My Brother’s Teacher: Strengthening Morehouse’s Alumni Educator Pipeline Amid Educational Violence Through Mentoring, Capacity Building, and Morehouse’s Network of Black Male Educators

Abstract

African American communities must take proactive measures to support the development of Black educators through strategic professionalization and capacity-building to achieve their educational goals for Black students. Addressing this development requires an institution-building approach, an intentional process of strengthening the institution, and a commitment to fostering growth. It represents active resistance and deliberate healing from the endemic educational and social violence inflicted upon Black educational communities. This capstone examines Morehouse Center for Excellence in Education’s efforts to establish institutional support for students and alumni returning to classrooms where they experienced educational violence and taking on the role of educators. It offers potential next steps for the Morehouse Center for Excellence in Education to support alumni within their educational communities despite the violence that disproportionately affects Black educators, particularly Black males. MCEE’s TIME and My Brother’s Teacher initiatives tackle both issues while addressing the professional isolation of Morehouse alumni educators. Networking among Morehouse alumni educators and unpacking their professional experiences reveals the profound impact Black male educators from Morehouse College continue to have in the field. Mitigating the educational violence that Morehouse’s alumni educators face through a mentorship approach while emphasizing their invaluable educational contributions fosters a more substantial and sustainable pipeline of Morehouse alumni educators. While situated within Morehouse and aligned with the college's mission and values, MCEE’s focus on developing Black male educators necessitates creating something new. The Morehouse Center for Excellence in Education's institution-building efforts aim to capture the breakthroughs made by Morehouse alumni educators through a qualitative narrative approach. These narratives are the foundation for developing strategies to advance the center’s priorities. The negative interactions and experiences faced by Morehouse alumni educators reflect the challenges many Black male educators encounter across the sector. The Impact of a Morehouse Educator initiative provides narratives to support the targeted mentoring initiative, My Brother's Teacher. Redefining Black male educators from victims of educational violence to contributors to academic success fosters both resistance and resilience while directly confronting the pervasive violence directed towards them and the marginalized students they serve.