When we come together, we can find solutions to common struggles we needn’t find alone. Our positive energy, mass intellect and collective promise are joyful, beautiful things to experience.
Partner with us to build affinity spaces and professional learning opportunities for Black men in education to re-energize and perfect their craft based on Black pedagogy and research-backed practices.
We create affinity spaces and provide mentorship uniquely tailored for Black male educators.
We also support schools, districts and organizations to energize their recruitment and retention of young Black men in teaching careers.
We strive to continue a timeless brotherhood of educators who come together to be supportive, engage in intellectually-rigorous discussions and create powerful solutions.
We provide professional learning, mentorship experiences and affinity spaces uniquely tailored to support Black men in education, from aspirants to seasoned teachers, improving their retention in the profession.
We extend our support to schools, districts, universities and organizations to assist them in energizing interests in pursuing teaching careers among Black high school and college-aged individuals.
Save the date for BMEC2024, November 21-23, at Loews Philadelphia Hotel, where we are honored to be able to curate a safe, brave learning space for remarkable attendees, engaging with them in thought-provoking programming and celebratory, soul-sustaining experiences.
Rebuilding the Black teacher pipeline takes all of us. We must work as a collective to not only recruit Black teachers but to support and retain current Black teachers.
Black Men in Education Convening (BMEC) is one approach we’re taking to recruit, support, retain and activate more Black men to revolutionize the educational system.
BMECs began in 2015 as part of The Fellowship: Black Male Educators for Social Justice, a Philadelphia-based organization built to continue the work of longtime, revolutionary educators like Dr. Martin Ryder and others, specifically focusing on the policies, practices, advocacy work and impact of Black male career educators.
The founding idea was to bring together in brotherhood Black men in education, who often face tougher working conditions at high-poverty, harder-to-staff schools and work in isolation without mentors or peers to turn to for support.
It’s what former U.S. Education Secretary John King calls the “invisible tax:” unrealistic expectations for Black men in education to fulfill schoolwide disciplinary and mentoring roles on top of teaching responsibilities, combined with an unfounded disrespect for their expertise and perspectives.
BMEC was created to begin the process of repealing this invisible tax.
We continue this tradition of lifting as we climb by convening Black men in education and those who support them each year to build community, support educational activism, and improve the lives of students and the school communities where we serve.
There’s a racist, classist narrative that Black men in education defy. This damaging narrative presupposes a “get mine” ethos, particularly among individuals who are poor—which is still, too often, a stand-in for “Black” in our country since Black Americans are disproportionately poorer than any other racial group in this country.
But this “get mine” mentality can’t and doesn’t exist among Black men in education. Instead, what drives each one of us, and the collective, is a proud and sincere concern for each other’s welfare and success. Rather than “get mine,” we employ a unifying collective-responsibility mindset. Rather than “get mine,” “we lift as we climb.”
READ MOREWe hope you’re inspired to create affinity spaces of your own that support Black men in education. One that is truly welcoming, productive, sustainable and radically impactful.
We don’t wait around for district administrators, or anyone else, to rescue us. We come together, in fellowship, to support one another.
For us, coming together to help younger men in the profession is the natural order of things. It makes sense. It isn’t just the right thing to do, it is the necessary thing to do in our respective fights for social justice.
Our BME work is not the first of its kind. Indeed, it was made possible only by our standing on the shoulders of others. It has existed for generations throughout Black history.
Black men in education, as well as others from marginalized communities, are hungry for community and fellowship.
Black educators who hold themselves accountable for creating safe, nurturing places for Black children to learn, and heal from the trauma of systemic racism and social oppression, can serve as mirrors of their futures.
To power our revolution—no less than the liberation of education—we must not be afraid to evolve. Not just to stay relevant but to be fully charged. Especially now.
Don't miss the latest updates from the Center for Black Educator Development on how we are rebuilding the national Black teacher pipeline.
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