What was once a pipeline for funneling Black teachers and prospective Black teachers—particularly Black men—has become an attachment of leaky pipes, with many candidates falling through the cracks. Some pipes have even been removed to dismantle the pipeline itself. This is the work of the Trump Administration, whose executive orders have targeted Black education by taking aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Those attacks may receive the most attention, but it’s the actual leaks in the pipeline causing irreparable damage. District leaders and policymakers are lacking focus on the true work. For them, the outcome is singular: hiring Black teachers. Leaders looking to achieve this are on the right track, but the goal is not comprehensive, and so struggle to get Black teachers in classrooms persists.
For many of these leaders, the aim of hiring Black teachers isn’t about supporting Black people. It’s about getting bodies in the building that’ll hopefully pay the invisible tax. But that approach will never work. The way to secure Black teachers is by prioritizing Black humanity. Instead, initiatives continue to put previously used band-aids on wounds, continuing the harm to Black people in educational spaces.
We can rattle off all the direct ways, but when it comes to this “pipeline,” much of the damage is done because of the posture taken towards Black humanity; that Black children should be happy to receive an education and Black teachers should be glad, if not lucky, to have a job. That posture doesn’t invite Black teachers to classrooms, and it certainly doesn’t keep them there. That attitude refuses to consider outside-the-box solutions for attracting more Black people to the teaching profession. It refuses to normalize Black spaces within schools, or better yet, normalize the school itself as a Black space. It refuses to invite the communities impacted—communities that often raise the student as an academic partner to assist with teaching and learning.
These may seem like macro-level problems, but they cause noticeable leaks in a pipeline meant to support Black students. You cannot support Black children if you cannot, do not, or will not support Black adults. How does any of this translate into real solutions for Black people and specifically Black children? By recognizing that restoring a pipeline isn’t as effective as restoring a whole house, including the pipes inside.
Ensuring that Black children have Black teachers requires an ecosystem that fosters an interconnectedness of agendas, aims, and processes to yield support, success, and joy for Black educators, Black students, and Black families. It starts with how Black educators and prospective Black educators are recruited. Rather than simply recruiting them, they must be courted and cultivated.
Consider courting a mate with the intention of forming a long-term relationship where growth and development occur for both individuals. Indeed, people have many professional lives as educators. Black educators, whether prospective or veteran, must know that the intention is a commitment to a long-term relationship where the unconditional aim of school and district leaders is to make them better educators, for their benefit and the benefit of Black students.
The relationship doesn’t end when these teachers enter the classroom. It continues with mentoring, counseling, and fostering a sense of camaraderie among the Black educators in the building as they support one another. It is a long-term commitment to people, not positions. This posture of courting must be the approach applied to the teaching of Black children and families. It doesn’t begin with Black teachers, but with Black families and students. The same intention and commitment mentioned above must be applied to them.
Actively focusing on Black students and families makes increasing Black educators a lifestyle or guiding ethos, rather than simply a box to check. It also creates an environment where Black humanity is seen, valued, and utilized in the curriculum, instructional and assessment methods, school-wide policies, how students are counseled and mentored, and the ways the community is partnered with. Courting Black students and families is an effective way to attract Black teachers, as Black people need to see that WE are a priority—if not THE priority—in an academic space.
Practically speaking, this looks like the following:
- Creating cohorts of newly hired Black educators: to establish a community of support and collaboration. Financial backing should be provided to these cohorts to cover the costs associated with teacher-prep, licensing, mentorship, etc.
- Funding the professional growth of Black educators: Support with professional development, attendance at conferences, professional degree attainment, and other opportunities for growth.
- Teaching and infusing Black instructional methodologies: incorporating culturally sustaining pedagogy and culturally responsive teaching into classroom instructional practices for all teachers.
- Making Black history and community-centered teaching part and parcel of all content areas: this content should be taught year-round.
- Shifting policies and postures: All policies, including disciplinary should shift from centering on punishment and punitive measures to focusing on restoration and rehabilitation.
All of this requires a love for humanity to be at the center of the work that educators do, regardless of their racial or ethnic origins, because love is at the root of an intention to court. If courting Black educators is the intention—and it must be—a love for Black humanity must be at the center of an ecosystem of interconnected agendas, aims, and processes to support, promote, and foster success and joy for Black people to thrive.
The alternative is what we currently have: bursting pipes.
