The Long Road from Brown: School Desegregation in Virginia

FAIN: BH-267105-19

Old Dominion University Research Foundation (Norfolk, VA 23508-0369)
Yonghee Suh (Project Director: February 2019 to March 2024)
Brian J. Daugherity (Co Project Director: August 2019 to March 2024)

Two one-week workshops for 72 school teachers on school desegregation in Virginia.

This project offers two one week long workshops on the topic of school desegregation in Virginia. Participants include 72 Grade 6-12 social studies/history teachers as a total. In these workshops, participants will visit significant historic sites associated with the topic, learn how to use primary sources in the archives and created their own curriculum on the topic. The first workshop will take place from July 12th through July 17th, 2020 and the second from July 26th through July 31st, 2020.

Associated Products

Planning to teach difficult history through historical inquiry: The case of school desegregation (Article)
Title: Planning to teach difficult history through historical inquiry: The case of school desegregation
Author: Yonghee Suh
Author: Brian J. Daugherity
Author: Danielle Hartsfield
Abstract: This exploratory study investigates the ways in which secondary U.S. history teachers who attended two iterations of a teacher professional development workshop, focusing on the history of school desegregation in Virginia, planned to teach the history of school desegregation through historical inquiry. Conceptualizing the history of school desegregation as difficult history, the authors conducted the content analysis of 23 written lesson plans generated by workshop participants. The historiography of school desegregation, and research on four dimensions of historical inquiry such as Change and Continuity, Causation, Multiple Perspectives and Historical Sources, guided the data analysis. The findings suggest that teachers in this study were most likely to design their inquiry around Causation, framing the history of school desegregation within the classical timeline of the Civil Rights Movement, which begins with the Brown v. Board of Education decision (1954) and ends with the Civil Rights Act of 1968. What was often absent in these inquiries was Massive Resistance, the backlash against the Brown v. Board of Education decision, collective and political actions of African American communities to implement the Brown decision, and varying perspectives within African American communities as well as Whites who opposed the Brown decision. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssr.2020.09.002
Access Model: Subscription only
Format: Journal
Publisher: The Journal of Social Studies Research

Experiences of African American teachers in desegregated PK-12 schools: A systematic literature review. (Article)
Title: Experiences of African American teachers in desegregated PK-12 schools: A systematic literature review.
Author: Yonghee Suh
Author: Brian J. Daugherity
Author: Jihea Maddamsetti
Author: Angela Branyon
Abstract: This literature review reports findings from nineteen empirical studies on the experiences of African American teachers in PK-12 desegregated schools. The research questions were: what do we know about the experiences of African American teachers in desegregated PK-12 schools? What are the challenges African American teachers experience in desegregated PK-12 schools? In response to these questions, the article first discussed school desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education decision and its impact on African American teachers as a historical backdrop. Findings from nineteen studies were analyzed through grounded theory. Two core themes were identified from our findings: persistent structural challenges and new challenges since Brown. Sub-themes, such as intercultural conflicts, teacher experience as a social construct, and gap in research, were also identified. These themes were discussed in comparison to challenges of African American teachers during the process of school desegregation after the Brown decision.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: http://doi.org/10.1086/710947
Access Model: Subscription only
Format: Journal
Publisher: Schools: Studies in Education

Investigating Teacher Learning to Teach Difficult Histories: The Analysis of Teacher Role Identities (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Investigating Teacher Learning to Teach Difficult Histories: The Analysis of Teacher Role Identities
Author: Yonghee Suh, Joanna K. Garner, Brian J. Daugherity, and Virginia Massaro
Abstract: Conceptualizing the PD as “social participation,” connecting learning to identity formation and change, this study investigates how a six-day inquiry-based summer teacher institute, focusing on the history of school desegregation, influenced the teachers’ negotiation of changes in their role identities and learning to teach the topic as a difficult history. The research questions are: 1. How did the teacher’s pre-PD role identity shape the ways they learn to teach difficult histories in the context of the PD? 2. To what extent and in what ways did the PD context impact the teacher’s role identity shifts when learning to teach difficult histories? We used the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI; Kaplan & Garner, 2017) as a theoretical lens. Data sources include individual interviews conducted four times (before and after the summer institute and during and after the follow-up PD); lesson plans collected three times (before and after the summer institute and after the follow-up PD); video recordings of the PD sessions; and pre- and post-surveys. Qualitative data were analyzed using the DSMRI code book (Kaplan & Garner, n.d.). The analysis suggests teachers’ prior experiences and self-perceptions about social identity categories (i.e., race and gender) influenced their learning and reflections on teaching difficult histories.
Date: 4/18/2023
Conference Name: American Educational Research Association

The Long Road from Brown: School Desegregation in Virginia (Web Resource)
Title: The Long Road from Brown: School Desegregation in Virginia
Author: Yonghee Suh and Brian Daugherity
Abstract: This website intends to make the resources created for the 2021 Landmarks workshops available to the public, especially K-12 teachers, teacher educators, and researchers who are interested in the history of school desegregation and researching teacher learning in teacher professional development.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://www.longroadfrombrown.org/

Oral history as inquiry: Using digital oral history collections to teach school desegregation (Article)
Title: Oral history as inquiry: Using digital oral history collections to teach school desegregation
Author: Yonghee Suh and Brian Daugherity
Abstract: The article examines how U.S. school segregation can be used to demonstrate the value of oral histories as a historical methodology for study and as pedagogical resources for teaching. The authors offer guidance on teaching narratives related to the U.S. Supreme Court case of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka.
Year: 2018
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: The History Teacher
Publisher: Society for History Education, Inc.

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