SAN ANTONIO – A group of educators are hoping to diversify the teacher pipeline and inspire San Antonio students along the way.
Benjamin Garcia is a teacher at KIPP University Prep High School and a member of the Male Teachers of Color Collaborative.
“We’re just trying to bring more awareness about the issue of not having enough male teachers of color in the classroom. I believe that students need that representation in the classroom,” Garcia said.
According to the Texas Education Agency, in the 2022-2023 school year, 75% of teachers were female and 25% were male. Of those male teachers, data shows 53% were White, 30% were Hispanic and 14% were Black.
Dalia Flores Contreras is the CEO of the nonprofit City Education Partners that focuses on ensuring that every child in the urban core has access to high quality school. The nonprofit helped bring educators like Garcia together to form the collaborative.
“We know representation matters. So when we were making investments in the talent pipeline, we said we need to have some specific investments and a focus on increasing the number of male teachers of color in our classroom,” Flores Contreras said.
Currently there are about 11 members in the group.
The group consists of teachers from K-12th grades from different schools.
In July, the collaborative hosted a conference and over 100 educators attended.
“We invited everybody. Every male teacher of color from the city to come out to our conference. We had several panels on what it’s like to be a male teacher of color,” Garcia said.
Garcia welcomes others to join the collaborative.
“We want to be able for you to be a mentor to other teachers or to students in the classroom. Like we believe that you can do it and we need you,” Garcia said.