Avent, Erica L

Description

Every year the number of certified teachers entering the teacher workforce is declining across the nation. This decline affects districts across the country, but it especially affects the students that these districts serve. While there is a decline in teachers overall, there is a severe decline in African American teachers. Non- Caucasian students are the largest demographic of students that attend public schools (Cherng & Halpin, 2016). In 2001, forty percent of the students in public education identified as a student of color (Ladson-Billings, 2005a). At the same time, only twelve percent of teachers were non-Caucasian. For those diverse students that attend these schools, they do not see themselves in the faces of the teachers. These students are often left to feel as though they do not fit into the school setting. This feeling of loneliness and isolation affects students and strips them of the power that an education imparts on ones self-worth and self-esteem (Ladson-Billings, 2009). This study aims to look at the lack of African American teachers in K-12 education to determine what barriers Mississippi teacher education candidates are facing in their quest to attain certification and what measures are being taken by the teacher education programs to combat barriers to diversifying the teacher pipeline.

Record Contributed By

University of Mississippi Libraries