Teachers of Color, School Context, and Islands of Practice

• In Event: Education for Diverse Democracy Requires Democracy for Diverse Educators: Critical Insights From National Teaching Fellows

Abstract

This paper presents qualitative data on a group of teachers of Color who worked in
high-poverty schools, each selected as national fellows for a program geared toward recruitment and development of teachers of Color. Findings lend weight to current theories about the
underrepresentation of teachers of Color in public schools: a phenomenon due in large part to the organizational conditions in which teachers work (Ingersoll and May, 2011). This paper goes further, however, in understanding the unique forms of pedagogy enacted by teachers of Color, disparate expectations and treatment they experience in light of their approaches to instruction, and the role of institutional characteristics on teacher efficacy. In light of fellow’s experiences in urban schools, the foundation’s activities and national community of fellows became a counter-space.
Specifically, this paper presents findings from interviews, school visits, and classroom
observations with 14 fellows, including two-thirds who were female (9 of 14), two-thirds who
identified as Black (9 of 14). Three fellows identified as Latino and 2 identified as Asian/Pacific
Islander. Fellows more often worked in charter schools; consequently, participants were
purposefully selected to include a sizeable number of teachers in charter schools (6 of 14). Interviews explored three survey constructs of effectiveness (discussed in paper 2), and two additional constructs (i.e. sense of community with fellows and pedagogical support). Interviews also explored issues shaping turnover, and school classroom visits with six fellows offered in-depth understanding of the contexts in which fellows worked, its influence on teacher efficacy, and
attrition.
Findings indicate that nearly all fellows felt strong in their ability to deliver rigorous content. When asked to describe rigorous content (triangulated with observations of classroom lessons), the majority of fellows (9 of 14) described content that included social justice goals. Moreover, a majority of fellows (10 of 14) described having leadership roles (formal and informal), and more than half worked in schools described as having inadequate supports for students’ socio-emotional needs. Of those who worked in schools with inadequate support, nearly all described seeking out unique forms of support via the national foundation. Indeed, no other factor was more strongly tied to teachers’ decision to move schools than negative descriptions of a school’s socio-emotional practices (including discipline).
A major conclusion, and irony, of the paper is that while highly qualified and diverse
teachers enacted social justice visions of rigorous curriculum, and sought creative ways to support student socio-emotional needs, all while holding leadership roles in the early years of teaching, these factors did not yield opportunities for fellows (except 3) to impact overall practices in their schools. Hence, fellows described their practices as distinct from (and at times contrary to) school wide practices. Policy implications are addressed, including the structure of newly created schools, the need for professional protections, and the harmful tendency of asking more of novice teachers of Color, while providing less opportunities for them to shape overall school conditions. In the absence of critical policy reform, gains in quality, diversity, and teacher efficacy are threatened by adverse structural conditions inside schools, even for the nation’s best prepared career educators.

Authors

• Terrenda Corisa White, University of Colorado-Boulder

• Wagma Mommandi, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Julia A Daniel, University of Colorado - Boulder