Strengths and Shortcomings of a Teacher Preparation Program: Learning from Racially Diverse Preservice Teachers

Abstract

Racially diverse teachers are valuable sources of knowledge in school systems. However, a lack of diversity among teachers has demonstrated long-standing issues with how racially diverse teachers are prepared for teaching. The present study sought to expand on prior research by examining the viewpoints of racially diverse preservice teachers concerning the strengths and shortcomings of their teacher preparation program using a transformative qualitative research design. We recruited participation among six racially diverse preservice teachers enrolled in a teacher preparation program affiliated with a university identified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution. We collected data through focus group interviews held during a two-week period and analyzed data systemically with two levels of coding. Our findings consisted of three main themes: Interactions with Peers and Teacher Preparation Program Stakeholders, Navigating Teacher Preparation Program Complexities, and Views of Preparedness/Unpreparedness to Teach. We provided a discussion of these themes, used critical race theory to identify examples of institutional racism, and issued three recommendations to university administrators for ways in which they may remove systemic barriers for racially diverse preservice teachers.

Keywords

• critical race theory,racially diverse preservice teachers,teacher preparation

References

1. Albers, P., & Frederick, T. (2013). “We teach who we are”: A study of two Latino transformative educators. TESOL Journal, 4(2), 233–260. doi:10.1002/tesj.56
2. Barnes-Johnson, J. M. (2008). Preparing minority teachers: Law and out of order. The Journal of Negro Education, 77(1), 72-81. Retrieved from http://www.journalnegroed.org/
3. Baumgartner, D., Bay, M., Lopez-Reyna, N. A., Snowden, P. A., & Maiorano, M. J. (2015). Culturally responsive practice for teacher educator: Eight recommendations. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners, 15(1), 44-58. doi:10.5555/2158-396X.15.1.44
4. Bell, D. A. (1980). Brown v. Board of Education and the interest-convergence dilemma. Harvard Law Review, 93(3), 518-533. doi:10.2307/1340546
5. Bell, D. A. (1992). Faces at the bottom of the well: The permanence of racism. New York, NY: Basic Books.
6. Bennett, C. I., McWhorter, L. M., & Kuykendall, J. A. (2006). Will I ever teach? Latino and African American students’ perspectives on PRAXIS I. American Educational Research Journal, 43(3), 531-575. doi:10.3102/00028312043003531
7. Berger, R. (2015). Now I see, now I don’t: Researcher’s position and reflexivity in qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 15(2), 219-234. doi:10.1177/1468794112468475
8. Brown, K. D. (2014). Teaching in color: A critical race theory in education analysis of the literature on preservice teachers of color and teacher education in the US. Race Ethnicity and Education, 17(3), 326-345. doi:10.1080/13613324.2013.832921

