Organizing for Educator Diversity:

Promising Policies and Practices from the

United States of America

Travis J. Bristol, Ph.D. Peter Paul Assistant Professor,

Boston University

tbristol@bu.edu

@tjacksonbristol

“Of all the civil rights for which the world

has struggled and fought for 5,000 years,

the right to learn is undoubtedly the most

fundamental … The freedom to learn …

has been bought by bitter sacrifice…

-W.E.B. DuBois (1949)

“… And whatever we may think

of the curtailment of other civil

rights, we should fight to the last

ditch to keep open the right to

learn, the right to have

examined in our schools not only

what we believe, but what we

do not believe; not only what our

leaders say, but what the leaders

of other groups and nations, and

the leaders of other centuries

have said…

“… We must insist upon this to

give our children the fairness of a

start which will equip them with

such an array of facts and such

an attitude toward truth that they

can have a real chance to judge

what the world is and what its

greater minds have thought it

might be.”

-W.E.B. DuBois (1949)

Organizing for Educator Diversity:

Promising Policies and Practices from the

United States of America

Travis J. Bristol, Ph.D. Peter Paul Assistant Professor,

Boston University

tbristol@bu.edu

@tjacksonbristol

Situating My Work at the

Intersection of Research,

Practice, & Policy

Research

Black male teachers (n =27) in

Boston Public Schools

Practice Boston Teacher Residency Male Educators of Color Network

Policy *USDOE

*New York City

Research

NYC Men Teach

(n= 53)

Immigration Inflows by Countries: Sub-sample of OECD Member States

Australia Japan South

Korea Netherlands Norway

United

States

United

Kingdom

2004 149,991 94,093 39,211 64,813 24,948 957,883 363,276

2014 231,380 63,920 75,736 124,112 55,635 1,016,518

365,429

Percentage

Change +54.26% -32.06% +93.15% +91.5% +123% +6.12% +.6%

Source: OECD International Migration Statistics (2016)

Teacher and Student

Demographics by Countries:

Sub-sample of OECD Member States

Australia

Japan

South

Korea Netherlands Norway

United

States

United

Kingdom (Wales)

Percentage

Racial/Ethnic

Minority

Students

15% N/A N/A 10.6% (15-year old students)

6.8%

50.3%

10.6%

Percentage

Racial/Ethnic

Minority

Teachers

8% N/A N/A 6.1% (upper secondary)

6.3%

18%

2% (teacher

trainees)

Sources: OECD Education Statistics (2017) & ECORYS Education and Training (2016), Australian Journal of Teacher Education ( 2017) & US Department of Education (2016)

In 2009, U.S. Secretary of Education

Arne Duncan

Calls

“Black Men to the Blackboard”

2014 U.S. Teachers,

Male Teachers & Students

Racial Characteristics

%Latino %Black %Asian %Native

American

%White

Teachers 7.6 6.6 1.8 0.6 82.3

Male

Teachers

2 1.9 0.5 0.1 13

Students 25.8 15.4 5.2 1.1 49.7

Source: National Center for Education Statistics (2014)

“Added-Value” for Students of Color

When Taught by a Teacher of Color

Qualitative Research

Monzo and Rueda (2001) - Latino teachers draw on their Latino

students’ cultural experiences to increase academic and social

development

Lynn (2006) - Black male teachers describe positive beliefs about

their Black students’ academic abilities

Ladson-Billings (2009) - Black teachers draw on culturally relevant

pedagogy to increase learning and engagement for their Black

students

Lara (2015) – Latino male bilingual teachers enact practices that facilitate their Latino students’ learning and engagement

“Added-Value” for Students of Color

When Taught by a Teacher of Color

Quantitative Research

Dee (2004) - Tennessee’s Project STAR Class-Size Experiment

Ouazad (2015) - Early Childhood Longitudinal Study

Egalite, Kisida, and Winters (2015) - Administrative data from Florida

Cherng and Halpin (2016) - Measure of Effective Teaching

Gershenson, Hart, Lindsay, and Papageorge (2017) – Tennessee’s Project STAR Class-Size Experiment

Demographic Teacher-

Student Matching as Policy?

“Are we in a situation where we

need teachers with a migrant

background only teaching

migrant children? Or, White

European teachers only

teaching White European

children?”

Black Teacher Turnover:

Diversity Trends 2002 – 2012

Source: Albert Shanker Institute, 2015

Research Questions:

1)What are Black male teachers’ pathways into the profession?

