“Small but Mighty”: Black Teachers’ Experiences in Allegheny County

• In Event: For Us, With Us, By Us: Research With Black Teachers by Black Teachers and Black Researchers

Abstract

Prior quantitative analysis revealed a significant decline in the number of Black teachers in Pittsburgh Public Schools and other districts within Allegheny County (Eddins, 2020), however there was no insight into the reasons for that decline according to Black teachers in the region. The Allegheny County Black Teacher Study was designed to learn directly from Black educators about their perspectives related to this attrition.
We designed a community-engaged qualitative study that included semi-structured interviews and focus groups with current and former Black educators in Allegheny County. We spoke with 44 total participants, including 29 current teachers, 9 former teachers.
Building on our learnings from the aforementioned Black teacher study in Philadelphia, the research team conceived of ways to meaningfully involve community input throughout the entire study process. We did this by leveraging a Research Advisory Committee (RAC) and Research Practice Learning Community (RPLC). The RAC played an instrumental role in shaping the sampling approach and recruitment strategy, as well as the data collection protocols. After data collection, we expanded the RAC to a broader RPLC to include 5 study participants. This group is advising our team on sense-making, and the development of tools to impact policy and practice.
While analysis is ongoing, we have drawn several themes from the data that are useful for understanding the participants’ perspectives on Black teacher attrition within Allegheny County. First, Black teacher’s racial identity is an important aspect that informs teachers’ curricular and pedagogical choices and their approaches to teaching and caring for Black students. Our participants feel they are able to authentically connect with Black students based on shared lived experiences, and they perceive this as an asset. Black teachers feel a responsibility for their Black students and communities, and many current teachers shared that their Black students are the reason they remain in the profession. Second, Black teachers in Allegheny County schools are heavily affected by both systemic and interpersonal racism. The teachers we spoke with described their school systems as “rooted in white supremacy,” as they are led by and for white people, and were not designed for Black students or Black teachers to thrive. Several described being the only, or one of few Black teachers in their building, and experiencing isolation, microaggressions, lack of support, issues with colleagues and retaliation from administration. In some cases, teachers reported that colleagues or school administration physically attacked them or took actions that were intended to result in Black teachers being released or transferred. We believe that the findings from this study will help inform efforts to recruit, retain, and better support educators of color and advance racial justice within our K-12 education systems. After data analysis concludes, we will host a convening informed by the RPLC to engage educational leaders and thought partners with the findings. In this way, and distinct from the Philadelphia study, community members informed every aspect of the study from its research questions and design to the resulting product and its dissemination strategy–specifically targeting Allegheny County.

Author

• Siettah Parks, Research for Action