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This introductory chapter frames the discussion of Black female teachers, and centers their experiences as the sole site for discussion and analysis. In addition, this chapter provides an overview of the three sections of the book and the corresponding chapters. Within the pages of this volume, contributing authors discuss the historical and contemporary landscapes of Black female teachers, examine the underrepresentation of Black women in the US teacher workforce, as well as discuss innovative strategies to increase the recruitment and retention of Black female teachers in PK-12 classrooms. Ultimately, this chapter provides insight into the salience of Black female teachers in the diversification of the US teacher workforce. Moreover, highlighting implications and recommendations for a variety of educational stakeholders.

This article shares how providing teacher candidates with experiences in a predominantly black elementary school for their clinical experiences highlighted a need to recognize, acknowledge and address anti-blackness in teacher candidates’ clinical courses. As well as, a need to emphasize the brilliance and assets of black students. Additionally, this article shares ways in which those involved in the work of school-university or professional development school (PDS) partnerships can incorporate practices that address anti-blackness in clinical practice.

Conceptual paper sharing experiences addressing anti-blackness in school-university partnerships.

National Association of Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) recently revised their Nine Essentials to include this revised version of Essential 1: A comprehensive mission which calls for the advancement of equity, antiracism and social justice within and among schools, colleges/universities and their respective community and professional partners. The work that the author presents in this article around preparing teacher candidates to address anti-blackness fits into the call of Essential 1 because when anti-blackness is addressed equity, antiracism and social justice can be part of the educational experiences of black children. This article shares how providing teacher candidates experiences in a predominantly black elementary school for their clinical experiences highlighted a need to recognize, acknowledge and address anti-blackness in teacher candidates’ clinical practice. As well as, a need to emphasize the brilliance and assets of black students. Additionally, this article shares ways in which those involved in the work of school-university or PDS partnerships can incorporate practices that address anti-blackness in clinical courses.

The author believes that this manuscript is appropriate for publication because it addresses a necessary shift that must happen in clinical practice by recognizing, acknowledging and addressing anti-blackness, as well as making sure teacher candidates are prepared to teach black students. This manuscript has not been published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Black Male Teachers: Diversifying the United States’ Teacher Workforce, is the first book in the series, Advances in Race and Ethnicity in Education. The book represents a collective effort between research scholars, policy experts, and in-service Black Male Teachers. Through this book, we affirm the values of teacher preparation that we introduced in our call for chapters. Black Male Teachers is a book to provide Black male teachers with the resources to advance in the profession, teacher education programs with needed training materials to accommodate Black male students, and school district administrators with information to help recruit and retain Black male teachers. Each chapter features policy and practice recommendations and a case example to spur action and increase opportunities for discussion.

Currently, the field of education has been seeking innovative strategies to increase the representation of Black male teachers in U.S. classrooms. In this chapter, the author presents a status report of Black male teachers’ path to U.S. K-12 public school classrooms at six critical stages. These stages include the following: (a) Black males with a high school diploma; (b) enrollment in educator preparation programs; (c) educator preparation program completers; (d) educator preparation programs with the highest number of Black male graduates; (e) Black male education degree holders that select teaching as a profession; and (f) the current status of Black male teachers in U.S. K-12 public schools. Based on the data presented in this chapter, recommendations are provided to the field of education to improve their representation for the benefit of all students. Additionally, the critical need for this timely book is discussed.

This study uses the most recent national data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), 2011–2012 and Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS), 2012–2013 to investigate attrition trends among Black teachers, and Black female teachers in particular, to inform a qualitative analysis of proposed and adopted teacher retention policy interventions. This study asks: Why do Black teachers report leaving, and what would bring them back to the classroom? What working conditions are associated with Black teacher attrition? What policy interventions can meet the needs of Black teachers in having successful and supported teaching experiences? How have these interventions been successful, and what are the considerations for applying them more broadly? We find that Black teacher turnover rates are significantly higher than those of other teachers and that there are several substantive differences in their preparation, school characteristics, and reasons for leaving. We describe policy interventions that target these conditions, such as teacher residencies, loan forgiveness, mentoring and induction, and principal training programs. We include in that discussion the relative benefits and challenges of each implications for policymaking.

Bringing renewed attention to the anemic representation of Black women within the teaching profession, this chapter begins by chronicling the history of Black women in teacher education – from the Reconstruction Era to the 21st century – in an effort to highlight the causes of their conspicuous demographic decline. Next, it is argued that increasing the number of Black women in the teaching profession is a worthwhile endeavor although the rationales for such targeted efforts may not be obvious or appreciated by the casual observer. It is, therefore, important to illuminate the multiple justifications as to why it is essential to improve the underrepresentation of Black women in America’s classrooms. Lastly, it is asserted that serious attention is required to reverse the dramatic exodus of Black women from the teaching profession. In conveying this issue, the author shares special emphasis recruiting tactics, for the national, programmatic, and local school district levels, as promising proposals to enlist and retain more Black women in the teaching profession.

This chapter traces the intersectional experiences of one Black woman through pre-Brown schooling, becoming a teacher under a post-Brown court order, hiring teachers as a school leader in a large metropolitan, southern city, to her current position as a leader-educator at a state university. Informed and contextualized by social, political, and historical events associated with the pre-Brown segregation, desegregation, and post-Brown eras, this chapter uses narrative autoethnographic reflectivity and storytelling to understand and analyze the nuances of educational hiring practices through the prism of one Black woman's educational journey. The story is significant because it not only provides evidence of the subtleties and nuances of racism but it also describes the changes in teaching, leadership, and hiring practices in southern public education over the last 60 years.

In an effort to diversify the nation’s teaching force, the U.S. Department of Education has initiated programs to increase teachers of color in U.S. schools, particularly Black male teachers in subject areas like mathematics. In that Black male mathematics teachers continue to be under researched, particularly in urban school contexts, it was critical that their cases were (1) documented and analyzed in an effort to better understand their experiences and practices, and (2) utilized to inform teacher recruitment efforts. In this chapter, we present the case of Floyd Lee, a Black male mathematics teacher who participated in an NSF-funded research study of Black Algebra 1 teachers teaching in an urban school district. We present experiences that appear to influence his practice and consider how his case, and other cases like Floyd’s, might inform efforts to increase the number of Black male mathematics teachers in U.S. schools.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic certainly exacerbated the teacher shortage in the United States for all racial/ethnic groups, but especially for Black teachers. Black teachers account for 7–8% of the total teacher population and this percentage is the direct result of decades of systemic and structural barriers set against Black teachers in the form of racism. Still, Black teachers who enter the profession do so with the willingness to support all students and uplift Black students who often go years without seeing a teacher that looks like them. Black teachers often face different expectations than their white counterparts and these expectations, without the proper support, lead to Black teachers burning out at higher rates. In an effort to understand Black teachers' and the experiences that contribute them remaining in the classroom, the researchers explored Black teachers' working conditions through a phenomenological approach. The findings of this study suggest that Black teachers deserve working conditions that nurture who they are culturally and professionally, that reject actions of oppression toward them – both implicitly and explicitly, and offer spaces for Black teachers to be authentically heard.