Chapter 12: Strengthening the Black Male Teacher Pipeline at HBCUs: Recruitment, Retention, and Breaking Down Barriers

Diversifying the teacher workforce, and specifically preparing Black male educators, continues to be a puzzle that policymakers, school district leaders, post-secondary institutions, and education advocates have failed to solve. Although public school students reflect the nation’s shifting demographics, more than 80% of teachers are White (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). Investigating how relationships between Black students/White teachers and Black teachers/Black students impacts student outcomes is important (Boykin&Noguera, 2011). Teacher’s perceptions of students including Black males have long-term implications (Goings&Walker, 2017). For example, a study by Gershenson, Holt, and Papageorge (2015) suggested that, “Black teachers have higher expectations for Black students than White teachers” (p. 8). The assertion is supported by the findings, which determined that White teachers were 40% less likely to expect Black students to graduate from high school. More troubling, White teachers’ expectations for Black males trailed other subgroups including Asian-American students.