Black Women Teachers in America: History, Hegemony, and Hope

• In Event: 51.072 - Black Female Teachers: Diversifying the U.S. Teacher Workforce

Abstract

Framed in Black womanist thought, the objective of this paper presentation is to share the history of Black women teachers since the Civil War to present day. There was a strong teaching workforce with nearly 60,000 Black teachers, primarily composed of women, by the turn of the 20th century (Foster, 1997). One century later, the staffing of Black women teachers (BWTs) in America’s schools has plummeted to a crisis level. A cacophony of new reports by researchers and accreditation agencies has reawakened a national conversation to diversify the teaching force; however, little attention has addressed the specific recruitment and retention of Black women. The exodus of Black women from the teaching profession is so pronounced that it invites a separate and distinct conversation within the field.

The shortage of BWTs becomes painfully transparent when one drills down into the disparate ethnic and gender groups within the United States teacher workforce. Currently, only 17 percent of the nearly three and half million teachers are teachers of color (Camera, 2016), which represents Latinx and Hispanic Americans, Black Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans. Black Americans encompass approximately seven percent of the total teacher population (Author, 2013; U.S. Department of Education [USDOE], 2016); underscoring the harsh reality that Black men comprise only two percent of the teaching force (Author, 2006; Author, 2008; National Education Association [NEA], 2014; U.S. Department of Education, 2013; Walker, 2016). If these numbers hold true then, by extrapolation, it is estimated that Black women represent roughly five percent of the teacher workforce. By convenience or conviction, often purposeful discussions on recruiting and retaining Black women within the teaching profession are folded within a universal discourse on increasing the number of teachers of color in general; further obscuring the challenges and possibilities for drawing and preserving this singular demographic within the profession.

Using document analysis as the methodology, by tapping such conventional (peer-reviewed journals) and unconventional data sources (e.g., oral accounts, magazines, online blogs, etc.) the results are outlined into three parts: (1) history of BWTs in American classrooms, (2) rationale for including BWTs in American classrooms, and (3) the presenter shares special emphasis recruiting tactics as promising proposals to enlist and retain more Black women in the teaching profession at the national, programmatic, and local school district levels.

Author

• Valerie Hill-Jackson, Texas A&M University - College Station