Minding the gap: Cultivating Black male teachers in a time of crisis in urban schools

The purpose of this article is to provide insights into the challenges in developing the Urban Community Teachers Project: a campus-based initiative to recruit and train Black male teachers for urban classrooms. The central argument is that given the enormous challenges in both recruiting and training Black male urban community teachers, the end result is not to place Black males in urban schools to serve simply as role models. Rather, it is a longer-term commitment to having their presence in urban public school classrooms to reframe pedagogical practices and curriculum and transform communities alongside young people. Therefore, this article addresses the problems of practice in sustaining a program to cultivate Black male teachers.