Border-Crossing Teachers: Flexible Citizenship, Transnationalism, and Urban Bilingual Schools

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers Beyond Borders: Languages, Learning, and Educator Identity

Abstract

Informed by transnationalism and flexible citizenship, this study investigates Asian transmigrant teachers working in urban bilingual schools in the U.S. and examines how and why they are involved in their particular transnational mobility, professional choices, and educational activities. The findings show that transmigrant teachers’ border-crossings were motivated by economic, personal, and educational necessities. After relocation to the U.S., they adopted specific residential and professional strategies to create transnational and multilingual networks with their homelands. They also demonstrated flexible attitudes towards citizenship, aspiring to maintain their mobile lives. This study makes a contribution to the growing literature on contemporary migrants by shedding light on transmigrant teachers’ personal, professional, and teaching lives, which are marked by spatial fluidity and ongoing transnational practices.

Author

• Yeji Kim, University of Missouri