School failure among African American high school males is a complex issue. These students often drop out of school, not because of learning problems, but because of the consequences of behavior problems. For many African American students, high school represents an institution where unequal opportunity prevails.
Lawrence (1997) contends that white teachers who have more fully developed racial identities can help multicultural students to empower themselves, and thus stay in school. The author studied the experiences of teacher education students before and after they had received antiracist training. Before the training, the teacher education students were reluctant to learn about racism, their white privilege, and their participation in the ideology of Whiteness. When these teachers had wide latitude of choice, they chose to teach in monocultural settings, rarely incorporated Afrocentric instruction into the curriculum, and rejected addressing issues of race in the classroom. After the training, the majority of the teachers grew more comfortable when confronted with racial issues. Lawrence (1997) expressed hope that antiracist training would translate into improved teacher attitudes in the classroom, "Although teacher education students initially resist learning about racism and their own racial privilege, in time they become more willing to talk about race and begin to accept the challenge of taking responsibility for racism" (p. 11).
Willis (1996) likewise concludes that pre-service teachers are sorely in need of multicultural training. Most white teacher education students prefer not to discuss issues of race and ethnicity openly. They believe that, while institutionalized racism might exist in society at large, such racism does not have an effect on the classroom, and therefore should not be a topic of discussion. In addition, these pre-service teachers falsely believe that their own racial assumptions will h...