Recruiting and retaining BIPOC teachers: project HEART

Abstract We are a team of experienced teacher educators working with various licensure programs: teaching English to speakers of other languages, literacy, primary, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In the summer of 2020, as faculty in a college of education in an urban area in upper Midwest, we participated in a grassroots faculty-led initiative around interrogating teaching and learning structures in pursuit of equity and social justice. Following that initiative, we have embarked on a project to increase the recruitment and retention of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) teachers. The team project is cross-institutional and consists of faculty, staff, and leaders from an urban university, a large urban school district, and the local community college. Using improvement science and an equity literacy framework, we explore ways to strengthen our interconnected pipeline to recruit, train, employ, and support BIPOC teachers. With the spirit of collaboration and shared beliefs, we aim to dismantle unjust and inequitable practices and create racially just and sustainable communities for BIPOC students and teachers. This article will share how we operationalize the three pillars of our project (collaboration, shared beliefs, and sustainability) to diversify our teacher preparation programs and increase representation within the teaching community.