From Compliance to Confidence: Negotiating Racialized Identities as Novice Teachers of Color

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2019There has been a nationwide call to increase diversity in the teaching profession, and though schools are looking to recruit more teachers of color, many continue to leave the profession at a higher rate than their White colleagues. Understanding their reasons for this seems to require an understanding of their interpretation of the systems and structures in which they work as well as how their identities may or may not align with those systems and structures that have been in place since they were students themselves. This dissertation uses a situative and critical race lens to understand several things: (1) how teachers of colors’ racialized histories and experiences may influence their perceptions of their roles and practices, (2) how they navigate and access resources and opportunities to learn that may be aligned with their racialized identities, and (3) how they navigate their racialized identities within their schools in their first year of teaching. In using Nasir’s (2012) conceptualizations of racialized identities, I use semi-structured interviews, a focus group interview, school staff interviews, and observations to understand the complex and multidimensional ways in which four teachers of color navigate the tensions, affordances, and constraints within their schools and how they positioned themselves as racialized beings in those spaces. The findings highlight the nuanced ways in which the teachers’ negotiation of their racialized identities could not be untethered from their shifting contexts. The findings also reveal the extent to which the teachers navigate and perceive their alignment to the resources available to them in their schools. In having a deeper understanding of the processes by which teachers of color bring their racialized identities into the profession, I hope to bring to the forefront the critical considerations for teacher education programs, administrators, and educational leaders when it comes to a system that honors the rich identities and stories that teachers of color offer the profession