Innovative Approaches

James Greenwood is on a mission to root out a myth. Many schools believe that they cannot hire diverse faculty because there aren’t enough people of color as candidates, but Greenwood says that’s just not true.

 “Of course people are going to say we’re committed to diversifying our faculty, we just don’t know how,” Greenwood said during a recent interview. “Inherent in that, there’s this myth out there that the candidates just aren’t out there.”

In response, Greenwood often asks school administrators, “Are you looking in the right place? Do you know where to look and what you’re looking for?”

To help administrators navigate the ever-changing landscape of diversity, Greenwood and a fellow diversity expert recently wrote an article that provided school recruiting tips. The article was featured in the winter edition of Independent School magazine.

 “Changing the Face of the Academy: Innovative Approaches to Faculty Recruitment,” which Greenwood co-wrote with colleague Ara C. Brown, offers advice such as: “set goals that make diversity a priority,” “review your school’s interview process,” and “understand how people of color search for jobs within independent schools.”

Greenwood and Brown have a long and storied experience in the faculty recruitment arena, both having worked on diversity initiatives at Williston Northampton School.

While at Williston, the two men began creating diversity issue workshops for such groups as the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and the Association Independent Schools in New England (AISNE). Their collaboration continued, even after Greenwood moved from Williston to Northfield Mount Hermon.

One turning point in their research occurred when Greenwood and Brown followed up a diversity conference by surveying the participants. They asked how people of color had found jobs at independent schools. Based on the survey responses, Greenwood and Brown retooled their presentations. They then began the cycle again with a new round of surveys.

During one of the workshop planning sessions, Greenwood and Brown realized they had enough information to publish an article on diversity hiring. So began a year of batting drafts back and forth and another year of editing by the Independent School magazine staff. Initially slotted for the Fall 2009 issue, the article was delayed until the Winter 2010 edition so that it could be paired with “Bias Among the Well-Intentioned,” an article by Christine Savini.

The work of Greenwood and Brown was not limited to what they wrote down on paper, though. The men have also begun a video project to record their interviews. Some of the stories were so powerful, that Greenwood and Brown felt they should be reaching a wider audience. The two decided to create a documentary around the experiences of people of color at independent schools.

“We’ve been going around New England and around the country to some extent, actually interviewing people and videotaping those interviews,” Greenwood said.

Brown and Greenwood plan to use the video as a teaching tool and possibly eventually screen it at film festivals. Greenwood said the project has attracted the help and talents educators from Brooklyn Friends School and Beacon Academy in Boston.  The film, said Greenwood, is an ongoing project that he hopes to combine eventually with a follow-up article in Independent School magazine.

In the meantime, though, Greenwood said he hopes school administrators start paying attention to the makeup of their faculty body and the tools they can use to diversify it.

“For many schools, it’s something that they’ve been talking about for awhile, but have had mixed success with actually accomplishing,” he said. “The larger hope is that people can use [the article and film] in their quest to make their schools more diverse and representative and equitable.”