Deep in the Heart of Education: Addressing Texas Teacher Shortage with Grow Your Own Initiatives
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59719/txep.v7i1.11Keywords:
Grow Your Own, teacher preparation, educator preparation, teacher shortage, Texas, alternative pathway, paraprofessional, funding, grantsAbstract
This paper explores how Grow Your Own (GYO) educator initiatives can mitigate the pressing teacher shortage by unpacking the nature of the shortage and key factors of recruitment and retention. GYO proposes a solution by specifically targeting districts that often report the most frequent shortages: urban and rural schools. Our approach to recruitment expands the teacher pipeline and strives for retention by offering a strategy that capitalizes on asset-based community development and notions of heart work to assist in removing barriers that historically have kept Black, Latinx, Asian and other communities from pursuing teaching careers. Recommendations outline several current grant funding opportunities that can be utilized to establish a GYO, and encourage the exploration of partnerships with community-based organizations.
Downloads
References
Adams, D. & Morton, B. (2022). Diversifying the teacher profession: What led Hispanic teachers to become teachers? Texas Educator Preparation, 6, 18-31. https://www.csotte.com/_files/ugd/d2be48_927cc3fe4ad742058671720a7b2997ba.pdf
Antrop‐González, R., & De Jesús, A. (2006). Toward a theory of critical care in urban small school reform: Examining structures and pedagogies of caring in two Latino community‐based schools. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 19(4), 409-433. http://doi.org/10.1080/09518390600773148
Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. (Eds.). (2019). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives. John Wiley & Sons.
Bill, K., Bowsher, A., Malen, B., Rice, J. K., & Saltmarsh, J. E. (2022). Making matters worse? COVID-19 and teacher recruitment. Phi Delta Kappan, 103(6), 36-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00317217221082808
Bourdieu, P. & Passeron, J. (1977) Reproduction in education, society and culture. Sage.
Boutte, G. S. & Johnson, G. L. (2014). Community and family involvement in urban schools. In H. R. Milner IV & K. Lotomey (Eds.), Handbook of urban education (pp. 167–187). Routledge.
Brown, A. L., & Thomas III, D. J. (2020). A critical essay on Black male teacher recruitment discourse. Peabody Journal of Education, 95(5), 456-471. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2020.1826120
Buttner, A. (2021, April 20). The state of the teacher shortage in 2021 edition. Frontline Education.
Carver-Thomas, D., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2017). Teacher turnover: Why it matters and what we can do about it. Learning Policy Institute.
Dillard, C. B. (2016). Turning the ships around: A case study of (re) membering as transnational endarkened feminist inquiry and praxis for Black teachers. Educational Studies, 52(5), 406-423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2016.1214916
Epstein, J. L. (2010). School/family/community partnerships. Caring for the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(3), 81–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/003172171009200326
Farinde-Wu, A., Glover, C. P., & Williams, N. N. (2017). It’s not hard work; it’s heart work: Strategies of effective, award-winning culturally responsive teachers. The Urban Review, 49, 279-299. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11256-017-0401-5
Garcia, A. (2020). Grow your own teachers: A 50-state scan of policies and programs. New America.
Garcia, A., Manuel, A., & Buly, M. R. (2019). Washington state policy spotlight: A multifaceted approach to grow your own pathways. Teacher Education Quarterly, 46(1), 69-78.
Gist, C. D. (2019). For what purpose? Making sense of the various projects driving grow your own program development. Teacher Education Quarterly, 46(1), 9-22.
Gist, C. D., Bianco, M., & Lynn, M. (2019). Examining grow your own programs across the teacher development continuum: Mining research on teachers of color and nontraditional educator pipelines. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(1), 13-25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022487118787504
Goldring, R., Taie, S., and Riddles, M. (2014). Teacher Attrition and Mobility: Results From the 2012–13 Teacher Follow-up Survey (NCES 2014-077). U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics.
Green-Harris G, Coley SL, Koscik RL, Norris NC, Houston SL, et al. (2019). Addressing disparities in Alzheimer’s disease and African-American participation in research: an asset-based community development approach. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. 11, 125.
Griffin, A., & Tackie, H. (2016). Through our eyes: Perspectives and reflections from Black teachers. The Education Trust, 1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0031721717690363
Heller, R. (2021). The grow-your-own approach to teacher preparation: A conversation with Amaya Garcia. Phi Delta Kappan, 103(3), 28-33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00317217211058511
Hopson, J. & Hopson, J. (2021). Yes, we can: Moving educator preparation programs forward to multicultural and multidimensional programs. Texas Educator Preparation, 5, 76-86.
https://www.csotte.com/_files/ugd/c33c67_490d4bb7eda14dbabff5fc85599096d5.pdf
Irizarry, J.G. (2007). "Home-growing" teachers of color: lessons learned from a town-gown partnership. Teacher Education Quarterly, 24, 87.
Johnson, M. W. (2022). “But there is a God”: Teaching Nat Turner in early childhood education. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy - Special Issue, 22(4), 459–480. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984221135464
Johnson, M. W. & Nicol, M. W. (2020). Introducing curricular and pedagogical resuscitation (CPR): A Black approach to reviving the self and collective through social studies. Urban Education. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042085920948948
Jotkoff, E. (2022, February 1). NEA survey: Massive staff shortages in schools leading to educator burnout; alarming number of educators indicating they plan to leave profession. National Education Association. https://www.nea.org/about-nea/media-center/press-releases/nea-survey-massive-staff-shortages-schools-leading-educator
Kelly, H. (2007) Racial tokenism in the school workplace: An exploratory study of black teachers in overwhelmingly white schools. Educational Studies, 41(3), 230-254. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131940701325712
Kini, T. & Podolsky, A. (2016). Does teaching experience increase teacher effectiveness? A review of the research. Learning Policy Institute.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. Jossey-Bass.
