Impact of Teachers’ Racial Diversity on School Culture

Abstract

Leaders set the tone and the culture for their schools. The purpose of this phenomenology study is to examine how the increase in racial diversity among urban middle school teachers impacts the school's culture. The author utilized the Invitational Education model as a conceptual framework. The researcher conducted a total of 28 interviews with teachers, leaders, and students. Findings indicated that students were mostly the ones benefiting from the increase in racial diversity among teachers. Challenges pertained to the educators’ lack of cultural proficiency which negatively affected the school culture. This study contributes to the leadership literature and offers recommendations to leaders and policy makers.