new PoP

The podcast discusses the importance and impact of teachers of color in U.S. schools. The hosts share their personal experiences and highlight the challenges faced by teachers of color. They also talk about the significance of representation and feeling welcomed in the classroom. The hosts emphasize the need for personal connections and relationships between teachers and students. They stress the importance of making every child feel valued and supported in their educational journey. Hi, this is Kennedy. This is Abby. Welcome to our podcast. We'll be talking about the importance and impact teachers of color have on students and other people. So we're going to explore the challenges that teachers of color face in U.S. schools. We're going to talk about some statistics and the findings of our studies. So, starting off... Did you say something? Oh, sorry, guys. So, as I said, this is Trinity. I'm from a predominantly white town in southern Connecticut. And this is Abby. Okay, sorry. No, that's okay, that's okay. We bounced off each other. We're cool. Right. I'm Abby. Yeah, so she's from the south of Connecticut. I'm from the north or like central region. I live in a predominantly black town and have been in those spaces my entire life. Yeah, and we both have in common that we have had majority white teachers, regardless of our gender. Yeah, I think I've had a good mix throughout the years of teachers of color, but like a handful. And never all at once. Like there was gaps. So, would you say you had more in elementary, middle, A? I'd say middle to high school, even though... Yeah, probably middle to high school. I had two in elementary school. Oh, wow. Yeah. Kindergarten? No, not kindergarten. Yeah. One more than me. One in third grade. And then one in middle school. And then four maybe in high school. I think in middle school I probably had two to three. I think three. And then in high school... I don't know. I'm kind of missing teacher because I went to the same school, so I had her eighth grade and then tenth grade. So, probably like three in high school as well. But big gaps. Big gaps. But never has there been like consistent like sixth, seventh grade. I've always had teachers of color. It's never been like that for me. How do you feel in the classroom? I think that the school climate of all the schools I went to since in elementary school was predominantly black, middle school, and high school. I think that the school climate did a good job or like the sixth grade did a good job of representing its students and talking about and celebrating different cultures and different races. And, honestly, I always felt very welcomed. I felt very in control of my education. And there have been a few times where I didn't feel as supported by teachers, but overall I think I had a positive experience. How about you? I feel like, as I said, I grew up in a predominantly white area, so I never always felt the most comfortable. I probably had to make myself feel like I was more comfortable than I actually was. Because even sure, like if I was one of the few black people, there would be more of a presence of Hispanic people than really any other race. So, I just kind of took what I could in terms of the racial diversity. But the town did do some efforts to try to make the environment more racially equitable. Like we had a, I forget what it was called, but it was like a parade in my elementary school where kids from different countries could basically like walk around the school, like the outside of the school holding a flag. I can probably find a picture of that somewhere in my mom's Facebook. That's so cute. And then I think we had like a night where it was like you could bring food from your country. And even with those types of events, it would still be like the U.S. always had the most traction with those things. But, you know, you did what you could, you know. I think, well now that you mention that, I was like that completely like erased from my mind. Like those like cultural fairs or like nights where you come with your parents and you do stuff. In middle school, we had more of those. I think there was one in high school. I think they did it every year when my sister was in high school. But when I was in high school, we did it like twice. But then obviously we didn't spend enough time there. And so we would have like cultural nights where you'd come, you'd set up a booth, you'd have food. Or you'd have like a trifle poster where you'd like basically share whatever you wanted to. And I'd always have my mom make something too. She'd always make like ackee and saltfish. Or we'd bring bun and cheese. And I'm just like, I'm so excited. Like that was just the best thing, getting to share things with other people. Yeah. That's really cool. We also did similar things where I'd be like, I would feel so excited to bring food. But then at the same time like nervous. Because I'm like, how are people going to react to this? Like it's spinach. Nobody wants to eat spinach, but I promise you it's good. But then it does kind of just bring back to the fact that not a lot of kids in general feel represented within their communities. Either in school or just the areas that they live. Like of the 22 people that we interviewed, 36% felt like they didn't feel represented. Whether it's from their teachers, whether it's from their peers. Just that sense of feeling like they don't belong or they're just an outsider. And that's probably a little, maybe lower than I expected. Honestly, it kind of, it is lower than I expected. But I was a little shocked to like just see the number of people that were like, didn't feel welcomed. Because like it's disheartening. And obviously I had a different experience, which I'm very grateful for. But