“I didn’t quit. The system quit me.” Examining why teachers of color leave teaching

ABSTRACT

Teachers of color leave the teaching profession at nearly three times the rate of their white counterparts. This qualitative study examines the stories of four former teachers of color who left the teaching profession. Participants’ decisions to leave teaching are contextualized with literature on the role of school leadership and teacher attrition and a conceptual framework of critical race theory and Foucault’s notion of the body as text. Journey maps and interviews are the main data sources. Findings include the lack of control participants had over their bodies, their language, and their relationships in teaching, as well as the resilience they found in leaving the profession.

Acknowledgments

The research team is grateful to Steven Camicia, Heewon Chang, and Julie Pennington for their helpful feedback on an early version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. To protect confidentiality, Kevin’s first country and first language are not mentioned in this paper. To maintain the authenticity of his words, we did not modify his English grammar. Kevin speaks English as an additional language.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sherry Marx

Sherry Marx is Professor of Teacher Education and Leadership at Utah State University. Her research examines multicultural education and qualitative research methodology.

Alyson Leah Lavigne

Alyson L. Lavigne is an Associate Professor of Instructional Leadership at Utah State University. Using her training as an educational psychologist and classroom researcher, she has conducted research on teacher retention, teachers’ beliefs, teacher supervision and evaluation, and student, teacher, and leader dynamics in schools that serve minoritized youth.

Sarah Braden

Sarah Braden is an Assistant Professor in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at Utah State University. Her research interests include equity in K-12 education for multilingual learners, and language socialization in science education contexts.

Andrea Hawkman

Andrea M. Hawkman is an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education in the College of Education at Rowan University. Her research examines how teachers and students engage with race/ism, whiteness, and LGBTQ+ identities and histories in PK-20 Social Studies curriculum, pedagogy, and media.

Justin Andersen

Justin Andersen is a doctoral student in Cultural Studies in Education at Utah State University.

Sara Gailey

Sara Gailey is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at Weber State University.

Gordon Geddes

Gordon Geddes is a doctoral student in Cultural Studies in Education at Utah State University and a high school Psychology teacher.

Isaiah Jones

Isaiah Jones is the Senior Director for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Utah State University.

Shouqing Si

Shouqing Si is an Assistant Professor of Education at Western New Mexico University.

Karen Washburn

Karen Washburn is an Assistant Professor of Social Studies Education at Montana State University Billings with research interests in race, language, whiteness within Social Studies P-12, and pre-service teacher curriculum and practice.