Minorities stand increasingly under-represented in the teaching profession; they continue to be under-represented in graduate teacher preparation programs. Despite calls for increased numbers of minority teachers, despite countless well-intentioned recruitment and retention programs, the relative proportion of newly prepared minority teachers is in fact decreasing (Carter & Wilson, 1992). Literally hundreds of studies examine retention programs, identifying the deficits of minorities, noting what program elements work, and establishing characteristics of supportive institutional environments. Unfortunately, knowing what can be done to I increase persistence does not yet translate into doing it. By focusing on a positive correlate--those minority students who successfully complete their programs—this study contrasts with the deficit approach. Employing a critical analysis and feminist and ethnic interpretive perspectives, this qualitative study investigates the experiences of minorities who did complete graduate teacher education programs at 10 predominantly white, public and private, urban, suburban, and rural institutions in the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, the study examines how these minority students understand and interpret their experiences, which events they perceive as enhancing their successes and which ones they know interfered. All minorities who had completed graduate teacher preparation programs at the 10 institutions since 1990 were surveyed. Sections of the survey correspond to categories previously found to correlate with persistence (AME/OMHE, 1992; Attinasi, 1989; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1990; Tinto, 1987). Of the 72% who returned the surveys N = 61), 83% asked to be interviewed. Subsequently, seven respondents representative of the surveyed population each participated in two face-to-face interviews. Ethnographic methods were used to inductively analyze the empirical materials gathered in the research study. Content analysis of the subjects' journals combined with their interview transcripts and surveys enabled triangulation within three different sources of the respondents' own words. Results confirm that minorities see themselves as outsiders within predominantly white institutions. Belonging, or not, frames their institutional experience and mirrors their everyday lived realities in mainstream American culture. Respondents attribute their achievements to individual persistence; examples of persistence cited align remarkably with psychological profiles of resiliency (Benard, 1991). Retention program components are viewed as less significant than the personal resiliency each respondent evidenced.

The public school teacher population of the United States is predominantly White, while the demographics of P-12 student population continue to grow increasingly diverse. Across the nation, there has been a call for the recruitment and retention of culturally and linguistically diverse teachers. The state of Oregon passed the Oregon Educator Equity Act, originally called the Oregon Minority Teacher Act, in 1991, and with recent renewed attention, the preparation of more culturally and linguistically diverse teachers in the state has gained prominence. Refocused consideration to the lack of diversity in the teaching workforce is overdue, as evidenced by the low numbers of African Americans found in Oregon's teacher workforce. Moreover, the experiences of African American teachers are underexplored. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the factors that contributed to the successful recruitment of African American teachers, specifically graduates of a teacher pipeline program. Employing an assets-based framework, a qualitative multiple-case design was used; data analyses included open coding of interview data, a constant comparison analysis of individual cases, and cross-case analysis. The predominant themes that contributed to the success of participants in this study included, belonging, accountability, and commitment to equity. While these findings, consistent with much of the literature on achievement of students of color, are not new, this study adds African American teacher voices to the existing research on the diversification of the teacher workforce. Additionally, this dissertation highlights successful efforts made toward recruitment of teachers of color with an Oregon lens.