Officials look to increase diversity of teachers

Pennsylvania. (AP) Joseph Headen, a U.S. History, sociology, AP history teacher and head football coach at Susquehanna Township High School in Dauphin County, is in his 23rd year of being an educator.

Headen, one of the few black educators in his markedly diversified district, says he got into education because he comes from a long lineage of teachers that influenced him. His grandmother, Romain Hicks was a teacher in the Harrisburg School District; his uncle was a chemistry professor at Columbia University; and his aunt is the legendary Harrisburg teacher Myrtle Hicks who, at 95, has shepherded thousands of young black students over decades.

"Some of the most influential people in my life have been educators,'' Headen said. But more than two decades into his career, Headen remains among a small minority of educators of color at his school - counted among Pennsylvania's most diversified districts. He is one of the few black teachers-- certainly black male teachers -- at Susquehanna.

Headen's experience underscores the conundrum that underpins a perennial challenge in education: With so few teachers of color in classrooms across Pennsylvania, education officials find it an insurmountable hurdle to nurture and attract young teachers of color into teaching. Education officials know that as long as classrooms across the state are overwhelmingly populated by white teachers -- the majority of them white women -- high school and college students of color are unlikely to be inspired to become a teacher.

"They just don't see themselves. They don't have anyone they can relate to,'' said Headen's daughter, Dominique Headen, a Kutztown University sophomore majoring in education. "That is part of the problem. Students don't see teachers who look like them and they have no desire to be a teacher. They can't connect with teachers or being a teacher. They have no black teachers so what would make them want to be a teacher?''

Dominique Headen said her father and extended family influenced her choice of undergraduate studies. "I always loved teaching,'' she said. "I would go to Dad's class and write on the board and pretend I was teaching.''

Therein lies the conundrum: Given the fact that currently 96 percent of teachers in the state are white, students of color are denied the opportunity to be mentored or influenced by teachers of color, who could serve as lightning rods for them to consider a career in education.