High school students of color explore teaching as a career through a school–university partnership course

As part of a dual-enrollment high school education course, students observed in classrooms and reflected on their experiences. One visit was to a Hmong dual-language school, and this field trip made a significant impact on the Hmong students in the course and their feelings about the possibility of becoming a teacher. We open our article with a description of this visit written by one of our authors, who is a university faculty member and a co-teacher of the course.

Another Hmong student named Anita (a pseudonym), who plans on majoring in child development to become a teacher, wrote, “I went on a field trip to a dual demerge school to observe little kids. One school I went to was a bilingual school where they teach Hmong and English. It was really interesting because all the students were welcoming and love seeing new people. The first class I went to was the 4th graders, I remember they were writing a prompt in Hmong and after they were done writing, they would speak in Hmong and talk to their partner. As I was walking up to them and talking in Hmong their expression to me felt very happy and that I would want to teach at this school.” Another student said, “We recently went to the Hmong Immersion School, and that opened my eyes up to like maybe pursuing there and becoming a teacher there.”

This article focuses on a collaborative university-school district Grow Your Own (GYO) program intended to introduce students in a small Northern California high school to the teaching profession. The vignettes above demonstrate the impact of a field visit to a Hmong immersion school on the students in the class. We use data to show how GYO partnerships that center Black, Indigenous and Teachers of Color (BIPOC) students are not only valuable but essential for enabling students to envision themselves as teachers one day. This work emerged from two grant projects. One foundation grant funded ten teacher education programs within a large US state university system to support context-specific efforts focused on recruiting, supporting and preparing and retaining BIPOC to serve California's diverse student population. The other funding source was a federal SEED grant awarded to the university, designed to support underserved and local students planning to become teachers and take teaching positions in the region.

When our grant team began collaborating with Olive High School District (pseudonym) in 2022, it was through our foundation grant, the Center for Transformational Educator Preparation Programs (CTEPP), and the vision was that “educator preparation programs provide national leadership in quality, diversity, equity and inclusion. Aspiring teachers who are BIPOC thrive in our programs. Our graduates enter the teaching profession prepared to disrupt systemic oppression and engage with socially just educational practices; they work toward the transformation of inequitable structures and advance greater equity in student outcomes” (CTEPP, 2021). Our university team had ongoing conversations with the superintendent at the time about how to apply this vision to an actionable project that would provide opportunities for BIPOC students to enter the teaching profession. We researched GYO programs as an approach to recruiting and supporting prospective teachers of color and chose to partner on a high school education course.

The dual-enrollment course was co-taught by a university faculty member and a high school teacher, and all participants were offered the opportunity to obtain college credit in addition to satisfying one of the undergraduate requirements for entering our university's credential program. There were 11 students (5 White, 5 Asian and 1 Black) in the class. In this mixed methods case study, we explore the impact of GYO program design that includes exposure to dual language schools, as well as other experiences that may influence high school students of color to consider a career in teaching.

The dual-enrollment university course for 11th-12th graders was called Explorations in Teaching and Learning in Diverse K-12 Settings, and the main goal of the course was to provide content and experiences that might recruit high school students into the teaching profession. The faculty member on our grant team visited the high school weekly to build relationships with the teacher, students and administrators. The cost of the university credits were paid for with SEED grant funding. Our overall objective was to create a sustainable model for the district to continue the course after the pilot year, to re-design the course as needed to meet student interests and needs, and to ensure that students of color are provided information about and encouraged to take this course.

The 55-min class was taught daily by a full-time district-employed teacher at Olive High School and was co-taught every Wednesday with Author 2. The topics included but were not limited to exploring the professional career of teaching; the history of schooling in America; student identities and intersectionality; the classroom as community; Universal Design for Learning; teacher dispositions; and principles of pedagogy, curriculum and instruction. The course addressed the state-mandated 45-h field experience requirement, completed through a combination of on-site observations, video observations and field trips. Students maintained observation journals, wrote philosophy statements and created electronic teaching portfolios during the course. Students also visited the university for tours and structured activities twice over the course of the year.

