Building & Sustaining a Diverse Professional Community
by Peter Badalament, MASCD President
Do our students see
themselves reflected in the adults who work with them? Research has shown that in
order for students to build resiliency, they need strong connections to at least
three adults in their lives. Simply put, are there
teachers and support staff in our schools who student can relate to because they see some aspect
of their own experience in that person?
Many suburban
communities in the metropolitan Boston
area have struggled for years with recruiting and retaining a diverse staff.
If you talk with
school administrators, however, they will tell you that the recruitment and hiring of
diverse candidates is not the major issue – it’s retaining them once they work
in the building. Often, teachers of color will find that there is no affinity
group for them as there are either very few or no other faculty members with
similar backgrounds. This can lead to newly hired teachers feeling alienated
and alone, and ultimately lead to them leaving the district.
This
issue of Perspectives is dedicated to
exploring some of these issues.
