Abstract:

This autoethnography interrogates the early career mentoring experiences of a Black teacher with the aim of exploring the role of cultural competence in the mentoring of Black teachers and their recruitment and retention in the UK. This empirical study was undertaken to gain insight into the UK's challenge to recruit and retain Black teachers, mirrored in several school systems across the Western world. The researcher’s teacher experiences are compared to those of similar others, analysing these against their socio-cultural backgrounds. The dynamics of same-race and cross-race mentoring relationships are explored vis-à-vis the high probability that teacher mentors in the UK will be White. The findings suggest that cultural competence in pre-service teachers, teacher mentors, school leaders and initial teacher education programmes could aid Black teacher recruitment and retention. The emerging undertones of racial inequality are foregrounded and explored along with themes of equality and equity. This research begins by querying: How can cross-cultural understanding in teacher mentoring relationships impact teacher recruitment and retention? It ends with the question: Do we really want more Black teachers in UK schools? In autoethnographic tradition, the data were drawn from the researcher’s personal memories, reflections, teacher portfolios and reflective journals and member-checked against the stories of similar others and existing research on the experiences of Black teachers. The theoretical lens of Standpoint Theory was used to foreground Black teachers’ lived experiences. Critical Race Theory was used to unpack the findings with regards to teacher recruitment and completion rates of trainee teachers of all ethnicities. Applicable mentoring policies, guidelines and legislature were employed in the document review to assure trustworthiness of the findings and quality assurance. The insights from this research may engender cross-cultural awakening in persons interested in subjective knowledge and multiculturalism in the workplace. This research is relevant to teachers at all career stages, teacher mentors, initial teacher training providers and school leaders. Recommendations for culturally competent teacher mentoring are provided to aid the recruitment and retention of Black teachers.

Keywords:

Cultural competence, recruitment and retention, Black teachers, teacher mentoring, multiculturalism.