A Genre-Literature Review Investigation: Improving Black & Brown Men Recruitment and Retention Rates in the Grow Your Own Program and College of Education Partners

Researchers for several years have investigated effective ways to increase the recruitment and retention rates of minority educators, specifically black-and-brown men. Without question, schools need this teaching population, particularly in urban public-school settings. Scholars assert that minority learners’ educational outcomes improve when they engage and interact with men of color (Burchinal, McCartney, Steinberg, Crosnoe, Friedman, McLoyd, & Pianta, 2011). Also, every student benefit from having more diversity in the classroom (Delpit, 2011; Foster, 2018). Researchers have indicated several effective ways to successfully recruit and transition these students from teaching programs into schoolhouses. Through qualitative and ethnographic data collection, scholars assert that effective intervention strategies and relational social and cultural connective approaches improve these teaching students’ chances of becoming effective classroom practitioners. The genre-literature review captures the importance of Grow Your Own and its partners, such as Northeastern Illinois, the University of Illinois at the Chicago Campus (UIC), and Chicago State University. The injection of responsive measures and approaches into their teaching programs will continue to advance men of color students’ pre-professional outcomes entering and succeeding in the teaching profession. 1. Problem Statement There remains a strong argument that having black and brown men as teachers improves the learning outcomes of minority students. Simply put, more diversity remains pertinent in classrooms (Wallace & Gagen, 2020; Gashman & Arroyo, 2014). As presented in this paper, critical literature reviews the

purpose of being relevant. The nature of high-quality relationships supports students' active existence and behaviors in social constructs. The Grow Your Own qualitative research (2020) highlighted this theorem's significance, suggesting that it remains pertinent for institutions to provide support systems such as mentoring to improve their academic and transitional outcomes. The study participants described engaging with instructors or practitioners who cared about them and offered numerous opportunities and interventions to achieve. As such, this made them feel good about learning and belonging in the classroom and program. They further claimed that it modeled the types of support and interventions they want to provide to their learners. Ultimately, responsive practices are critical for encouraging black-and-brown students to embrace the teaching profession and duplicate best practices.
Culturally responsive practices also remain vital to align teaching and learning practices to engage black-and-brown teacher candidates. Researchers note how HBCU offers African American students a unique experience of a shared history that provides an environment of support and high expectations for academic success (Wallace & Gagen, 2020;Gashman & Arroyo, 2014). The majority of institutions demonstrating success with high graduation rates for students of color from teaching college programs apply culturally responsive approaches. Participants in the Grow Your Own Study (2020) further captured this theoretical framing's usefulness, indicating how their arrival at college, particularly at predominantly white institutions, was often a culture shock. However, what helped them overcome this was having intrusive advisors and cultural advocates who cared about their success and promoted their well-being in their classes. Applying culturally responsive practices helps to diversify a curriculum to better engage and foster a supportive culture within teaching programs.

Pipeline Initiatives
Developing pipeline initiatives and supportive interventions with schools to intake black and brown men as student teachers and educators would help recruit and promote this teaching population. There is a strong belief that this would successfully nurture, support, and encourage men of color to become public school teachers.
A study conducted by Mejais and Burge (2020) reviewed that recruitment for black-and-brown males into education needs to start as early as high school or sooner to prepare them for becoming classroom teachers. Mejais and Burge explored a pre-college secondary approach to recruit men of color into S.T.E.M. programs, specifically computer science. The program successfully introduced black-and-brown men development of applying computer science and entrepreneurship by: (a) improving their perception of computer science and (b) efficacy-through success, participants' confidence in the program flourished. Several students went on to major in computer science attending college. Majais and Burge detailed the effectiveness of the #WatchMeCode and Hidden Genius programs that modeled and named for students how this could look for them working in this field.
Similarly, providing men of color with preservice teaching mentoring programs in high school, such as a teacher club, would nurture the young men's enthusiasm to view the teaching practice as a viable field of 3 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr Education, Language and Sociology Research Vol. 2, No. 2, 2021 study. The use of a teacher club within the feeder schools that GYO, NEIU, UIC, and Chicago State have a relationship with would be an excellent recruitment tool to promote male intrigue into the college of education. Majais and Burge pointed out that significantly strengthening this approach requires men of color as practitioners and academic advisors. This increases the male high schoolers' recruitment into teaching programs and promotes teaching a positive career path for male students of color.
Woodson and Bristol (2020) further discussed in a qualitative and ethnographic study how enacting preservice teaching recruitment programs are necessary to develop and mentor men of color in this professional field. Their research examined that students of color, particularly males, will not see a real connection with understanding the field's value without having models to represent the teaching profession. The authors believe having a corrective representation of male figures that counter racial discursive formations of what a male is and how they should act would debunk the "racially popularized viewpoint that black and brown boys are disengaged, disrespectful, unprepared, underperforming, and violent" (p. 295). Woodson and Bristol (2020) and Singh (2019) discuss how critical this is for school authority figures and Latino males who sometimes frame machismo with an effective disciplinarian and authority figure. A teacher club would emerge as restorative practices of re-engaging how males of color view effective teaching practices while providing targeted interventions and professional support mentoring this future teacher population.
A Grow Your Own qualitative research investigation conducted by the author and Lopez (2020)

