Description
One of the major concerns in education at present is how to recruit and attract more teachers of colour to the profession. In an attempt to move beyond the superficial and simplistic responses as to why students of colour are not entering teaching, this work presents in-depth interviews with over 200 persons of colour from four ethnic groups: African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos. These interviewees, many of them teachers or education professionals, express their attitude towards teaching and their understanding of why students may not be selecting teaching as a career. One of the most significant and surprising findings is that, regardless of academic or socio-economic standing, students of colour tend not to be encouraged to enter the teaching profession by their own families communities and peers. The book concludes with a discussion of programmatic changes and calls for the reconceptualization of the role of teachers. Such changes can only arise out of a fundamental change in attitude of communities of colour towards teaching which must be led by teachers themselves. The Color of Teaching should appeal to a wide audience of teachers in training and in practice, educational policy makers and educational administrators.
