Despite being small scale, these were billed as sustainable affrmative action pathways to eventual 'transformation' (Badat, 2008). One participant articulated how this rhetoric created the "disproportionate… phenomenon [where the] 'frst black' or 'only black' is often treated as a major achievement" (#4). Two decades after democracy, the slow rate of change to the composition of the professoriate was described at national level as "the most glaring collective failure of the sector" (Transformation Strategy Group and Transformation Management Group, 2015, p. 11), because whites made up more than half (53.2%) of the academic staff against a national demographic of majority (79.2%) Black South Africans (Department of Higher Education and Training, 2015). Due to the persistent "poor picture" (Govinder et al., 2013, p. 5) produced from "institutional resistance to transformation" of HWIs (Booi, 2016: 78), one participant asserted that while "transformation is not just a numbers game, numbers are necessary" (#3).

In the questionnaire responses, a large majority of participants wrote about how the HWI intentionally mis-represented its stasis by parading these few selected Black staff as "window dressing" (#14) and "tokens" (#25) to "make the department look good" (#25) and "get the numbers looking good rather than changing the way in which power operates at the university" (#14). All participants indicated discomfort at being positioned as *representatives* of diversity and/or of transformation at the institution.

*I merely had to be hired into a previously untransformed space, for the space to be considered transformative, and that was all the transformation they were willing to undergo (#19).*

Within the small group discussions, participants spoke at length about their internal confict from having benefted materially from such positioning while not having "signed-up" to the interests and ends it served, and being without suffcient power and networks to solidarity to resist such collusion.

Discourses of structural access were seen as mis-educational about equality. They reaffrmed perceived tensions between equity and quality, particularly because the criteria for access "implicitly assumes and implies that those staff members (mostly white) who don't go through the programme are ready to teach in a rapidly transforming high education landscape" (#12). Participants described how this created conditions where negative associations of affrmative action were projected on participants, particularly those located on the basis of their race. Membership of the Programmes became "tantamount to 'labeling' which unintentionally creates a situation of having 'others' in the system" (#12). Emphasizing gains in numeric access retained the historic legacy of the thinking and practices of the majority, whom then continued to reproduce the whiteness hegemony characteristic of their own schooling (Belluigi, 2012; Paasche, 2006).

Globally, 'superfcial inclusion' and 'visual diversity' is recognized as problematic for social justice (McDowell & Hernández, 2010). Yet few studies have recognised how affrmative action policies position and confate heterogeneous individuals through their skills level and social locations (Fryer & Loury, 2010). Participants of this study were particularly concerned that the State's focus on staff composition (Republic of South Africa, 1998; HESA, 2011) was insuffcient to address the relationships between race and class, echoing calls for racial and social quotas in other contexts in the Global South (Osorio, 2009) with fraught relationships between inequality and HE economics. The data for this study was generated against the backdrop of ongoing campus unrest due to the unresolved issue of tuition fees and educational 'access for all', with tension between the African National Congress government and the younger generation (Maserumule, 2016). Many of the participants of this study argued that intersectional lenses are required to not limit structural access, and in turn identity, to the parameters established by the apartheid and colonial gaze. As is discussed in the section titled 'chipping away', some explicitly saw decoloniality as a "confrontation with the racial, gender, and sexual hierarchies that were put in place or strengthened by European modernity as it colonized and enslaved populations through the planet" (Maldonado-Torres, 2007, p. 261).

#### *'Training the Dog': Participants' Reception of 'Access for Success'*

Recognizing that superfcial notions of access would maintain disadvantage, South Africa's Council for Higher Education early on positioned 'equal opportunity' against the historical legacy of inequality (Sikhosana, 1993). Following students' structural access, high attrition rates confrmed the legacy of Bantu education in poor secondary schooling. Emphasis on equity was initially placed on additional support structures, leading to a proliferation of writing centres for those students identifed as 'at risk'. Working directly with students within initiatives which soon became critiqued as functioning ghettos, 'educational developers' were positioned as marginal to the academic structures they were tasked to decode for their charges, with vulnerable employment arrangements reinforcing their reduced agency (Boughey, 2007). In countries where such individuals are in the minority, non-social

marginal models may be possible. They proved largely impractical and unsustainable in South Africa, as the majority of entrants fell within the umbrella category of 'underprepared', diagnosed into subcategories of perceived defciency ('frst generation' status, 'previously disadvantaged'), and positioned within zero-sum dichotomies (related to secondary schooling, language, literacy, rural/urban et cetera). More systemic approaches sought to infuse epistemological access (Morrow, 2009) within the curricula, theorizing equity as membership of academic discourses rather than generic academic literacy. And so 'academic development' evolved as its reach enlarged to workshops, formalised courses and centers for the development of teachers and the curricula. At the HWI of this study, educational developers utilized 'diversity' discourses to wrestle 'access for success' away from the autonomous defcit positioning of Black students, with 'inclusion' discourses valorizing the ways in which the more subtler aspects of learning cultures and inclusive dynamics might increase belonging (Hurtado et al., 2015). It took considerably longer to broaden such positively-framed 'belonging' discourses to the meso-currriculum of institutional culture and staff relations, perhaps because success-driven approaches rarely acknowledge the politics of belonging. However, beyond this national context, such discourses have been critiqued when it comes to student participation, from entry (Maunder et al., 2013) through to postgraduate study (Holley, 2013). Problematics emerge, such as confating talent with advantage, myths of the autonomous self, and constructing the ideal knower in the image of curriculum authors. These should have acted as a warning for how academics might be similarly mis-constructed.

Approaches of 'access for success' for student educational development, were translated to the curricula of the Programmes to which the participants of this study were recipients. As staff similarly located within 'previously disadvantaged' communities, the Programmes pre-emptively satisfed the oft held critiques of affrmative action (Kravitz et al., 1997) as equality at the cost of quality. Quality assurance and professional advancement dovetailed with the national drive. Through various stop-starts, the approaches utilized for minority academics 'of color' within US HEIs were implemented, despite the contextual inversion of racial representation nor the scholarly critique that such professional socialization models emphasize "worker adaptation to the work environment [where] reproduction of organizational norms engenders the most rewards" (Sulé, 2014, pp. 432–433). As we unpack in this section, this critique was echoed within the responses of the participants of this study, who felt that in-group membership characteristics had not been disrupted from the predominant norms of the past. Those who exhibited a stronger sense of belonging had similar familial and school socialization to their white colleagues, while recipients' rejection or resistance to belonging was primarily infuenced by experiences of alienation, exclusion and self-identifcation. White domination at the HWI was re-enforced from random acts to more enduring patterns, with microaggressions ranging from exclusion from departmental social media and events through to persistent administrative blunders. These created unwanted oscillations in participants' emotions between righteous anger through to self-doubt about rejection-sensitivity. Substantive access as "active inclusion" was "safeguarded" for

white staff (#11). Similar persistent patterns of tacit intentionality in the UK (Gillborn, 2005) and the US (Leonardo, 2004) were discussed at length at the small group discussion.

To be expected of individuals coming from a range of disciplines, backgrounds and positions along the academic hierarchy, participants varied in their opinions about *how* institutional culture(s) might be addressed. A minority felt it was not the institution's remit to "create the necessary space for transformation" because "the institution cannot change if the individuals within it are unable to do so" (#17). A similar situationist position was taken by the leading practitioner Badat (2009, p. 456) when he argued that "different social agents and actors acting in cooperation and/or confict within HE and its institutions" impact on "the pace, nature and outcomes of institutional change". Such arguments fail to recognize that a central element of the Programmes' curriculum was its assessment literacy, which coerced these academics into conforming to the requirements for success. None of the mainstream academics were subjected to such evaluation nor mentorship regimes, with their academic autonomy protected by the 'collegial rationality' evaluation approach practiced in many of the country's HWIs (Luckett, 2006).

Assessment began with a strongly scrutinizing and competitive selective process, which marketed itself as ensuring only the "brightest" and most "talented" of the applicants were permitted access. Similar to what has been described as the myth of 'the supernegro' in a US study (Baldridge, 2016), hero narratives of individualist exceptionalism emerged in metaphors of being the 'poster child' (#12), where "being exceptional works to justify and historicize the ongoing racialized societal structure of land theft, human subjugation, and wealth accumulation" (Patel, 2016: 398). The defcit positioning of the communities to which the recipients were located, locked them into subservience where "I ought to be grateful for even getting my foot in the door" (#19). This liberalist ethos constructs equity as extending opportunities available to the privileged 'us' to pathologized 'others' (Burman, 2003), which one participant explained "required me to consider myself as otherwise underqualifed and undeserving of the space I now occupied" (#19).

