Teacher diversity campaigns alone will not increase the net number of teachers of color. Educational policy makers and practitioners also need to address the disproportionately high rate at which teachers of color turnover. Unfortunately, we know little about the mechanisms that influence turnover for teachers of color, particularly for Black male teachers. This talk will examine the school organizational conditions that shaped Black male teachers’ workplace experiences in one urban school district and the organizational dynamics that affected these teachers' decisions to stay or leave their schools. Implications for local and state policy efforts focused on recruiting, supporting, and retaining teachers of color will also be discussed.
Travis J. Bristol is an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. His scholarship is situated at the intersection of educational policy and teacher education. Dr. Bristol explores three related research strands: (1) the role of educational policies in shaping the workplace experiences and retention of teachers of color; (2) district and school-based professional learning communities for educators of color; (3) the role of race and gender in educational settings. His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals as the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of Teacher Education, Urban Education, Teachers College Record, and the Harvard Educational Review. His national awards include both dissertation and postdoctoral fellowships from the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation (2013 and 2020) and the National Academies of Science/Ford Foundation (2013 and 2019); the inaugural teacher diversity research award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (2016); and early career awards from the American Educational Research Association Division-K (2021) and the Comparative and International Education Society, African Diaspora SIG (2019). Dr. Bristol received his A.B. from Amherst College; an M.A. from Stanford University; and a Ph.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University.