How to Recruit and Hire Diverse Teachers
How to Recruit and Hire Diverse Teachers
By Katina Bookard, Ed.D.
Here are two truths about having a diverse teaching staff:
No. 1: It’ll make your school better. Diverse teachers lead to new ideas, equity, and better student results.
No. 2: It won’t happen by accident. If you want a diverse teaching staff, you have to be intentional about recruiting, hiring, and supporting diverse teachers. You have to seek out diverse teachers and empower them to build lasting careers in your school or district.
Below are 4 strategies to help.
Broaden Your Recruiting
Sometimes, students cannot choose the schools they attend, due to family and financial situations. So, it’s up to you to hire diverse teachers for whatever school they’re in. However, if you’re only getting your teachers from one place, you’re only going to get one type of teacher. Cast a wider net with your recruiting efforts. Share your jobs with different groups, go to different job fairs, seek out new opportunities instead of waiting for candidates to come to you.
Then, think about how you’re advertising your jobs. Emphasize the benefits that come with teaching, like the chance to make a difference in a child’s life, to empower the next generation, to improve your community. Education is rarely advertised as well-paying, but you can also talk about some of the ways to earn more money, like becoming a lead teacher or moving into an administrator role.
Finally, be open to different types of candidates with various cultural, social, economic, ethnic, and gender backgrounds. Sometimes an applicant doesn’t check every box you initially thought you wanted, but they have valuable experience in another way. Let us not discount that intrinsic value. Your teaching workforce should not be a mirror reflection but instead provides a much broader perspective, a window to connect with the world your students and staff live within. Embrace that.
Build Relationships
I’ve worked in schools where teachers stayed for 20 years and left at retirement.
I’ve worked in schools where jobs turned over every two or three years.
The schools where teachers stay are the schools where they feel valued and appreciated. There are open lines of communication, plenty of praise and recognition, and consistent professional development and career growth.
If you want your teachers to commit to your school and district, build a community where they feel trusted to share good/bad feedback and diversity of thought is valued and welcomed.
If you’re trying to diversify your teaching staff, be intentional about relationship-building with your new teachers.
Boost Autonomy
When teachers are following the state standards and covering the required topics, give them freedom to get creative. Maybe they want to introduce a new novel in English class, one that features more diverse characters. Maybe they want to plan a field trip, try a new physics experiment, launch a new school club, or host a cultural celebration. Whenever possible, support these ideas and give your teachers the resources they need to succeed.
Creativity is one of the greatest gifts teachers bring to the classroom, and that creativity shines even brighter when you have a diverse group of teachers.
Be Open to Change
If you’re not open to change, you’re not open to new voices. If you’re not open to new voices, you’re most likely not open to different ways to solve problems to better educate our “Crown Jewels,” our students.
When schools are too rigid — this is how we’ve always done things, and this is how we’ll continue — it is difficult for various teaching cultures and philosophies to feel welcome and to truly buy into the school system. Instead, school leaders need to welcome diverse voices to committees and leadership teams and be open to and excited about the changes those diverse voices will bring.
As an instructor and mentor for Moreland University, I’ve worked with teaching candidates who start at a school and are eager to share their ideas and perspectives. But once they try to make a suggestion or implement even a small change, they hit a brick wall.
Not long after, those teachers are applying for new jobs.
I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. Teachers were my heroes growing up, and it was my dream to follow in their footsteps. My educational experiences range from economically disadvantaged inner city and rural south schools, to tight knit military communities, to school systems with high-net earning families with platinum level resources… this was my framework for understanding diverse classrooms.
I’ll never forget my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Bradshaw, who was among the first to call out my potential and encourage me to pursue my dreams. Although I'm African American and Mrs. Bradshaw was white, that’s the beauty of diversity. When students and teachers aren’t pigeonholed by their background, when students can learn from diverse perspectives and can see different types of people with different careers and in leadership roles, everyone benefits.
Moreland University partners with schools and districts across the country to help teachers earn professional certifications and master’s degrees.
If more than 30 teachers in your district need a professional license, Moreland will offer a discounted tuition rate.