#### *Such characterization is insulting, demeaning and in some cases dehumanizing… How do you challenge those in power and certain ways of thinking about the meaning of transformation if you are coming from a position of inferiority? (#12).*

The assessment regime continued once recipients gained access. Senior academics were empowered with formative and policing functions: to *support* access by "decoding the unsaid requirements of assimilation" (#19) within the ontological dimensions of the institutional habitus; and to *enforce* submission to such performance management parameters through their evaluations. Modelled on hierarchical master-apprentice, dominant-subordinate power dynamics (Booi, 2016), one participant described how the problematic nature of the relationship "crudely reproduced institutional hierarchies, i.e. young Black female scholars on the programme mentored by senior white males" (#16). Peer assessment was characterized on a continuum, from having "a slight undertone" (#19) of bias, to "actively silencing" the recipients through "threats of disciplinary action and/or discrimination" (#14). While the criteria for assessment by their mentors were transparent, participants questioned the authority of

*whose standards? In my opinion the access for success perspective suggests that those 'previously disadvantaged' entering the system, whether staff or students, are urged to "become" (and not be) more competent (#8).*

Familiarity with, and performance of, institutional habitus was a requirement for both in-group membership, and for being seen to have the capacity to attain the levels of quality required. Ensuring the continuation of an "otherwise perfect system", the top-down focus on fxing the defcit 'mentees' from their initial status as an "unknowledgeable 'developmental candidate'" (#16) was not experienced as empowering: "It implies that a person is defcient and needs to be trained (as in training a dog)" (#12). Excessive evaluation led some to "regret signing up for the programme, believing that if I had applied for the job simply on the basis of my academic results I would have felt a stronger sense of self belief, and ownership over the process of my growth within the academy" (#16).

Underpinning the access for success approach is assimilation at the level of group membership. Emphasizing 'sameness' to reduce tension and promote harmony (Gaertner & Dovido, 2012) is a reconciliatory position that has been adopted for stability in other post-confict contexts (Ferguson & McKeown, 2016). Inclusion discourses of benevolent "helping relationships" (Burman, 2003: 294) often leave unacknowledged their inherent power dynamics and social account where identity pathologies difference. Participants of this study were at pains to state that these dynamics should be acknowledged.

*[Such] conditions left me feeling as a newcomer that my voice could not penetrate a culture so 'sutured' and unchallenged by those acting as my mentors. With or without the [Programme], I know that many young black staff feel that, when transformation is pursued, the integration of black staff is problematized as opposed to the environments that they are entering into (#16).*

Similar approaches to inclusion in other contexts have been found to reinforce the status quo of the dominant group, reducing recognition of unfair group-based disparities (Banfeld & Dovidio, 2013).  Identity politics perform in the interests of the group to which the individual deemed 'diverse' must assimilate to replicate group norms (Ryan et al., 2007; Verkuyten, 2006). 'Diversity' and 'inclusion' in assimilationist models of access have been found in the US to reap more benefts to those within the establishment than the intended recipients (Peralta, 2015). Participants highlighted the inappropriateness of assimilationist models in an HWI shaped by settler colonialism and apartheid, particularly as "assimilation allows existing oppressive ideologies to continue. X [HWI] opts for assimilation strategies rather than allowing students and staff to become active participants in transforming this space" (#14). The Transformation Strategy and Management Group (2015, p. 17) which oversees change in HE in the country, have argued it is imperative to unearth the hidden curriculum of "who controls the material, academic, organizational and social instruments to reproduce the faculty and the university?" Participants felt that the institution's embrace of 'access for success' allowed for untroubling the dynamics of meritocracy, which both reduced recipients' power to act as agents of transformation and relinquished the institution of its responsibilities for change.

*In as much as I have not internalized my role as a black academic, the institution has perhaps not internalized its role as an institution/system in a specifc context. (#8).*

In this section, we discussed how our participants exposed the validity of this construction of access as impoverished, because 'success' is predicated on privileging the very racist, gendered and classist systems which have subjugated the majority of the population of the country.

#### *'Chipping Away at the Rock Face': Participants' Reception of the Conditions for 'Access to Challenge'*

Following on from almost three decades of the access and success approach for a minority of the majority of the country, a growing intellectual mass in the country has been asking: what is the point of access to HE, if not for substantive transformation? Many argue access should be emancipatory: to dismantle the cultures and structures of apartheid, legacies of colonialism and cold war confict, challenge the continued epistemic violence of the Eurocentric university, and to resist neoliberal interests of 'third world' labor and human capital for the global market place.

Frustrated with the limitations of 'opportunities' provided from structural access, and the pathological orientation of access for success, academic and student activists in South Africa have taken on the mantel of calling for 'decolonizing the curriculum' since 2015, a discourse which has rippled globally. Because of the country's educational development's focus on teaching-and-learning, as discussed in the previous sections, this call has often been translated as about pedagogical or disciplinary review. Discussions on access often focus at the micro-level: on the politics of representation (Okundaye, 2017), epistemologies of inclusion (Sulé, 2014), and of participation (Hall & Smyth, 2016). As indicated by critiques of the individualist approaches for success, discussed in the section above, participants recognized micro-level concepts of equity as distributive justice were limited and limiting.

With rare exception, HEIs seem to avoid direct confrontation or acknowledgment of their own complicity at the macro- or meso-level. In this study, a participant expressed this as "the elephant in our room is X [the color of the HWI's brand identity]" (#25). Participants characterized the institutional culture as strongly replicating the macro-aggressions of its inherited, exclusionary, homogeneous past. The concept of the macro-curriculum enables unearthing the ideologies of white race-privilege in academia (Solomona et al., 2005) and its relation to machinations of domination and macro-aggressions, from which micro-aggressions emerge (Huber & Solorzano, 2015). Macro-level considerations discern access in relation to sociological theories of power, confict and collective action, to foreground justice in the analysis of social change. As a principle, distributive justice has informed leadership and development of HE in the Global South (McDowell & Hernández, 2010). Albeit that academic developers are often positioned as marginal, mediating and vulnerable; key players within that applied feld in South Africa are informed by more critical leanings than their mainstream academic colleagues (Belluigi, 2012), encouraging pedagogies which question their complicity in reproducing privilege and marginality (Bozalek, 2011). Moreover, many within the higher education landscape share the belief, along with critical confict theorists and critical race theorists, that the very frmament of formal education is problematic.

A number of participants raised concerns about "superfcial, and dangerous assumptions" (#17) that their structural access would contribute to the national drive of "intellectual and academic decolonization, de-racialization and degendering of the inherited intellectual spaces of South Africa's universities" (Higher Education of South Africa, 2011, p. 11). Visual diversity often does not equate to rupture, particularly if mental colonialisation is reinforced by assimilationist conditions which militate against recipients' agency, where

*those who have been 'oppressed' maintain the status quo, as their immersion in the ways of the other, propels the continuation of an oppressive history and way of thinking (#17).*

Spivak (2008) positions the university's 'making' of an academic as constraining the extent to which the agent is able to reject the way they are produced. Structurally reproductive agency entails choices that either reinforce the status quo or replicate prevailing social patterns, thereby diminishing transformative agency to purposefully alter social patterns (Sulé, 2014, p. 437). Participants cited aversion to the "professional risk" (#25) which the assessment literacy of the 'access for success' approach engendered, forcing them to act in their own self-interests to

#### *ensure that our careers and reputations are not compromised… When challenges were made [it opened] a can of worms. I was not safe to talk to, I was shunned… I am told to be careful of career suicide and boundaries (#25)*.

The conditions for risk-aversion and enculturation of the institution's mesocurriculum of access for success led many participants to choose not to align themselves with the more radical notions of 'access to challenge'. Common-group identity, prevalent to belonging discourses, has been found to dull motivation for challenging injustices and for exposing what underlies intergroup confict (Banfeld & Dovidio, 2013). Such vulnerability tangibly constrained the recipients' ability to challenge injustices when they or their colleagues experienced them. It also impacted on their acting in solidarity with Black students, because "How do you help when you know the very structures are set up, [so that even] you do not get heard?" (#25). This was articulated as the "awkward position" (#8) of being "illegitimate representatives" (#1) of social justice.