Our teacher education program is housed in the School of Education at our state university, located in a mid-sized city of about 100,000 people, 1.5 hours north of a large city. Our teacher education program began as a Normal School in 1887, prior to the site becoming a state university. In recent years, we have had a few grants focused on preparing candidates to teach in rural settings and are always seeking funding to ease the cost of education for prospective teachers. The demographic breakdown of our city is 75% White, 19% Hispanic, 5% Asian, 2% Black, 0.9% American Indian and 0.5% Pacific Islander (US Census, 2023a). However, the service area of our School of Education is enormous, spanning 33,000 square miles and 12 counties across rural, agricultural and mountain areas (CSE Fact Sheet, 2024). The school partner for this project is Olive High School District, located south of the university. The town has a population of about 20,000 people, of whom 66% are White, 15% Hispanic, 12% Asian, 4% Black, 2% American Indian and 0.2% Pacific Islander (US Census, 2023b). The town has a relatively large Southeast Asian population with families who are Hmong, Mien and Lao. There are three high schools within the district, and we partnered with one school, where enrollment by ethnicity is: 40.7% White, 22.5% Asian, 17.5% Hispanic/Latino, 6.7% American Indian or Alaska Native, 4.8% African American and 6.3% Two or More Races. There is a significant need for support in the area, as 82.5% of students are identified as economically disadvantaged, and the 2023 graduation rate was 83.1% (CA School Dashboard, 2023a). As a comparison, the school district of our college town reported a 91.3% graduation rate in 2023 (CA School Dashboard, 2023b). Teacher demographic data from 2020 (redacted, personal communication, 2023) stated that 99% of teachers in this district were White, one teacher was Asian, and two teachers were Black. It is considered a distant town (NCES, 2024) located within an agricultural county. The area is susceptible to climate disasters, having been through multiple destructive wildfires over the past decade. In the 2024 presidential election, Trump got well over 50% of the vote in the town and much less than 50% in the city where the university is located, which shows a disparity of political values. For further context, a Department of Justice settlement order filed in 2020 found that the district’s disciplinary policies, procedures and practices discriminated against Black students and students with disabilities and put the district on a 5-year corrective action plan. This detail is relevant to what we saw as a need for engaging in social justice work at the school, as well as some of the challenges of implementing and sustaining the course, which we address in our implications section.

This project is grounded in critical frameworks that acknowledge systems of racism and White supremacy as the drivers that have created this shortage of teachers of color in US schools (Rogers-Ard et al., 2019). The lack of ethnoracial [¹] representation is detrimental to both students of color and White students. A recent Kappan report (Gist & Bristol, 2021) shows that teachers of color have a positive impact on BIPOC students' academic growth while increasing students' sense of belonging, intergenerational bonding with teachers, and positive student–teacher relationships. Carver-Thomas (2018) found that both BIPOC and White students report having positive perceptions of their teachers of color, including feeling cared for and academically challenged. However, one reason that potential teachers don't choose teaching as a career is that school spaces are often steeped in colonial ideologies that work to acculturate students to the dominant White culture (Carter Andrews et al., 2019). Schools are typically spaces of belonging for students who are part of the dominant culture, and “othering” for students who come from non-dominant identities and experiences (Carter Andrews et al., 2019). This othering results in experiences of microaggressions and outright bullying in school settings which has a negative impact on students and teachers alike. In addition, there are historical reasons for this demographic discrepancy, such as the pushing out of Black teachers after Brown versus Board of Ed (Carter Andrews et al., 2019) as well as structural barriers that impede candidates’ paths to become teachers, such as high-stakes testing and the high cost of college and credential program (Carter Andrews et al., 2019). In developing GYO programs, it is essential to consider the underlying reasons that BIPOC youth may be choosing not to pursue careers in education.

There has been extensive research on the impact of GYO Educator Programs to increase and diversify the teacher workforce (Carver-Thomas, 2018; Gist et al., 2021). GYO programs are partnerships between educator preparation programs and local organizations that are designed to recruit high school students, paraeducators, community members and parents to join the educator workforce. The objectives of these programs are typically to address the teacher shortage as well as to increase the number of educators who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). Data from 2022 (NCES) show that the US student population at that time was 44% White and 56% students of color, including Hispanic, Black, Asian, American Indian/Alaska Native, Pacific Islander and two or more races. The same source shows that 80% of teachers in 2020–2021 were White. These demographic statistics show an ongoing and significant mismatch between the ethnoracial identities of teachers and the students they serve. GYO programs have been shown to be one approach to developing the Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers (TOCIT) ^[2] workforce. (Gist et al., 2019). However, addressing this disparity is more complicated than simply creating more GYO programs. Researchers and educators need to understand and address the underlying reasons that this gap exists, such as policies that push TOCITs out of schools and toxic environmental conditions for TOCITs in preparation programs and workplaces (Carter Andrews et al., 2019).

