Diversification of the Teaching Workforce

Research Question: How has diversifying the teaching workforce in the past 13 years (2000-2013) changed and affected inner-city public schools and its students?

Relevance: Today, in an attempt to diversify the workforce and close the achievement gap, schools have hired teachers of diverse backgrounds to teach their “inner-city” students. Despite the large amounts of people who participate as advocators for educational equality, there seems to be little nationwide progress. As a former public school student, I noticed that many teachers who attempted to connect with their students failed despite of their ability and passion to teach. School administrators have chimed in and realized that hiring teachers of diverse backgrounds allows for better communication and ultimately success in the classroom. Given the little, but increasing size of the multicultural teacher workforce, it is important to understand the reasoning why there are such low numbers of diverse females and males that are interested in the educational field. It is also important to recognize whether placing a teacher of color in an urban school would be beneficial to the students. Through my research I hope to demonstrate how teachers of color can be helpful or hiding to inner-city schools and it’s students. Ultimately, I would like to learn how the presence of a teacher of color ultimately shapes an inner-city student’s schooling experience and education.

Finding Resources: The first step I took in order to find resources on this topic was to visit Professor Dougherty’s Educ 300: Education Reform, Past and Present blog, in a section that is categorized under: Search strategies for sources in Ed Reform: Past & Present. Under this post, I found a variety of search engines and links to databases where I gathered most, if not all of the pieces I will be using in my research. I used Google Scholar and typed in the words “diversification of higher education and the academic profession” and “recruitment of diverse teachers.” Through these searches, I was able to find several journals including, The Collaborative Recruitment of Diverse Teachers for the Long Haul, The Recruitment and Retention of Minority Teachers in Gifted Education, and Teach for America: The Latinization of U.S. schools and the critical shortage of Latina/o Teachers. I also was able to use ERIC, and through ERIC I was linked to the journal published through Brown University- Minority Teacher Recruitment, Development, and Retention. By looking through articles on ERIC, I stumbled upon Sage Journals, a journal database that also helped me identify some key research articles. Although I have collected a fair share of resources, I would like to meet with a librarian sometime next week in order to make sure I am collecting articles specific to my topic.

 

Bibliography:

Achinstein, B., R. T. Ogawa, D. Sexton, and C. Freitas. “Retaining Teachers of Color: A Pressing Problem and a Potential Strategy for “Hard-to-Staff” Schools.” Review of Educational Research 80.1 (2010): 71-107. Sage Journals. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://rer.sagepub.com/content/80/1/71.full.pdf>.

• This article emphasizes the important of diversifying the teaching workforce and why this task has not been easy. It studies the factors that influence teacher of color retention rates and practices teachers of color execute in the classroom.

Fernandez, Mary R., and Marci Nunez. “Collaborative Recruitment of Diverse Teachers for the Long Haul–TEAMS: Teacher Education for the Advancement of a Multicultural Society.” Multicultural Education 14.2 (2006): 50-56. <Http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ759652.pdf>. Web. 4. Apr. 2013

• This journal article discusses why Urban schools hire teachers that are not adequate/well trained to teach poor urban students. They shed light on the TEAMS program which recruits and prepares teachers to teach in urban school settings.

Ford, Donna Y., Tarek C. Grantham, and J. John Harris. “The Recruitment and Retention of Minority Teachers in Gifted Education.” Roeper Review 19.4 (1997): 213-20. Tandfond Online. Routledge. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02783199709553832>.

• This article demonstrates how minority teachers in gifted education are recruited and trained to teach this specific group of students.

Furman, Jim S. “Tensions in Multicultural Teacher Education Research: Demographics and the Need to Demonstrate Effectiveness.” Education and Urban Society 41.1 (2008): 55-79. Sage Journals. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://eus.sagepub.com/content/41/1/55.full.pdf+html>.

• This article discusses data-based research on studies that have been conducted about diverse teacher education. It brings to light the issues of multiculturalism in the classroom and how the hidden curriculum affects it.

Gordon, June A. Why Did You Select Teaching as a Career?: Teachers of Color Tell Their Stories. Rep. N.p.: n.p., 1993. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED383653. ERIC. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED383653.pdf>.

• This paper reflects on three interviews that were conducted in urban school districts. It reflects on reoccurring themes that were noticed throughout the research regarding minority teachers in urban school settings: What served as their motivation to teach?

Izarry, Jason, and Morgaen L. Donaldson. “Teach For America: The Latinization of U.S. Schools and the Critical Shortage of Latina/o Teachers.” American Educational Research Journal 49.1 (2013): 155-94. Sage Journals. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://aer.sagepub.com/content/49/1/155.full.pdf+html>.

• This article argues that the teaching profession must be diversified in order to accommodate the increasing multicultural student population and describe factors that influence the amount of minority teachers that are recruited per year.

Sleeter, C. E. “Preparing Teachers for Culturally Diverse Schools: Research and the Overwhelming Presence of Whiteness.” Journal of Teacher Education 52.2 (2001): 94-106. Web. 4 Apr. 2013 <http://jte.sagepub.com/content/52/2/94.full.pdf+html>.

• This article focuses on “addressing the attitudes and lack of knowledge of White preservice students.” The article addresses how to address the problem of the abundance of white teachers, and why that has become a problem in multicultural schools.

Torres, Judith, Janet Santos, Nancy L. Peck, and Lydia Cortes. “Minority Teacher Recruitment, Development, and Retention.” Ed. Kristin Latina and Jessica Swedlow. The Educational Alliance (2004): n. pag. Alliance At Brown University. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. <http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/minority_teacher/minteachrcrt.pdf>.

• This article provides statistical evidence on how placing multicultural teachers in Urban School settings can possibly help low income students to succeed.

Villegas, Ana María, and Tamara F. Lucas. “Diversifying the Teacher Workforce: A Retrospective and Prospective Analysis.” Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education 103.1 (2004): 70-104. ERIC. Web. 4 Apr. 2013.

• This chapter that is part of a book argues that the educational workforce should be diversified. Authors explain that schools need to train their teachers and reflect on the statistical factors that show the small amount of Diversity in the workforce.