African American Minority Teachers

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Pages: 6

Throughout American history, minorities have been underrepresented. This is evident in the teaching field. In fact, many minority students, including white students, will be taught by a white teacher. However, in recent years teachers in the work field have become more racially diverse. The trend of the rise of diversifying the teaching field is caused by many factors and creates consequences. The majority of the teachers in the field are white, according to Zippia. It states “the most common ethnicity of teachers is white 68.8, followed by hispanic or latino 12.9, black or african american 10.1”. These numbers show our current demographic of the teacher workfield. Historically, teachers for grades k-12 have been majority white. However, this …show more content…
Making these efforts allows states to play a crucial role in addressing the underrepresentation of minority teachers and contribute to diversifying the teacher workforce. Another trend that consequently helps minority groups become teachers is recruitment programs to help students become teachers and stay. It is stated that “According to the Regional Education Laboratory Southwest, well-executed Grow Your Own (GYO) program graduates often remain in the profession longer than typical beginning teachers in urban and rural schools.” (Johnson) This program targets everyone, making teachers stay in the teaching profession longer and helping rookie teachers. The final and main cause is that black educators feel responsible for helping black people as a whole; in the article “why are black educators important” it is stated “We are important because we disrupt the institutional inequalities that help with widening the social, economic, and academic gaps between people of color and our counterparts.” They help address the root causes of inequality within the education system. Diversity helps close the achievement gap. As a consequence, the trend towards greater teacher diversity allows deeply rooted issues to be addressed. In an article titled Benefits of Teacher Diversity: Leading for Transformative Change, it is quoted “Teachers from diverse backgrounds are needed to counteract this phenomenon and orient students to civic engagement based upon principles of address stick. As a result, teacher diversity is needed in order to push for progressive change in local and global societies that addresses social, economic, and political inequalities” (Qtd in Nevarez 27). Being exposed to diverse perspectives, students are exposed to different perspectives and possibly help take down stereotypes and prejudice. Another consequence of the trend is that it helps