like to see or to hear everyone's experiences of like how they didn't feel represented or they didn't feel welcomed. It goes to show about like what can I do as a teacher to make these changes in my like practice. Yeah. And I feel like I, as a, as you cannot see, but we're two, we're both two black women. My parents immigrated from Kenya and Abby's parents immigrated from Jamaica. Yes, they did. But, oh wait, I lost it. Oh, thanks. Our identity. Oh, right. Yeah, so as two teachers of color, going into the education field, I already, like while in my student teaching and while I'm looking ahead as to figuring out what kind of teacher I want to be, I know that I'm going to, I'm going to and I will heavily prioritize making those personal connections with students. Relationships are key. Exactly. And it can make or break, you know, a child's educational experience. Like we've had conversations with a bunch of friends, even outside of the people that we spoke with for this podcast, that a lot of people have that one teacher or two teachers that they always remember that had a positive influence on their lives, whether it's a teacher of color or not. And usually they help make the, change their lives for the better. Mine was probably in high school. It was a program that was, at least I think it was just in my hometown, but I'm pretty sure it was like a national thing. AVID, it stands for Advanced Via Individual Determination. And it's basically like a college readiness program where we learned about loans. They helped us with our academics, helped us organize ourselves, and then also just got us in touch with different resources that we may need for college and even scholarships. So that being said, my AVID teacher, who was our same teacher for all four years of high school, she, what is she? She was, she wasn't even born in the U.S. She was from Cuba, I believe. And I think her also being an immigrant spoke to a lot of people within our class, because a lot of us were either first-gen or first-gen students or just first-gen Americans. So that, having that relationship really did make an impact on all of us in the class. Because she could relate to what you're going through personally. I like that. I think going off of the topic of, like, teacher relationships, when you were talking about that, I was thinking about a podcast. Not a podcast, sorry. A TED Talk that I heard in, I believe, our multicultural class, junior year. Or kind of in a different class, because, you know, teachers love TED Talks. But it was a TED Talk by, let me see, Rita Pearson. And it's called Every Kid Needs a Champion. And something, right? That just sounds really powerful. But something that she said that really stuck out to me was that even if you don't have the best relationship with your kids, one thing you can't do is let them know that you don't have a good connection with them. As soon as a kid thinks, this person doesn't like me, they're not going to want to learn. They're going to shut down. They're going to stop communicating. They're not going to want to do their work. They're not going to listen to you. Because they don't feel valued. So I think that, you know, there's always that one kid. And I'm not even saying this to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, no. Like, I don't want to, like, what I'm about to say give anyone the ick. But it's like, there's always that one kid that maybe you don't vibe with. Or it's harder to connect with. I'm still going to smile in their face. Because at the end of the day, they are a child. And you can't, like, you can't be mean and you can't be rude. And there's always going to be, like, a need for relationships. And so, like, I had, like, there was a kid in my student teaching last year. She was a lot. But, like, I loved her. Like, sometimes at the end of the day, I was like, girl, leave me alone. But, like, you still have to put on that face. That face. Like, not even if it's, like, a fake face. But, like, you've got to be present. Yes. Give them grace. Because she was 10. Exactly. Like, she's still developing herself. You know, so, like, don't let the little things distract you from the bigger picture. Like, don't let a kid, like, do not be mean to a kid. I hate that. It feels like bullying. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like you're an adult and you're picking on a child. You're picking on a child. When some teachers talk about, like, don't get stuck in, like, the teacher's lounge drama where, like, teachers talking about kids or talking down about some kids or, like, calling their names or, like, basically just, like, complaining or venting about them, don't fall into that trap because that will, one, make you not feel good at the end of the day and then, two, give you this, like, unintended, like, view. Yeah. Blind view. Yeah. Like, it'll sully everything you have going on about them and give you, like, unintentional biases towards a child, which is not okay. Mm-hmm. But, yeah. Always give her reasons. You'll find something because at the end of the day, I don't know if all the kids ever talk. Mm-hmm. Even the ones that make you want to... Yeah. And I think that goes along with, like, another thing. We, aside from the either college students or post-grad students that we interviewed with, we also were lucky enough to speak with Dr. Tanya Claiborne, who... Beautiful. She was amazing. She's just a wealth of knowledge. She is a director of diversity, equity, and inclusion and leads the work in making sure spaces are provided where people feel empowered and included, regardless of their background or culture. So, this includes either teachers, students, other staff in the building, and she also especially works with recruiting and retaining a