9. Brown, K., & Jackson, D. D. (2013). The history and conceptual elements of Critical Race Theory. In M. Lynn & A. D. Dixson (Eds.), Handbook of critical race theory in education (pp. 9-22). New York, NY: Routledge.
10. Bryan, N., & Williams, T. M. (2017). We need more than just male bodies in classrooms: Recruiting and retaining culturally relevant Black male teachers in early childhood education. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 38(3), 209-222. doi:10.1080/10901027.2017.1346529
11. Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. (2015). 2015 Update facts and figures: Descriptive highlights. Retrieved from http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/downloads/CCIHE2015-FactsFigures-01Feb16.pdf
12. Crenshaw, K. W. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299. doi:10.2307/1229039
13. Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.) Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
14. D’Amico, D., Pawlewicz, R. J., Earley, P. M., & McGeehan, A. P. (2017). Where are all the Black teachers? Discrimination in the labor market. Harvard Education Review, 87(1), 26-49. doi:10.17763/1943-5045-87.1.26
15. Dee, T. S. (2004). Teachers, race, and student achievement in a randomized experiment. Review of Economics & Statistics, 86(1), 195–210. doi:10.1162/003465304323023750
16. Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical Race Theory: An introduction. New York, NY: New York University Press.
17. Egalite, A. J., Kisida, B., & Winters, M. A. (2015). Representation in the classroom: The effect of own-race teachers on student achievement. Economics of Education Review, 45, 44-52. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2015.01.007
18. Fernald, D. H., & Duclos, C. W. (2005). Enhance your team-based qualitative research. Annals of Family Medicine, 3(4), 360-364. doi:10.1370/afm.290
19. Figueroa, J. L., & Rodriguez, G. M. (2015). Critical mentoring practices to support diverse students in higher education: Chicana/Latina faculty perspectives. New Directions for Higher Education, 171, 23-32. doi:10.1002/he.20139
20. Gershenson, S., Holt, S. B., & Papageorge, N. W. (2016). Who believes in me? The effect of student–teacher demographic match on teacher expectations. Economics of Education Review, 52, 209-224. doi: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2016.03.002
21. Goldhaber, D., & Hansen, M. (2008). Race, gender, and teacher testing: How informative a tool is teacher licensure testing? American Educational Research Journal, 47(1), 218-251. doi:10.3102/0002831209348970
22. Grissom, J. A., Rodriguez, L. A., & Kern, E. C. (2017). Teacher and principal diversity and the representation of students of color in gifted programs: Evidence from national data. Elementary School Journal, 117(3), 396–422. doi:10.1086/690274
23. Haddix, M. M. (2017). Diversifying teaching and teacher education: Beyond rhetoric and toward real change. Journal of Literacy Research, 49(1), 141-149. doi:10.1177/1086296X16683422
24. Harris, C. I. (1993). Whiteness as property. Harvard Law Review, 106(8), 1709-1791. doi:10.2307/1341787
25. Hayes, C., Juarez, B., Escoffery-Runnels, V. (2014). We were there too: Learning from Black male teachers in Mississippi about successful teaching of Black students. Democracy and Education, 22, 1-11. Retrieved from https://democracyeducationjournal.org/
26. Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. (2017). HACU list of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) 2016-17. Retrieved from https://www.hacu.net/images/hacu/OPAI/2016%20HSI%20list.pdf
27. Hrabowski, F. A., III, & Sanders, M. G. (2013). Increasing racial diversity in the teacher workforce: One university’s approach. Thought & Action, 101-116. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/1821.htm
28. Ingersoll, R., & May, H. (2011). Recruitment, retention, and the minority teacher shortage (CPRE Research Report #RR-69). Retrieved from Consortium for Policy Research in Education website: http://www.cpre.org/recruitment-retention-and-minority-teacher-shortage
29. Ingersoll, R., & Merrill, L. (2017). A quarter century of changes in the elementary and secondary teaching force: From 1987 to 2012 (NCES 2017-092). Retrieved from National Center for Education Statistics website: https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2017092
30. Ingersoll, R., Merrill, L., & Stuckey, D. (2014). Seven trends: The transformation of the teaching force (CPRE Report #RR-80). Retrieved from Consortium for Policy Research in Education website: http://www.cpre.org/7trends
31. King, J. B., McIntosh, A., & Bell-Ellwanger, J. (2016). The state of racial diversity in the educator workforce. Retrieved from U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Policy and Program Studies Service website: https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/highered/racial-diversity/state-racial-diversity-workforce.pdf
32. Kohli, R. (2009). Critical race reflections: Valuing the experiences of teachers of color in teacher education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 12(2), 235-251. doi:10.1080/13613320902995491
33. Krueger, R. A., & Casey, M. A. (2015). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
34. Ladson-Billings, G., & Tate W. F., IV. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47–68. Retrieved from http://www.tcrecord.org/
35. Ledesma, M. C., & Calderón, D. (2015). Critical race theory in education: A review of past literature and a look to the future. Qualitative Inquiry, 21(3), 206-222. doi:10.1177/1077800414557825
36. Lindsay, C. A., & Hart, C. M. D. (2017). Exposure to same-race teachers and student disciplinary outcomes for Black students in North Carolina. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 39(3), 485-510. doi:10.3102/0162373717693109
37. Martinez Valle-Riestra, D., Williams Shealey, M., & Cramer, E. D. (2011). Recruiting and retaining culturally diverse special educators. Interdisciplinary Journal of Teaching and Learning, 1(2), 68-87. Retrieved from http://www.subr.edu/subhome/36
38. Matsuda, M. J. (1989). Public response to racist speech: Considering the victim’s story. Michigan Law Review, 87(8), 2320-2381. doi:10.2307/1289306
39. Maxwell, J. A. (2013). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
40. Mertens, D. M. (2009). Transformative research and evaluation. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
41. Milner, H. R., IV. (2006). The promise of Black teachers’ success with Black students. Educational Foundations, 20(3/4), 89–104. Retrieved from http://www.caddogap.com/periodicals.shtml
42. Milner, H. R., IV. (2008). Critical Race Theory and interest convergence as analytical tools in teacher education policies and practices. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(4), 332-346. doi:10.1177/0022487108321884
43. Montes, G. (2012). Using artificial societies to understand the impact of teacher student match on academic performance: The case of same race effects. The Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 15(4). doi:10.18564/jasss.2064
44. Monzó, L. D., & Rueda, R. S. (2001). Professional roles, caring, and scaffolds: Latino teachers’ and paraeducators’ interactions with Latino students. American Journal of Education, 109(4), 438-471. doi:10.1086/444335
45. Ocasio, K. M. (2014). Nuestro camino: A review of literature surrounding the Latino teacher pipeline. Journal of Latinos and Education, 13, 244–261. doi:10.1080/15348431.2014.887467
46. Petchauer, E. (2015). Passing as White: Race, shame, and success in teacher licensure testing events for Black preservice teachers. Race Ethnicity and Education, 18(6), 834-857. doi:10.1080/13613324.2013.792796
47. Rodriguez, T. L., & Cho, H. (2011). Eliciting critical literacy narratives of bi/multilingual teacher candidates across U.S. teacher education contexts. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 496-504. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2010.10.002
48. Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
49. Shuls, J. V. (2018). Raising the bar on teacher quality: Assessing the impact of increasing licensure exam cut-scores. Educational Policy, 32(7), 969-992. doi:10.1177/0895904816682315
50. Sleeter, C. E. (2017). Critical Race Theory and the Whiteness of teacher education. Urban Education, 52(2), 155-169. doi:10.1177/0042085916668957
51. Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(23), 23-44. doi:10.1177/107780040200800103
52. Stachowiak, D. M. (2015). Re-envisioning diversity in higher education: From raising awareness to building critical consciousness among faculty. Thought & Action, 117-128. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/1821.htm
53. Tyler, L., Whiting, B., Ferguson, S., Eubanks, S., Steinberg, J., Scatton, L., & Bassett, K. (2011). Toward increasing teacher diversity: Targeting support and intervention for teacher licensure candidates. Retrieved from National Education Association website: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/ETS_NEAteacherdiversity11.pdf
54. Villegas, A. M., & Irvine, J. J. (2010). Diversifying the teacher force: An examination of major arguments. Urban Review: Issues and Ideas in Public Education, 42(3), 175-192. doi:10.1007/s11256-010-0150-1