This Bridge Called Their Back: The Politics of Racial/Cultural Taxation and Latinx Teacher Retention

• In Event: 79.022 - Injury, Loss, and the (Im)Possibility of Justice in Racially Punitive and (Neo)Colonial Schooling

Abstract

Despite desires to recruitment Latinx teachers, they remain underrepresented in the profession and are leaving the profession faster than any other demographic. We draw from a phenomenological case study focused on the experiences of Latinx K12 teachers working in schools that predominantly serve students of Color. Grounded in Critical Race Theory scholarship, we reveal how Latinx teachers’ experience cultural taxation or unwritten added burdens and responsibilities (Padilla, 1994) and highlight how these institutional practices create hostile, racialized climates that push them out of the pipeline while perpetuating systems of oppression that mirror the experiences of their minoritized students.

Authors

• Patricia D. Lopez, California State University - Fresno

• Patricia Gomez, San Jose Unified School District