized the significance of this work and its importance to institutional, educational practices across America and possibly globally. From this study, I will continue to inform my students, growing scholars, teachers, and administrators of my successes as a STEM teacher. I will share with these aspiring scholars what mentoring means to me and how important it is to promote diversity on campus and in the workplace. While it is true that America continues to struggle with the acceptance of Critical Race Theory and Science, there is an understanding that our country is broken - but can be fixed! I believe that teachers who take aim at listening to their students and embracing culturally relevant practices can fix the division in our country. The use of autoethnography as a research approach has afforded me an opportunity to acquire knowledge of self as a component of Gloria Ladson-Billings’ model of CRP so that I too can be a major contributor towards fixing the cultural climate and competence of this country… “and get in good trouble, necessary trouble”
(Bote, 2020). I believe that by taking a small step daily to address the concerns of the students, we would be exhibiting a giant leap toward achieving cultural competence in the classroom, the community, and in the world in which we live.
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