home

 
A Brief History of the International Black Professionals and Friends in TESOL Caucus

By Mary Romney & Tamara Rollie (updated June 2005 by Marinus Stephan)

The International Black Professional and Friends in TESOL (IBPFT) was founded in 1992 at the 26^th Annual TESOL convention in Vancouver, Canada. At the time of the founding of the IBPFT,  caucuses did not exist as a membership entity in TESOL; so, like other present TESOL caucuses, the IBPFT started as an informal group of members with specific concerns and goals. Connie Perdreau was the founder and first leader of the IBPFT.

Between1992 and 1997, the IBPFT continued to meet at conventions, attempt to increase membership, and to establish alliances with the other groups in TESOL. At the 1997 convention in Orlando, Mary Romney and Patrick Axel Henry,  the then Chair and Co-Chair respectively, initiated a signature drive with the aim of securing caucus status for the IBPFT. They succeeded in gathering the required  200 signatures; and in October 1997, the TESOL Board granted the IBPFT caucus status. The IBPFT is deeply indebted to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Friends Caucus and the Christian Educators in TESOL Caucus for their tremendous support and encouragement at that time.

In terms of absolute numbers, the IBPFT today is the smallest caucus within TESOL. Nevertheless, much like previous leaderships of the IBPFT, the current leadership is confident that the caucus can work  in conjunction with its TESOL counterparts and be a major driving force in promoting and increasing diversity within the organization and  in addressing the concerns of TESOL members of color as well. To illustrate this point, one of the main concerns of IBPFT members - especially those living and working in developing nations - is the availability of adequate teaching material. In an effort to address this problem, the IBPFT initiated a book drive in 2003. Since then, the book drive has become an association-wide event coordinated by TESOL that is held during the annual convention. The IBPFT will continue to work closely with TESOL to ensure that members and colleagues around the world can benefit from this initiative and will seek to expand its scope so that resource-deprived educators in even the most remote corners of the planet can benefit from the project.

top

2005

• Marinus Stephan becomes Caucus Chair, Michelle Maitland becomes Chair Elect

2004

• Nika Barnes becomes Newsletter Editor, James Kennedy Co-Editor
• Lia Kamhi-Stein becomes Caucus Board Liaison 

2003   

• 1^st Annual IBPFT Book Drive held at the Convention in Baltimore
• Baltimore Black Tour Heritage Tour organized by the caucus was added to Convention schedule. Tour sold out, and a second tour was added
• Caucus membership becomes free, now included with cost of TESOL membership
• Caucus Statement of Purpose and Goals updated and revised by Dr. Shondel Nero
• Dr. Shondel Nero and Khadar Bashir-Ali become Co-Chairs, Marinus Stephan           becomes Chair Elect

2002   

• IBPFT members Carolyn Brady and Patricia Leveque presented for the first time
• Convention booth hosts information about African-Americans in Salt Lake City provided by member and List serve Manager Willisa Roland
• Membership Marketing Plan written and presented to TESOL to create a larger           voice and increase diversity awareness within the TESOL profession.
• Membership Outreach programs implemented: Each One Reach One, and Sponsor a Friend resulting in membership increased from 54 in 2000 to 162 in 2003
• The Chair spoke at the annual NAFSA Conference in May 2002 to the BMcPIE (Black Multicultural Professionals in International Education) membership for support and alliances and attended Puerto Rico TESOL in November 2002.
• Michelle Maitland becomes Newsletter Editor

2001   

• 1^st Caucus newsletters published January 2001
• IBPFT Web site launched
• Tamara Thorpe becomes Chair
• Jun Liu becomes Caucus Board Liaison

 2000

• At the Open Meeting the Sponsor a Member program was initiated, a new IBPFT member offers to sponsor ten new members from Africa

 1999

• Membership drive at the New York convention, membership reaches just under the 100 member requirement
• Osmond Duffis becomes Chair, Tamara Thorpe elected Chair-elect

 1998

• Mary Romney, Chair and Osmond Duffis, Chair-elect lead Open Meeting in Orlando, reaching out to new members
• Revisions made to the Mission Statement, Goals and Purposes

1997   

• Patrick Axel Henry and Mary Romney led a campaign at the Convention to gather the 200 signatures required at that time for the application for Caucus status. Caucus status was approved by the TESOL Board at its October 1997 meeting.

top

Presentations at past TESOL conventions

2005

• IBPFT Colloquium: Opportunities for Professionals of Color within TESOL by Mona Scheraga, Willisa Roland, Michelle Maitland, Anwatta Barnes, and Susan Maguire

• All-Caucus Colloquium: Teacher Identity and the TESOL Profession by Ahmar Mahboob, Mary Shepard Wong, Nancy Sreenan, Khadar Bashir-Ali, Tom Riedmiller, and Tom Schroeder

• TESOL Spotlight Session: Race and (Non) Nativeness in English Language Teaching, caucus member participants: Lia Kamhi-Stein and Khadar Bashi-Ali

2004

• IBPFT Colloquium on ESOL Materials
• All Caucus Colloquium: Promoting Social Justice in a Global Community
• 1^st All Caucus Social Event hosted by TESOL
• 2^nd annual Book Drive held convention wide by IBPFT and TESOL
• TESOL Spotlight Session: Re-examining English, Nativeness, and ESL Pedagogy, by Dr. Shondel Nero and Mary Romney

2003

• IBPFT Colloquium: Black Voices in ESL and EFL
• 1st All Caucus Colloquium: Employment Equity

2002

• 1^st Caucus Colloquium: Race, diversity and ESL, panel included Tamara Thorpe, Willisa Roland, Marvelyn Bucky and Martha Davis
• Mary Romney and Jun Liu lead discussion group: Understanding TESOL’s        Caucuses

2001

• Energy Breaks introduced at the 2001 Convention in Saint Louis; Caucus members take the lead:
  • Student Perceptions of Minority Teachers and Race in America: Tamara Thorpe
  • Taking Stock of Your TESOL Membership: Mary Romney
  • Empowering Non-native Speakers in TESOL: Jun Liu

top

top

Mary Romney was the first Chair of IBPFT when it became an official membership entity in TESOL. She spent one year in this capacity - 1998 to 1999 -- and she put her energy primarily into trying to build membership because the task of converting petition signatories to official Caucus members still remained.

Later Mary was encouraged to run for the TESOL Board of Directors by Dr. Shelley Wong, who was IBPFT's Board Liaison (BL) while Mary was Chair of the IBPFT. In 1999, Mary Romney was the first African-American to be elected to TESOL's Board of Directors in its 33-year history, and the first Caucus leader ever to be elected.