Scholars researching GYO programs emphasize the importance of moving beyond the recruitment of TOCITs and through an ongoing process of support, development and sustaining (Gist, 2022). It is not enough to simply recruit potential candidates into teacher education classes, because “programs that fail to consider how the teaching and learning needs of BIPOC teachers evolve as they progress along the teacher development continuum likely will not improve retention of new teachers” (Gist, 2022, p. 3). This research shows that the ways that programs are designed, curricula are selected, and students are engaged are crucial in the development of GYO programs.

Gist et al. (2019) found that an asset-based approach to program design, drawing upon the Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) (from Yasso, 2005) of candidates, enables students to identify and navigate structural barriers, which allows for greater success. Gist (2022) suggests that coursework should reflect the identities and concerns of students while addressing systemic issues that perpetuate oppression in systems of schooling. This approach can be seen in program design that is intentionally focused on social justice. A study by Lightfoot and White (in Gist & Bristol, 2021) found that GYO programs that engage students in considering their identities and researching inequities in their own schools have “led students to become significantly more motivated to pursue teaching careers and to view teaching as a means of promoting social change” (p. 10). Looking specifically at programs for high school students, Gist et al. (2019) found that there are no standardized models, but that these programs can range from clubs to summer programs to year-long courses. They are often developed to stimulate an interest in education as a career, with the hope that students may stay in their local community upon receiving their credentials. More recently, some programs have taken on the goal of recruiting potential TOCITs and have infused critical pedagogy and sociopolitical development theory, such as the Pathways2Teaching program, which is a collaboration between the University of Colorado and local school districts (Gist et al., 2019). A social justice framing in program design is important because examining educational inequities engages students of color in recognizing their valuable knowledge and cultural wealth, positioning them to become equity-oriented, community-responsive future teachers (Gist et al., 2019).

In considering the identities of students, we acknowledge the intersectional nature (Crenshaw, 1991) of identity and oppression. Gist et al. (2021) caution against viewing BIPOC teachers as monolithic groups, saying we should center conversations about how race interfaces with teachers’ sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, class, nationality, immigrant status, indigeneity, racio-linguistic status and (dis)ability. Given that five of the students in the introductory education class identified as Asian, we draw on literature that considers the category of Asian American as a political racial identity (Philip, 2014) in that the common “model minority” assumptions about Asian Americans create a sort of erasure of identity. In a survey of the history of teachers of color, Todd-Breland (2022) found that Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) educators remain underrepresented in the teaching force, as Asian Americans accounted for 5% of the school-aged population in the United States but only 2% of the teaching force during the 2015–2016 school year. Some research looks more closely across Asian ethnic groups, such as McClain-Ruelle and Xiong's (2005) research on a recruitment and support program for Hmong-American teacher candidates in Wisconsin. This work revealed high levels of support for pursuing a teaching career among Hmong parents, while also showing that many participants in this project were women who were starting families at the same time and balancing the demands of work and family life. Their interviews showed the importance of incorporating cultural heritage, as teacher candidates included Hmong artifacts and language in their classrooms (McClain-Ruelle & Xiong, 2005). This finding shows the interplay of ethnic identity and one’s identity as a teacher, and the importance of sustaining these identities in teacher education.

Aside from one's intent to become a teacher and incorporating one’s culture and identity in the classroom, barriers persist for Hmong students enrolled in higher education. Specifically in our region, Vang and Schademan (2023) found that Hmong students in higher education felt unprepared for college. And although there were campus support services available for wellness, advising and academics for these Hmong students, feelings of inadequacy and shame were pervasive. The shame and inadequacy that Hmong students felt came from both home (i.e. family obligations) and institution (i.e. how to participate in the classroom), which highlights the tension that students of color must navigate across cultures. Conversely, some students found benefits from mentorship. This role of mentorship for students of color is a prominent theme in belonging and persistence in higher education (i.e. Harris & Lee, 2019; Ramos, 2019) but also comes with cultural taxation for faculty and staff of color (e.g. Brissett, 2020). These findings are relevant to our program because our students are dual-enrolled in high school and college. Our course acts as a bridge for students and so it is imperative that we embed needed mentoring and support for Hmong students within the structure of the program.

