Racial Experiences Influence Us As Teachers: Implications for Gifted Education Curriculum Development and Implementation

In this article, the authors share a story that, in part, represented both of their experiences teaching in higher education. As African American educators in predominantly White universities, they both find themselves facing, dealing with, and overcoming racism. These experiences shape their curriculum. They see their personal and professional responsibility as that of preparing future and current educators (e.g., teachers, counselors, administrators) to work effectively in culturally and racially diverse settings. They challenge educators to think or rethink gifted education curriculum. They urge educators to become self-reflective professionals who see the connection--direct connection--between their personal beliefs, attitudes, and values and their work in developing and implementing curriculum. They maintain that teaching is not only a social process--it is also a personal and cultural process. Who they are as individuals, who they are as cultural and racial beings, influences who they are as teachers/educators in the classroom, and these identities bear meaningfully on what students have had the opportunity to learn. Thus, they urge educators to see beyond their own worldview to consider teaching and learning through the eyes of their students, so many of whom are racially and culturally diverse. It is these students who they are failing disproportionately in their schools. In this regard, they offer the proposition that the achievement gap may be largely determined by a cultural and racial gap between teachers (the majority of whom are White) and their diverse students (Ford et al., 2004).