Empowering Cultural Wealth: The Recruitment and Retention of Latino/a Teachers in Urban Catholic Schools

• In Event: Parochialism in Catholic Education Pipelines, Recruitment, and Retention: Interrogating and Repairing Social Capital That Marginalizes

Abstract

Empirically, little is known about why Latino/a teachers choose to teach in urban Catholic schools and the factors that contribute to their retention. While there is a growing body of literature on teacher and student racial disparities in urban public schools (Berrios, 2016; Carver-Thomas, 2018; Villegas & Irvine, 2010), research specifically addressing the factors that sustain the work of Latino/a urban Catholic school teachers, particularly those teaching in the schools they attended or in schools similar to those they attended, is limited.

Within the context of a growing diverse student population, a teacher shortage across all educational sectors, and high teacher attrition rates in urban schools (Berrios, 2016), it is imperative that the teaching workforce reflect the racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds of students in urban Catholic schools (Author, 2022; Ospino & Wyttenbach, 2022). However, due to their limited historical experience in recruiting, selecting, and retaining a teaching workforce, Catholic schools as a system have not developed a coherent strategy to recruit and retain diverse teachers (Sanchez, 2018). Unlike their public school counterparts, the concepts of teacher recruitment and selection are relatively new to Catholic schools. Before the decline of sister-teachers, Catholic schools did not need to focus on their teaching workforce (Caruso, 2012). Initially, when lay teachers began to be hired in large numbers, Catholic school administrators typically did not actively recruit for teacher openings, relying instead on individuals from within the parish. This practice limited the diversity of faculty and staff.

This paper examines the experiences of Latino/a urban Catholic school teachers through the following question: How do the various forms of cultural capital intersect and interact in the lived experiences of Latino/a urban Catholic school teachers who teach in the Catholic schools they attended or in Catholic schools that mirror those they attended?

To authentically document the participants’ experiences, this paper is grounded in Community Cultural Wealth Theory (CCW), challenging conventional views of institutional cultures which often perceive communities of color from a deficit perspective (Salisbury, 2022; Yosso, 2005). CCW highlights six distinct forms of capital that communities of color hold (Yosso, 2005). Within the context of this paper, CCW encourages Latino/a urban Catholic school teachers to acknowledge and appreciate their aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistant capital through an asset-based perspective.

To address the guiding question, four urban Catholic school teachers who taught at their former Catholic schools, participated in three semi-structured individual interviews. The data was analyzed using a deductive approach (Leavy, 2017). The analysis highlighted how these forms of cultural wealth empowered the Latino/a urban Catholic school teachers as cultural brokers, making significant and meaningful contributions to their urban Catholic schools (Author, 2022). This cultural capital stemmed from the knowledge and experiences they carried from their homes, communities, and lived experiences (Delgado Bernal, 1998). In the context of ongoing discussions about improving teacher diversity in urban schools (Noonan & Bristol, 2020), the findings offer essential insights into how urban Catholic schools can more effectively recruit and retain Latino/a teachers.

Author

• Antonio Felix, Loyola Marymount University