Why Don’t Teachers Reflect the Racial and Class Diversity of the Students they Teach?

• In Event: 452 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 13. Race and Employment

Abstract

Using participant observation and interviews, I point to three school-level processes that help explain the persistence of a predominately white teaching staff. First, schools rely on lower-tier staff (paraprofessionals, school aides, and secretaries) to fulfill their diversity ideals, shifting responsibilities for culturally responsive pedagogy onto the few teachers of color and the minority non-instructional staff members. Second, in an era where test performance is of high importance, school leaders provide more resources, respect, and support to teachers who embrace a teaching philosophy where high academic rigor and content knowledge is more important than social or emotional learning, resulting in greater efforts to hire and retain these teachers. This diminishes the contributions of social justice orientated staff members, many of whom are minorities or from working class backgrounds, and elevates the contributions of teachers with strong academic credentials, many of whom attended elite schools and come from wealthy backgrounds. Finally, while most teachers report the desire to work with minority and working class students as important to their job choice, they interact along segregated racial lines with co-workers, resulting in uneven pockets support, and weak networks for minority teachers.

Author

• Johanna S Quinn, University of Wisconsin-Madison