Travis Bristol Joins GSE Faculty

May 30, 2018

TRAVIS BRISTOL, a Peter Paul Assistant Professor in English education at Boston University, has been appointed assistant professor here at Berkeley. 

Bristol, whose position at BU includes an affiliation in educational leadership and policy studies, begins his appointment at Berkeley on July 1, 2018. 

What attracted him to Berkeley’s GSE is its unyielding commitment to educational equity. 

“I’m excited to be part of both the university and the GSE, particularly for their history of speaking up and out against policies and practices that keep historically disenfranchised individuals and groups at the margins,” he said. 

His dissertation, “Men of the Classroom: An Exploration of how the Organizational Conditions, Characteristics, and Dynamics in Schools Affect the Recruitment, Experiences, and Retention of Black Male Teachers,” draws on a theory of numbers and group composition, and uses a phenomenological study with semi-structured interviews and participant observations of Black male teachers in 14 schools in one urban school district.

Bristol’s research explores national, state, and local education policies that enable and constrain the workplace experiences and retention for teachers of color. “I want my research to inform education policy and to shape teacher practice,” he said. 

A former New York City public high school English teacher and clinical teacher educator with the Boston Teacher Residency program, Bristol has also worked as a World Bank consultant in Guyana, including supporting senior education officials in creating teacher professional development courses and assisting senior policy members in the Ministry of Education. 

He has received awards from the NAEd/ Spencer Foundation; Ford Foundation; and AERA (American Educational Research Association). In 2016, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education selected Bristol for its inaugural teacher diversity research award.

His research has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals, including the Urban Education; Urban Review; Gender and Education; Education Policy Analysis Archives; and the Journal for Multicultural Education

His professional activities include being on the editorial board of Urban Education; and the advisory board of the New York City Office of the Mayor Young Men’s Initiative. 

Bristol earned his A.B. in English at Amherst College; M.A. in Teaching of English at Stanford University; and Ph.D. in Education Policy at Columbia University.