Those recipients who self-identifed with the approach of 'access to challenge' were those who experienced the greatest role confict. Conditions at the HWI exacerbated such confict as "the reality is uncomfortable even for those in power espousing it" (#27). Identity politics wreaked havoc with these participants' sense of self, as they walked a "tight rope" (#8) between expectations, that they embody diversity and were responsible for transforming the institution, and crushing pressures to assimilate into the current culture and satisfy rigorous performance management targets. Rather than "disturbing the paradigm of exclusion" (Sulé, 2014, p. 437), a participant's choice of the idiom "chipping away at that rock face" (#25) better represented the frustrations of these academics' "futile" (#25) impact on transformation at that HWI. The myths of evolutionary progress, which underpinned theories of change within the institution, were seen to result "in a LACK of substantive change since it relies on gradual evolution, and there is no clear evolutionary path between "untransformed" and "transformed" states" (#4). Liberalist understandings of incremental change run counter to arguments that racism, in particular, requires sweeping and radical change (Ladson-Billings, 1998) through disruption (Nwadeyi, 2016). Many of these participants exhibited the psychological stress symptoms of battle fatigue (Smith et al., 2016) common to those marginalized in HE in other national contexts (Alemán & Gaytán, 2017), and those with intergenerational collective memories of discrimination and violence (Maldonado-Torres, 2007).

It is argued that such "subaltern passions [should be viewed] as political resources that challenge hegemonic conditions and formulate strategic counter-hegemonic responses" (Zembylas, 2013). This potential may be realized within larger collective projects of decolonisation across the country in time, if they are not domesticated. These participants' narratives pointed to the insuffcient conditions of their 'access to challenge' the cultures, social formations and knowledge formations at that HWIs. Rather, such agency was relinquished by self-preservation within the system of exchange inherent to the assessment regimes of the Programmes.

*I chose to silence myself a lot of the time to avoid confict and to integrate into the department and fnd some sort of sense of belonging. While I became an easier colleague to work with (as mentioned by many of my colleagues), I felt that I had compromised my own values, ethics, and beliefs. My sense of belonging increased, but my sense of self diminished (#14).*

#### **Conclusions and Implications**

Whilst trans-ontological hopes of "generous interaction among subjects" may be aspired to in the decolonial project (Maldonado-Torres, 2007, p. 260), this chapter reveals how such conditions were painfully elusive for these academics in this supposedly 'post'-colonial, 'post'-apartheid, 'post'-racial context. These participants' insights into the lived realities of institutionalized machinations of domination,

reaffrmed the "threadbare" nature of "settler narratives of linearity, progress, and mobility" (Patel, 2016: 399) which underpinned the approaches to access in this HE context. Finding themselves problematically positioned by the conservative mainstream as embodying transformation through their superfcial diversity in the 'structural access' approach, and as agents of transformation by those committed to emancipatory visions of 'access to challenge', the reality of the constraining 'access for success' model effectively reduced the agency of these individuals to *be* or to *effect* change within the historically white institutions' cultural expectations and norms.

Although social justice as a term abounds in the espoused, every day and scholarly discourses of South African Higher Education Studies, this study points to the signifcance of academic development's blinkered focus on educational outcomes (Patel, 2016; Wuetherick & Ewert-Bauer, 2012) over moral, ethical and political obligations. Participants of this study revealed the problematic nature of the measured and conservative projects of success within the academy when the fgure of focus remains individualist. Academic development requires a shift towards 'critical academic development' if unjust conditions are to be challenged within. Participants' insights call for authorial accountability at the meso-level for the continuity of the macro-curriculum of the country's exclusionary past in the present. Avoidance of accusation mimics the ways in which individualistic hero narratives (Baldridge, 2016) and white privilege discourses (Leonardo, 2004) detract readers from the important task of examining the machinations of domination and systemic oppression of global racism. The insights emerging from these refections on the lived experiences and concerns of these potentially powerful insiders in South African HE, serve as a warning for those espousing discourses of diversity, inclusion and belonging in contexts with legacies of confict, oppression and inequality.

This study by confrms the importance of exploring the gaps between what is espoused, by those in power, and what is experienced, by the intended benefciaries, of what is implemented in practice. When it comes to academic development in post-confict contexts, questions should be asked when approaches for the academic success of underrepresented students are mis-translated into staff programmes in the name of historic redress. Critical analysis of approaches to the access and participation of minoritised and marginalised academics should consider whether such inclusion has had transformative impact on mainstream hegemonic norms. This is of importance for justice, diversity, equity and inclusion policy and practice, and for the democratisation of higher education.

#### **References**

education in India, the United States and South Africa, New Delhi. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/49241217.pdf

**Dina Zoe Belluigi** is a Reader at Queen's University Belfast (Northern Ireland) and a Visiting Professor at the Chair for the Critical Study of Higher Education Transformation at Nelson Mandela University (South Africa). Her work relates to the agency and ethico-historical responsibility of artists and academics in contexts undergoing transitions in authority and in the shadow of oppression. Shaped in part by her experiences as a practitioner in creative arts higher education and later in academic development in her country of South Africa, she is concerned with the complexity of the conditions for the development of critical consciousness and critical hope in those who bare the responsibility for representation. She is committed to the growth of pan-African and international networks for advancing Critical University Studies, where committed scholars, practitioners and policy makers across the globe actively pursue an emancipatory imagination for the future university.

**Gladman Thondhlana** is an Associate Professor in Environmental Science at Rhodes University, South Africa. His research focus on improving human well-being, which he has undertaken with extensive feld research experience with indigenous and local communities in rural parts of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Beyond his disciplinary research, he has a commitment to transformation and civic engagement in higher education, with a particular interest in the interactional dynamics between academic colleagues and within student group work. Thondhlana's lived experiences provided invaluable solidarity with the participants' whose refection shaped the study included in this book, as a fellow of such programmes.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

## **Chapter 31 Minority Status, Majority Benefts: Stories of Minority Teachers in U.S and What They Bring to the Classroom**

#### **Atifa Manzoor**

**Abstract** With more emphasis placed on culturally responsive teaching, the feld has become aware of recognizing the cultural capital students bring into the classroom but what about the teacher? This study closely examined the "lived stories" of three minority women seeking to answer the question: How does their cultural identity infuence their teaching in regards to classroom curriculum, environment and relationships with students? With three participants, the researcher included, the main method of research was narrative inquiry, using interviews to gain insight on their background, teaching, and experiences with culture in the classroom. In addition to interviews, journals were employed to evidence researcher experiences. After a clean transcription, all data was then coded to reveal major themes. After researching the cultural identity of minority teachers, there was an awareness of their culture infuencing their classroom. Major themes to emerge from the data were: minority teachers as role models and culturally responsive teaching. Although not obvious to participants but only through refection, minority teachers had something more to offer students. They provided a unique perspective to which some students might relate. With an ever-changing demographic, it is advantageous to have diversity among educators that mirrors that of the student population.

#### **Introduction**

It is the summer of 2020 and the vision of the United States, our direction and our education is more blurry than ever. In the past 6 months COVID has run rampant through the states as has riots and the fght for social justice and equality. May 25, 2020, an African-American man, George Floyd, dies at the hands of police offcers after allegedly using a counterfeit bill to pay for cigarettes.  For me, it once again brought into question: What is it to be minority in the United States? Living in a place you call home only to feel like an outsider? With Floyd's death

A. Manzoor (\*)

University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

came an insurgence of rage, an awareness of blatant inequality, and for many, the realization that "we" can do better.

When I accepted the invitation to write for this book, I didn't think I had much to offer. It was prior to the recent events described above and I wrote a dissertation 3 years ago, which I had thought, only benefted myself. It was based on the questions I had about my life experiences and I was simply curious to know if others felt the same way. Now, with the state of the union in question, it has become more apparent that minority teachers, their experience, stories and the knowledge they have to share will be vital in moving society towards the direction of progress.

