Lessons for Teacher Education: The Role of Critical Professional Development in Teacher of Color Retention

• In Event: Challenging the Status Quo: Critical Professional Development in K–12 and Teacher Education

Abstract

Objectives
The current literature on teachers of Color tends to normalize attrition as predictable by the high-turnover rates of “urban” or “hard to staff” schools (Achinstein, Ogawa, Sexton, & Freitas, 2010). However, what research has taken up less is why many teachers of Color leave the classroom after just a few years (Ingersoll & May, 2012), and more specifically, what supports their retention. This paper illuminates teachers of Color’s need for racial literacy to navigate the highly racialized institution of schooling and profession of teaching. It points to CPD as a primary place that justice-oriented teachers of Color seek out to develop these skills, in community, which is foundational to their retention.

Theoretical framework
First conceptualized by Guinier (2004) as the “capacity to decipher the durable racial grammar that structures racialized hierarchies and frames the narrative of our republic” (p. 100), education researchers have pointed to the usefulness of racial literacy in serving racially marginalized students (Rogers & Mosley, 2006; Sealey-Ruiz, 2011; Skerrett, 2011). A needed tool for teachers of Color to navigate a predominantly White and operationally White profession, participants in the study are accessing the critical discourse needed to develop their racial literacy through engagement with CPD.

Methods and Data Sources
11 women of Color veteran teachers participated in 60-90 minute interviews to understand how they made sense of their preparation in regards to sustaining a justice-oriented career. After transcription, interviews were coded and re-coded for emergent patterns and grounded theory guided the analysis as I developed and made sense of the themes (Saldaña, 2015). Racial literacy as embedded in CPD emerged as a salient concept across the majority of participants.

Data sources and Results
All participants in this study had taught far longer than the average teacher and had risen as social justice leaders. Across their narratives, one key common factor in their retention was their participation in CPD and its usefulness in building community and developing racial literacy. During their credential program and/or while they were teaching, all the women in the study regularly engaged with like-minded communities of teachers to strengthen their critical and racial analysis of schooling. In these spaces, they discussed broader socio-political issues in schooling and strategized how to navigate and transform the racial climates of their jobs. As the data shows, the CPD served to strengthen their racial literacies, which in turn, supported their ability to confront racism, feel more successful in their goals, and stay in the profession longer.

Scholarly significance
This study points to CPD as a mechanism to develop teachers of Color’s racial literacy, a tool that sustained them in the field, and offers lessons for how this works to support a diverse teaching force, including explicit inclusion of critical theory, racial discourse, and a collaborative and justice-oriented climate. These lessons can strengthen professional efforts to prepare teachers of Color for long, effective, and transformative careers.

Author

• Rita Kohli, University of California - Riverside