Teacher A Responses to Interview Questionnaire 1. Have you always wanted to be a teacher? Explain your answer. I never "wanted" to be a teacher. My family's working-class background and

tight financial circumstances have always pressured my career interests. While teaching is not at all a lucrative profession, it was the most accessible option, given the opportunities I had growing up. The pressures of financial insecurity, model minority myth, and assimilating into American norms led me to be a perfectionist in school, acing all of my classes and helping peers and younger students with their work. I eventually became one of those teachers who thought that being a good student (and eventually loving being a student) meant I would automatically become a good teacher. My first few years as a teacher led me to a rude awakening of that correlation, but practice and training helped me become a better teacher. When I became politically conscious as an undergrad, I realized how different professions can lead to varying levels of worker exploitation, some worse than others, especially careers that weaponize and abuse knowledge production and dissemination. In college, I learned more about the power and importance of knowledge through language and literature, and while I know America's public and private educational systems are corrupt to their core, I found schools to be one of the few institutions that still had the potential to disrupt systems of oppression. 2. How many years have you been a teacher? I have been a teacher for four years and two months. 3. What motivates you to want and/or to continue to be a teacher? I am motivated to continue to be a teacher for three reasons: to continue refreshing my knowledge, to model for students healthy ways to cope with societal pressures, and to continue trying to disrupt systems of oppression by developing my students' political consciousness. 4. Share with me your experience in applying for jobs as a teacher. Talk about some experiences that really stood out to you. I never applied for public school teaching positions since I have always worked in private independent schools. Applying for private school positions was relatively easy because my undergrad granted me the privilege to access networks already established with my college. There were several well-known placement companies at my college's job fair that applied on my behalf and connected me to prestigious private K-12 schools throughout the nation and in international schools. My educational capital and social capital through networking, as well as institutions' ability to tokenize my Asian American positionality, made my experience of first applying to jobs easy. When I started applying for my second teaching job, I remained an attractive option because I accumulated more educational capital by earning my Master's degree through an independent teaching fellow program at a prestigious graduate school, including two years of teaching at a prestigious private high school. The actual interview process itself each time I applied for jobs was again pretty smooth because I had placement companies represent me and solid references from professors at my undergrad or colleagues at my first private school job. 5. What are some elements that influenced your decision to become a teacher? As previously mentioned, pressures to find an accessible career to manage my financial insecurities, market my skills as a good student and tutor, and aspire to radically disrupt systems of oppression through an institution that values or at least recognizes the power and importance of knowledge production influenced my decision to become a teacher. 6. What is your opinion about the teacher shortages in the state of New Jersey? I don't know how teacher shortages in NJ are that much different from the national shortage of teachers that has been happening for quite a long time. Going back to my earlier point that teaching is not a lucrative profession, the nation consistently and strategically underfunds education, which ultimately undermines teachers and the importance of education in the eyes of the State. Instead of funding basic human rights such as education, health care, minimum wage, etc., the State is more interested in funding the military-industrial complex, the prison- industrial complex, and other institutions that uphold the agenda of white imperialist capitalist supremacist heteropatriarchy. Schools, whether controlled by the State (public schools) or by trustees and paying families (private schools), are tools of these larger systems that treat education as a means to protect the interests of the racially and economically elite. Education is a capital, after all. Schools maintaining the privileges of education for the elite comes at the expense of many teachers trying to teach for all. Moreover, unlike public schools, private schools do not allow teachers to join unions, so teachers are further disempowered and vulnerable to worker exploitation. Lack of proper compensation that keeps up with rising living costs is a big part of undermining teacher morale. On top of that, the covert and/or overt preferences for political agendas that maintain systems of oppression suppress and silence teachers who think differently. As a result, many teachers are forced to compromise or suppress their identities, their values, and their morals in order to survive at school or leave. I believe these critiques make my opinion about teacher shortages crystal clear. 7. Do you feel that there is really a teacher shortage or a "White" teacher shortage? Why or why not? I think there's always been a shortage of teachers of marginalized or minoritized identities, especially in terms of racial and gender identities. Straight white women have predominantly filled teaching positions throughout history. Rarely have we seen the same level of representation of, say, Black teachers or gay teachers. So I think it's interesting to note the difference between just any teacher shortage and specifically white teacher shortage. I'd push that question further and invite a gender lens on this "shortage” issue, too. But, yes, I've seen on social media many straight-presenting white women teachers leaving the profession, especially during and after COVID. