Importing Filipinos: U.S. Teacher Shortage and the Postcolonial Return

• In Event: 25.032 - Dare We Center the Transnational — the Global Majority? How the Global-Local Happens

Abstract

Objectives

The shortage of certified teachers, especially in urban and rural areas and in certain content areas, is well documented (Cross, 2017). The causes range from dismal pay and working conditions, to limited opportunities for academic preparation and professional advancement. The effects have been devastating not only to student learning and achievement, but also to schools, families, and communities impacted by these shortages. This paper examines how certain school districts across the United States recruit internationally-trained teachers to address teacher shortage especially in hard-to-staff positions and underserved schools.

Theoretical Perspectives

It foregrounds the recruitment of teachers from the Philippines in the 1980s and 1990s whose school curriculum is largely patterned after the United States curriculum due to US colonial occupation during the first half of the twentieth century. Importing Filipino teachers in is akin to the recruitment of Filipino nurses that filled crucial gaps in the US workforce (Choy, 2003). This predominantly pink-collar occupation takes a racialized and postcolonial twist as we consider the recent history of bringing Filipino educators as a solution to the US problem of teacher shortage.

Modes of Inquiry

Methodologically, the paper draws from an archive of educational records, newspaper articles, documentaries, and interviews. It reads “along the grain” to describe and analyze how this US teaching problem was articulated and how the Filipino teachers as a solution emerged (Stoler, 2010).

Significance

Theoretically, it juxtaposes postcolonial, critical race, and feminist frameworks in investigating an educational and transnational phenomenon that has received scant scholarly attention. It contributes substantially to intellectual and pragmatic discussions regarding what to do with teacher shortage, and draws attention to postcolonial dynamics in which the US extracts trained educators from a former territory for its benefit.

Author

• Roland Sintos Coloma, Wayne State University