Our data looks at the experiences of all the students taking the class and then focuses on the response of Hmong students upon visiting the Hmong school.

The research questions guiding this study are.

1. How does a high school education course inform BIPOC students' perceptions about the teaching profession and their interests in becoming teachers?

2. What are the affordances and challenges of facilitating and sustaining this sort of school-university partnership in the current political climate?

We used a case study approach (Yin, 2003) to conduct this research, including quantitative and qualitative data that employed surveys and interviews of students. We used the definition of a case study as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident” (Yin, 2003, p. 13). As an exploratory case study-one “in which the intervention being evaluated has no clear, single set of outcomes” (p. 15) we used multiple sources of information to explore student perceptions about teaching, what educational experiences in the dual-immersion course resonated or made some sort of notable impact on them, and how likely they were to pursue careers in education (see Table 1). We also considered the partnership as a specific case (Creswell, 2013) that we could learn from and could inform future partnerships with the same or other school districts.

Within our group of 11 high school students, there were variations in ethnoracial identity as well as gender and gender identity (see Table 1). One student identified as transgender, and one was lesbian. One student was identified as having a learning disability and had received special education support throughout her schooling. One student identified as Black and is the president of the Black Student Union at the high school. Many of the students came from working-class families who had never gone to college before. Many families worked in agricultural or service industries, and all resided in a small low-income community bordering almond orchards and rice fields. There were many commonalities and differences across the students' lived experiences.

We collected data throughout the year on this high school course, from planning and development through implementation. Data sources included surveys, interviews and student work samples. After IRB approval but prior to administering the survey or facilitating interviews, we obtained parent consent and student assent.

Survey. The objective of our survey was to address research question #1: How does a high school education course inform BIPOC students’ perceptions about the teaching profession and their interests in becoming teachers?

The survey was adapted from the FIT-Choice Scale (Watt & Richardson, 2007) which measures factors influencing the choice to be a teacher. The anonymous survey was administered during a class session via Qualtrics on Chromebooks. The first part of the survey, Influential Factors that Contribute to Considering a Teaching Career, asks respondents to rank their agreement with 15 statements on a 5-point scale. The statements address topics related to skills, pay and benefits, quality of life and impact on students’ lives. The second part of the survey, Beliefs About Teaching, asks participants to rank their agreement with eight statements on a 5-point scale that relate to beliefs or perceptions about teaching as a career. There were opportunities provided for participants to respond to 3 optional questions.

1. What are some other reasons why you might want to become a teacher?

2. Do you have concerns or questions about the process of becoming a teacher?

3. Is there anything else that you would like to share about the possibility of becoming a teacher?

Students were provided an option to share their racial identities from a drop-down menu that included Other and Prefer Not to Say.

Group Interviews. Group interviews were conducted by the local classroom teacher, the university co-teacher, and a project participant. We each conducted 20–30-min interviews of groups of 3–4 students. These interviews were recorded via Zoom, transcribed and coded for themes.

Student Work. Student work samples included reflective journal entries, assignments, sketches and electronic teaching portfolios. These data were collected to review and observe changes in student perceptions, trends and ideas.

One limitation of the research was that we had a small sample size (n = 11); however, with the variety of qualitative and quantitative data we collected, we were able to triangulate and observe notable patterns. In addition, the one student who identified as Black in the class was absent on the day the survey was given. She was present for an interview, and we reviewed her student work, but we did not have her survey data as a point of comparison. This is why we focused on comparing the Asian and White student responses.

In analyzing the data, we first looked at survey results and created tables to compare student perceptions and beliefs about teaching across demographic categories. We chose to look at White students (5) and Asian students (5) separately so that we could compare their responses and see if there were variations across ethnoracial identities. We then used inductive coding (Miles et al., 2014) to identify themes in student responses to open-ended survey questions and interview questions. After that, we looked across both survey and interview data to find where themes overlapped. We then pulled in student work that corresponded with each theme. In this section, we describe what we found in the surveys, interviews and student work.