2) Do the in school experiences vary for Black male teachers working in schools employing one Black male

teacher versus schools with larger numbers of Black male teachers?

3) What are Black male teachers’ school based experiences?

4) How do these organizational contexts and experiences affect teachers’ plans to stay in their schools or in

teaching?

Method for Data Collection

2 Rounds of In-depth Semi-structured Interviews (Seidman, 2006)

Observations (Creswell, 2007)

Sample: 27 Black Male Teachers in One U.S. Urban

School District 14 schools 7 schools with 1 Black Male Teacher

(n=7)[Loners] 7 schools with 3 or more Black Male

Teachers (n=20) [Groupers]

Perception that Colleagues

Saw them as

Intellectually Inferior

“I mean it makes you feel inadequate. Like am I

saying something that's crazy? I've been

educated. I have a Master's. I passed all these

MTELs just like everybody else. It's frustrating you know?”

-Dennis Sangister

8th Grade English Teacher

Behavior Managers Rather Than Teachers

“I can see most people would feel enthused that

they’re helping out their colleagues – like they

picked me because they respect me – [but] it’s

also becoming a burden now because I have

other things to do. I have to plan. I have to plan

for my kids to be on a specific track, plan my

scope and sequence, and correct papers. Just

the regular things that teachers do.”

-Jermaine Carter

9th Grade Math Teacher

Practice

Boston Teacher Residency

Male Educators of Color

Network

Mission: To provide socio-emotional support to male

teachers of color and a space to reflect on practice - in

service of student learning

Meetings took place on Friday evenings from 5:00 p.m. –

7:00 p.m.

First half focused on socio-emotional support

Second half focused on having a thought-partner solve

a problem of practice –a professional learning

community (Little, 2006)

Month Social-Emotional Component Dilemma of Practice

January 2013 * Opportunities in Boston Public Schools

* Pathways into leadership

* How do you create student buy-in?

* How do you get all students to do high

cognitive demand thinking?

February 2013 *What is the role of male teachers of color in

educating boys of color?

*What are some practical strategies that will

help engage boys of color?

March 2013 *How do I navigate the various roles I am

asked to play in my school?

*How do we make our curriculum culturally

relevant to our students?

April 2013 *How do we increase the number of male

teachers of color in our district?

*What does it mean that Black male teachers

receive a disproportionate number of

unsatisfactory ratings on the district ’s new

Evaluation system?

May 2013 Organized an after-school workshop that included 25 male high school students of color. The

purpose of the workshop was to provide male students of color with information that would

expose them to the teaching profession. Workshop sessions focused on 4 areas - 1) Teaching

&Your Community 2) How to become a teacher 3) Cash & Benefits 4) Educating Beyond the

Classroom

Source: Bristol, T. J. (2015). Male Teachers of Color Take a Lesson from Each Other. Phi Delta Kappan, 92, 2.

February Social-Emotional Component: What is the Role

of Male Teachers of Color in Educating Boys of

Color? Valuing the Cool: “Math SWAGG”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAHQxhUT7dw

U.S. Department of Education National Summit on Teacher Diversity

May 6, 2016

Colorado

Connecticut

Illinois

Missouri

Mississippi

Nebraska

Pennsylvania

South Dakota

Tennessee

Virginia

Wisconsin

Research Questions

In what ways does the NYCDoE provide induction support for NYC Men Teach

Anchors?

How effective are the induction and ongoing services NYC Men Teach

Anchors receive in supporting their practice?

How, and to what degree, is the induction and ongoing support NYC Men

Teach Anchors receive influencing their decisions to stay/leave their school

and/or the profession?

How are NYC Men Teach Anchors’ school-based experiences influencing their

decisions to stay/leave their school and/or the profession?

How do students and their caregivers describe NYC Men Teach Anchors’ role

in improving students’ learning and socio-emotional development?

Teaching Staff with

Migration History in North

Rhine-Westphalia

Recommendations

for

Organizing for Diversity in a Flat World

OECD should convene practitioners across its 35 Member nations to share best practices for recruiting, supporting, and retaining racial and ethnic minority teachers.

The OECD should explicitly highlight and study the experiences of ethnoracial minority teachers.

An OECD study should explore how both ethnoracial minority students interact/learn from ethnoracial minority teachers.

In teacher training institutions, OECD should examine the experiences of racial and ethnic minority pre-service candidates.

OECD should support member states to develop plans to recruit, support, and retain a more ethnoracially diverse teacher workforce.