How Border Pedagogies Complicate Internationalization of Teacher Education: Voices of Latina Teachers From the U.S.-Mexico Border

• In Event: Impactful Practices for Internationalizing Teacher Education

Abstract

Objectives
Teacher education programs are faced with competing visions of how to prepare teachers with an international mind-set for teaching increasingly diverse K-12 student populations. The ideology of making America great again by building the border wall and curbing immigration is contested by the push to cross geographical borders, globalize economies, and internationalize education for bringing diverse communities together as a move toward social justice. This ideological divide is intensified at the US-Mexico border, an international space, yet one that is absent in the discourse of internationalization in teacher education. Working out of this tension, this study examined the following questions: How do Latina teachers’ at the US-Mexico border use border pedagogies to complicate internationalization of teacher education? What are the pedagogical implications of border pedagogies for teacher preparation aimed at internationalization for inclusion of diversity and social justice?

Theoretical Framework
This study is grounded in Reyes’ (2016) concept of what it means to be a ‘border educator’ with competencies for developing border pedagogies that respond to students in classrooms in international spaces. According to Reyes, border educators practice inclusion for diversity and social justice by: a) challenging their own beliefs through self-reflection, b) recognizing complexities of local, national and global identities in contested spaces, c) including student voice in curricula choices, and c) establishing an ethics of care in the classroom.

Data Sources
This study draws from Stake’s (2006) research design for conducting a multicase study that focuses on: 1) identifying phenomenon that is common to participants; 2) purposeful sampling for studying the phenomenon in different contexts; 3) data from primary sources; 4) thematic and cross-case analysis; 5) assertions, atypicalities and triangulation across cases; and, 6) generalization and advocacy. In this multicase study, participants comprised twelve Latina teachers from two public schools at the US-Mexico border, data collected from 2012 to 2016 included questionnaires, interviews, professional development sessions, and researchers’ observations and field notes, and analysis sought to triangulate findings from the multiple data sources.

Results
Findings indicate participants: a) redefined internationalization of teaching and learning by developing border pedagogies responsive to the historical, geographical and socio-cultural context of knowledge production in relation to student identities; b) rejected school discourse that view students of Mexican descent from a deficit perspective as a problem to be solved; c) developed an international mind-set with a strong Latina voice supportive of students through border pedagogies that were inclusive of cultural diversity.

Scholarly Significance
The study is significant as border pedagogies add complexity and specificity to how teacher education programs understand internationalization that goes beyond preparation of White teacher candidates through study abroad experiences. While the border is a contested international space, border educators and border pedagogies are forms of internationalization of education with possibilities for preparing teachers for culturally diverse classrooms. The study also indicates that teacher preparation is better served by designing programs that give teacher candidates opportunities for experiencing the unique context of international borders and developing border pedagogies that are complex and inclusive.

Author

• Suniti Sharma, Saint Joseph's University