Understanding How Latina Teachers Transact in New Latino Communities

• In Event: Roundtable Session 111
  In Roundtable Session: Expressing Our Selves: Diversity and Self-Identity

Abstract

This multiple case study of six Latina language teachers in the state of Georgia demonstrates how local and national discourses about teachers of color influence Latina/o teachers’ experiences, and how Latina/o teachers transact these discourses. Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Pierre Bourdieu and Mikhail Bakhtin, the perceptions and experiences of these participants reveal tensions Latina/o teachers in Georgia and in other new Latino diaspora communities across the nation may face. As teacher educators, administrators, and policy makers continue to recruit teachers of color to meet the needs of students of color, more information is needed to address how race affects the positioning of teachers of color and how social contexts impact student teacher relationships when racial congruency exists.

Author

• Soria Elizabeth Colomer, University of South Florida