Rooted in Place: Understanding Teacher Housing Initiatives in Context—A Racial and Spatial Analysis

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Housing Instability: Roots, Redlining and Academic Disruption

Abstract

Affordable housing challenges, long known to affect student success, increasingly impact
teachers, often pricing them out of the communities where they work (Saenz-Armstrong, 2023).
In response, several districts have introduced Teacher Housing Initiatives (THIs) to recruit and
retain teachers in areas with limited affordable housing. This study investigates how THIs are
conceptualized, implemented, and differentiated across U.S. contexts, with attention to the
racialized, spatial, and economic politics of place. Drawing on spatial theories from both Lipsitz
(2007) and Foster (2006) document analysis of newspaper articles, policy documents, blog posts,
and think tank reports identified 88 THIs across 28 states. Three THIs were selected as
comparative case studies. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed how THIs disrupt or reinforce
racial and spatial inequalities.

Author

• Jackquelin Bristol, University of Colorado - Boulder