My research into minority teachers began close to home. It was a personal topic: how I straddle the line of two cultures as well as its effects on me personally and professionally. Growing up, I thought culture was only about religion and ethnicity, not knowing that culture extends to nations, social groups and institutions (Culture, n.d.). Students enter the classroom with cultural baggage that affects their learning styles and behaviors. Why wouldn't it be the same for educators? Teachers do not enter the classroom as blank slates with no past or background; they enter with their own cultural baggage. Teachers are individuals with a background, affliations, and identities outside of the classroom. Although much research has been conducted on minority students' culture and its infuence on learning and the classroom, less research has been done on minority teachers' culture having an infuence on teaching and the classroom. In this study, I explored the role a minority teacher's culture plays in the classroom. More specifcally: How their cultural identity shaped by their background and experiences, infuences their teaching in regards to classroom curriculum, environment and relationships with students?

As I delved into the refection of my own teaching practices and the infuence my culture has on my teaching, I sought to gain more insight into this phenomenon by speaking with two other minority teachers: one Hispanic teacher coming from a border town in Texas and the other, an African American woman teaching in Houston. Both had families that had lived in the U.S. for generations in contrast to mine, both held varying teaching styles, goals, and focus as their culture shaped their ideology, classroom, and relationships with students.

#### **Minority Teachers in the United States**

Although the population of public school teachers has become more diverse over the years, it is not as racially diverse as the larger population or that of students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the 2017–2018 school year, 48% of students were White, 15% Black, 27% Hispanic and 5% were Asian with the number of minority students projected to increase by 2029 (2020). Unfortunately this does not mirror the demographics of teachers in the United States which showed 7% of teachers being Black, 9% Hispanic and 2% classifed as Asian in comparison to 80% of the teachers being White (NCES, 2019). The benefts of having minority teachers in the classroom is becoming more apparent through research yet we still encounter a diversity gap. Such a signifcant gap between students and teachers can be attributed to "education requirements, low pay, unhappy workplaces, and lack of respect" (Meckler & Rabinowitz, 2019). The path from high school to teaching in the classroom weens minority students out of the process of becoming educators. Students of color are less likely to enroll in college, teacher preparation programs, take the certifcation exam and graduate (US Department of Education, 2016).

So what of the minority teachers currently working in schools? Since my initial investigation, there has been more research compiled regarding minority teachers and their experiences. Leah Schafer writes for the Graduate School of Education at Harvard and looks into the experiences of minority teachers, focusing her attention on Black and Latino teachers (2018). Adam Wright (2017) and Constance Lindsay (2017) conducted two separate studies correlating the positive outcome of minority students when they have teachers of the same race. These studies also focused on the African American population. One study conducted by Danielle Magaldi, Timothy Conway and Leora Trub (2018) included participants from Puerto Rican, Jamaican, African, Dominican and Black American. Within the study, they found teachers to feel overlooked and unprepared with minimal multicultural training/ courses during their teacher preparation programs. When it came to looking for a South Asian perspective, particularly teachers of Pakistani origin within the United States, the research falls short.

#### **Methodology**

I was a qualitative researcher before I even knew what a doctorate was. My father worked for the airlines since I was fve. This allowed us many opportunities to fy across the world. What I loved the most amongst the chaos of the airport crowds was observing people, wondering who they were and where they were going. It's on these trips that I would learn people's stories just by sharing an armrest. On a fight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, seat 32B would become more than a number but a face with a story to tell. To me, there was no other choice than to conduct a qualitative study. As explicated by Polkinghorne (2005), "qualitative research is inquiry aimed at describing and clarifying human experience as it appears in people's lives" (p. 137). Its methods are often used to answer "the *whys* and *hows* of human behavior, opinion, and experience" (Guest et al., 2012, p. 1). Within qualitative research, the best way to conduct my study was through narrative inquiry and by telling the stories of these two teachers alongside my own.

Narrative inquiry is much more than a simple method in which researchers are "just telling stories." "Narrative is a way of characterizing the phenomena of human experience and its study" (1990, p. 2). Clandinin and Connelly made it clear that narrative inquiry is a way of understanding experience (Clandinin, 2013). It is an approach to the study of human lives that honors and gives credence to lived experience as an important source of knowledge. Clandinin and Connelly explained,

"People by nature lead storied lives and tell stories of those lives, whereas narrative researchers describe such lives, collect and tell stories of them, and write narratives of experience." (1994, p. 2). How else would I know more about a teacher, their life and the way they teach unless I got to know them, ask questions and gain more insight into who they are personally and professionally?

With my methodology decided, I began data collection consisting of me journaling my past as well as keeping a researcher refective journal to capture my thoughts and interactions with the students. With the basis of narrative inquiry in the telling and retelling of stories, interviews were conducted with the two participants to hear and use their stories as the main source of my data. As Seidman (2006) stated, the purpose of in-depth interviewing is not to obtain answers or evaluate but to gain an understanding of the "lived experience of other people and the meaning they make of that experience" (p. 9). Following the three-interview model adapted from Dolbeare and Schuman (Schuman, 1982), enabled the establishment of the context of the participants' experience. Teacher backgrounds were obtained as well as their sense of ethnic culture and self-described identities (Seidman, 2006). Participants reconstructed their current experiences in the classroom making possible connections to previous stories and experiences. This process allowed participants to refect on the meaning of their shared experiences.

With much of the data consisting of interviews with participants, a thematic and structural analysis approach was used. Prior to determining themes, interviews were coded using a clean transcript. Coding, as described by Richards and Morse (2012), is the frst step to opening up meaning. "It leads you from the data to the idea, and from the idea to all the data pertaining to that idea" (p. 137). Analytical coding, coding that comes from interpretation and refection on meaning, is a prime way of gathering categories and themes as well as the data needed to explore them (Richards, 2009, p. 103). Codes were categorized, then analyzed, and overarching themes identifed.

Three teachers participated in this study: a Hispanic elementary school teacher, an African American middle school teacher, and me, an American Muslim middle school teacher. The inquiry began with a self-study to refect on my teaching and cultural infuences in the classroom. It was soon apparent that collecting narratives from other teachers of cultures differing from my own, would be benefcial to exploring the research question. Two participants were chosen based on convenience. Both participants were teachers that had been teaching for over 5 years, were minorities, and willing to share stories about themselves and to refect on their teaching. They were also two teachers with whom I had a rapport, which facilitated establishing a comfortable interview environment.

**Elena** Elena (pseudonym) was a 32-year-old Hispanic teacher who taught second grade in a suburban elementary school. Originally from a Texas border town, Elena had the opportunity to attend a college in the southeast and returned to Houston upon her college graduation. For 8 years, Elena taught at a Title I school in the same district. This was her frst year "across the river" at a new elementary school located in an economically advantaged area.

**Dominique** Dominique (pseudonym) was a 30-year-old African American teacher who taught U.S. history in a Houston middle school with grades seven and eight. Growing up in the Deep South (Georgia) and then moving to Texas, Dominique was southern through and through. Her school, O'Hare Middle (pseudonym) was a suburban school with approximate 1200 students. As reported in the *Texas Tribune*, students performed below the state average in passing TAKS scores in 2010 and teachers had less experience than the state average.

**Atifa** At the time of this inquiry, I taught at the school located in Northeast Houston in the district in which I lived. Out of the 65 teachers on our campus, 54 were White making up 94.6% of the teacher population, one was African American, one Hispanic, and one was Asian (TEA website). The one Asian making up 2% of the population was me.

#### **Findings and Discussion**

As a researcher, you try not to let your own research agenda get in the way. I set out to explore how other minority teacher's culture infuenced their classroom. With my previous experience, I was curious to see if they had negative experiences as well. I was secretly hoping I was not alone in my experiences. Where I was seeking to fnd commonalities in our negative experiences, I actually found the beauty of being a minority teacher. Personally this study changed the lenses through which I viewed being a minority teacher. Socially, the implications of this study further justifed the need for minority teachers and what districts needed to do in a time of racial inequality and social unrest. Through coding and categorizing, themes began to emerge. The two most signifcant themes were: (1) minority teachers as role models and (2) culturally responsive teaching.

#### *Theme One: Minority Teachers as Role Models*

Growing up as a minority, it can be diffcult to fgure out where you "ft in". It's as Dominique described as being "too Black for the White folks and too White for the Black folks." It was hard enough trying to relate to the peers around you who were different than you, let alone trying to relate to the teachers. I can count on one hand how many minority teachers I had in public school. Through interviews with participants, I became aware that I was not the only one that felt the way I did growing up. Those emotions and insecurities growing up, led us to become the teachers we are today. Teachers that wanted to impress upon their students to accept who they are, complete with all their quirks, and go forward in life confdently.

