A lack of diversity in the teacher workforce means a lack of diversity among teacher leaders. Here’s how to break through the barriers.

The work of a teacher often goes beyond the classroom or a teacher’s own students. Many teachers choose to take on leadership roles as department heads, instructional coaches, committee chairs, and so on. Such teacher leadership has been gaining prominence as an important method for school improvement and reform (Berry, 2019), but questions remain about its practice and effectiveness. One specific area that needs more attention is the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in teacher leadership (Wenner & Campbell, 2017).

The lack of diversity in teacher leadership is rooted in a lack of a diversity in the teaching profession itself. The challenge of diversifying the teaching profession dates back to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which integrated schools, but also led to thousands of Black teachers being pushed out of the profession (Tillman, 2004). In recent years, numerous reports have been published about the challenges of diversifying the teacher workforce (Putman et al., 2016) and the importance of doing so (Goldhaber et al., 2019). In our own study of teacher leadership (Beck et al., in press), we found that the lack of diversity in the teacher workforce not only influences the quality of education available to students, but is also a barrier to diversifying leadership in education — specifically, teacher leadership.

Through almost 800 survey responses and interviews with 31 teachers and administrators in our home state of Virginia, we learned how the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the teacher workforce created obstacles to ensuring that teacher leaders reflected the diversity of the student body. This dilemma is easy enough to understand, but it is rarely discussed. It’s even rarer to find actionable steps to combat the problem. However, in our research, we also gleaned concrete strategies and policies to make teacher leadership truly open to everyone. We found three specific barriers to achieving racial and ethnic diversity in teacher leadership and, in the spirit of Paolo Freire’s (1970/2000) problem-posing, problem-solving technique, we offer three strategies for overcoming these obstacles.

Barrier 1: The predominantly white teaching workforce

In our research, participants consistently noted that the lack of diversity in the teaching profession made it difficult to ensure diversity among teacher leaders.

The problem

The current teaching workforce is predominantly white and female, which makes it difficult to find teacher leader candidates who reflect the increasing diversity of the student population. Hannah Putman and colleagues (2016) have estimated that, to achieve racial parity, 1 million white teachers would need to leave the profession and 300,000 Black teachers and 600,000 Latinx teachers would need to be hired. Some of our participants noted that applicants for teaching positions were predominantly white women, which left them with fewer teachers of color to tap for leadership positions.

Even districts that profess interest in diversifying the teacher workforce do not always live up to that commitment in their hiring practices.

This is a two-fold problem, involving both recruitment and retention of teachers of color. When it comes to recruitment, even districts that profess interest in diversifying the teacher workforce do not always live up to that commitment in their hiring practices. For example, Diana D’Amico and colleagues (2017) found that 13% of applicants to one such school district were Black, yet they made up only 6% of teachers who were hired. Jane Arnold Lincove and colleagues (2018) found that, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Black teachers who were locally trained were more likely to be dismissed and replaced by less-experienced and less-educated white teachers. Similarly, James Noonan and Travis Bristol (2020) found that one urban district in the northeastern U.S. was more likely to hire white teachers from the area than to hire teachers of color who also called the district home.

Once hired, white teachers tend to stay in teaching longer than Black and Latinx teachers (Putman et al., 2016). This may be due, in part, to the fact that teachers of color work in more-challenging settings and may be more isolated from colleagues who can provide support (Bristol, 2018).

Potential solutions

School district hiring practices must be examined critically by a diverse group of stakeholders. Professed efforts to diversify the teacher workforce through hiring can be disingenuous or insufficient (D’Amico et al., 2017). An equity audit (Capper & Young, 2015) may be one method to analyze hiring practices and create new policies and strategies to ensure that hiring practices go beyond mere lip service. Indeed, equity audits are themselves one way to bring teacher leaders into the process of addressing the lack of diversity in their ranks and would allow them to have voice and share their expertise.

Rita Kohli (2018) has highlighted several strategies to increase diversity within teacher preparation programs. These include “removing the Graduate Record Exam as a program requirement, providing scholarships for minority students, and including a curriculum and faculty who reflect the experiences of diverse students” (p. 325). Although these ideas are specifically intended for teacher preparation programs, they can also apply to programs intended to prepare teachers for leadership roles. Additionally, teacher leadership preparation programs should dedicate some of their enrollment space to teachers of color. Encouraging teachers of color to pursue leadership roles does little to address the lack of diversity among teacher leaders if teachers of color do not have the opportunity to learn teacher leadership in graduate programs.