Overall min./max. values, means and standard deviations, along with breakdown by race for the Influential Factors that Contribute to Considering a Teaching Career, are presented in Table 2. Because we were interested in differences between experiences between students of different races, we also conducted independent t-tests despite our small sample size. Those results are also presented in Table 2.

Considering the cohort, the average response ratings ranged from disagree (One or more of my family members are teachers, m = 1.90) to agree (I want to support students who are often denied educational opportunities based on race, language, gender or other identities, m = 4.20). Qualitatively, the data reveal patterns of disagreement and agreement. On the lower range of the scale, students tend to disagree or neither agree/disagree that teachers have a good quality of life. Specifically, there were lower averages for the statements: teaching will provide a reliable income (m = 3.0), I have the qualities of a good teacher, and teaching hours will fit with the responsibilities of having a family (m = 3.3). Students, however, rated elements of a teacher’s career slightly higher. They agreed that teaching is a secure job (m = 3.8) and that teaching will allow them to choose where they wish to live (m = 3.8). Other sample statements in this middle range were connected to personal reasons for becoming a teacher, such as I have the qualities of a good teacher (m = 3.6), I want a job that involves working with children and adolescents (m = 3.6). Statements that had the highest ratings were more focused on larger social motivators, such as teaching will allow me to influence the next generation (m = 4.1), and I want to support students who are often denied educational opportunities based on race, language, gender, or other identities (m = 4.2). However, the statement: teaching allows me to work for social justice (m = 3.4) scored in the lower range, which is interesting as supporting marginalized students is the work of social justice. Perhaps they did not understand what it means to “work for social justice,” which provides useful information for our program design.

As mentioned above, despite our small sample size, we wanted to know if responses would vary by race/ethnicity. There were no statistically significant differences between Asian and White students, likely due to the sample size. However, there are still noticeable differences regarding personal beliefs by race that would warrant future investigation. Specifically, there are noticeable and potentially practical differences (t-score greater than 1.0) between Asian and White students on three statements. White students were more likely to indicate that they have “the qualities of a good teacher” than were Asian students. Conversely, Asian students were more likely to indicate that “teaching will provide a reliable income” and that “teaching will allow me to choose where I wish to live” than were White students. Together, these trends show that Asian students may see more potential for income and mobility than White students do, but less confidence in having the qualities of a good teacher. These differences are notable as the Asian students have had minimal opportunities to work with Asian teachers and may not see themselves reflected in the teacher workforce as readily as their White peers.

Overall min./max. values, means, and standard deviations, along with a breakdown by race, are for Beliefs About Teaching presented in Table 3. Again, because we were interested in differences between experiences between students of different races, we also conducted independent t-tests despite our small sample size. Those results are also presented in Table 3.

Overall, the lowest rated items were the statements related to future teaching aspirations: I am confident I will become a teacher (m = 2.8), and I am sure that I want to become a teacher (m = 2.9). Statements related to the social status of teachers were neither rated high nor low, including teaching is a well-respected career (m = 3.3), teachers are valued in our society (m = 3.4), and teaching is a high-status occupation (m = 3.8). However, on a local level, students showed their personal esteem for the profession in the statements: teachers are valued in my community (m = 4.1), teaching requires high levels of expert knowledge (m = 4.4), and teaching is hard work (m = 4.7). Overall, these students appreciated what teachers do, but they were not sure that they wanted to be teachers.

Based on the survey, the statement, “I am confident I will become a teacher” had an average of 2.8 on a scale of 1–5, which shows that students are not ready to commit to this career path. Only 3/10 students selected a 4 or 5 for this statement. In survey comments, one said, “My original plan is to be a game designer while also playing volleyball.” Another may go into the military because they have good benefits. One wants to become an American Sign Language interpreter.

As opposed to the results on factors affecting teaching, the section on beliefs did not have any statistical or practical differences between Asian and White students. We suspect that this lack of differences in this section of the survey may stem from the shared experiences of the students in their community and learning about education in the course. However, these are empirical questions for further research. The overall survey data showed that students have some negative perceptions about the quality of life and income for teachers, and concerns about student behavior. They also see it as a valuable profession with an important role in the functioning of society. Students appreciate the work of teachers but are not sure that they want to pursue a teaching career.

