Routledge The Color of Teaching (Educational Change and Development Series)

One of the major concerns in education at present is how to recruit and attract more teachers from ethnic minorities. In an attempt to move beyond the superficial and simplistic responses as to why these students are not entering teaching this book presents in-depth interviews with over two hundred people 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 others may not choose teaching as a career. One of the most significant and surprising findings is that, regardless of academic or socio-economic standing, students from these ethnic groups 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 color towards teaching which must be led by teachers themselves. Review "Presents results of in-depth interviews with some 200 persons of color from four ethnic groups: African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos. Interviewees express their attitudes towards teaching and their understanding of why students of color do not select teaching as a career. Calls for the reconceptualization of the role of teachers, which must arise from a change in attitude of communities of color towards teaching." -Reference & Research Book News "Reading good ethnography often makes me feel like a child watching a close-up of a kiss on the big screen. I am embarrassed by the realities it reveals, but at the same time I am unable to pull my eyes away. "The Color of Teaching is such an ethnography. Based on 116 in-depth interviews of "inner city" teachers, counselors, and other community members of color, together with a remarkable collection of sources, it carries a message that is at once disturbing and relevant to the future of public education in this country. Gordon summarizes her findings thus: 'Teachers of color, parents and community members tend "not to encourage their youth to enter the field of teaching.'." -Benjamin H. Welsh, Educational Horizons, Spring 2002 About the Author June Gordon