This article originally appeared in The Conversation.
Tracey, a middle school teacher in the Philadelphia School District, remembers the hurtful comments she heard from parents when she began her career more than a decade ago as a young black teacher in what was then a predominantly white area of southwest Philly .
“I remember white parents making comments and saying, ‘Oh, this young black teacher who doesn’t have any children of her own – how is she supposed to teach my child?’ she said. “And I think, what does my race and the fact that I don’t have children have to do with raising your child?”
Tracey’s frustrations mirror those of other black teachers in Philadelphia.
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In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching profession faced what has been called the Great Teacher Layoff. A national survey found that 64% of teachers were less satisfied with teaching after the pandemic than before the pandemic, and 74% would not recommend teaching as a career.
In Philadelphia, large layoffs of Black teachers began well before the pandemic and continue today. The decline in the number of Black teachers in the district continues despite research showing the positive impact of Black teachers on Black students’ school experiences and academic outcomes, as well as their positive impact on all students.
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We are professors of urban education and a Ph.D. in sociology and education who research Black teacher turnover and other issues involving Black teachers and Black students.
In 2021, we were part of a small research team that interviewed 30 Black teachers who currently or previously worked in the Philadelphia school district. Tracey and other names used in this article are pseudonyms to protect the anonymity of our interview participants. This study was conducted in collaboration with Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit education research group focused on racial and social justice. Our findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Black Studies.
We wanted to understand, from the teachers’ perspective, why so many Black teachers are leaving the district and what the district can do to support and retain them.
Black teachers have ‘grown tired’
In 2000, there were 4,059 black teachers in the district. That number had dropped to 2,866 by 2022.
It’s not a problem unique to Philadelphia. An education researcher at Penn State University found that between 2022 and 2023, the turnover rate of Black teachers across Pennsylvania was more than double that of white teachers.
“Black teachers in Philadelphia public schools have grown tired for good reason,” wrote education scholar and author Camika Royal in her 2022 book “Not Paved for Us: Black Educators and Public School Reform in Philadelphia.”
Our interviews reveal that a major reason for this fatigue has to do with experiences of racism within the larger school district, which Black teachers experience throughout the system but manifest in different ways depending on the location of their school.
Segregated, underfunded schools
The Black teachers we interviewed who taught in majority-Black neighborhoods said they faced systemic racism due to a lack of resources, including books and teaching materials, for their students.
Building 21 in Philadelphia encourages students to address “unfinished learning.”
Philadelphia is one of the most racially divided cities in the US. According to researchers at Brown University, the city is second only to Chicago among the nation’s 30 largest cities in terms of residential segregation. Schools reflect these racial disparities in the neighborhood.
“I keep asking for things and not getting them,” says Nina, a high school teacher in a predominantly black neighborhood. “Well, there weren’t enough books for all the children. So, what should I do? Now I have to go online, find my own resources and stuff like that.
Racial microaggressions
Black teachers who taught in majority-white parts of the city, meanwhile, spoke of their frustration at being the targets of chronic racial microaggressions.
Examples of these microaggressions included hearing white parents complain about a black teacher being assigned to teach their child, and working with white colleagues who they felt ignored or actively avoided interacting with. talk or acknowledge them.
“I’ll walk down the hall and say ‘Hi,’” thought one mid-career teacher. “If it’s just me and a white colleague and we meet in the hallway… they don’t say anything to me. But the person behind me, who was white, will say something to him before (the other person) even says, “Good morning.”
Racial microaggressions toward Black teachers are certainly not a new phenomenon. It’s not limited to Philadelphia either.
A recent national study also found that racial microaggressions are a major reason why Black teachers in the U.S. are leaving teaching at high rates.
Support and validation
Despite the many systemic issues and experiences of racism that Black teachers reported to us, most of the participants in our study – 25 of the 30 – were current teachers in the district.
In other words, they had stayed in the business until now.
These teachers reported that they continued to teach because they were committed to serving students, especially students of color.
“I stay because our (black students) need to see them (black teachers) in the classroom,” said Mila, a veteran teacher for whom teaching was her third career.
Many teachers also found support and motivation through affinity groups that offered them the opportunity to meaningfully connect with other Black teachers. These groups are created by fellow teachers in the district, but are organized independently of the district.
“What allowed me to stay was finding networks,” said Simon, another veteran teacher in the district. “And then the network made me find my niche, found my voice, discovered who I was, validated me.”
Keeping Black teachers in the classroom
Education scholar Bettina Love argues that school districts and school officials should “stop trying to recruit black teachers until you can keep the teachers you have.”
There are some meaningful efforts underway. Founded in Philadelphia, the Center for Black Educator Development works to recruit and retain Black teachers both in Philadelphia and across the country. Other national organizations, like the Black Teacher Project in Oakland, provide community and space for supportive affinity groups.
School districts or administrators can provide Black teachers with physical spaces, financial resources and dedicated time to meet with other Black teachers to discuss racism – including ways to resist it – along with self-care. This could help prevent an exodus of Black teachers who have remained in the profession.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