We saw similar themes in the student interviews; however, the interviews also provided information about the impact of the class on students, what activities resonated with them, and details about their future plans. There were three in-person small group interviews conducted and recorded at the school by three different interviewers. Each interview took about 20–30 minutes, and all 11 students participated. The interview questions were.

1. Can you tell me what led you to take this course?

2. What are you learning in this course?

3. Have your feelings about becoming a teacher changed since taking this course? In what way?

4. Are you considering going to college?

5. Are you considering a career as a teacher?

We created raw transcripts generated by Zoom and then corrected misspellings or grammatical errors. To analyze the data, we first ran the transcripts through Chat GPT (4.0), which identified five themes or domains: Career and Educational Aspirations, Influence of Educators and Counselors, Impact of the Teaching Class, Concerns and Realities of Teaching, and Personal Development and Reflection. We did this to obtain an initial sorting of themes and found that these domains overlapped with some of the key concepts we were seeking to explore in our research questions. We then chose to focus on two themes that we identified in our own readings of the data that would help us understand the role of the class in students' developing understandings about education: Perceptions about Teaching and the Impact of the Class. We color-coded for each theme and then engaged in a process of thematic coding by highlighting examples of student responses within the transcripts.

The strongest theme that emerged from student interview data was concerns about being a teacher, rooted both in their own experiences and in what they had heard on social media. One student said, “I've been hearing a lot about ‘we need more teachers.’ And I've been hearing a lot of stories on TikTok of teachers quitting because of the children being really, um, not appropriate, let's just put it that way.” Another student, when asked “What do you think might be challenging about becoming a teacher?” said, “Actually teaching the students, probably? Probably trying to maintain the attention of all the students.” Another student replied, “Compromising with all your students who learn differently and need more time. Some students that may have an easier chance of learning, while others need like more assistance and stuff.” Students have concerns about their ability to manage a classroom while meeting the needs of so many different students. These comments indicate that students in the class may need more instruction and models for creating positive classroom environments that are rooted in universal design and culturally sustaining pedagogy.

Another student expressed that he did not think teachers were well compensated, saying, “I feel like teachers' pay is one of the biggest factors. And I feel like it's just because you deal with so much…and I feel like you should be able to make enough to at least like support yourself completely and be able to go home at the end of the day and go to a fancy restaurant and enjoy your night.” To these students, the stressors of the school day were not commensurate with the salary. While there may be some truth to this perception, students did not seem to be aware of some of the professional benefits of being a teacher, such as health insurance, pensions and union representation. Students may benefit from learning more about the unseen economic benefits of a teaching career.

While students expressed some concerns about becoming teachers, they also understood teaching to be a valuable and important career. One student said, “I think we should educate children. That's why I think teachers are really important. And if they don't get that education, they're not gonna’ learn a lot of things in life.” Another said, “Yep, I just know that like history wise, those who didn't have education they typically did not do so great. Like problems in the 1600's. Then the wealthy and rich got to go to school and be like lawyers and politicians.” Students see education as important for creating options for students. Some students shared experiences that they had had in school, such as the survey comment, “When I was in elementary school, and middle school, I enjoyed learning and interacting with my teachers. I have some extremely positive experiences, and some slightly negative, which makes me want to improve and do just as well as my former teachers did.” This shows that the student is motivated both by positive experiences in the classroom and negative experiences that inspire them to do better.

Another theme that emerged from interviews was the impact the class had on them in considering options for their futures. A Hmong student named Sally-the student who said she had been robbed by being taught in an English-only environment after visiting the Hmong dual immersion school-said, “This education helped me out a lot with figuring out what path I want to take when I go to college. The hands-on experience of observing the different types of schools, grade levels and community each and every school had when we went to observe…. I'm very grateful for this classroom.” Although Sally is not sure about a career in teaching, she is appreciative of what she learned, and hopefully, this experience will continue to resonate with her as she makes future decisions.

A White student talked about the complexity of being a teacher, saying, “I think the most interesting thing that I have been learning about in this class is really just how involved everything is. I used to think it’s just, you know, you’re a teacher and you go up there and you teach some things. You play games and have fun, and I learned that like there's so much more. If you know, if you’re teaching a younger class, you have to look out for certain things. And you have to try and make sure that you're getting your student the help that they may need. And then there’s so many different aspects to that. There’s different types of like people who have all sorts of like degrees, who do certain things. And then there’s like parent involvement in everything, principal involvement, like, I used to think principal was just like the life of the party. They were just like making sure everybody’s doing what they’re supposed to be doing, but like they do so much more. And how like everything really ties together.” This student is taking away a deeper understanding of the complexity of schools and classrooms, which may influence him to become a teacher or to choose a different path.

