Mission Statement

The Teacher Diversity Project aims to identify, recruit and support students who are ethnically, racially, linguistically, and culturally under-represented in the teaching profession who might be interested in exploring careers in education. This includes students with special needs and students from low-income backgrounds. The goal of the project is to recruit and prepare teachers who “mirror” the diverse student population in the schools we serve in the local communities around CSUCI, particularly in the areas of Science, Mathematics and Bilingual Education.

We believe that teachers from diverse backgrounds can serve as role models for their students, communicate in multiple ways with their students, serve as cultural mediators, employ a culturally-sensitive curriculum, reduce the potential for discriminatory practices against students of color, and close the gap between communities/parents and the school.

The Teacher Diversity Project works to attract future K-12 teachers from environments where teaching has not been a common career goal and that make California’s teaching workforce more inclusive. It has not, cannot, and will not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, national origin, disability, or sexual orientation.