“You Lie—That's Not True”: Immigration and Preservice Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors provide a theoretical model for developing a discourse on immigration in teacher education courses. The model is built upon two essential questions: “How do we responsibly teach the controversial issues surrounding immigrant rights?” and “To what extent can structured dialogue of this topic deepen teacher candidates' understanding of the complexity of citizenship in the 21st century?” The authors propose a scaffolding archetype to guide these queries. First, they recognize the importance of understanding the historical context of current immigration. Second, they posit that teacher educators should expose learners to historical perspective taking, whereby current immigration motives are compared and analyzed with examples from the past. In the final step, the authors recommend utilizing meaningful discussion as a tool for perpetuating a democratic dialogue on controversial issues surrounding immigration. The authors contend that this model can serve as a catharsis for teacher education in which ethnic and racial tensions, partisanship, and egocentric ideology are displaced for dialogue grounded in respect, empathy, and perspective sharing.