Affection as Revelation: Teachers’ Assumptions About the Lives of Young Children of Immigrants

• In Event: Which Public Do Public Schools Serve? Critical Ethnographic Perspectives on Home-School Connections in Schooling

Abstract

Young children of immigrants are increasingly part of early childhood programs in the U.S. but teachers’ have mixed attitudes about the immigrant families they work with. This presentation outlines findings from a critical analysis of preschool teachers’ perceptions about affection for young children of immigrants and demonstrates how teachers’ approaches to affection can be directly linked to their assumptions about immigrant family life. Using ethnographic focus group interview data with 45 teachers from five U.S. cities, I argue that a teacher’s motivation to be affectionate with a child from an immigrant family and their motivation to adhere to best practices can reveal teachers’ sometimes troubling assumptions about immigrant families and communities.

The ethnographic interview data analyzed for this presentation comes from the larger Children Crossing Borders study; a multi-vocal ethnographic study of preschool teachers and immigrant parents in five countries. The teachers and cities included in this analysis are male and female, immigrant and nonimmigrant, experienced and novice and monolingual and multilingual, with different connections to and histories of immigration. After focus group transcripts were collected, transcribed, translated, and coded, they were analyzed using a qualitative coding software and close readings. They were analyzed collectively as preschool teachers working with immigrant families in the U.S., and then comparatively first by city and then by immigrant or nonimmigrant status.

Using a critical race theoretical framework and informed by work on immigration by scholars like Santa Ana, Valdez, and Arzubiaga this comparative analysis reveals strong differences among the types of assumptions immigrant and nonimmigrant teachers make about immigrant families and immigrant family life. Immigrant teachers told us that they showed affection to connect and build upon the affection children of immigrants received in their homes. Nonimmigrant teachers reported that they were affectionate to compensate for what children of immigrants did not receive in their homes. These differences relate to the type and depth of experience teachers had with immigrant families and the immigrant communities in the cities and towns they lived in. When teachers had more experience with immigrant parents and more strategies to include parents in classroom life, they tended to assume that children’s home lives were warm, affectionate places. When teachers did not have such a level of experience with immigrant parents, they assumed many children did not get affection at home.

The findings from this analysis counter colorblind assertions that are articulated by many preschool teachers in our study (and, as the literature points out, at all levels of schooling) by demonstrating that even if teachers do treat all children the same, they most likely do not think of them the same. Findings imply that 1) teachers need to be reflective not only about pedagogy but the motivations and assumptions driving one’s pedagogy and 2) limited experience with immigrant families and communities contributes to problematic assumptions that ultimately distance, rather than connect, schools and immigrant communities. This presentation is meant for scholars and early childhood educators concerned about the treatment and success of young children of immigrants in school.

Author

• Jennifer Keys Adair, The University of Texas - Austin