Raising the critical consciousness of African American students in BaldwinHills: A portrait of an exemplary African American male teacher

This collaborative, participatory study examines the pedagogical practices and beliefs of an African American teacher at a private middle school locat ed in an affluent African American community. The study's focus is twofold: (a) to explicate the principles guiding this teacher's efforts to enhance his African American students' moral, intellectual, and spiritual developme nt; and (b) to discuss the ways in which his emancipatory pedagogies provid e a fertile learning ground for those students. The authors maintain that t his case study typifies what happens when a school's mission is positively aligned with its teachers' beliefs and practices. The innovative school set ting is described, and a literature review focusing on the beliefs and prac tices of exemplary, culturally relevant African American teachers contextua lizes the study.