Beyond the Institution: An Informal Partnership Endeavored Toward Understanding and Addressing Black Teacher Recruitment and Retention.

Abstract

Black teachers (BTs) are significantly underrepresented in the US teaching profession, yet there is still little focus on how to best hire, support, and retain them. This collaborative autoethnography documents our work in an urban characteristic school district and university in the southeastern US and how we leveraged our interpersonal and professional experiences with local educational and academic institutions to better understand the challenges associated with creating sustainable and systemic pathway and retention practices that prioritize BTs. We focus on the role of data and research in better understanding the localized experiences of BTs, share our vision for the Southeastern Black Teacher Network through an informal partnership, and offer recommendations for supporting BTs.