Elena grew up with her grandmother who would "dress to the nines" and dye her hair blonde to "keep up with the Joneses" in a time and place where it wasn't accepted to speak Spanish outside your home or share your ethnic heritage. It was a time where she felt she had to ft into White American society. Growing up bicultural and having a grandmother with this mindset, Elena often questioned her own appearance when she was younger. She recalls, "My hair was different. All of theirs was straight and thin; mine is thick and curly. They were so skinny. I felt like I was hairier too because you would see it so much easier than theirs." With age came self-esteem and self-assurance but Elena wondered if she would have been more opinionated and confdent at an earlier age if she learned to embrace her difference instead of comparing herself to others as she tried to ft in.

Now coming into a new school, Elena felt she still stood out among the staff in her appearance and the way she dressed; she felt she was "much more unique looking". She usually comes to school in crocs, not a lot of jewelry, a silly or thought provoking shirt and her hair as she would describe it, curly and "all over the place". When asked what she hopes students gain from her appearance and how she dressed, she hoped "that they can feel comfortable being themselves too. We like seeing who you are and enjoy being part of that."

Surprisingly, the concept of beauty and natural hair came up with Dominique as well. She shared her thoughts on beauty. "We are so tied to these Eurocentric values and that straight hair is professional, straight hair is valued as a sign of beauty," she offered. Dominique's mother had been putting a perm in her hair to achieve the straight sleekness since she was 12 and Dominique has continued doing it ever since. It's not until recently that Dominique began wearing her hair "natural", although not without resistance and questions from others. This resistance not only came from the outside community but within her own family. Wearing her hair natural is met with mixed emotions. Her mother's side of the family is quite supportive while her father's side sees it as unprofessional.

Dominique recognized the power of appearance as well, especially with wearing her hair natural. She described it best by saying, "Even though you're not intentionally trying to send a message or make a statement, [you do and you should]."  It's really pretty and it makes me feel like its ok for me to wear my hair like that too."

For Dominique, it was important for Black girls to see people they interact with, particularly professional educated Black women, with natural curls especially when they are "given images that they're not pretty or that society is not going to accept them unless they look like this." She found it comforting to be surrounded by Black women who have natural hair and she knew the students felt the same. When asked if being a "proud Black woman" was something instilled at an early age, she responded with it being "something I grew into."

For me, the concept of beauty tied in with being and feeling different. I knew early on that I was different than most of the kids I went to school with. I was not as skinny, as blonde and not as light skinned as they were. Much like Elena, I too felt that I had more hair on my body than my friends, when their hair was actually much lighter and less noticeable. As a young kid, particularly a young girl, you do not want to be different. You grow up with Barbies and society ingraining in you its notion of beauty. Nobody in the media looked like I did and I, much like other ethnic girls, strived to be a type of beautiful that I was not, nor ever would be.

Natural hair was something that had been an issue with me and journaled about as well. With my hair being naturally wavy, I straightened it regularly to "ft in". As the other two teachers mentioned, embracing natural hair confdently as something beautiful became easier as I got older. I wanted to show students that even though it may appear to some as messy and "unkempt" to have my hair in frizzy curls, as Dominique mentioned in her interview, "it does not make me any less professional, beautiful or educated. It is simply how my hair grows out of my head."

Being a role model was never more apparent to me than with my Southwest Asian students. I had Southwest Asian parents, mothers particularly, excited about me being their daughter's teacher. They wanted their daughters to see a highlyeducated woman that was similar to themselves. One parent in particular kept in contact with me regularly and would often say, "Can you tell my daughter that? She does not believe me but she'll listen to you." For my young Southwest Asian girls who were most often so quiet in class, I unknowingly became a role model; an example of confdence and what they could achieve.

As a nation, we must increase the minority representation within the demographics of our educators. "Many believe that minority teachers are best situated to counter negative stereotypes and to serve as role models, mentors, or cultural-translators" (Egalite & Kisida, 2015, p. 1). The teachers within this study demonstrated their ability to be the role models, mentors and cultural translators our students need. The benefts of having minority teachers are far more than we can imagine. In an article written for *Educational Leadership*, Mary Futrell said, "It is essential for *all* teachers to have the knowledge, skills, and training to successfully teach diverse student populations. But it is equally important for *all* students to have the opportunity to be taught by teachers who refect their diversity (1999, p. 30)". As I listened to the stories and responses from participants and journaled about my own experiences, Mary's sentiment became more apparent to me. Minority teachers have something different to offer, as evidenced in participants' natural ability to relate to and advocate for minority students.

#### *Theme Two: Culturally Responsive Teaching*

Out of the few minority teachers I had growing up, I never encountered a teacher of Southwest Asian ancestry. Of course, I had caring teachers along the way but not one who brought my culture into the classroom, let alone someone who truly understood the struggles of an immigrant child from Pakistan. The same was true for participants Dominique and Elena. Being a minority as a child was diffcult, and as an adult it continued to bring hardships. On the other hand, as a teacher, being minority provided an advantage in the classroom. Along this line of thought was the most prominent theme that emerged among the three participants: culturally responsive teaching.

Geneva Gay defnes culturally responsive teaching as "the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them" (2018). In addition, culturally responsive teaching is "designed to help empower children and youth by using meaningful cultural connections…" (Vavrus, 2008). Under the umbrella of culturally responsive teaching, two sub themes arose: awareness and understanding of being minority as well as validating and empowering students.

#### *Awareness and Understanding of What It Is to Be a Minority*

Being bicultural can be a mix of any two cultures with which one identifes. Ethnically speaking, it is likely to mean having a culture at home that is most likely different than the mainstream culture in which one lives. When you grow up with a subculture, you frequently question why you are required to do certain things and others do not. Then as a young adult, there is often a tendency to "play both sides" or to create a third culture by merging the two cultures together. Although a bicultural identity was more pronounced with Dominique and myself, cultural differences between Elena's home and that of her friends were still apparent.

Being a fourth-generation Hispanic living in El Paso, the mainstream culture of the town was blended into Elena's family culture. However, many aspects still differed. Attending church, remained an expectation, as was participating in CCD or Confraternity of Christian Doctrine classes, something her friends didn't have to do and she questioned often. Religiously, her parents had everything blessed, they had a crucifx up in the house and would put up a palm on Palm Sunday. Again, things her friends did not do. Her family was also more affectionate than those of her friends, offering hugs and a kiss goodnight.

Dominique referred to herself as an "Oreo," somebody who was black on the outside but had mannerisms and "acted" white on the inside. Playing both sides, so to speak, was something with which Dominque was familiar. She was conscious of how she acted differently around her White friends versus Black friends to ensure she would be accepted by both groups. This was something she noticed in her Asian students. Dominique explained that her school had a small Asian population with the rest of the school's population split between half Hispanic and half African American. Most of the Asian students had grown up in the surrounding neighborhood and "[were] able to foat back and forth between what it means to be Asian and how you have to carry yourself, then what it means to be able to function in the school." Finding it "weird" to watch the students' transition among groups made Dominique recognize these students as a younger version of herself. She had to know how to function in different settings based on the culture of the students she

was around. Asked if she believed "playing sides" was more specifc to minority groups, she replied, "Defnitely." Dominique elaborated:

Seeing my Asian students, you know, when they're all together, they're "Asian" and they listen to k-pop and share stories about things their parents do to them as far as discipline or that they have to go to cultural school this weekend. But then when they get out and they go to their normal classes where they're mixed in, just having to, I guess, assimilate…

With my campus being majority White, there were not many large pockets of other races. The students that stood out to me the most were the Southwest Asian students. Some of my students attended the same mosque as I did and it was very interesting to see them assimilate in different contexts. They abided by mainstream norms in hopes of blending in while at school and then outside of school they attended mosque and followed the Islamic culture. Watching my students brought me back to when I was in school and the struggle of making sure I ft in with mainstream culture while keeping my ethnic culture at home.

I once had twin students in my class who I suspected to be from Pakistan but through all our conversations in class about my heritage, they never brought it up. I fnally had a conversation with them and mentioned they never shared they were from Pakistan. One student responded, "Eh, yeah, we don't share that information much." I did not react the way I should have by telling them they should not be afraid to share their heritage. I knew I was afraid too at their age; afraid of being different, scrutinized and ostracized. Truth is, there were moments even as an adult when I was scared to share my heritage because of some of the same reasons.

