<p>I think this would be really hard at a public school, but easier at a private/independent school. In fact, many independent schools would encourage it.</p>
<p>An alternative to you is to teach at a community college. You would also be working with a very varied group of people, and there’s honestly not a huge difference between high school seniors and college freshmen. Community college teachers are not expected to do much research, and many of them have very heavy teaching loads (4/4, which means 4 classes per semester). But they generally have access to more resources to do research, and their time is structured in such a way that it might be easier to do some. You can teach at a community college with an MA, although for some in more competitive job markets you may need a PhD to be competitive.</p>
<p>I also think if you taught at less selective four-colleges you’d get the kind of experience you want - students from varied backgrounds (including students of color and students who are kind of disinterested or lost) plus perhaps more time and resources to do research. I’m thinking of like regional state colleges and four-year colleges that have nearly open admissions - they range in selectivity, from places like Cal Poly Pomona to Middle Georgia State College. You would need a PhD to be competitive for jobs at these places.</p>
<p>A third option is to have a mostly-research day job (like at a pharmaceutical company or research institute. or whatever) but teach community college classes in the evening.</p>