Black Female Teachers

Diversifying the United States' Teacher Workforce

Abiola Farinde-Wu, Ayana Allen-Handy, Abiola Farinde-Wu, Ayana Allen-Handy

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781787144620
• eBook ISBN: 9781787149359
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Educational Policy

With the emergence of a diverse public school student population, existing literature affirms the existence of a Black teacher shortage and the low representation of teachers of color in U.S. public schools. Although there are over 3 million public school teachers, African American teachers only comprise approximately 8 percent of the public school teaching workforce. In fact, the education field is dominated by White, middle-class teachers, particularly, White female teachers. 

While the retention of all teachers of color is a pertinent issue, an examination of Black female teachers who can assist in diversifying the teaching field is timely and warranted. Despite Black females' historic role in public education and that teaching is a female-dominated profession, Black female teachers represent only 7.7 percent of the American teaching force, while students of color represent almost 49 percent of the total student enrolment.  

This important, timely, and provocative book places recruitment and retention of Black female teachers at the center. The contributions address not only the recruitment of Black female teachers but also discuss mechanisms necessary to retain them. Thus, this collection not only focuses on recruiting and retaining Black female teachers for the sake of having their representation in schools; rather, authors consider some of the implicit (and overt) nuances that these teachers experience in schools across the United States.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Reflecting Back While Gazing Forward: Black Female Teachers and the Diversification of the United States’ Teacher Workforce
• The Historical/Contemporary Landscape of Black Female Teachers
• Scholarly Examination of Black Female Teachers
• Retention of Black Female Teachers
• About the Book Editors
• About the Chapter Authors
• About the Series Editors
• Afterword: About the Book Series
• Epilogue: Engage in a Solution: #dothework
• Index