Living and Teaching Multilingual Learners in the Rural South: A Narrative Inquiry on Teacher Identity

• In Event: Teacher Dilemmas: Ethical Tensions and Craft of Conscience

Abstract

Shifts in demographic, economic, and immigration patterns in rural United States have led to an increasing number of multilingual learners in rural schools. This narrative inquiry investigated the lived experiences of three mainstream elementary teachers who taught multilingual learners in a rural community in the South. Employing a poststructuralist perspective on identity, emotions, and ethics, this study proposed a place-conscious ecosocial model as the theoretical framework and drew from in-depth narrative interviews and classroom observations to report teachers’ ethical and emotional experiences in teaching multilingual learners. Findings show how teachers responded to emotions in teaching by making ethical choices, including taking risks, advocating, and resisting various constraining forces. Moreover, teacher identity informed how teachers negotiated emotions and formed ethical selves.

Author

• Shuzhan Li, Ithaca College