Shifting Dominant Narratives of Teacher Development: New Directions for Expanding Access to the Educator Workforce Through Grow Your Own Programs

Grow Your Own (GYO) programs are designed to recruit high school students, paraeducators, community organizers and parents, and/or career changers from the local community to join the educator workforce. When considering the nontraditional teacher pools that may enter the profession through GYO programs, commonly held assumptions about who teachers are, how they are developed, and what is most important for supporting their growth are challenged. This article reframes conventional narratives in teacher education by exploring the ways in which GYO programs offer counternarratives that reimagine teacher development by valuing (a) intersectional views of ethnoracial diversity, (b) resilience as an important teacher characteristic, (c) multiple modes of assessment as evidence of teacher learning, (d) ethnoracially diverse and community-based teacher educators, (e) culturally responsive pedagogy and place-based learning, and (f) local community school commitment.