UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In many ways, Brandon Reed-Porter has stood out among his peers.
In elementary school, he was part of the first classes at Infinity Charter School near Harrisburg, a school for gifted children in kindergarten through eighth grade. Despite spending his high school years at a small, academically underachieving public school in Dauphin County, he graduated from the Penn State College of Education with two degrees.
However, it is Reed-Porter’s current role in which he perhaps stands out most of all, mostly because he is a rarity — a Black male elementary school teacher who has returned to Infinity Charter.
That Reed-Porter chose the career path he did — his classroom consists of third- and fourth-grade students — makes him quite uncommon. According to a national survey of teachers and principals published by the National Center for Education Statistics, as of the 2017-18 school year, just 7% of all U.S. teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade identify as Black and non-Hispanic and only 1.7% as Black, non-Hispanic males. Fewer yet are working as elementary school teachers.
As a result, Reed-Porter finds himself serving as a role model — for his students, yes, but particularly for others like him who may want to pursue a career in education.
He does not take the responsibility lightly.
“When the students see me and hear me speak and respect that I know what I’m talking about, that in itself is impacting the future because in me, being a Black man, they can see an educated Black man,” Reed-Porter said. “They can know Black men aren’t just whatever it is that we see on TV. Black men aren’t just whatever it is we might see around us in our everyday life.
“I would say I feel pressure more than an average teacher,” he continued. “But I would say that’s probably the case for most people who are unique or rare in their field. You feel pressure to try to speak for everyone and you know that’s impossible. I can’t be the voice for every Black person, every Black man. But I do feel a sense of obligation to show students what an educated man can look like.”
To say there are obstacles any Black male would-be educator faces when trying to break into the field would be an understatement. Some are those facing nearly everyone in education, such as a lack of resources and recent heightening of outside political pressure on educators. But those working to increase diversity say there are unique challenges faced by members of minoritized groups.
Seria Chatters, an adjunct associate teaching professor and assistant vice provost of educational equity at Penn State who recently served as director of equity and inclusivity for the State College Area School District, said that while few places are actively trying to exclude anyone, inequality can stem from the hiring process itself.
“I think that we have a long way to go in our communities when it comes to becoming more aware of discrimination that may occur within employment and we need to work toward really revamping our systems to ensure that our systems are not working against us,” Chatters said. “Because it doesn’t matter how much training you do with people, if our systems are the same way that we’ve been hiring and doing business for decades, we cannot expect the old system to give us brand new results.”
Chatters said that even something as simple as the way a job posting is worded can make the difference between someone choosing to apply and not. But, she said, Penn State is actively working to eliminate unconscious bias by including people trained to look for it on hiring teams.
“I think something that Penn State has been doing that I think is great and I’m hoping that school districts pick up is they have been doing diversity, equity and inclusion training for teams that are participating in the search process,” she said. “I think this is really important because you do need someone on each team that’s helping to keep the individuals that are doing the interviewing aware of when bias is slipping in, because it can happen to all of us.
“I think another important aspect of bias and discrimination, that I am hopeful companies understand, is that the bias and the discrimination that happens in society, that people of color, people with disabilities are experiencing, can sometimes stem from multiple different directions,” Chatters continued. “We as a system need to start doing a better job of letting these individuals know we want you, and we know that you will do well here. Because sometimes you don’t see yourself, so you say, ‘Maybe I don’t belong here.’ But each of us can be the mirror someone else needs to see themselves and know it is possible for them to be an educator, and that’s really important.”
Despite the obstacles, Reed-Porter is committed to not only providing an example for his students but hopes that by dispelling the notion only certain types of people can be teachers, no student will be discouraged from seeking a career in education.
“We need people who care about improving the reality that we are currently in and especially Black men, we need men in this field,” Reed-Porter said. “We need people of color in this field. We need diverse individuals so people can look up and see and say, ‘I can be anything that I want to be.’ It’s not just people of color and it’s not just men that we need. We need a broad spectrum of perspectives, of people that children can look up to and say ‘I want to be like that.’”