Understanding Teachers’ Roles in Supporting Vulnerable Populations

• In Event: Research In Progress Roundtables Session 4
  In Invited Roundtable: Research on Immigrant Students: Curriculum, Identity, and Pedagogy (Table 2)

Abstract

This study examines how teachers perceive and navigate their roles in supporting immigrant and newcomer students, balancing academic and social-emotional demands. Teachers enact care labor despite systemic resource constraints, often managing obligations to general student populations alongside specific commitments to marginalized students. The research explores how teachers conceptualize care labor, negotiate competing demands, and respond to institutional limitations. Constraints on their capacity to build caring relationships (Noddings, 1984, 2013) can lead to a value-action mismatch (Johnson, 2019), where ethical commitments conflict with professional realities. This mismatch contributes to emotional strain, burnout, and attrition, particularly within the context of feminized care labor intensification (Anderson, 2024). Findings highlight systemic inequities and strategies for supporting teachers.

Author

• Marie R Fernandez, University of California - Santa Barbara