What is it about?
This study explores if teachers are more satisfied if they share the same race as their principal. We find that although in the past teachers who share the same race as their principal did report being more satisfied with their job, this relationship decreases over time. We find that the effects are explained by the lower satisfaction of white teachers who have black principals, and this relationship is especially clear for schools in the south.
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Why is it important?
Teacher turnover is an endemic issues in schools and satisfaction is a key component of why teachers decide to stay or leave their school. By exploring a determinant of teacher satisfaction (teacher and principal race) we are pointing out that there are some potentially discriminatory ways that white teachers are reacting to their black principals at the same time finding that minority teachers do not exhibit strong preferences as seen through their satisfaction for a principal based on the principal's race.
Perspectives
Efforts to increasingly diversify the teaching workforce and the administrative workforce in schools could lead to an unintended consequence of reducing satisfaction of white teachers without careful consideration of how to better prepare white teachers to work with administrators of color more effectively.
Dr Samantha Viano
Vanderbilt University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Teacher-principal race and teacher satisfaction over time, region, Journal of Educational Administration, September 2017, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/jea-10-2016-0122.
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