Barrier 2: The myth of meritocracy

Throughout our research, we repeatedly heard from participants about the myth of meritocracy: the idea that people are selected for leadership positions solely based on merit. Yet merit often is not clearly defined and how decision makers define merit may leave some people out. Survey participants almost unanimously agreed that advancement to teacher leadership was a meritocracy, with positions truly open to all. However, interview responses told a different story.

The problem

In our interviews, participants explained — either explicitly or implicitly — how the myth of meritocracy played out in their experiences. For example, one participant noted that earning a leadership position was about “work ethic” and “proving yourself,” attributes that are the bedrock of the myth of meritocracy, give the illusion of equality in the workplace, and ignore the role racism plays in disadvantaging some while advantaging others. Another participant asserted that teacher leader positions were open to all teachers, regardless of race, ethnicity, and gender, but also noted that earning teacher leader positions was a “popularity contest.” The myth of meritocracy often distorts racial inequality and normalizes whiteness, treating adherence to white social norms as signs of merit, rather than defining merit according to actual ability to do well in the position (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017). Thus, it is important to carefully examine the pathway to teacher leadership positions to ensure that selection and hiring processes are not inhibited by racialized barriers and policies.

Our participants told us that they, their schools, and their districts did not have systematic practices for ensuring that the teacher leadership ranks were diverse in race, ethnicity, and gender. One administrator noted that her only strategy was to look at her teams and ensure that she was “including a wide variety of ethnicities, a wide variety of experiences.” Another administrator said that they looked for “broad representation” when filling teacher leadership roles. However, these approaches did not appear to be codified or enforced to ensure that they were effective. Instead, they appeared to be haphazard and subject to personal bias.

Potential solutions

Building-level administrators and others responsible for teacher leader selection must be aware of their personal biases, as well as employ strategies for ensuring diversity in any recruitment, selection, and hiring effort. This is a two-pronged approach: Administrators will need to develop cultural competence, which will enable them to recognize and see past their own biases. And they must create policies and practices to ensure diversity in teacher leadership roles. These might include stating an interest in diverse applicants and disseminating information about the search for teacher leaders widely, generating a diverse pool of applicants, and including a member on the hiring team designated to advocate for diverse applicants and to remind committee members of the group’s mission to value diversity. Ensuring that teachers of color who have persisted in the profession are offered opportunities for leadership can both help retain these teachers for longer and bring diversity to the teacher leadership ranks.

Barrier 3: Building-level isolation

Considering the predominantly white, female teaching workforce and potential bias in hiring and retention practices, it is not surprising that the administrators and teachers we talked to and surveyed noted that there are few teachers of color in their buildings.

The problem

One teacher we surveyed wrote, “The faculty where I work has almost no diversity. We have three African American teachers and (I believe) only one who is Hispanic.” Another observed, “The school is predominately caucasian (with only one African American teacher on faculty) . . . there are few minority teachers or teachers of color in the building.” Several others made similar observations. This isolation can create barriers that keep potential leaders from pursuing leadership opportunities.

Researchers such as Travis Bristol (2018) have pointed out that having limited numbers of teachers of color in a building can lead to feelings of isolation. He found that Black male teachers who were the only member of their racial group on staff (or “loners”), often avoided interacting with their colleagues, had “strained relationships with adults in the building” (p. 345), and endured “unique socio-emotional challenges” (p. 346). These loners reported feeling that their colleagues feared them, believed teachers of color were not afforded opportunities to influence school policy, and wanted to leave their schools. “Groupers,” or Black men teaching in schools with other Black men, felt the opposite on these issues. Bristol suggested that being a loner can prevent teachers of color from being considered for teacher leader positions and from pursuing them.

When teachers of color lack social capital, they are less likely to have access to the knowledge needed to gain teacher leader positions.

