The departure of teachers of color
May 30, 2019
A central concern of the Twitter account was the high number of faculty of color leaving this year. In fact, three out of the eight teachers of color departing are Upper School faculty, including Dye herself.
Though the account holder pushed a theory that their departures are systemic, Dye emphasized that there are many valid reasons for a teacher to leave.
“There are moves, there are better job offers, and I can even speak for myself, because I’m one of them,” Dye said. “I had an opportunity to go move across the country and be with my daughter in a warmer climate.”
Regardless, Dye thinks that SPA must improve its environment if it wants to keep teachers of color.
“I do think that SPA has to look at the culture in terms of retaining teachers of color,” Dye said. “There are some things about the climate and culture of the school that obviously don’t make it attractive enough for them to stay over these other job opportunities or family moves.”
Roberts acknowledges that; before Dye’s efforts as Director of Intercultural Life, the school was a very “white” environment.
It was, he said, “a more limited curriculum and not necessarily hospitable to faculty of color and not open on issues of race and identity inequity,” he said. “I think that’s what’s changed over time.”
Some recent initiatives reflect that change. Courageous Conversations protocol trainings help students tackle difficult conversations and face the elephant in the room. In fact, Roberts explained that it is central to improving the school’s culture.
However, the full impact of Courageous Conversations has yet to be felt. In a Rubicon poll gauging the opinions on Courageous Conversations, only 8% of students agreed that the protocols have made it easier to enter difficult conversations, and only 22% said that the protocols made them more culturally aware. The majority of students, 54% and 56% respectively, disagreed with these two statements.
What’s the bottom line? According to Dye, “We have some work to do. No matter how good another offer is, if we’re not a school that people want to stay at, we have to look at why that is.”