#### *Validating and Empowering Students*

The idea of validating and empowering students came across as one of the most important and powerful sub-themes of culturally relevant teaching among the three participants. Teacher participants mentioned celebrating and appreciating differences among students by taking an interest in who they were as individuals and ensuring differences were appreciated and embraced to empower students.

What came through most in interviews was Elena taking an interest in and learning who her students were as a whole. Teaching the second grade, Elena wanted to learn about students from the frst day. In her refection on culture she wrote, "I am very aware in particular of how unique and individual my students are and what value that brings into my classroom in terms of learning-academically, linguistically, emotionally, socially, etc." She shared that they take time to get to know each other, their families, interests and special characteristics. One way she accomplished this was through "Student of the Week." Giving each student a week to have the spotlight and share about themselves. Elena focused on making sure what makes a child different was seen positively, appreciated, and embraced, not just by their peers but the students themselves.

I look to fnd what they fnd special or what they think is unique and special about them and draw that out. I try to do that in the way we talk about things with myself.  I think that's what I would like them to feel comfortable doing too.

Being in a school district representing so many different cultures, Dominique wanted her students to understand that she respected them and was always ready to celebrate with them. Dominique took an interest in who her students were and, much like Elena, learned about them beginning on day one. She asked them questions about their heritage, cultural traditions and life events taking place outside of school. "I want to know my kids and their cultures" she said. She had students who attended Vietnamese school on the weekends and talked to her about how much they disliked it. She also had students that participated in dragon performances for the Chinese New Year. Dominique attended Quinceañera celebrations for some of her Hispanic students and attended different churches with some of her African American students. When she had a Muslim student come in with henna on her hands, she made it a point to ask questions to learn more about her culture. Dominique loved that her students had different cultures because to her, that was what made them individuals. She let them crack jokes about their culture and have fun with it, letting them embrace it, and see that culture was part of who they were.

Being a Muslim in American schools left me feeling like I didn't quite belong. In my classroom, I made it a point to learn about my students, where their families came from and to empower them to be themselves. Teaching World Cultures, it was easy to bring their different heritages into the classroom. We started out by creating a "selfe" that displayed students' cultures, their interests and what made them unique. When we studied the part of the world from which their family came or students had visited, we took time to share what knowledge, pictures, and artifacts students brought to class. The biggest thing for me was recognizing where they were from and taking an interest. One time it was as simple as letting a student (Ibrahim) know on the frst day of school that I was going to pronounce his name in Arabic, not knowing he was from Egypt. Never having a teacher address his culture or share similar traits, he had a big grin on his face. Sometimes that's all it takes to build a relationship and have them invested in my class.

In addition to bringing their students' culture into the classroom, participants recognized the need for multicultural education. As students, participants did not grow up with multicultural education in school. Even though Elena grew up in a city where minorities make up the majority of the population, the curriculum was Eurocentric with a focus on rote learning. Dominique grew up learning more about Black history at home and from books she read versus what she learned in school. Although I was Muslim, I was expected to participate in the Christmas play, make Christmas presents, and hunt for Easter eggs. Now as teachers, the three participants make conscious efforts to provide a multicultural education.

Elena understood the importance of history and multicultural education and was a proponent of history through literacy; using books to teach what she might not have time to during the regular day. When asked if this was automatically built into the curriculum, she said it was not. She included books such as *Something Beautiful*, where the main character found what was beautiful where she lived or *One Green Apple* where the main character wore a hijab. Elena also used activist books written for kids. With each book, students discussed the story, discovered and appreciated the differences of the characters and related it to themselves.

Dominique's biggest task with the curriculum was to provide the students an opportunity to form their own opinions and realize that there was no right or wrong. She wanted to make sure her "students have an opinion and it's not just the opinion of a textbook." When asked how much she taught out of the textbook, her answer was simple, she did not. Dominique utilized a lot of primary sources in her teaching, providing students a chance to read different accounts of events and topics that were covered in the curriculum. When it came to teaching history, Dominique was very straightforward with her students. She shares the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of history for all ethnic groups involved. Where the curriculum and textbook left off was where Dominique flled in the gaps with resources and class discussion.

Tied to culturally responsive teaching is the idea of cultural sensitivity. Whether it be unknowingly or not, participants reported there being a lack of cultural sensitivity among staff members. With the increase in globalization, trainings and workshops on cultural sensitivity and cultural awareness have become the new 'must' for major corporations and businesses (Sifter, 2013). It should be no different in education. How can we expect the future generation to invest in their country if they are being met with degradation and exclusion beginning in grade school?

The lack of cultural sensitivity was more obvious with some than others at Elena's school. Elena was the type of teacher who wanted as much diversity in her classroom as possible. She loved looking at the roster in the beginning of the year and seeing which kids would walk in the door the frst day. Refecting on students that other teachers would consider troublesome or different, Elena said, "I want those kids. I like those kids." There was a student in frst grade from India who wore a turban on his head, since he was of the Sikh faith. Having traveled to India years prior and loving the culture, Elena excitedly wondered if she would have him in class. As she shared her roster with other teachers, she shared her excitement aloud. When another teacher didn't know what the Sikh faith was, Andrea shared her knowledge and let her know it was the boy who wore a turban on his head. Andrea shared,

The other teacher said, "Oh that one kid that wears a towel on his head?" [Elena laughs and shakes her head at me] The other teacher goes, "I think I have the kid with the towel." I said "He's Sikh, yes but you should call it a wrap or if it's a turban, that's appropriate. They [Google] said turban so ok you can call him the boy with the turban. Do not say towel."

As Elena proceeded to tell her how certain ways the turban was wrapped meant different things, the other teacher simply passed it off, appearing to not care to learn more about the culture of her future student.

Dominique shared a story about a White coworker who once said, "I do not see race. I had a Black nanny growing up," as though that fact counteracted the things she said and did in her classroom. Dominique described how, with good intentions, the coworker showed her students documentaries such as the one on Emmett Till

(14-year-old African American boy lynched in 1955 after being falsely accused of firting with a White woman) because, as she explained it, "They need to know this." Refecting on her coworkers' wanting to show the video in class, Dominique says she did not consider the fact that the Black Lives Matter movement was at its height with police brutality on the news daily. Although Till's story was important, explained Dominique, her coworker did not take into account the school's demographics or that it might hit home for her students, possibly causing a stir of emotions.

My school was located in a predominantly White, Christian area and the staff refected the same demographics. Last summer I was asked to lead a professional development session. Based on my interest, a slightly changing demographic, and noticing a need, I suggested that I lead a session on culturally responsive teaching and multicultural education. The table of teachers, all White, looked at me in silence. As much as I would have liked to think that we progressed to be able to discuss matters of race and ethnicity in the classroom, it still seemed to be taboo; something teachers still feared to discuss. By the looks on everyone's faces, it was clear that I needed a new topic. When I changed the subject of my session, there was much more praise and acceptance of the new idea.

As we ended the 2019–2020 school year remotely, those sentiments still held true. At our last staff meeting of the year, we discussed the uncertainty of the upcoming school year and how the school district would be planning to tackle going to school in the midst of COVID. Nothing was mentioned about race riots and how our country was in shambles and hurting. When I asked if there was going to be any direction on multicultural education, professional development or addressing the race inequality, there was a quick "no" and change of topic.

#### **Conclusion and Implication**

Often, discussions on race, diversity and multiculturalism are sprinkled throughout a preservice teacher's coursework but "teachers continue to exit their teacher preparation programs not prepared to effectively teach all students" (Hayes & Juarez, 2012, p. 3). Although unclear whether minority teachers are naturally inclined to be culturally responsive teachers, the participants within this study appeared to be aware of culturally responsive pedagogy and its implementation in the classroom. As shared by Geneva Gay (2000), for teachers to successfully teach *all* students, not just those in the mainstream, it is important for teachers to have the knowledge, skills and dispositions to effectively implement culturally responsive pedagogy.

I began this chapter by asking what it was to be minority in the United States. More specifcally I wanted to go back to my research and look at the experiences of being a minority teacher and its effects on the classroom. Being a Pakistani Muslim teacher allowed me to share my culture and experiences with my students but also opened me up to scrutiny. It was the scrutiny that caused me to shy away from being the teacher I naturally was and should continue to be.

