International Teachers, Teach For America, and the Political Spectacle of Recruitment for Urban Schools

• In Event: Transformative Calls for Educational Reform in Urban Contexts

Abstract

Though yearly there are about 8,000 Teach For America (TFA) members and 20,000 international teachers in U.S. urban schools, there is a dearth of empirical literature on both TFA and international teacher recruitment (ITR). This paper describes the neoliberal political context in which alternative recruitment can flourish and shares the findings of two original research projects on recruitment of the “best and brightest” from the U.S. and abroad. Findings reveal that both TFA and ITR are: part of the political spectacle of globalization; a cause and a consequence of failed urban school reform; temporary solutions to systemic problems that exploit teachers and jeopardize urban students and communities. Both strategies also frame the master narrative of teaching, learning, and educational equity.

Authors

• Alyssa Hadley Dunn, Georgia State University

• Kara M. Kavanagh, Georgia State University