Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Dissertation

Keywords

Minority teachers--Recruiting--Iowa;

Abstract

Although student diversity in public schools has increased at a rapid pace, teacher diversity has not matched the student pace. Schools in the United States have had a difficult time identifying strategies for the effective recruitment and hire of teachers from ethnically underrepresented backgrounds. The shortage has left many questioning the merit of their efforts.

The purpose of this study was to identify the steps taken by Iowa's urban school districts to recruit and hire teachers from ethnically underrepresented backgrounds. Four research questions were examined using a qualitative research methodology. Using inquiry techniques, school district personnel participated in individual interviews and provided supporting documents to provide a better understanding of the policies and practices of their school districts to recruit and hire teachers from ethnically underrepresented backgrounds. The selected districts were members of the Urban Education Network of Iowa in the 2004-2005 school year.

Overall, the findings in this study of the selected Iowa urban districts were consistent with the research regarding the recruitment and hire of teachers from ethnically underrepresented backgrounds. The following conclusions were drawn based on the results of this study: (a) all the districts appeared to put a lot of value on the importance of teacher diversity; (b) most of the strategies utilized by the selected districts tended to hit and attract the same populations that they have always attracted thus yielding minimal diversity; (c) there was a consistent failure among the studied districts to formalize, implement, and enforce a plan for recruiting and hiring of teachers from underrepresented backgrounds; (d) the barriers identified for the most part seemed to be man made, system driven, or deeply connected to the manner in which institutions do business; (e) many of those recurrent and common barriers could be addressed through the collaborative efforts of school districts, universities and colleges, and community organizations to address the educational needs of the 21 st Century.

Year of Submission

2007

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Department of Educational Leadership, Counseling, and Postsecondary Education

First Advisor

Victoria L. Robinson, Committee Chair

Date Original

7-2007

Object Description

1 PDF file (ix, 232 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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