Summary of: Research Reports Related to Black Teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area

This brief summarizes two reports: 1) “Grant Us the Sun: What Black Teachers Need for Healing from Antiblackness in Schools”, by Jessica Stovall and Tara Sullivan and 2) “We will not be afraid to share who we are: Black teachers’ experiences with anti-blackness during a global pandemic”, by Jessica Stovall. The reports discuss findings from a study of Black teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area. “Grant us the Sun” focuses on teachers’ obstacles with antiblackness and their hopes for their students. “We will not be afraid to share who we are” discusses similar issues and highlights the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was set in the context of the high attrition rate of Black teachers within a broader national teacher shortage.

The researchers conducted interviews with 30 K-12, Black public school teachers in the Bay Area between January and May of 2022. The researchers also reviewed documents shared by teachers, including a book of poetry and two nonprofit entrepreneurship projects created in response to encounters with antiblackness. The analysis in “We will not be afraid to share who we are”, incorporates Critical Race Theory and BlackCrit3. The findings in this brief focus on the 21 teachers working in the San Francisco Unified School District.