Love, B. (2023). (2023, March 23). Stop Trying to Recruit Black Teachers Until You Can Retain the Ones You Have (Opinion). Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-stop-trying-to-recruit-black-teachers-until-you-can-retain-the-ones-you-have/2023/03
Madden, S. R., & Gonzales, A. C. (2017). Heart Work. The Mathematics Teacher, 111(3), 214-221. http://dx.doi.org/10.5951/mathteacher.111.3.0214
Misener, L., & Schulenkorf, N. (2016). Rethinking the social value of sport events through an asset-based community development (ABCD) perspective. Journal of Sport Management, 30(3), 329-340. http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2015-0203
Mojica, A., & DelPilar, J. (2022, February 22). Tennessee bill would allow temporary permits for not just teachers to teach most courses. News Channel 9.
Moll, L. (2000). The diversity of schooling: A cultural-historical approach. In M. Reyes & J. Halcon (Eds.), The best for our children: Critical perspectives on literacy for Latino students (pp. 29–47). Teachers College Press.
Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into practice, 31(2), 132-141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00405849209543534
Nasir, N. S., Givens, J., & Chatmon, C. (2018). “We dare say love”: Supporting achievement in the educational life of Black boys. Teachers College Press.
Noddings, N. (2013) Freire, Buber, and care ethics on dialogue in teaching. In: Lake R and Kress T (eds.) Paolo Freire’s intellectual roots: Toward historicity in praxis (pp. 89–100) Bloomsbury.
Oakley, D., Stowell, J., & Logan, J. R. (2009). The impact of desegregation on black teachers in the metropolis, 1970–2000. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32(9), 1576–1598. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870902780997
Phi Delta Kappan (2018). Teaching: Respect but dwindling appeal. Kappan Magazine.
Perry, A. (2017). Good news: There is an answer to the shortage of black and brown teachers - The Hechinger Report. [online] The Hechinger Report.
Pogere, E. F., López-Sangil, M. C., García-Señorán, M. M., & González, A. (2019). Teachers’ job stressors and coping strategies: Their structural relationships with emotional exhaustion and autonomy support. Teaching and Teacher Education, 85, 269-280. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.07.001
Popkewitz, T. S. (1998). Struggling for the soul: the politics of schooling and the construction of the teacher. Teachers College Press.
Raise Your Hand Texas. (2023, January 24). 2023 Legislature: Texas Still faces a teacher workforce crisis. https://www.raiseyourhandtexas.org/texas-still-faces-a-teacher-workforce-crisis/#:~:text=Teachers%20name%20low%20pay%2C% 20excessive,before%20the%20school%20year%20started
Reininger, M. (2012). Hometown disadvantage? It depends on where you’re from: Teachers’ location preferences and the implications for staffing schools. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 34(2), 127-145. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0162373711420864
Ronfeldt, M., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2013). How teacher turnover harms student achievement. American Educational Research Journal 50 (1), 4–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0002831212463813
Skinner, E. A. (2010). Project Nueva Generacion and grow your own teachers: Transforming schools and teacher education from the inside out. Teacher Education Quarterly, 37(3), 155-167.
Spiegelman, M. (2020). Race and Ethnicity of Public School Teachers and Their Students. Data Point. NCES 2020-103. National Center for Education Statistics.
Sutcher, L., Darling-Hammond, L., & Carver-Thomas, D. (2016). A coming crisis in teaching? Teacher supply, demand, and shortages in the U.S. Learning Policy Institute.
Texas Education Agency. (2022a). Employed teacher demographics 2015-16 through 2021-22. (TEA PEIMS and SBEC ECOS). https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/employed-teacher-demographics-2022.pdf
Texas Education Agency. (2022b). Enrollment in Texas public schools, 2021-22. (Document No. GE22 601 05). https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/enroll-2021-22.pdf
Texas Education Agency. (2023). Teacher Vacancy Task Force Final Report. https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/tvtf-final-report.pdf
Tillman, L.C. (2004). (Un)intended consequences? The impact of the Brown v. Board of Education decision on the employment status of Black educators. Education and Urban Society, 36(3): 280–303. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124504264360
Thomas III, D., Johnson, M., & Brown, A. (2022). (Un) Natural Saviors and Motivators: Analyzing the Pathological Scripting of Black Male Teachers in Hollywood Films. Educational Studies, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2022.2096454
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (2023). OCTAE Program Memorandum 23-2. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/cte/perkins-educator-prep.pdf
Valenzuela, A. (2010). Subtractive schooling: US-Mexican youth and the politics of caring. State University of New York Press.
Valenzuela, A. (2017). Grow Your Own Educator Programs: A Review of the Literature with an Emphasis on Equity-Based Approaches. Literature Review. Equity Assistance Center Region II, Intercultural Development Research Association
Williams, W., Adrien, R., Murthy, C., & Pietryka, D. (2016). Equitable access to excellent educators. An analysis of states’ educator equity plans. Westat.
Wilson, A. N. 1992. Awakening the Natural Genius of Black Children. New York: Afrikan World InfoSystems.
Woodson, C. G. (1933). Mis-education of the Negro. The Associated Publishers.
Worthen, D. G., Smart, C., Bowman, S. G., Diaz, E. I., & Gist, C. D. (2022). Socioculturally Mediated Academic Advising: A GYO Approach for Supporting Bilingual/Bicultural Paraprofessionals. Journal of Career Development, 49(5), 1005-1020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894845321994918
Zhu, G. (2020). “Educate your heart before your mind”: The counter-narratives of one African American female teacher’s asset-, equity-and justice-oriented pedagogy in one urban school. Urban Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085920902244