diversity of teachers within the schools of her district. So, one thing she said when we spoke with her was that we should never let anyone give you light, and that you're an image made of beauty, and the kids need to know that too. So, just as we're saying, those children, you know, they know how to sometimes push those buttons, but... Well, I tell them, yes, give them grace and be yourself and come back every day giving them 100%. And it also never hurts to be honest with them. Yeah. Like, just having that sit-down moment where it's just like, hey, like, I know sometimes this, this, this, like... It builds character. Exactly. And also just trying to figure out what's going on behind that too. Yeah. Like, behavior is a form of communication, but we have to try to take that time to figure out what are they trying to communicate. Because, again, they're maybe 10 years old, probably less than. So, they're not always going to know the most appropriate way to communicate how they're feeling. They're just going to do it how they think in probably the most impulsive way. I was going to say, when we spoke with her, well, not even when we had our first meeting with her, but when she came to visit for class from our panel of administrators, she said something about her being proud of the amount of diversity that she has or that her district has and that she's able to bring in and, like, the amount of people that when she goes into an office, like, I guess it still leads to our point about representation in all spaces and just being, you know, sometimes you have to be the first person to be in a space to make change. And the fact that she's, like, so proud of, like, what she's doing now and, like, the strides she's making, I think that's wonderful. I'll be proud of that too. She's a girlboss. I guess she is. Like, she's never been a girlboss too close to the front. This is literally going to turn into, like, a, oh my gosh, we love that. But, no, exactly. Like, I cannot imagine what that would have done for me as a kid. Like, to see different, like, a diversity of teachers and staff in a school because I didn't have many. And what sucks is that my very first teacher of color was not a great experience for me or my parents. So then if that really affected me at that age, I mean, I was still great. So I really didn't know much. If anything, I think I did feel that, like, sense of, oh, the teacher doesn't like me. But I don't know what was going through my brain. Clearly, I guess it didn't hit me. But it hit my parents more. It hit my parents more because they're like, wow, like, we expected so much better for her. Like, for me. From that experience. Exactly. You can even speak on, like, your youngest brother. Oh, you're right. Him. I'm the oldest girl of two brothers. And I am in, how old am I? I'm 22. The other one is 20. And then my youngest brother is 11. So he's currently in sixth grade. And I have not asked him yet while he's studying his sixth grade because it's like pulling teeth to get information out of him. But at least during his entire K through 5 experience, he has not had a teacher of color at all. And during this past May into June, I was substituting in his school, and I realized that there weren't really any teachers of color in the building. I mean, like, not even just teachers, like, classroom teachers, but also, like, paras. So most of what I saw when I was in West Hartford, people of color were paras. Yeah, not even that. None. None. Like, I would be walking around that building because I would be in different classes, you know, helping with, like, anything that they gave me. And I never realized it, but I didn't see any. I was the one. See, and sometimes you've got to do that. That's what she's talking about, sometimes. You might not feel comfortable joining a space where you don't feel the most represented, but it's about change-making because, like, you want to be that representation for that one kid that doesn't see themselves. Exactly. I guess we can talk about some statistics as well. So, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, as of 2021, only 17% of public elementary and secondary school teachers are teachers of color, with that being... Let me see the breakdown. Less than 0% American Indian or Alaska Native, 2% Asian, 6% Black, 9% Hispanic, 0% or less than 0% Pacific Islander, and 80% White. And even when you're looking at the breakdown for even the student makeup in comparison to the teachers of color makeup... It's very disproportionate. It is, and it's, like, sad. Like, all the other groups, there's always more of a percentage of... I mean, of course, there's always going to be a lot more students than there is of teachers, but the fact that if, like, if there's a 5% of Asian students but 2% of Asian teachers... And we have to say that those students and those teachers caught fast. Right, that's true. It's less likely looking at that. And then compared to the national standards... Sorry, the national statistics, Connecticut statistics only said 11.7% of teachers in public schools are teachers of color as of 2024. So, repeat that for me again. Sorry. As of 2024, there are 11.7% teachers of color in the state of Connecticut, which is an increase from 8.1% in 2014. So, across the year, there's been a 3.6% increase in teachers of color. Wow. Which I think that... And we just... As we got older, we started to see more teachers. So, I think that that long trend was what I experienced or what you experienced as well. Oh, wow. I didn't very well. Yeah. What, it went from 8% to 11%? Yeah. I mean, sometimes you just got to... Take your win. Take your win. But, I mean, you know, it's better than it going down. Yeah. I mean, I can't even look up the data for further than that, but I