Reflections of Preservice Teachers of Color: Implications for the Teacher Demographic Diversity Gap

Abstract

The reproduction of white supremacist culture in schools continues to marginalize Students of Color in a variety of implicit and explicit ways. A diverse teacher workforce not only helps to disrupt the direct effects of racism on Students of Color, but also prepares all students for successful democratic participation in a diverse global society. This article uses a portion of qualitative interview data from undergraduate Preservice Teachers of Color from a dissertation study completed within a College of Education at a minority-serving public university in the southwestern United States. This study adds to the literature on the complex issues that have resulted in our nation’s teacher demographic diversity gap. The findings from these data reveal meaningful teacher–student encounters that eight successful Preservice Teachers of Color have experienced during their K12 education and how these experiences affected their drive to become a teacher. The findings confirm that resolving the teacher diversity gap is more than a simple recruitment problem. Practitioners, scholars, and policy-makers must attend to the climate and culture of schools, in particular the racialized experiences of Students of Color, if we hope to begin to address the complexity of this issue. All names and places are pseudonyms. Participants chose their pseudonym, and their identifying categories listed are directly from how they identified themselves during the interviews.