Bridge Program
Developing sustainable and programmatic interventions within teacher college programs will edify black-and-brown men retention and employment rates into schoolhouses. Merging this construct into college education programs would effectively transition this population into schools that value their presence. Woodson and Bristol (2020) detail the significance of providing a nurturing and coaching environment within teaching programs to support this population extension into school domains. Their qualitative investigations professed the need for this preparatory system to strengthen their involvement with student organizations on campus, such as fraternities while building on relationships with existing educational institutions off-campus to empower men of color entry and transition into the academic profession. associations remains critical to recruiting men of color into the teaching profession. Such an initiative would also offer a network of sustainable academic support-services, like testing, to positively increase black-and-brown teacher transition rates. More than anything else, these programs require expansion into the schoolhouses and college teaching programs. Wallace and Gagen (2020) explored the impact of connecting teacher test-prep programs on mentor programs. They asserted having an incentivized test-prep program that pays for a few of the exams, particularly the entry and specialized skill tests, would promote and reward black-and-brown men for becoming a part of their college of education programs.
Streamlining supportive interventions with schools that intake this population of educators would advance their professional navigation and tenure. Wallace and Gagen continue this conversation asserting, With tuition assistance as a caveat, African American males can be attracted to teaching as a profession if there is the possibility of leaving with a degree and minimal or no debt. These funding sources must be comprehensive and varied. Although grants from federal and state governments are an option, relationship building with foundations, fraternal organizations, and educational associations is critical to diversify sources for scholarships (p. 420).
Providing financial assistance, similar to what Grow Your Own continues to practice, encourages men of color to enter the teaching workforce where student-loans will not exist as a debt burden. In some ways, this would appear like a terrific marketing opportunity and strategy for college education programs to recruit black-and-brown men.
Singh (2019) furthers this conversation of promoting men of color into education. He believes establishing incentive-based pay-scales, student loan-forgiveness, and quality guaranteed job placement 5 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr Education, Language and Sociology Research Vol. 2, No. 2, 2021 improve more men of color entering the profession. However, it remains critical to transition them into a school district or specific schools that demonstrate an effective retention rate for employing African American and Latinx populations. Moreover, that provides: ○ Quality professional development support systems and interventions to support and advance black and brown employees; ○ Culturally responsive frameworks that embrace and qualify diversity with the potential for growth and professional expansion.
For Singh, promulgating quality bridge programs and collaborating with existing school programs and organizations with a positive track record is essential to ensure this population's success in education. As well, Walker, Goings, Wilkerson (2019) believe that teacher programs' recruitment and retention plans must: ○ Develop a better understanding of the existing campus culture for men of color and how the school will best support them; ○ Provide guidance, encouragement, and opportunities to succeed in existing frameworks; ○ Provide male mentors with effective classroom management and instructional delivery techniques to carry into the classroom environment during their practicum and student teaching experiences. More positive role models for minority teachers serve as a motivation for earning their teaching credentials. Dinkins and Thomas's (2016) qualitative study asserted that if schools are committed to intentionally increasing black-and-brown men in the classroom, they must provide financial support and scholarship incentives. As their study mentions, For many African American students without the benefit of college scholarships and grants to cover the costs of tuition, housing, textbooks, and teacher licensure fees, four years or more of accumulated student loan debt becomes overwhelming on a teaching salary. The participants in this study expressed considerable concern for the rising costs of college tuition while teachers' wages remained stagnant around the country.
Although teachers recognize that entering teaching will not allow them to become rich, there is a desire to live comfortably (p. 27).
Providing financial support and incentives remains critical to recruit and retain men of color in education.
Author and Lopez's Grow Your Own qualitative investigation (2020) further advanced the notion that economic challenges emerged as a hindrance and problem for Grow Your Own students to pay for their education. Many Grow Your Own scholars are hesitant to take out financial aid loans to assist their enrollment and school completion because they do not want to incur the debt. A participant described how financial difficulties were a factor in deciding whether or not to enter a teacher preparation program, stating: "I think the process of applying to different schools was some of the other schools that, say the Saint James University of Chicago I applied. I think Concordia also, I was going to apply to but their 6 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr Education, Language and Sociology Research Vol. 2, No. 2, 2021 tuition rates." Paying for college serves as a deterrent and problematic for participants to continue their schooling as they financially struggle. At the same time, they talked about how much they are thankful for Grow Your Own helping them acquire a scholarship to help pay for their college financial expenses to avoid taking out a student loan.
Based on these findings, the researcher strongly encourages developing a black-and-brown male cohort at Northeastern, the University of Illinois at Chicago Campus, and Chicago State obtained from Grow Your Own. The cohort would incorporate best practice strategies and financial incentives to retain and graduate students from their respective programs while conducting comparative research and study analysis to traditional students in the college of education to increase retention and transition rates.
Furthermore, the researcher recommends Grow Your Own utilize an alumni delegation, graduates who are educators, return to teach a few strategies to model, support, and promote student success in their programs and within Grow Your Own. The Grow Your Own alumni delegation will meet quarterly with support staff and administration to discuss and review the program's strategies to recruit and strengthen graduation outputs.

