18% and Counting

Millennial Teachers of Color by Mary E. Dilworth, editor
Harvard Education Press, April 1, 2018

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Millennials are unique: they are the largest living generation, the best educated generation, the most culturally and racially diverse generation, and they are drawn to teaching to improve equity and social justice. Of the 75.3 million millennials in the United States, approximately 20% of them are entering the teaching profession, yet teachers of color represent only 18% of the workforce. Millennial Teachers of Color, edited by Mary E. Dilworth, is a collection of the latest academic research illuminating the experiences and trends of millennial teachers of color, from longitudinal research on teachers’ experiences, to examination of a pedagogy of teacher activism as it relates to teacher development. While researchers here are concerned with recruitment and retention of teachers of color in the public system, the findings are important for independent school leaders, too. Whether it is an interest in closing the "gap between ‘wokeness’ and their institutional practices" or attending to the next generation of teachers, this research is valuable. Insight into the physical and professional isolation that teachers of color experience in white normative education spaces offers lessons in building institutional equity, changing policy, and designing professional development.