Diversifying the Teacher Workforce: Preparing and Retaining Highly Effective Teachers [Paperback]

Diversifying the Teacher Workforce critically examines efforts to diversify the teaching force and narrow the demographic gap between who teaches and who populates U.S. classrooms. While the demographic gap is often invoked to provide a needed rationale for preparing all teachers, and especially White teachers, to work with students of color, it is far less often invoked in an effort to examine why the teaching force remains predominantly White in the first place. Based on work the National Association for Multicultural Education is engaged in on this phenomenon, this edited collection brings together leading scholars to look closely at this problem. They examine why the teaching force is predominantly White from historical as well as contemporary perspectives, showcase and report available data on a variety of ways this problem is being tackled at the pre-service and teacher credentialing levels, and examine how a diverse and high-quality teaching force can be retained and thrive. This book is an essential resource for any educator interested in exploring race within the context of todays urban schools.

Introduction: Why a Diverse Teaching Force Must Thrive. Part I: Communities of Practice: Supporting Culturally Efficacious Leaders and Teachers. 1. A Competing Theory of Change: Critical Teacher Development. 2. Teach Tomorrow in Oakland: History, Teacher Profiles and Lessons Learned. 3. Changing the Field: Teachers of Color Move Into Leadership Positions. Part II: Teacher Education Programs: The Promise and Possibilities of Preparing a Culturally Diverse Teaching Force. 4. Contextualizing the Demographic Imperative: Teacher Education for Students of Color in a Rural Community. 5. The Turning Point of One Teacher Education Program: Recruitment, Preparation and Retention of Diverse Teacher Candidates. 6. Newcomers Entering Teaching: The Possibilities of a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Teaching Force. Part III: Recruitl#