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic exposed and exacerbated problems that have always existed in educational institutions. As such, I know many teachers are understandably exiting the profession because they are burned out by escalating exploitation in the educational system: lack of humanizing compensation, suppression of progressive politics, underfunded schools, and more. 8. New Jersey is looking to diversify the teacher workforce. What are your thoughts on it? Diversity means nothing if the goal is to hire and not retain teachers who will "diversify" the workforce. What does it also mean to hire teachers into institutions built to be exclusionary, especially of the identities of teachers who tend to be seen as "diverse?" Is the root of the problem the lack of diverse representation at the table or the exclusionary table itself? What does it mean to have diverse representation among teachers but no diverse representation among those who control and fund educational institutions? Diversity is merely a tool for the powerful elite to perform progressive politics without engaging in deep, institutional change that aligns with their performative politics. That said, would we be better off without diverse representation if diverse representation doesn't address the deep-seated corruption in educational institutions? Of course not. But, I caution against anyone being too easily satisfied by surface-level, performative changes if they even get a chance to happen. Returning to my point about the importance of retaining teachers who "diversify" the workforce, if there is a constant turnover of teachers who tend to be from marginalized or minoritized identities, diversifying the teacher workforce is just the beginning of the long, hard work of equity and justice that needs to happen. 9. What would you have changed if you were to choose the teaching profession? In addition, if you decide to change careers? I've already chosen the teaching profession for now, so I suppose what I would change or continue to try changing is my own knowledge and my students' political consciousness. I've given up on trying to change schools from an institutional standpoint because these institutions were built to be exclusionary and will always act to protect their exclusionary interests, and if they were to change according to my interests, the institutions would need to destroy themselves and become something else entirely that does not exist in our world yet. If I were to change careers, which is a constant thought, I would...still change my own knowledge by refreshing it with new information or ways of thinking, as well as change the political consciousness of those around me. 10. Do you find the teaching profession to be an underrated career? Why or why not? Teaching is underrated because of harmful and false perceptions that teaching is not a skilled profession. Teaching is underrated because of the true perception that teaching is not lucrative. Teaching is underrated because educational institutions actively prevent and fail to retain teachers of marginalized and minoritized identities. Teaching is underrated because the State refuses to invest in basic human rights. Teaching is underrated because the powerful elite controlling educational institutions suppress progressive politics and protect unjust politics. Teaching is NOT underrated because there have always been and will always be brave and empathetic people who sacrifice themselves to corrupt capitalistic institutions called schools out of their love for working with students, spreading their passions, and cultivating communities that value learning. Teacher B Interview Questions/Questionnaire 1. Have you always wanted to be a teacher? yes 2. How many years have you been a teacher? 16 years 3. What motivates you to continue to be a teacher? I'm not teaching now. I switch career, I'm an RN now. 4. Share with me your experience in applying for jobs as a teacher. Talk about some experiences that really stood out to you. I was hired as a math teacher directly from the Philippines. I was interviewed by the New York City Board of Education and got the job to teach grade 7-12 math. It was under an agency that hired Filipino teachers in the Philippines. I was assigned to teach in Brooklyn during my first 2 years. My first year was a senior math, but my 2nd year was a grade 7 math where there were so many behaviour issues with the students and I felt that I did not get enough support from the administration. While in the middle of my 2nd year, I took the PRAXIS test in NJ and by God's grace I passed. During the summer, I applied to different schools in NJ hoping that they would sponsor me for a work visa. Then again, by God's provision, I was hired to teach at Orange High School where they did my sponsorship to work legally for the next 4 years. (work visa is 6 years max). The school and students were a bit better than my previous 2 schools. But then the principal of that school who was very kind died and he got replaced by the principal from NYC who knew me and he was so prejudiced about me. He even told the math supervisor why she hired me. The math supervisor reassured me that that she would help me because she knew that I was a good teacher. I finished my 4 year teaching contract there but my papers for green card application was delayed and would take more years to be approved. By the way, while on my 2nd year of teaching in NJ, I went to nursing school in Manhattan after work and during the weekend s. I finished my program and passed the NCLEX. At the same time too, I applied for Canadian immigration. After my 4 year term in the school, the HR rehired me, but I couldn't stay due to my immigration status. 5. What are some elements that influenced your decision to become a teacher? It was my first choice as I really needed to he my family. 6. What is your opinion about the teacher shortages in the state of New Jersey? No opinion 7. Do you feel that there is really a teacher shortage or a "white" teacher shortage? Why or why not? Based on my experiencec in NYC, no locals would want to teach in difficult schools. Local teachers go to affluent neighborhoods/communities when students have good home life./n