UC Irvine

Despite concerted efforts over the course of decades to increase the number of Teachers of Color, the profession persists as being demographically homogeneous, with White women constituting the majority of teachers. As the student body becomes increasingly diverse, having educators that are culturally and racially representative of their students will become a growing need. However, in order to increase teacher diversity, there must be an understanding of how to effectively recruit diverse teachers as well as address the deterrents that keep them from the profession. This qualitative research study explores these and other questions by asking Latino teachers (n=14) and credential students (n=17) about their journeys into the teaching profession. The research questions addressed are: 1) How have the experiences of Latinos in schools and on their journeys to becoming teachers been shaped by their racial and gender identity? 2) How do they conceptualize the teaching profession and what has motivated them to pursue that career? and 3) Why do they believe there are so few Latino teachers and what are strategies for recruiting more? The emerging themes for the first research question were Negative School Experiences (Interactions with administration and Reprimanding Spanish) and Damaging School Structures (Segregated Schools and School tracking). The emerging themes for the second question were the Teacher’s Journey (Soft Exposure to Education and Peers’ suggestion), Conceptualization of Teachers (Building Relationships, Developing Citizens and Guides to the World) and Motivations for Teaching (Giving back to their Communities, Becoming Cultural Guardians). The emerging themes for the third research question were Deterrents to the Profession (Educational Negative Feedback Loop and Gender Norms) and Suggestions for Recruiting (Mending School-Student Relationships, Pipeline Programs, Teachers as Recruiters, Addressing Gender Norms and Offering Tutoring Experiences) This study offers the perspective of a highly marginalized group within the education system and their insights offer opportunities to develop effective recruitment practices and expose gaps in equity within our schooling system that must be addressed. By introducing diverse and marginalized voices to the discussion of teacher recruitment, we can begin to fully understand the complexity of the issue and can act appropriately in addressing it.