Isolation is not the only barrier teachers of color face in predominately white buildings. Other challenges involve obstacles to accruing social capital and obtaining access to information. Bristol and Matthew Shirrell (2019) have found that increasing social capital through beneficial interactions with colleagues can influence whether teachers remain in the profession. A lack of positive building-level experiences can be a barrier to increasing social capital and improving the chances for assuming leadership roles. When teachers of color lack social capital, they are less likely to have access to the knowledge needed to gain teacher leader positions. This happened to Black teachers in a study by Christopher Knaus (2014) of a group of Black and white teachers their principals deemed “promising future leaders” (p. 436). One Black teacher in the study expressed frustration because she was not offered the same information or invitations as white teachers. Another Black teacher believed that “teachers aligned with the principal appeared more likely to receive opportunities” (p. 436). These perceptions are in line with those of several teachers we surveyed and interviewed. One teacher participant put it frankly:

I feel these opportunities are based on who is preferred in personality by administration. I do not feel that the opportunity is open to everyone. It is more accurately based on the “who you know” or “who you are friends with” method. It has nothing to do with the qualifications of the individual.

Teachers in the Knaus (2014) study also said their principals did not attempt to learn about their effectiveness in the classroom, and they believed administrators offered them additional (and unequal) responsibilities that interfered with their ability to pursue opportunities that could lead to leadership roles.

These barriers are not limited to Black teachers. Latinx educators have highlighted several practices and behaviors that negatively influence their ability to move into leadership roles. In a report for The Education Trust, Ashley Griffin (2018) noted that Latinx teachers are often given the additional responsibility of serving as translators, while being “frequently overlooked for advancement opportunities” (p. 2). Griffin added that Latinx educators also “face discrimination and stereotyping that leave them feeling discouraged and perceived as unqualified to be professional educators” (p. 11).

Potential solutions

School districts must make concerted efforts to increase the number of teachers of color in any given building, rather than dispersing the few teachers of color they have throughout the district. This will reduce feelings of isolation and possibly contribute to the retention and well-being of teachers of color. The Black teachers in Knaus’ (2014) study seemed to lack both the social capital and building-level interactions they needed to grow professionally. But when they learned about other teachers who shared their goals and beliefs, they “began an African American teacher’s collaborative to support each other’s professional aspirations” (p. 438). Such affinity groups may not only reduce teachers’ sense of isolation but also help them build skills together (Stovall & Sullivan, 2022).

Adding more teachers of color to the workforce is just the first step. To help these teachers stay in the profession and become leaders, administrators and current teacher leaders must support them in building relationships with colleagues and give them access to information and knowledge. Thus, leaders should ensure the climate in the school fosters relationship-building and social interactions and provides opportunities for colleagues to learn and solve problems together. Administrators also should observe teachers with an eye not just to their instructional effectiveness but also to their leadership potential.

Becoming truly open

If humans are drawn to individuals who are like themselves, it is essential that we be mindful of our biases. Those of us in a predominantly white field like education must be proactive in our efforts to welcome teachers of color. In our study of teacher leadership (Beck et al., in press), administrators and teachers thought that teacher leader positions were open to all individuals; however, they noted that the pool of potential teacher leaders was shallow and lacking in ethnic and racial diversity. In particular, they noted the following barriers: the predominantly white, female teaching workforce; the myth that advancement was based on merit; and the social isolation of teachers of color.

Identifying these specific barriers is just the first step in addressing the lack of diversity among teacher leaders. School and district leaders must tear down the barriers. We offer a few suggestions here, but we recognize that the innovation and creativity of teacher leaders themselves ultimately may be the solution. We can learn from them about what helped them to pursue leadership opportunities and ensure that these same structures are in place for all teachers, especially teachers of color. Doing so will help make the ranks of teacher leadership truly open to all.

References

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Bristol, T.J. (2018). To be alone or in a group: An exploration into how the school-based experiences differ for Black male teachers across one urban school district. Urban Education, 53 (3), 1-21.

Bristol, T.J. & Shirrell, M. (2019). Who is here to help me? The work-related social networks of teachers of color. American Educational Research Journal, 56 (3), 868-898.

Capper, C.A. & Young, M.D. (2015). The equity audit as the core of leading increasingly diverse schools and districts. In G. Theoharis & M. Scanlan (Eds.), Leadership for increasingly diverse schools (pp. 186-197). Routledge.

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Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction (3rd ed.). New York University Press.

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Griffin, A. (2018). Our stories, our struggles, our strengths: Perspectives and reflections from Latino teachers. The Education Trust.

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This article appears in the October 2022 issue of Kappan, Vol. 104, No. 2, pp. 32-36.