“It’s like they don’t care at all”: Latinx teachers, COVID, and critical examinations of relational care

• In Event: Exploring the Intersection of Masculinity, Care, and Identity in Latinx Teachers

Abstract

This paper shares research about teaching at the intersection of anti-Latinx discourse and policy
and the global COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, this paper outlines data from qualitative
interviews with five Latinx K-12 teachers in South Carolina that describe teaching during the
early parts of the COVID-19 pandemic in a context that was (and is) both broadly anti (Latinx)
immigrant (Author and Author, 2017; Author, 2021) and anti-COVID safety protocols. The
findings reveal that Latinx teachers outlined their work through the lens of collective care, whilst
many of their (white) colleagues, students, and parents invoked the rhetoric of (individual) rights.

Authors

• Tim Monreal, University of Buffalo

• Holly Marcolina, University at Buffalo