Community Cultural Wealth of Global South Immigrant Math Teachers in U.S. Classrooms

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  In Roundtable Session: Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender Roundtable: Strategic Battles, From Surviving to Thriving in Educational Contexts

Abstract

This study explores how immigrant math teachers from the Global South navigate U.S. K–12 classrooms while drawing on their community cultural wealth. Using phenomenological methods, we examine how four educators leverage their linguistic repertoires, transnational knowledge, and cultural values to support diverse learners and reshape deficit narratives. Amid growing anti-immigrant surveillance—including ICE presence in school zones — these teachers embody resilience, care, and pedagogical excellence. Framed by Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth, the study disrupts dominant framings of immigrant teachers as deficient and instead highlights their vital role in building more just and inclusive classrooms. Our findings contribute to the limited research on Global South educators and affirm their place in imagining liberatory futures for education.

Authors

• Seda Ozbek-Damar, Arizona State University

• Saesaem Yoon, University of Washington - Tacoma

• Tipsuda Chaomuangkhong, Arizona State University