Teacher disequilibrium, programmatic doublespeak, and “a day without immigrants”

Abstract

In this article, we leverage in-depth interview to probe a Third Grade teacher’s memories of the 2016–2017 School Year in a Spanish/English Dual Language Immersion (DL/I) school serving one of North Carolina’s new Latinx communities. As our analysis will demonstrate, Mariana Castillo’s interaction with the events of SY 16-17 combined with her still vivid memories as a child immigrant, led to her generalization that she was just another Brown body in the North Carolina piedmont—highlighting the emotional disequilibrium of teaching in the New Latino South and the unresolved tensions that social justice-equity oriented DL/I Latinx educators face when the branding of a state-led program is “instrumental/neoliberal oriented.”

Keywords:

• Dual language immersion
• latinx teachers
• new Latino south

Contributors

Spencer Salas, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he leads the Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction Urban Literacies/TESL sub-concentration. The ensemble of his scholarship focuses on the New Latino South.Jatnna Acosta is a dual-language educator and Doctoral Candidate in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A Gates Millennium Scholar, her research examines teacher identity in New South spaces.Jillian La Serna is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Before entering higher education, she served as a dual language principal, reading specialist, and teacher. Her research centers on race, culture, social justice, and leadership in K-12 schools, with an emphasis on dual language programs