Racial Capitalism and Student Teachers of Color: A Mixed Methods Case Exploring the Cost of Becoming A Teacher

ABSTRACT

Efforts to recruit teachers of color during the ongoing teacher shortage in the United States have largely failed evidenced by the increasing diversity gap between students of color and teachers of color. This study focuses on one barrier to recruiting teachers of color, a traditional student teaching model that is equivalent to a semester to a year-long unpaid internship. This model makes it difficult to earn an income and student teach at the same time. Taking on student loan debt and the challenge of paying for everyday expenses (e.g., food, housing) without an income creates a financial burden and stress for teacher candidates of color that may prevent them from becoming a teacher. This study uses racial capitalism to critique the assumptions embedded in a traditional student teaching model that make racially biased presumptions about the financial capacity and need of teacher candidates of color. Teacher candidates of color were surveyed about their financial stresses during student teaching and a subset of them participated in focus groups to elaborate on their financial burdens. The data reveal extreme economic hardships of teacher candidates of color that call for program and policy changes to address the teacher shortage with a diverse workforce.

Acknowledgments

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors only and do not represent the official views and opinions of the sponsors. I would like to thank the teacher preparation program candidates and graduates for trusting us enough to share their financial realities and challenges. I would also like to thank Divya Mansukhani, Francheska Santos, and Karen DeMoss from Prepared to Teach at Bank Street College for their support with the design, data collection, and analysis of the financial burden survey and Ed Curammeng for reading earlier versions of this manuscript and providing extensive and insightful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.