Black men make up roughly 2% of the national teaching corps, and as Brockenbrough (2012) reminds us, there are recurring themes within Black Masculinity Studies that are central to bear in mind when looking at the lived and teaching experiences of these Black male teachers. The major one is to recognize and acknowledge the unique psychological, emotional, and spiritual toll of Black male marginality on Black men. “Oft-cited statistics on incarceration, homicide, unemployment, high school dropout, and HIV infection rates, among other chronic blights (Dyson, 1993; Noguera, 2003), illustrate not only the systemic marginality of Black men in American society, but also their distance from patriarchal definitions of manhood that rely on White supremacist and capitalist power to reinforce male domination” (p.5). The intention of this study was to engage with these Black male teachers’ narratives, stories, and commentaries and learn from their life and teaching experiences as Black men. The aim was to gain insight into how they were recruited, how they were supported, and also what their understandings and thoughts are around retaining Black male teachers in the classrooms. This is a small qualitative study is a sample of four Black Male teachers within the 2013 Teach for America Corps in NYC. As Lewis (2006) suggests, many of these Black male teachers consider their role bound to some form of social justice. This inquiry aimed to talk across the struggles and challenges of Black men in the NYC corps of the TFA program and to reach an understanding of their lived and teaching experience, and of the ways ideologies and narratives are negotiated and navigated in schools and classrooms. The questions of inquiry were aimed to provide insight into the recruitment, retention, and professional support of the Black male teacher, both in TFA and outside this program. Participation in this study was limited to Black male educators with one year of elementary or middle school teaching experience, in order to draw on and speak to the greater presence of male teachers at those levels to help teacher preparation programs navigate toward better recruitment processes, and supporting and sustaining more Black males in the classroom.

The purpose of this research was to gain insight into key factors contributing to the recruitment and retention of teachers of color in New York City, NY, with special attention to their identity formation and understanding of their professionalism as it relates to who they are and where they work. This research entails quantitative results from a survey of more than 100 public school teachers of different racial backgrounds, followed by in-depth interviews with 26 teachers of color across different social contexts of the New York City public school system. This research is grounded in a trifold conceptual framework based on identity formation, sociology of the professions, and critical race theory to examine the interwoven complexities of how teachers of color make meaning of their district and school work as it relates to their understanding of whether they are seen as professionals. This study seeks to address the gap between the current body of literature about the recruitment and retention of teachers of color and the lived experiences of teachers of color in New York City working in the post-No Child Left Behind education policy context. In the first survey phase of this study, participants are asked a series of questions about their perceptions of their sense of professionalism, including their relationships to other school community members and other parts of their work. In the qualitative, interview phase of this project, participants were asked to make meaning of the different facets of their work and the impact they have on their professional identity development, the role of racial and cultural identity in their endeavors, and how their social context informs these understandings. The research was conducted to help fill a consequential gap in the extant research literature on the role that race plays in the career prospects of teachers of color, how they see themselves and believe they are seen by others as professionals and people, and how that connects to larger policy questions about the recruitment and retention of teachers of color. The research finds that the field of education has severely under-researched the role of race and social context in their professional identity formation and in the sociology of professions. Almost all of the teachers of color in the study operate with a sense of professionalism that both allows them to survive and, in some cases, thrive despite and, in many cases, because of their working conditions. Their concentric professionalism – the confluence of preparation, dedication, and motivation, layered with their racial and cultural identities – is centered on the children (particularly of color) and communities they serve across contexts. This also demonstrates how, regardless of teachers’ expertise and experience, school as both a network of intertwined relationships and school as a tapestry of policies and practices can either elevate or decimate a sense of professionalism for teachers of color. Taken holistically, we have a plethora of evidence suggesting that teachers of color are ready, willing, and able to apply appropriate practice to their work. Yet so much of the onus to professionalize comes from people, policies, and ideas that obfuscate what it means to be professional.