Institutional Male Identity Remapping
How schools view black and brown men to increase retention beyond the 5-years retention rate exist as an essential turning point (Author, 2020;Woodson & Bristol, 2020). As research suggests, retooling and revitalizing how schools incorporate black-and-brown men as intellectual practitioners determine their professional retention. In other words, when an educator feels valued and deemed an essential contributor to a school's success and culture, they have a propensity to want to continue to work in the field and give back to their profession as much as possible (Ali, 2019).
Unfortunately, as the literature reveals from Singh (2019), Woodson, and Bristol (2020), far too many schoolhouses view black-and-brown men as disciplinarians rather than intellectual stewards of their profession. Singh argues that it remains critical for school leadership to push back or apply countering racial discursive formations to utilize this population in the teaching field better. Indeed, a "cultural cookie-cutter" approach to how males' discipline or manage their classrooms requires rebuttal, especially as it relates to men of color "getting the children who look like them to behave properly." Singh reasserts this position by stating, "Heteropatriarchal assumptions require a constant denouncement of how black and brown masculine identity qualifies them as the primary disciplinarians" (p. 301). Even further, every male may not be heterosexual, which suggests that if they are not, why should they abide by a "male toxic" trope of managing students in the classroom. Singh continues to articulate this perspective suggesting that I define corrective representation as the discursive creation of the ideal male of color teacher subject. This discursive formation seeks to homogenize and propagate an essentialist notion of the male of color teacher, framing the cultural work done in the 7 classroom as always in relation to the imagined deficits in the boys of color he is delegated to control and discipline (p. 299).
Far too many black-and-brown male educators become employed to "discipline the children" who look like them instead of hiring them as intellectual practitioners. As such, their adherence to this perceived role inevitably steers them away from the profession.
Precisely, Latino male teachers must navigate and diffuse cultural pressures surrounding Latino masculinity's enactments. In his research, Singh (2019)  The author and Lopez (2020), in their Grow Your Own qualitative study, diagnosed this same occurrence as it relates to how Latino teaching students perceived their role in the classroom. Participants asserted that in terms of their gender roles, teacher preparation programs, and the schoolhouses they have either observed or performed, their practicum is primarily women. At times, they felt either isolated because of this or believed they had to redefine their masculinity. Thereby, it became imperative for them to balance positive modeling while debunking corrective representation notions tied explicitly to their students. One of the participants described this gender norming struggle, stating: I feel like I have to speak in a language that everyone can access, but there's a lot lost in translation in speaking that language. Because they don't know your experience, so The way men of color address their male identity in the schoolhouse, even with how they communicate to their peers and students, is a constant reflection and reminder of their teaching roles. Also, they must remain clear about how to debunk heteropatriarchal positions when teaching black and brown boys.
Indeed, it remains too hard to abide by gender tropes because it devalues these teachers' essential role as classroom educators (Young & Young, 2020). As the scholars Young and Young (2020)  suggest that gender stigma frames how and why schools ultimately hire black-and-brown men and view themselves in this field. Young and Young go on to mention in their study: • There are far fewer calls for Black males to teach in suburban schools or to teach in programs that traditionally serve white students; • Examination of over 300 elementary school job applications revealed that male applicants were rated as more likely to be gay, considered a more significant safety threat, and perceived less likable (but not less hirable) than their female peers; • The negative gender stigmas associated with male teachers are most noticeable in the early grades.