The last data set we used was student work that included class assignments, journal entries and electronic portfolios. These written artifacts provided additional reflections and insights from students, especially about the visits to other schools. We chose to analyze more closely the responses of Mao, a Filipino student. Mao was born in the Philippines and moved to California in first grade. In his journal, he describes feeling scared and crying on the first day and feeling out of place. He discusses the racism he has experienced in school, saying:

It is interesting to note that he observes some teacher’s actions that attempt to disrupt racist language and yet saying that teachers are “trying” to make sure these occurrences don't happen, reveals how deeply racism is embedded in the system. He carries this idea of teacher responsibility forward when he says in his teaching philosophy, “I believe that as a teacher, I must make sure my students are in a safe environment and have full trust in their teacher. I must lead my students to look forward to learning and be in a classroom that is full of enthusiasm and determination. My students must be able to depend on me for assistance whenever they need it. My role as a teacher is to bring a positive attitude to my classroom and be sure that my students enjoy and look forward to what they learn. I want to be a guide for my students and aid them mentally, socially and emotionally.” These statements show an understanding of the role of the teacher in not only teaching the subject matter, but in creating safe, welcoming environments where children can express themselves and enjoy being there.

Mao shared at the time that he was not sure that he wanted to be a teacher, but if he did, he would teach art or dance. One assignment the students completed was drawing a sketch of their future classroom. Mao drew himself at the front of the room with the words “Principles of Art” on the board (Figure 1). He is speaking and seems engaged while rows of children watch him. This image shows a potential envisioning of himself in a teaching role, and he elaborates in his picture description, saying, “The students in my class are listening to me, teaching about Art. I use physical hand movements and my voice as mental models for the class.”

Mao did not have as strong a response to visiting the Hmong school as the Hmong students in the class did, but after a field trip to a Spanish immersion school, he wrote, “I don't know if I would teach there because I have no knowledge of Spanish, but the aspect of teaching at a language immersion school fascinates me.” In a recent text update between Mao and one of our authors, he said that he was taking a gap year after high school, but that “I have actually considered going down the educational path, your class made me realize how much I love working with kids and I want to keep helping them strive in the future.”

This profile of a single student is representative of the impact of the class. Mao had experienced racialized bullying in the school district like that described in (Carter Andrews et al., 2019). He also observed teachers working and struggling to disrupt systemic racism. However, he also sees that teachers can create safe environments and serve as a guide for students. In his sketch, he shows an ability to envision himself as an art teacher, guiding the class. By visiting dual immersion programs that center on language and identity, he can see the possibilities in educational programming and envision his role as a teacher, which is a primary goal of GYO programs (Gist et al., 2019).

Looking across the data, it is evident that students value the role of education in society and the work of teachers, but are uncertain as to whether they might want to pursue a career in the field, due to what they perceive as challenges in the classroom and a lack of financial security. Most students scored high (4.2) on supporting “students who are often denied educational opportunities based on race, language, gender, or other identities.” Asian students scored lower than White students on feeling they have the “qualities of a good teacher” and “good teaching skills,” which could reflect the lack of representation of Asian teachers in their classrooms and not seeing themselves reflected (Todd-Breland, 2022). However, the visit to the Hmong school resonated with the Asian students, indicating a possible variable that might influence their decisions to pursue a career in education.

We have learned from both our literature review on GYO programs and from the students' responses to field trips that our curriculum and pedagogy must be critical and grounded in social justice. The fact that the statement “teaching allows me to work for social justice” scored an average of 3.4 on a 5-point scale shows that students may desire and benefit from deeper discussions about identity, antiracism, and social justice in education. This may help them to find more personal investment in entering the teaching profession. It would be powerful to ask the students at the beginning of the year what sorts of experiences they would like to have, as we work to make the class more relevant and culturally sustaining. In addition, we would like to design activities for students to research inequities in their own and other schools (Gist & Bristol, 2021).