Through the research process, the benefts of having minority teachers in the classroom became obvious as did the need for minority teachers in the classroom, and this is a point that should be debated in future studies. Although, the most signifcant fnding from the research was personal: the realization that being a minority teacher would allow for negative experiences but if the minority teacher is open to it, it could lead to something more positive and monumental for the students.

#### **References**

**Atifa Manzoor** graduated with her Ed.D. from the University of Houston in Curriculum and Instruction with specialization in Social Education. She is currently a middle school social studies teacher in Texas and adjunct Professor with the University of Houston-Downtown (USA).

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

### **Conclusions and Implications**

**Mary Gutman , Wurud Jayusi , Michael Beck , and Zvi Bekerman**

Reading the literature, it becomes apparent that since the late 1960s and early 1970s educational research has attended to the need for more teachers from minority ethnic, religious, and national groups in public education settings. Attention to this issue arose in response to growing ethnic, religious, and national diversity in public education systems. A review of the existing literature was published over two decades ago (Quiocho & Rios, 2000), and apparently things have not changed much since then. Calls for the inclusion of minority teachers in mainstream schools are still being heard and there is a sense that the need is growing. Although there has been a steady increase in research on this subject since the 1980s, a web search using Google Scholar algorithms for composites of concepts such as "minority teachers," limited to the years 1900–2020 offers over 16,000 results; limiting the same search request to the years 2010–2020 yields only 6000. Indeed, this is a rather new area of research, but one which is already well-populated. This volume is a modest attempt to support what is already known and add some complexity to an already ambivalent education issue.

Alongside the conspicuous scarcity of research on minority teachers, there is a growing number of research institutes and academic publications focusing on immigration and mobility as a global phenomenon. This should come as no surprise: for thousands of years and multiple reasons, people have moved around the globe in search of food, feeing from war, or in pursuit of riches, disseminating their languages, cultures, skills, and genes along the way. In recent times and after the decline of international migration during the interwar years, the improved economic conditions of the postwar era brought about a renewed impetus in world migration. Paradoxically, while today's globalization seems to facilitate the movement of goods, services, and capital, international migration of people, which is also about movement, provokes intense political debate in western democracies (Breunig et al., 2012). As Brettell and Hollifeld (2014) have argued, migration is the political mirror of trade and fnance: while the wealthier states push hard for protection to keep foreign labor fows out, many poorer states push for openness (although rarely explicitly). Nevertheless, a recent United Nations report estimates that the total

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M. Gutman et al. (eds.), *To Be a Minority Teacher in a Foreign Culture*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25584-7

number of international migrants keeps increasing. In the year 2000, total world migration was estimated at 150 million people; by 2010, the number had risen to 214 million, and by 2019 to almost 272 million globally, comprising mostly of labor migrants. However, this fgure only represents 3.5% of the world population, meaning that still today over 95% of the global population is living in the country of birth (United Nations, International Organization for Migration, 2020).

Naturally, this situation emphasizes the complexity of so-called majorityminority relationships, which are felt in all spheres of life and public services. The education system is the frst to experience such relationships because it absorbs immigrant descendants and integrates them into classrooms. This process involves the absorption of suitable staff that is fuent in the verbal and mental languages of the groups coming into school. Although the education and teaching profession is easily perceived as mobile, since there is always a global demand for teachers and educators, evidence in the feld points to the myriad challenges immigrant teachers face in accepting jobs in world education systems—even if such evidence is not made offcial or published in academic formats.

A critical examination of the 31 chapters in this book enables us to identify similar struggles experienced by minority teachers, regardless of their geographical location and the educational policies that prevail where they practice. Thus, for example, studies discussed in the **frst part** support the claim that the education system is a signifcant social factor. Its role is to impart to students the patterns of behavior, norms, and values that will enable them to live in a diverse society in line with the claims made by Rubenko (2018). However, although there is widespread agreement about the contribution of teachers from immigrant backgrounds in this regard, as shown in Chaps. 8 and 10, this issue is hardly addressed by policy-makers. Sometimes it creates distress, a sense of not belonging, and loneliness, in line with the fndings of the studies presented in Chaps. 2, 3, 5, and 9. Looking at the existing literature, Howard's (2010) study is noteworthy in that it shows that American students in a predominantly white milieu believe that teachers of Asian origin can provide them with a broader cultural understanding, which is required in a society where nearly half of the citizens are "of color." Another study (Ferlazzo, 2018) argued that encounters between teachers and students in the education arena have a positive effect on the majority group's perception of the minority (to which the teacher belongs), and on the minority group's perception of the majority. A study produced in South Africa by Davids (2018) supports a similar claim, arguing that students who are not exposed to such diversity in education will have diffculty in the future with global citizenship tasks and attaining the verbal skills required today in most corporations; they may be left unprepared for self-realization in a variety of social and professional contexts.

Looking at the studies in the frst section shows that a similar conclusion emerges in Chaps. 4, 6 and 7, which examine the current reality in the US. These chapters illustrate some personal and professional challenges faced by minority teachers who are recent arrivals to the US, emphasizing the importance of a preparatory program to help teachers integrate into schools.

A broader look at the concept of "minority teachers" reveals some surprises. In many contexts, teachers feel – and are identifed as – minorities because they differ from their peers and students not just in terms of their mastery of the offcial language of the state, but also because of religion, nationality, and social trends. Similarly, it is not uncommon to see bilingual, independent, and complementary education institutions in which native teachers feel like minorities who serve as mediators of local curricula, language, and heritage, as discussed in the **second part** of this book.

Whereas initially, the focus of this area of research might have been on what the colonial powers and settlers called "indigenous teachers," the main focus of the book is on what national institutions call "immigrant teachers." The term "minority" can serve as a synonym for both immigrants and indigenous people. However, the frst two sections of this book treat native and immigrant teachers separately, examining each as a minority, while the interrelationships between them and students, peers, and principals are interpreted through the lens of minority-majority relations. Chapter 11, which compares the status of Palestinian-Israeli teachers in bilingual and Hebrew-speaking schools, shows that these interrelationships affect their levels of satisfaction and the willingness of the system to accept minority teachers. This conclusion is directed at policy-makers, arguing for the need to increase support and guidance for minority teachers, both in multicultural and in majority education settings.

The importance given to greater inclusion of these teachers in complementary and independent school settings, as argued in Chaps. 12 and 13, stems from the assumption that native teachers integrated into these schools would address diversity issues more adequately and professionally than teachers belonging to the same group as the students. This thinking is consistent with recent studies (King & Butler, 2015; Kumar et al., 2015) that claim that a diversity of teaching power provides minority students with the role models needed to strengthen a democratic society. It was also believed that their presence would beneft the "regular" faculty, the schools, and school communities as a whole (Cherng & Halpin, 2016; Ginsberg et al., 2017). The presence of a diverse professional teaching corps provides minority students with identifcation points that help them grow into professional and responsible roles in their communities (Liu & Ball, 2019). The two studies presented in Chaps. 14 and 15, which were conducted in Argentina, also show that minority-oriented teaching based on strategies morgere compatible with the original culture of minority students facilitates learning processes and has a positive impact on student achievement.

**The third part** of the book examines the journeys of international teacher educators. Here, the belief is confrmed that when these minority faculty members are integrated into teacher education institutions as representatives of a minority group, they develop the ability to educate for values of tolerance and inclusion, and serve as role models for the majority and minority pre-service teachers (Gutman, 2019). Thus, when teacher training institutions ensure the cultural diversity of academic staff, there is a greater chance that pre-service trainees and teachers will internalize the message, choose to integrate into leadership roles, and promote a tolerant and pluralistic view, thereby contributing to the creation of shared spaces in schools. Since the school serves as a microcosm of society, the creation of these spaces is important.

When considering possible solutions, it has been suggested that efforts should be made to identify teacher educators who are suitable for this task, including training teachers overseas and enabling them to serve as mentors and international teacher educators. This conclusion corresponds with the ethnographic chapters presented in this section, all but one of which takes place in different US contexts.