Advance the Recruitment and Retention Rates for Black-and-Brown Teaching Candidates
Diffusing these discursive racialized and gender archetypes remains vital to shift how schools view black-and-brown men, specifically when they employ them. Without critiquing and redirecting how school systems view this teaching population, fewer educators will stick around beyond 5-years (Singh, 2019;Woodson & Bristol, 2020). This means schools must build capacity with this population, which will counter racial discursive formations. Also, infuse positive balancing models to debunk corrective representation notions.
Grow Your Own, and their collegiate partners need to collaborate with schools and districts that mean well and have a good track record of employing men of color that nurture and promote their pedagogical progress, tenure, and intellectual impact on the profession. Just sending black-and-brown men to district schools hoping they will employ mentoring approaches, culturally responsive practices, and systems that bolster their role as social agents and advocates is not enough. Specific and targeted interventions and professional support that mentor this teacher population will advance the way schools view black and brown men as pedagogical practitioners and intellectual advocates versus primary disciplinarians.
Woodson and Bristol (2020) assert that the most effective way to counter this deficit model is to apply a critical borderlands pedagogy. A philosophical approach that shifts hegemonic power by critiquing internal and traditional structures and reframes how schools function employing black and brown populations.
The author (2021) further believes schools need to modify the evaluation process, the Danielson Framework, which often restricts first to third-year teachers from obtaining tenure in a school district. As the author declares, Mainly, the first three years of an educator's life exist under extreme pressures to quickly master their industry's professional standards to obtain tenure. How an educator manages their classroom while also buttressing student outcomes on standardized benchmarks often determine their professional longevity in education.
Greater scrutiny and micromanaging exist for educators evaluated by a scripted formula and rubric to assess their teaching effectiveness (p. 7).
Without applying measurable criteria and best practice benchmarks that support this teaching population tenure, too many of them will burn out and not impact the profession. How school districts choose to modify their evaluation protocols and terminate the "old way of doing things" addressing and working with this population must occur if schools are serious about having black-and-brown men in their classrooms.

Summary
The way society and schoolhouses view black-and-brown men require drastic changes to buttress this population into classrooms. Fostering necessary restructuring to shift how schools perceive black and brown males while promoting interventions that strengthen their pedagogical skills remains urgent to increase their school retention rates beyond 5-years. Mentoring-based initiatives that start as early as high school with financial incentives would restore how black and brown men perceive education and retain employment. Simply pushing this population through teacher programs is not enough to ensure they will impact the students they will encounter nor the profession they decided to become employed.
Institutional shifting must adopt cultural paradigms in schools that comprehend black and brown men as practitioners and not primarily disciplinarians. As Dickins and Thomas (2016) profess, "If schools only envision these teachers' roles as one dimensional, they run the risk of enclosing and delimiting their pedagogical potential" (p. 34). Grow Your Own should collaborate with its college of education associates and build connections and capacity with school districts that believe in these same mission statements to nurture, affirm, and recognize the necessity of this population existing in schoolhouses. 10 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr

Method:
The stories addressing the motivations and support utilized by African American males to overcome negative societal perceptions and racist stereotypes are absent from the data: (a) Eleven of the 12 questionnaire respondents completed the consent form and participated in the structured interview process- The key themes were financial, cultural, and social aspects related to the research questions that addressed the barriers, motivations, or supports affecting the completion of a teacher preparation program for African American male educators.
(c) Most of the participants taught at the secondary level, with four in special education, two in mathematics, one in science, one in career and technical education, one in physical education and health, and one in Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC).
The single elementary-level educator taught in a prekindergarten classroom setting.

Themes:
Recruitment and retention plan with intervention strategies support students' growth and development, which includes: (a) developing a better understanding of the existing campus culture; (a) Participants noted that professors took the time to provide guidance, encouragement, and opportunities for initial licensure examination preparation  ○ African American male students must be provided with a steady flow of positive images supplied by the men of color within their classrooms and communities.
(b) Second, teacher education professors need to strengthen their involvement with student organizations on campus to promote teaching as a viable option for degree attainment, particularly with students identified as undeclared majors.
(c) With tuition assistance as a caveat, African American males can be attracted to teaching as a profession if there is the possibility of leaving with a degree and minimal or no debt. These funding sources must be comprehensive and varied.
Although grants from federal and state governments are an option, relationship building with foundations, fraternal organizations, and educational associations is critical to diversify sources for scholarships.
(d) Peer support is a source of motivation and can play a crucial role in program completion. A living and learning community for education majors is a viable option for retaining students in teacher preparation programs.

