Black Undergraduates' Perceptions of Costs and Benefits of a Teaching Career in Pre-K–12 Public Education

• In Event: To Teach or Not to Teach? Perceptions and Experiences of the Teaching Profession

Abstract

Using focus group data from 16 Black undergraduate students who expressed interest in teaching, we examine their perceptions of the multiple costs of choosing a teaching career in PK-12 public education and consider the role structural racism may have played in their perceptions. We identify three themes that connect these undergraduates’ perceived costs of teaching to economic and social aspects of systemic racism: (1) the pursuit of financial stability, (2) dispelling the myth of Black intellectual inferiority, and (3) the “Black Tax.” We argue that researchers, educators, and policymakers must give more consideration to the deep social structures of racial inequality in addressing the critical shortage of Black, PK-12 teachers in the U.S.

Authors

• Tara Marie Brown, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Betty Malen, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Tifanee McCaskill, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author