The ongoing research concerning African American males enrolled in teacher education

programs is essential for a number of reasons. Research specifically addressing preservice

teaching, teacher education, and the African American male student is needed to promote the

well-being of any school of education. According to McCray, Sindelar, Kilgore, and Neal

(2002), colleges of education have addressed the issue of underrepresentation and under

population of African American teachers through policy reform and financial support.

The narratives of African American male preservice teachers and their perspectives on

teacher education may provide a context for other researchers seeking to understand how and

why African American males move into the field of education. More importantly, one particular

way to enhance and advance the cause of the African American male preservice teacher is to

accept a “culturally sensitive practice” (Tillman, 2002, p. 3) and insure epistemological and

research practices unfamiliar to many teachers of preservice teachers are approved and

embraced.

This study is situated in a cultural, racial, and gendered point of view seeking to highlight

the individual and shared experiences of three African American male preservice teachers

enrolled in a graduate teacher education program. Stabilized through the lens of critical race

theory (CRT), the gathering of counter-narratives provided the context to allow the research

participants a vehicle to name their own reality.