What does the research say about the benefits of bringing teachers of color into our classrooms? Are teacher licensure exams creating barriers to enter the teaching profession - particularly for teachers of color? How might alternatives like community based assessments help bring in more aspiring teachers of color? We discuss these questions and much more with Emery Petchauer.

Emery Petchauer is an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. His research has focused on the aesthetic practices of urban arts, particularly hip-hop culture, and their connections to teaching, learning, and living. He is the author of Hip-Hop Culture in College Students’ Lives (Routledge, 2012), the first scholarly study of hip-hop culture on college campuses, and the co-editor of Schooling Hip-Hop: Expanding Hip-Hop Based Education Across the Curriculum (Teachers College Press, 2013).Dr. Petchauer also studies high-stakes teacher licensure exams and their relationship to the racial diversity of the teaching profession. Theories of social psychology and spatial studies inform this work, as do many years of working individually with preservice teachers to pass these exams. Dr. Petchauer has received teaching awards at both the high school and college levels, including the Board of Trustees Distinguished Teaching Award at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, the nation’s first Historically Black University.

His most recent book, Navigating Teacher Licensure Exams offers practical, empirically sourced insights into the high-stakes licensure exams required in most states for teacher certification. This unique resource foregrounds the experiences of diverse preservice teachers, including teachers of color, to understand how they organize their preparation efforts, overcome self-doubt and anxiety, and navigate the high-pressure space of this important testing event.