Teacher Diversity

Diversifying the teaching profession has garnered attention from researchers, policy makers, and educational stakeholders. However, missing within this conversation is the role of school and district leaders in diversifying the teaching profession. We argue that without considering school and district leaders, diversity initiatives will not have a long-term systemic impact. Thus, this article fills in a gap in the literature on this topic. First, we provide a brief overview of the current racial and ethnic demographics of the teaching workforce and student population and discuss the barriers to recruiting and retaining a diverse teacher workforce. Second, we highlight the factors that have been found to influence the recruitment and retention of racial diversity of teachers at the pre-service and in-service levels. Lastly, we provide recommendations for school-based and district leaders on how they should plan for diversifying their teacher workforce.

This article examines the paradox of Teach For America's diversity gains and its support for policies that contribute to Black teacher decline in urban communities. TFA has countered claims that its expansion is connected to teacher displacement, but its two-pronged structure—as an alternative certification program and an influential policy actor via its leadership model for education reform—requires a critical analysis of the impact of its policy commitments on Black teachers. I propose steps to better align TFA's policy orientations with its diversity values by leveraging TFA's policy influence to support better working conditions for teachers in urban schools, democratic school turnarounds, and teacher organizing linked to broad social justice movements.

This research highlights the pedagogical significance of dialogic
spaces in supporting critical reflection and transformative learning
among prospective teachers in the United States. It finds that, with
elucidation of the multiple voices and texts from prospective teachers’
field experience, teacher educators can stimulate deep reflection to
springboard transformative learning. It also finds that ePortfolios have
strong potential to support a dialogic approach to reflection. However,
it is also clear that, absent systematic observation and careful followup
dialogue, the potential to move from reflection to transformative
learning is limited. The findings will help teacher educators rethink
the design and practice of supervision with ePortfolios, reinforcing
that critical dialogue between the supervisor and the prospective
teachers is key to supporting prospective teachers’ critical reflection
and transformative learning, and to improving their teaching practice.

This dissertation explores strategies used by successful Black early childhood education students completing coursework toward degree attainment at San Francisco State University. Minimum ECE teacher qualifications are gradually changing to require four-year degrees, and without increased graduation rates for Blacks and Latinos, the ECE teacher workforce will lack the diversity of California’s population of young children.  Data were gathered from intensive face-to-face interviews with 12 Black female participants. Data analysis took place through three sets of lenses drawn from the literature: (1) retention and persistence of college students (Tinto & Cullen, 1973), (2) micro-aggressions (Sue et al., 2007), and (3) stereotype threat and stereotype vulnerability (Steele, 2010; Aronson, 2004). Findings suggest that participants employed multiple strategies to support their social and academic integration at the university including strategically handling social and familial relationships, sheltering within in Ethnic Studies courses, and crafting accurate self-assessments acknowledging their academic skills and accomplishments. In contrast to attrition studies that emphasize failure, this study provides evidence of those who succeed, using a student-centered perspective to examine Black student retention. A key implication describes a program of targeted support which is improving completion rates for Black students in ECE, and could potentially transfer to other disciplines.

Keywords: Black ECE students, Black undergraduate student persistence, Black ECE teachers, early childhood education teacher diversity, Black student retention, micro-aggressions in education, stereotype threat, stereotype vulnerability

In this paper I propose that the educational and opportunity gap cannot be eliminated without reforming teacher education policy and injecting a dynamic social justice agenda approach into teacher preparation - one that begins with recruitment to the profession.  I then argue that while both traditional colleges of education and non-traditional “pathways” have the potential to effectively address the concerns of equity, TFA has made some headway in the field in terms of diversity in recruitment and commitment to social justice.

Teachers are fundamental actors in education; without their contribution even the most progressive pedagogical ideas fail. However, few studies address how their individual biographies, community belonging, and intersectional identities impact their pedagogical views and practices. Furthermore, while the Roma are the target of numerous social and pedagogical initiatives, they are rarely considered as actors who shape education. Through an analysis of ten ethnographic interviews with self-identified Roma teachers embedded in two local educational settings, this paper scrutinizes the potential and challenges associated with the presence of qualified Roma teachers in rural Hungarian schools. Interviewees demonstrated a high level of commitment to 'leading by example,' and this was embedded in their relations with students and parents. Most teachers also believed that, besides professional expertise, shared ethnicity provided them with a specific opportunity to build trust, express empathy, implement curricula, and incorporate locally and culturally relevant knowledge. However, while professionalism and ethnicity often complemented each other, difficulties also arose due to the differing expectations and heterogeneity of local Roma communities. The findings suggest that Roma teachers may bring valuable resources for education through mobilizing their personal experiences and social and cultural sensitivity, but tapping these resources is limited by structural and contextual constraints.

Diversifying the Teacher Workforce critically examines efforts to diversify the teaching force and narrow the demographic gap between who teaches and who populates U.S. classrooms. While the demographic gap is often invoked to provide a needed rationale for preparing all teachers, and especially White teachers, to work with students of color, it is far less often invoked in an effort to examine why the teaching force remains predominantly White in the first place. Based on work the National Association for Multicultural Education is engaged in on this phenomenon, this edited collection brings together leading scholars to look closely at this problem. They examine why the teaching force is predominantly White from historical as well as contemporary perspectives, showcase and report available data on a variety of ways this problem is being tackled at the pre‐service and teacher credentialing levels, and examine how a diverse and high‐quality teaching force can be retained and thrive. This book is an essential resource for any educator interested in exploring race within the context of today’s urban schools.