Do You Know How to Become a Teacher? Understanding How Interpersonal Connections Push and Pull Latinx College Graduates' Educational Pathways Into or Away From the Teaching Profession in the Central Valley (Poster 22)

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

Previous scholars have focused on the gendered transitions into college for Latinxs. Interpersonal connections often influence young adults' career aspirations. Latinas who attend college often feel pressure to utilize their education as a means of social mobility. I emphasize how career decisions among Latinx young adults in the U.S. are shaped by the interconnectedness of race, class, gender, immigration status, geography, and history, as well as by family expectations and experiences across the various educational institutions they have been embedded in across their childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. My research questions are: 1) How do interpersonal connections across the early life course influence Latinx young adults’ pathways into (or away from) the teaching profession? And (2) how does the presence of mentors or absence influence their pathways? I am conducting 60 semi-structured interviews with a Life History Calendar with 30 current Latinx teachers (“Stayers”) and 30 Latinx college graduates who left teaching (“Leavers”). Preliminary findings suggest for both Latina Stayers and Leavers, it was college preparation programs and sibling mentorship that pushed them to pursue college, and ultimately teaching. Their geographic ties to California’s Central Valley drew them to return and find teaching careers in this region. For Latina Leavers, not having Latinx K-12 teachers pushed her to go into teaching. For Latina Stayers, it was academic mentors who urged them to join the profession. Additional analysis will explore variation by gender in Stayers vs. Leavers, as well as the social factors and educational institutional practices that influenced their pathways.

Author

• Melissa Quesada, University of California - Merced
  Presenting Author