Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/breaking-barriers-creating-a-college-pathway-for-latinx-spanish-speaking-early-learning-providers/5027166/
Our early learning educator community often does not reflect the rich and diverse tapestry of the communities it serves. The lack of teacher diversity is evident in K-12 classrooms as well as in the early learning workforce. In K-12 classrooms, 79 percent of teachers are white, non-Hispanic, 9.7 percent are Hispanic, 6.7 percent are Black and 2 percent are Asian (Schaeffer, 2020). Yet, the students are 47 percent white, non-Hispanic, 27 percent Hispanic and 15 percent Black. As we look specifically at early learning (birth-age 5), the demographics of the teacher workforce are more reflective of the children in their programs, with nearly 40 percent of early learning staff identified as a person of color (Whitebrook et al., 2018). However, early learning staff of color and those that are culturally and linguistically diverse may lack the resources and time to pursue a higher education certificate or degree.
Higher education institutions have an important role to play in recruitment of potential teachers and shaping our future educators to better reflect our nation’s communities to meet goals of diversity, equity and inclusion. In Oregon, as with many states across the nation, there has been a recent push for early learning providers to begin ...