White Women Preservice Teachers and Their Sense-Making About Immigration and Documentation Status

• In Event: 75.041 - MTCC Roundtable Session 33
  In Roundtable Session: 75.041-6 - Decentering Whiteness: Developing the Self-Reflexivity and Critical Practices of White Teacher Education Candidates

Abstract

Using qualitative case study data collected from a university-based teacher education program in the mid-Atlantic, this paper explores how twenty White women pre-service teachers (WWPTs) made sense of immigration and documentation status. Three preliminary findings suggest that WWPTs’ sensemaking is shaped by: (i) their previous experiences with immigrant populations; (ii) their licensure program area and practicum school contexts; and (iii) their racial identities. Suggestions are offered for how teacher educators can bolster efforts to build a teacher workforce responsive to student needs across documentation statuses.

Author

• Jennifer M. Bondy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University