Men of the Classroom: An Exploration of How the Organizational Conditions, Characteristics, and Dynamics in Schools Affect the Recruitment, Experiences, and Retention of Black Male Teachers

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

In response to Secretary Arne Duncan’s teacher recruitment campaign, “Black Men to the Blackboard,” and the high rate of Black male teacher turnover, the study explores the in school experiences of this subgroup. Only in the past decade have researchers turned their attention to an empirical investigation of Black male teachers. The burgeoning research has focused on understanding pathways into the profession and how these teachers enact their practice. There have been limited attempts to understand how the organizational conditions in schools shape Black male teachers’ experiences. To fill the empirical gap, this dissertation explores how organizational conditions, characteristics, and dynamics in schools affect the recruitment, experiences, and retention of Black male teachers. Drawing on a theory of numbers and group composition, I carry out a phenomenological study using semi-structured interviews and participant observations of Black male teachers in fourteen schools in one urban school district. I select two types of schools; seven with one Black male teacher and seven with several Black male teachers.

Author

• Travis Bristol, Stanford University