Teaching across Communities: Immigrant Teachers Navigating Identity and Belonging in a Chinese Heritage Language School

• In Event: Educators at the Margins: Pathways of Belonging and Resistance

Abstract

This study examines how Chinese immigrant teachers navigate identity and belonging across three intersecting communities: a Chinese heritage language school (CHLS), the Chinese American community, and the broader Asian American community. Drawing on racial literacy and transnational funds of knowledge, this study features five teachers at a community-based CHLS in a Southern U.S. city. Findings show that while teachers expressed strong cultural commitment to their Chinese heritage and community, their connection to the Asian American community was often limited or ambiguous. Some developed an emerging critical racial literacy through collaborative curriculum work. The study highlights the need to reimagine CHLSs as potential counterspaces for racial justice, suggesting that teacher development must include critical engagement with critical racial consciousness.

Authors

• Yiting Chu, University of South Florida - Tampa

• Yuechen Sun, University of South Carolina

• Wenyu Guo, University of South Florida

• Min Yu, Wayne State University