But fo’realdo, are educators still hatin’ on Black language? An explanatory sequential mixed methods study exploring former pre-service teachers and professor instructional practices, attitudes, and experiences with U.S. Ebonics.

The instructional practices, experiences, attitudes, and knowledge held by professors towards U.S. Ebonics impacts teacher development, and ultimately Black students’ opportunities when learning to read in early elementary classrooms. In a society plagued by inequity, Black students face several obstacles when learning to read in early elementary classrooms. One obstacle is teacher preparation. Pre-service teachers often complete preparation programs feeling underprepared to teach Black students whose first language is U.S. Ebonics. For degree-granting programs to prepare effective teachers for Black students, Blackness, including the language of U.S. Ebonics, must exist in pre-service teachers’ curriculum and instruction (Perry & Delpit, 1998; Simpkins, 2013; Williams, 2012; Wolf, 2011). This explanatory sequential mixed methods study compares the attitudes of former pre-service teachers and their professors towards U.S. Ebonics. Additionally, this study qualitatively explores professor beliefs about their experiences and instructional practices towards U.S. Ebonics in a teacher preparation program committed to developing anti-racist teachers. Using purposive sampling, the researcher gathered quantitative attitudinal data towards U.S. Ebonics from 99 participants with a reliable instrument, the African American English Attitude Measures for Teachers (AAEMTA; see Hoover, 1997). After analyzing these numerical data, the researcher explored seven cases, bounded by quantitative data results from stage one of the research study. The qualitative stage consisted of semi-structured interviews to understand the professors’ beliefs about their experiences and instructional practices in a teacher preparation program committed to developing anti-racist teachers. On average, both former pre-service teachers and professors attitude ratings did not meet the positive score. Professors average attitude scores (Mdn = 159) did lean more positive than former pre-service teachers’ attitudes, which leaned more negative (Mdn = 137). These results highlight a significant difference in attitudes towards U.S. Ebonics between professors and former pre-service teachers. These data highlight stark difference between former pre-service teachers and professors’ exposure and inclusion of U.S. Ebonics in instructional and “formal” settings. The qualitative results provide insights into self-reported professor theoretical beliefs, instructional practices, and experiences with U.S. Ebonics in developing teachers.