NASHVILLE, Tenn.
Minority teachers are underrepresented at theological schools and need more financial help and encouragement to become faculty, according to a prominent group of scholars dedicated to improving religious education.
Most teachers at theological schools are White men, and more than a third of the 253 U.S. and Canadian theological schools accredited by the Association of Theological Schools report they don't even have a minority on their faculty.
Theology scholars from across the United States gathered this past weekend at Vanderbilt University for a meeting of the Fund for Theological Education, an Atlanta-based advocacy group that aims to grow the number of minorities in teaching positions at theological schools.
“The diversity deficit in this discipline remains pervasive and student-scholars are on a road that is often long and lonely,” said Dr. Sharon Watson Fluker, vice president of doctoral programs and administration for the fund.
There has been a slight increase recently in the number of minority faculty in theological schools. But of the 3,676 total faculty who teach at schools accredited by the Association of Theological Schools, 3,028 are White and 2,339 of those are men.
Dr. Daniel Aleshire, executive director of the association, notes that about 31 percent of theological school students are minorities compared with 17 percent of faculty. About one in three U.S. residents is a minority, according to the Census Bureau.
