Presentation
The Socialization and Retention of New Teachers of Color
American Educational Research Association
(2009)
Abstract
This paper identifies factors that impact retention and socialization of new teachers of color in developing cultural/professional roles (i.e., culturally relevant teacher; role model; and agent of change), drawing on an extensive review of the empirical research literature (173 studies) and findings from a five-year study we conducted on 20 new teachers of color working in hard to staff urban schools in California. We contribute a conceptual framework that highlights the significance of the intersection of: 1) teachers personal and professional backgrounds and 2) organizational contexts including financial-, human-, social-, and multi/cultural- capital and power relations embedded in schools, in shaping retention and socialization of new teachers of color. From the empirical review, we found that many teachers of color are attracted to working in hard to staff urban schools, and come committed to being culturally relevant teachers, role models, and agents of change. Moreover, while national retention rates for teachers of color are now lower than Whites, teachers of color tend to remain in hard to staff urban schools at higher rates than Whites. This raises a policy puzzle. Beyond retention, we address the conditions that foster development of teachers of color to enact cultural/professional roles. We turn to our own study to begin to address gaps in the literature. We examined factors that influenced the development of cultural/professional roles of new teachers of color who attended teacher education programs focused on culturally relevant teaching, and chose to work in urban schools with high minority populations. Data were drawn from teacher and administrator interviews, classroom observations, school documents, surveys, and focus groups. Results highlight: 1) complexities in the majority of the novices experiences as they attempted to serve as role models, culturally relevant teachers and agents of change. While these teachers were motivated by personal histories and professional preparation, they often worked in schools that inhibited them from engaging in cultural/professional roles; 2) promising select examples of teachers who acted with agency with the support of individual, organizational, and community-based sponsors, and descriptions of schooling conditions that supported novices of color in enacting cultural/professional roles.
Disciplines
Publication Date
April 17, 2009
Location
San Diego, CA
Citation Information
Betty Achinstein, Rodney T. Ogawa, Dena Sexton and Casia J Freitas. "The Socialization and Retention of New Teachers of Color" American Educational Research Association (2009) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/dena-sexton/9/