Over the years, I have had the experience of working with teachers of color, primarily in dual immersion settings. I led a school where a dual immersion program brought in mostly native Spanish speakers to teach language and content in the target language. As a principal, I made it a regular habit to look for candidates of color for open positions in the school. I led diverse, Title I schools and knew the importance of students being taught by people who look like them. I also witnessed teachers of color hold high expectations for their students, seeing the work as more than just a job but a moral imperative. (Gloria Ladson-Billings talks about the important work of Black teachers in her classic The Dreamkeepers.)
Yet, simply hiring teachers of color turned out to be insufficient equity work as a leader. In nearly all cases, our teachers of color struggled to fit in and feel connected to the overall staff. There were microaggressions during faculty meetings or in PLCs. There were accusations of cheating and getting all the "good kids" when our teachers of color outperformed their white colleagues. And generally, when teachers of color spoke up to share an opinion or idea, they felt dismissed by their white colleagues. I countered with efforts to build awareness about issues of race and privilege. I heaped support on our teachers of color. But my efforts were reactive and lacked a cohesive strategy. Yes, we need more teachers of color in our school systems. We also need to ensure the conditions for these teachers of color to be successful. Learning from my successes and my mistakes, I suggest some approaches that leaders can take to lay the systemic groundwork for attracting and sustaining more teachers of color in our schools.
Ensure Psychological Safety Schoolwide
Psychological safety refers to an environment of risk-taking and honest dialogue, where issues of race and belonging are discussed openly, and where a member of the team can call out a microaggression and not be labeled rude. Edmondson (2019) points out that even in organizations that lack psychological safety, individual teams can attend to it. Principals should pay special attention to diverse teams to ensure they have communication methods that cross cultural and racial divides. They need trust and openness to cut through some of the "niceness" that often defines school environments but ends up only masking racist beliefs and practices (Alemán, 2009). Some methods for teams might include norms that intentionally honor a variety of perspectives and a place on every agenda for counter-arguments or perspectives that haven't been considered.
Confront Whiteness
When we mention diversity, our minds immediately go to "the other." But this approach protects whiteness and allows white teachers to believe that they don't have any self-examination to do when it comes to race. It sends the wrong message that race work is something done by people of color. White people also come to believe that talking about race is racist. Hiring teachers of color is going to be challenging if the white teachers in the building can't get past their own whiteness. In cases where race is brought up, white teachers tend to co-opt conversations by making the issues about themselves (DiAngelo, 2019). Recognizing the way that whiteness works in society and in schools particularly will better create conditions where teachers of color are not burdened with the notion that they are raced while white teachers are race-free.
Disaggregate Data
Make race part of every data conversation by disaggregating academic, attendance, and behavior data on student groups. How are our Black and Latinx students performing? What kinds of support do our students of color need that might be unique to their situations? Rather than furthering stereotypes by saying what one student group needs as a whole, disaggregated data can reveal whether school practices align with equity goals and can cue responsive interventions such as targeted professional learning, more family outreach, and more attention to creating strong relationships with students. When students and their families are viewed through an asset-oriented lens that comes from an analysis of the ways that schools should better support them, difference is affirmed rather than problematized. This shift often validates what teachers of color know about students and families, sometimes based on personal experiences, building on theories of community cultural wealth (Burciaga and Kohli, 2018).
Provide Release Time for Networking
In the book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, Beverly Daniel Tatum examines why individuals often coalesce with individuals of the same race. We all do it. White people tend to deny that they do, but their habits are reflected in the neighborhoods they choose, the places they shop, and the schools their children attend. Imagine how isolating it must feel, then, for a teacher of color to enter a predominantly white system, with white colleagues, principals, and superintendents, and to have few if any individuals who look like them. We need to be mindful in schools, districts, and states about the support structures we create for teachers of color. Providing release time for teachers of color to network with other teachers of color from across the district and state is a crucial support that needs to be in place. When I was principal of a dual immersion school, these networking meetings were regularly scheduled and provided our teachers of color space to process experiences, challenges, celebrations, and questions.
I am a white man. When I talk about white educators, I include myself. I am a white educator who works hard to better understand his role in perpetuating inequity. I am also a white educator who would like to see more teachers of color in schools. As a former principal and director of school leadership support, I know the reluctance of school systems to engage in true equity talk that moves beyond the superficial and "polite" and gets to systemic change. For the outcomes to change—attracting and retaining more teachers of color in education—the environment must change so that teachers of color feel safe and supported by leaders who are not afraid to take on issues of race and equity.