From the Hmong students’ responses to the visit to the dual immersion school, it is evident that this experience provided information about the teaching profession that they had not considered. The students were able to link language, culture and schooling in a way that they had been left out of in the assimilationist settings of their schools. Moving forward, it would be beneficial to visit other schools that center on language and cultural identities.

Since the original writing of this manuscript, we were able to run one more course at the high school during the 2024–2025 school year with about the same number of students in it. We expanded the number of field visits to include pre-K and adult special education programs as well as an alternative online charter school. We attempted to make the course part of a Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathway for students, which might have helped to sustain it. However, in the Spring of 2025, the high school leadership decided not to run the class again due to low enrollment. This was frustrating to us, as we had attempted to recruit students by connecting with school counselors, reaching out to specific students and presenting at school board meetings. While the school board praised the course, the administration did very little to publicize the course or to provide busing to allow students from the two neighboring high schools to participate in the class.

We found this to be the greatest challenge of the partnership, in that as the leadership changed, it was harder to maintain a common vision of the project. We started the project with one superintendent, who was aware of the vision of the grant and helped us to develop our plan for the course. The next year, he retired, and there have been two superintendents since his departure. The second superintendent was a Black administrator from another part of the state, who was interested and supportive of the project. However, he was put on leave with very little detail provided four months into his tenure, much to the dismay of students, community leaders and the local NAACP chapter. No criminal charges were filed, but his position was terminated, and the prior superintendent took over the role in an interim capacity while a search was conducted. The new superintendent, who is currently filling the role, is a White former principal from a nearby community. He expressed some interest in the course, but because he was not part of the planning process and was so busy in his new role, the thread of the vision got lost.

We share this to show the challenge of partnering with districts experiencing rapid turnover in leadership, as well as some of the racial tensions in the school community that may have inhibited continued conversations about racial justice and the purpose of the partnership. As university faculty who have been teachers and/or school administrators, we understand the complexities of leading a school that is under-resourced and serving students with complex needs. That said, we felt that the intent of our project, to introduce students who might not normally envision themselves as teachers to the field of education, had the potential to make an impact over time. Due to administrative changes, it seemed that the district did not share the same vision of the ways this course might help grow new teachers from the community, who would represent the identities of students more closely. Carter Andrews et al. (2019) encourage researchers and educators to understand and address the underlying reasons for the mismatch between teacher and student identities, and these conversations were no longer happening.

At the same time, our SEED grant that had been funding the faculty co-teacher and college credits for students was terminated by the Trump administration in February 2025. This decision was appealed along with other teacher preparation grants, as represented by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE, 2025) and the US District Court for the District of Maryland ruled that the grants be reinstated. Subsequently, the Supreme Court ruled that the new administration could terminate these grants (Howe, 2025), and we received notice in August 2025 with a termination letter stating that our grant had been taking part in Diversity, Equity or Inclusion initiatives and was in violation of federal civil rights law.

The grant only had one more semester of its 3-year agreement, but we would have used the remaining four months to develop a sustainability plan. As it stands, we maintain contact with the high school teacher who is now teaching a child development class. We hope to assist in reinstituting the course next year, but we will not have the time or resources to commit to the project at the same level that we had been.

It is important to share the success of the project, even though it is no longer happening. We found that the cornerstone of the project and the element that made it successful was the relationship between the university instructor and the high school teacher. The two communicated regularly, planned together and took time to get to know the students. Along with other members of our grant team who went on field trips, led guest lectures and hosted visits to the university campus, we worked together to build relationships and create experiences to enable students to envision themselves as teachers one day. We are saddened by the dissolution of the course and angered by the misguided revocation of the SEED grant. We will seek further opportunities in the future as we remain committed to supporting BIPOC students in their paths to becoming teachers.

In his teaching metaphor, the Hmong student who wants to be a PE teacher said, “Teaching is like gardening, you plant seeds in the right environment and with nurture and care you'll produce a fruit of knowledge.” This is a powerful metaphor for this project as well. We planted the seeds of a possible teaching career through this course, but for students to follow through and make the choice to teach, we need to nurture and care for them. GYO partnerships between universities and school districts can provide valuable opportunities for BIPOC young people and communities, but we need pedagogies and infrastructures that are responsive to students' financial, cultural and intellectual needs throughout the process.