The racist architecture of the teacher workforce: pushing out Latina educators—Black women in the frame

While the underrepresentation of Latina educators in U.S. schools is often framed as a matter of individual attrition, this study examines how racialised professional conditions produce systemic pushout. Drawing on the collective participation of seven Latina educators in a two-year Professional Learning Community (PLC), we centre pláticas—relational, reflexive dialogues grounded in Latina feminist epistemologies—as both method and praxis. Analytic interpretation was informed by multiple racialised standpoints within the research team, foregrounding structural analysis rather than representational generalisation. Guided by Critical Race Theory and the politics of belonging and informed by antiracist perspectives on the racialised architecture of the teacher workforce, we analyse emotional ‘hot points’ across sustained conversations to identify five interlocking mechanisms of exclusion: conditional inclusion, cultural taxation, intersectional fatigue, pedagogical gatekeeping, and relational resistance. Findings show that these dynamics are embedded within institutional norms, evaluation practices, and leadership structures rather than isolated interpersonal interactions. We argue that Latina educators’ departure from the profession reflects not a lack of commitment or resilience, but the cumulative effects of a racist professional architecture that extracts labour while constraining legitimacy and sustainability.