Barrier(s):
○ Although it was of no surprise to the research team, teacher licensure examinations are a significant barrier to teacher preparation program completion. Only three of the 11 participants passed all required tests on their first attempt. All participants felt these examinations needed to be addressed early in the program, and subject area licensure examination content needs to be routinely emphasized in relevant courses.
○ For many African American students without the benefit of college scholarships and grants to cover the costs of tuition, housing, textbooks, and teacher licensure fees, four years or more of accumulated student loan debt becomes overwhelming on a teaching salary. The participants in this study expressed considerable concern for the rising costs of college tuition while teachers' wages remained stagnant around the country. Although teachers recognize that entering teaching is not going to allow them to become rich, there is a desire to live comfortably. (2014)  ○ "Participant 004 shared an encounter with one of his professors that provided him with the motivation to complete his degree. "It was Education 101 or something like that, and he kind of pressed the importance of a good teacher."

Quotes: ○ Gasman and Arroyo
○ As Shook (2012) noted, positive student-teacher relationships enhance students' learning experience through a willingness to focus on instruction and a reduction in off-task behaviors during the delivery of education.
○ Participant 009 emphatically stated, "You're a role model, and you're here to set them straight. As an African American male, to me, you have to embrace the role model issue.  Vol. 2, No. 2, 2021 specific to racialized Latino men in the United States." • Some students perceived these teachers as "other fathers," who were able to provide a "combination of tough love, discipline, and caring," which "proved to be a winning combination" for students (p. 2517).
• The boys often ritualized physical contests among one another in hopes of imitating popular representations of athletic and robust masculinity and frequently enjoyed touching their newly forming bicep muscles and shadow boxing with one another.

Theory:
Critical Race Theory-counter corrective representation; Countering the deficit model.

Research Questions:
• What work do we perform when we step on campus, and in the service for who?
• Does our 'manly' performance as educators replace structural critique for patriarchal solutions?
• How do we navigate our own identities in a way that functions to not correct or fix Latino boys but rather opens the signifier Latino, or Latinx, to more liberatory possibilities for all communities?

Method:
Qualitative-ethnographic case studyone round of interviews was conducted during each of the two school years of the research. Twelve students were interviewed at least once, with four of them having follow-up interviews in the second school year.
Student interviews took place in an empty classroom of EBMS. They were semi-structured and generally lasted 30 minutes each.    Vol. 2, No. 2, 2021 (Crenshaw 2016).
• • "When they're in trouble, people come to me and say 'one of your boys' did this, or 'did 24 • Socially and culturally relevant pedagogy has helped students relate to a topic and create a more in-depth understanding.
• Design Thinking was a skilled activity introduced that focused the students on producing and research their findings critically.
They also learned to provide constructive criticism to other groups about the layout and design of their projects.
• • There was also socioeconomic diversity during the participants' childhood and adolescence, ranging from being upper-middle-class to living with a single mother and relying on government assistance. While seven participants were born in Boston or its environs, the majority were Boston transplants: They were born and raised in several cities across the United States and the African Diaspora (e.g., the Caribbean and West Africa).
All schools and participants were given pseudonyms to protect their identity.
• Etic (within the social group) and emic coding (without or outside perspectives)

Themes:
• The Black male teachers described how their colleagues expected them to redirect student misbehavior (De facto Disciplinarian) • it is essential to examine the organizational conditions in which they teach.-"Learning how to walk the fine line." • administrators positioned them to serve as disciplinarians first and educators second.
• Reviews the theory-universal carceral apparatus: Shedd posited that in the name of social justice and protecting youth of color from perceived and credible threats, urban public schools have adopted and made commonplace the apparatus used in carceral institutions.
• The notion of the pedagogical kind-type of educator whose subjectivities, pedagogies, and expectations have been set in place before evident why we were chosen for those roles.
• He worked to improve classroom practices that would mitigate misbehavior. Sangster recalled attending a summer professional development session on classroom management-treated his class as a "house" and worked to ensure that students felt they were part of a "family." • "If schools only envision these teachers' roles as one dimensional, they run the risk of enclosing and delimiting their pedagogical potential." 32