Black teachers: curriculum and career

The influence of both the formal and hidden curriculum has been largely absent from studies of black and Asian teachers' lives and careers. This article seeks to address that absence by focusing on the successful career of one black teacher included in an ESRC-funded life history study of black and Asian teachers (Pole, 1998, 1999). The article, which draws heavily on the words of the teacher, examines the way in which experience of both the formal and hidden curriculum was instrumental in eventually shaping a black identity and a positive sense of self for the teacher concerned. However, part of the journey towards this positive outcome involved coping with and overcoming different forms of racism manifest not only through the curriculum but also through pedagogy and school organization.