think I wanted to focus on the 10-year mark just to see because that's the majority of times we were in secondary school. But, yeah, it's very low. It's very low. It's very low. Like, even thinking about, like, how in middle school, I had a French teacher, and he was from Lithuania. If you're listening, which you probably won't be listening. He was such an amazing teacher. And then, he went to go teach in another school. He got a new French teacher, and she was a white woman. Which is, like, nothing against her. Well, against her. She wasn't my favorite teacher. I had a lot of issues with her. She's one of the teachers that I felt like I didn't have the best experiences with. But, she was a good French teacher. It was just a culture shift. You know, getting, like, instruction directly from someone who French is their first language versus someone who is just a learned French teacher. Yeah. Yeah. Even those, like, shifts, you see an increase and a decrease and an increase again. But, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When I switched schools from gen to BHS, then my French teacher at BHS, she was a black woman. Then she retired. So, yeah. I think most of my teachers of color were language teachers, or, which was either middle school or high school. Well, one middle school, and then, like, what? Two in high school. And then, I had two black male teachers in high school. So, yeah. Most of my teachers of color were in secondary. Yeah. And I really, I couldn't really tell you, I mean, sure, maybe because of the town. But, I can say that my hometown is quite racially segregated. Like, there's a side of the town that's, like, the rich side. And the side of the town that's not rich. And then there's the middle ground of the town. But, you know, there's still attempts at it being more equitable with affordable housing in each aspect of the town, as well as magnet schools. Yeah. But, you know. I think in my town, talking about, like, racial or wealth disparities, I feel like that would be more evident if it was a little bit bigger and there were multiple schools to go to. Oh, yeah. Because there's only, there's a K through 2 school, there's a 3 to 5 school, and then there's middle school and high school. But then there's magnet schools and stuff. So, it's like, you notice the people that left to go to private school or go to magnet school or credit school, you notice, like, oh, they're not staying in both of those school systems. I mean, I went to a magnet school, but it was still a part of, it was still a public school. Yeah. Yeah. I went to, when I moved to Connecticut, I was starting fourth grade here. And I was in a magnet school, fourth and fifth grade. Then middle school, it was, like, the middle of the town. But also, there's 12 elementary schools where I'm from. Yeah. And then, 12 elementary, three middle, and one main high school. Now, there's different K to 12 private schools. I want to see maybe four or five, I think. I don't know. But there were, yeah, most people go to the public schools and the private schools. Yeah. My little cousin, she went to a magnet school pre-K to kindergarten. And then she went to public school from kindergarten to sixth grade, she's in seventh grade now. And now she goes to a private school in West Hartford. It's a Catholic school. RIP to her. I mean, I used to go to a private Christian school. I think she's kind of feeling the same thing you're feeling a little bit. Or that you did feel a little bit of the culture shock of not being, or being the only black person in the state. That's what she's going through right now. I felt such a culture shock coming to, like, moving to Connecticut. Like, because I went to a private Christian school where there was only one class per grade. And there was probably maybe ten kids in one class. So, very small grades. And, of course, I was always the only black girl, except for second grade. But K, third, and third, only black person, and only person of color in the class. Now I come to Connecticut, there's three classes for one grade. I'm like, whoa. And then it's not only me, but there's two other black girls. That's one of them I'm friends with. But, heavy on that. Not all skinfolks are kinfolks. That's okay. But, and again, that goes with, you know, students of color, and it also goes with other teachers of color. Like, just because there's three black kids doesn't mean all three black kids are going to be friends. Yeah, exactly. Like, you know. Just because you encountered. Exactly. Like I said, but that just happened to happen, now it happens. It just seems. Even then. Even then. But, all right. And that's a wrap for today. Thank you guys for listening. Shereen, do you have any closing remarks that you want to give? I think, if I were to end with my last two cents, it would be consistency is the most important. Like, with making those connections with kids, making connections with other staff in the building, just being consistent with the same behaviors. That way, like, you know, you can't break, like a bond. Yeah, yeah. Like, the people you have relationships with will always know what to expect of you. Your morals. Yes. Your beliefs. Like, just remain consistent. Okay. I love that. And you? I'd say, just keeping back to you, don't be afraid to put yourself out there and be the change. Like, if you don't see something you don't like in this place you're in, be that change maker. Be that teacher. Stand up for yourself and what you believe in and don't be afraid to, you know, shake things up because that's what leads to positive change. Because if you don't do it, who will? Who will? And when? If I don't do it, then it won't get done. It won't get done. But, yeah. But, yeah, thanks again for listening. Bye, guys. Bye.