Beyond Race: Educators of Color in Urban Title I Schools Explain How Teacher Job Fit Contributes to Job Persistence

• In Event: Teachers of Color: Experiences Along the Pipeline

Abstract

Frequent teacher turnover disproportionately affects students who are already marginalized in the US educational system. Although career psychology theories suggest that a critical factor in employee satisfaction and retention is job fit - a person’s compatibility with the nature of their work – little is known about teachers' sense of fit and how it affects their decisions to serve high-turnover schools. Interviews with mid-career educators of color in Los Angeles County revealed that initial perceptions of fit indeed motivated teachers to choose jobs in high-poverty, urban communities of color, and that it also drove their intentions to stay. This exploratory study extended prevailing portrayals of job fit as static and immutable, as educators’ initial perceptions of fit were challenged and reconceptualized as they gained experience working in underresourced schools and in the profession. Findings also contextualized the idea of teacher-job fit, that it is most robust and contributes to job commitment when teachers are concordant with the majority of their students across racial, ethnic, provincial, and socioeconomic (REPS) identities, and can relate with their school communities over common societal oppressions endured in working class neighborhoods (e.g., poverty, racism, prison pipeline). Suggestions for applying this sociocultural conception of fit to improve teacher recruitment and retention in hard-to-staff schools are provided.

Author

• Tomoko M. Nakajima, University of California - Los Angeles