Exploring Racialized Factors to Understand Why Black Mathematics Teachers Consider Leaving the Profession

Abstract

Research on the attrition of teachers of color suggests that, under certain organizational conditions, they leave teaching at higher rates than other teachers. Additionally, research has identified microaggressions experienced by Black teachers. Building on the literature, we explored how racism and microaggressions may help us understand Black mathematics teachers’ attrition. We designed and administered the Black Teachers of Mathematics Perceptions Survey and found that teachers’ experiences of microaggressions accounted for most of the variance in our modeling of teachers’ thoughts of leaving the profession. These data reveal that anti-Black, racist microaggressions should be addressed as organizational conditions to be mitigated. From a critical quantitative perspective, the data reveal sociocultural and sociopolitical influences that often go unnoticed in large-scale policy work.

Restoring Teacher and Principal Well-Being Is an Essential Step for Rebuilding Schools: Findings from the State of the American Teacher and State of the American Principal Surveys

“…Teachers and principals of color who reported working in schools in which at least half the teaching staff were people of color were less likely to report experiencing at least one incident of racial discrimination than their peers of color who reported working in schools in which more than half of the teaching staff was White, 13 a finding that is consistent with other research (Frank et al, 2021;Grooms, Mahatmya, and Johnson, 2021). 14 Only one-third of teachers and principals in our survey who identified as people of color reported that at least half of the teaching staff in their schools were people of color.…”

The first-school retention of Black and Latinx community-insiders and elite college graduates: Implications for the recruitment, selection, and training of urban mathematics teachers

“…Viewing teacher preparation as an interactive system is also consistent with intersectional research that posits that people's racial, social class, gender, and other identities interactively shape their lived experiences, opportunities, and life outcomes (Collins, 2019). Our construction of the four teacher subgroups, including Elites and Black-Latinx Insiders, was inspired by intersectionality research and, in particular, critical intersectional quantitative research and related QuantCrit research (e.g., Frank et al, 2021;Khalil & Brown, 2020). The regression result (Table 3) that Black-Latinx Insiders exhibit comparatively high rates of first-school retention, in this sample of schools that mostly serve lower-income Black and Latinx students, is an intersectional result that challenges the frequently cited non-intersectional result that, in the US, Black teachers have higher rates of attrition than White teachers (e.g., Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017).…”

“…Given its qualitative focus on people's lived experiences, intersectionality theory has not typically informed quantitative research. However, recently researchers have begun to explore the implications of intersectionality theory for critical quantitative research (Covarrubias & Vélez, 2013;Frank et al, 2021;Khalil & Brown, 2020). Although researchers debate what such analyses should look like, a quantitative intersectional analysis examines whether or how much one category (e.g., race) behaves differently relative to an individual's status in another category (or categories; e.g., gender, social class).…”

To Ask Questions of the Universe: Confronting Habitus for Racial Equity with Descriptive Inquiry

“…In fact, often injustice manifests as subtle inequity masked in claims of benevolence (Alexander 2012 ; Love 2018 ; Shalaby 2017 ). Further, while we focus on children’s experience in schools, it is important to recognize that schools are often toxic for all Black people including teachers (Frank et al 2021 ; Jones & Hagopian 2020 ).…”