Gist Recognized for Work to Prepare, Support Teachers of Color in Schools

University Relations

Conra Gist

Conra Gist, University of Arkansas assistant professor of childhood education, was recently recognized for her work to prepare and support more teachers of color in their transition to the profession, through a project with the Chicago Public Schools, a book she wrote and leadership of a national teacher-educators' group.

Gist received a grant from the American Educational Research Association's Education Research Service Projects program. The program encourages education researchers to offer their expertise pro bono to educational organizations, institutions or other community groups. The program provides grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 to help defray costs of these projects.

Gist directs a pilot research study called Grow Your Own Community Voices Project that focuses on recruiting, preparing and retaining more teachers of color.

"An often-overlooked approach to increasing the pool of quality teachers is creating professional pipelines for people of color with deeply rooted investments in school communities to enter the teaching profession," Gist said. "One challenge for the program is conveying the value this subset of teachers adds to schools and local communities beyond student achievement gains."

The project is designed to support up to 40 teachers in one year with the potential of affecting at least 200 students in the Chicago Public Schools. One outcome of the project will be a collection of written testimonial portraits from teachers describing the ways they work to be change agents in their communities. The Grow Your Own Community Voices Project also was honored by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics Call to Action Committee.

Gist also received honorable mention from the Society of Professors of Education at AERA for her book, Preparing Teachers of Color to Teach: Culturally Responsive Teacher Education Programs in Theory and Practice published earlier this year by Palgrave.

Gist joined the faculty of the College of Education and Health Professions in the fall of 2012. She serves as chair of the Diversified Teacher Workforce Topical Action Group of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. She recently led a nationwide webinar on the group's work.