**The fourth part** of the book relies on the assumption that adequate representation of ethnic minority teachers and the provision of language assistance directly and indirectly affect student achievement and social learning. For example, Anderson (2015) examined students' perceptions of their teachers and the parameters that were important to them, and found that there is a great preference for teachers from a minority group, even though they only constitute 17% of all teachers in the school and are neither in management nor in positions of authority. This is because these teachers are more caring; they understand what troubles the students and make them feel motivated. The study found that this is especially critical at the middle school age, which is a time of identity formation, when teachers can provide greater confdence among those students who are self-conscious about identity issues. Thus, in an atmosphere of trust and inclusion of difference—whether it is based on origin, spoken language and accents, fnancial ability, marital status, various learning disabilities, emotional, or social abilities—the classroom becomes a safe place for every student. This conclusion emerges in the last ten chapters of this book, with the emphasis in most on positive discrimination of minority staff in diverse educational settings, including Turkey, Czech Republic, South Africa, Finland, Sweden and the USA. (The exception is Chap. 26 in which the US-born teacher is presented in a privileged position as a minority teacher in the People's Republic of China.)

The above should help us contextualize our understanding of the phenomenon studied in this volume. When considering immigrant, minority, or indigenous teachers and education, we are discussing teachers who are from or who serve peripheral populations: refugees, displaced people, "traditional" groups, and/or nonwesternized communities. In short, we are focusing on the non-privileged, the racialized, and the subalterns—those lacking economic and political power in their present contexts. It is true that not all immigrant teachers are representatives of these groups; some (e.g., "foreign" teachers in international schools) are themselves representatives of privileged classes and serve their students, but the great majority does not fall into this category.

The studies in the present volume cover related issues in different ways in 15 countries: Israel, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, USA, South Africa, Argentina, Netherlands, Canada, Turkey, Czech Republic, China, Finland, Sweden, and New Zealand. Within these countries, 18 ethnic, religious, or cultural groups are mentioned as having been included in the studies. In Israel, they are Ethiopian and

Russian Jews, and Arab Palestinians; in the USA, Koreans, Mexicans, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, and Africans. In German-speaking countries, they are Turks and Serbians; in New Zealand, Maoris; in Finland and Sweden, Muslims; in Argentina the Toba/Qom, Germans, and Italians; and in Turkey, Kurds. In China, they are North Americans; in South Africa, Zimbabweans; in the Netherlands, Polish and Chinese; and in the Czech Republic they are Roma.

The fact that this book refers to 15 countries out of the 195 represented in the United Nations is not a refection of laziness on the editors' part. Of the 58 countries in the African continent, only one is represented, namely South Africa; of the 14 countries in Oceania, only New Zealand is represented; of the 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, only Argentina is represented; of the 44 countries in Europe, seven are represented, excluding Switzerland and all members of the European Union; and of the fve countries in North America, only Canada and the USA are represented. We tried hard to get more, and although we are certain other countries could have been represented, the ones included refect the power relations discussed above.

Over the years, research has validated these assumptions and encouraged policymakers to increase their efforts to engage and include more minority teachers to serve the growing number of minority students studying in national education settings. However, the studies included in this book reveal failures among these efforts and therefore, in the long run, the presence of minority teachers may be reduced despite the continuing increase in the participation of minority students.

We believe that these studies will contribute to the understanding of these diffculties, and that they will highlight the circumstances that prevent minority teachers from joining the teaching force, thus enabling readers to refect on the measures required to change this situation. The studies reveal that among the barriers minority teachers mentioned are: the low status of the profession and its declining popularity; limited chances of promotion; low salary; the need to prove oneself to the authorities by investing greater efforts than their "regular" colleagues, and more. In addition, poor training of minority students in schools and their consequent inability to enter university was also mentioned as a barrier to preparing greater numbers of minority teachers. Moreover, conficts between the teachers' ideologies and those inherent in the curriculum have been shown to hinder their smooth integration into the host schools (Parker & Stovall, 2004; Carver-Thomas, 2018). This claim seems to be supported by the studies in this book and constitutes one of its conclusions.

For the most part, the research reported in this volume replicates previous fndings. We are clear about the importance of replication as a central tool of verifcation in the empirical sciences, which adds to the credibility and value of scientifc research (Fabrigar & Wegener, 2016). However, the fact that little new knowledge is gained—other than the undeniable importance of the particular cases reported leads us to ask what else we can do as researchers to advance the cause of the minority, immigrant, indigenous teachers and students we care so much about. In this volume, we offer a few critical insights we believe are worthy of consideration for future research.

This anthology was created on the understanding that there is a dearth of studies dealing with these and other issues concerning the existence of minority teachers in the classroom and in the teachers' room, and with knowledge of the impact these teachers have on the students of the social majority group. The main issues underlying the deep social awareness that develops among these teachers inhere in the process of integration, acculturation, and assimilation into a foreign culture, the optimal educational climate, which the teachers generate. We recommend an indepth reading of these studies that present different shades of majority-minority relations. Finally, we ask whether a more critical approach to our subjects of research, and a reconsideration of the main categories that our contexts offer, might help us suggest better policies to overcome the many obstacles confronted by the population.

#### **References**


**SYNERGOS: A Multiple Muscle Activation Index**

Amir Pourmoghaddam, Daniel P O'Connor, William H Paloski and Charles S Layne

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/56168


**4. Magnetometric evaluation of corrosion resistance of austenitic chromium-nickel steels depending on the phase composition (***A, F, M***) after deformation by compression and bending of specimens**

Despite numerous studies of corrosion processes in stainless austenitic steels, which are widely used in aviation and nuclear energy, questions concerning the nature of corrosion still remain unclear. Many works are devoted to the influence of α-phase (δ-ferrite, α0 -martensite deformation) on the corrosion resistance of steels [4, 5, 13, 14]. However, the corrosion resistance of austenite (*A*), δ-ferrite (*F*) and α0 -martensite deformation (*M*) and the phases *A* + *F*, *A* + *M*, *A* + *F* + *M* present together are insufficiently studied. In [13] it was found that the significant cause of corrosion resistance of austenitic steels is not the low content of the α-phase, but the atomic-magnetic state of the austenitic matrix, which is determined by the specific magnetic susceptibility.

To clarify the role of paramagnetic austenite (*A*), δ-ferrite (*F*), α0 -martensite deformation (*M*) in the individual and total influence of the phases *A* + *M*, *A* + *F*, *A* + *F* + *M* on the corrosion resistance of chromium-nickel steels austenitic class were selected two industrial stainless steels (№1 and №2) of one grade 08Cr18Ni10Ti (sheets with a thickness of 1 mm) with a slight difference in the content of Ni and other elements.

Chemical composition of steels (% wt.): №1—0.08 C; 17.74 Cr; 10.56 Ni; 0.259 Ti; 0.982 Mn; 0.23 Si; 0.04 S and №2—0.09 C; 18.2 Cr; 10.1 Ni; 0.56 Ti; 0.75 Mn; 0.7 Si; 0.01 S; 0.026 P; 0.14 Cu; 0.05 Co; 0.04 V; 0.04 W; 0.06 Mo.

The samples were cut by cold mechanical method in the form of rectangular parallelepipeds of approximately the same size 7 � 3 � 1 mm3 . The degree of residual deformation *D* was calculated by the ratio of thickness before (*d*0) and after (*d*) deformation (*D* = (*d*0–*d*)/*d*0). After compression deformation, the samples were tested for corrosion. In order to accelerate chemical corrosion, the test samples were placed in a mixture of concentrated acids-hydrochloric and nitric (HCl:HNO3 3:1) and kept for 1 h. To visually detect changes in the corrosion rate, we used the coefficient of intense corrosion *K*, which was defined as the relative mass loss *К* = (Δm/(m � τ)) � 100%.

Austenitization of steel №1 was performed in the standard way (annealing at 1050°C, holding for 30 min, followed by quenching in water). After such heat treatment, the steel №1 in the initial state was paramagnetic, ie single-phase (*A*) with a specific magnetic susceptibility of austenite χ0 = 2.81�10�8 m3 /kg.

Samples of №2 steel containing δ-ferrite in the initial state were not subjected to austenitization, i.e. in the initial state it was two-phase (*A* + *F*), which were tested after bending at an angle of 180°. After testing the samples with a length of 7 mm per bend, the amount of deformation martensite was distributed unevenly from the *Dependence of Corrosion Resistance of Austenitic Chromium-Nickel Steels on the Magnetic… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102388*

ends to the ribs. Therefore, the average value of the amount of α0 -martensite for the whole sample was approximated. Due to the fact that the low content of δ-ferrite is unevenly distributed over the width of the cold-rolled sheet in steel №2 [5] and in order to further average the results from different places were cut three, adjacent samples, which after averaging were assigned numbers 1...6.

Steel №1 was tested under uniaxial compression, and steel №2—under deformation by bending.