A Convenient Rhetoric or Substantial Change of Teacher Diversity? A Text Mining Approach and Systemic Review

• In Event: Division K Section 7 Poster

Abstract

Teacher diversity has been widely considered important in education. To what extent and how has teacher diversity been addressed at the federal, state, and district levels? In this study, we employed text mining to collect and analyze over three million documents at the federal, state, and district levels. We found that besides White students, students of other racial groups had a disproportionately unequal access to racially diverse teachers. The majority of the documents did not discuss recruitment and retention of diverse teachers. The findings pose challenges for policymakers and leaders to diversify teachers amid shifting student demographics.

Authors

• Briana Keith, Georgia State University

• Sing Hui Lee, Georgia State University

• Felicia Allen-Teasley, Georgia State University

• Yasmine Bey, Georgia State University

• Yinying Wang, Georgia State University

• Xiulong Yang, Georgia State University

• Xiang Li, Georgia State University

• Shihao Ji, Georgia State University