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Latina teachers in Los Angeles: navigating race/ethnic and class boundaries in multiracial schools

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Title	Latina teachers in Los Angeles: navigating race/ethnic and class boundaries in multiracial schools
Author	Flores, Glenda Marisol
Author email	gmflores@usc.edu;glenda.m.flores@gmail.com
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Document type	Dissertation
Degree program	Sociology
School	College of Letters, Arts And Sciences
Date defended/completed	2011-10-25
Date submitted	2011-11-17
Date approved	2011-11-18
Restricted until	2012-11-17
Date published	2012-11-17
Advisor (committee chair)	Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette
Advisor (committee member)	Saito, Leland Pulido, Laura
Abstract	This is the first major study of the professional lives and workplace experiences of Latina teachers who work in urban, multiracial schools. While there is a plethora of research on Latina immigrant women working in factories, the informal economy and low skill-jobs in the U.S., the work experiences of college-educated Latina professionals, with a few exceptions, have been ignored. Today, Latina women are the fastest growing (non-white) racial/ethnic group entering the teaching profession. This dissertation focuses on the experiences and perceptions of Latina teachers, most of whom are the daughters of Mexican immigrant working-class parents. The study examines Latina teachers’ pathways into the profession, their interracial relations and interactions with co-teachers, staff and parents, and intra-class boundaries with parents and students in their workplaces. This study relies on two multiracial elementary schools in two school districts in Los Angeles County; one in the San Gabriel Valley and one in Compton. The research design research relies on multiple qualitative methods. This included 50 in-depth interviews with teachers, over 400 hours of fieldwork conducted in the teachers’ homes and school settings, and focus groups with 28 parents. The data reveals that while Latina teachers’ reasons for entering the occupation are linked to gender and racial-ethnic identities, their career choices are fundamentally driven by working class constraints in their families of origin. Once in the profession, Latina teachers develop a missionary zeal motivation to help Latino students and families, but these processes work out differently in each of the research sites, as contrasting regional racial hierarchies emerge in the schools. The comparative study design contrasts Latina teachers at Garvey Unified, a predominantly working-class Latino and Chinese community in Rosemead, with Latina teachers in Compton, a formerly African American community that is now predominantly Latino. The research shows that Latina teachers distance themselves from Blacks in Compton, while Latina teachers in Rosemead see proximity to Asian American students, and community resources provided by Asian immigrants as an opportunity for themselves and Latino students. The research also reveals that while Latino cultural practices are unwelcome in many institutional work settings, this is not the case in these multiracial schools. At these urban multiracial schools, Latina teachers serve as cultural bridges between the educational institution, a white mainstream organization, and working class Latino communities and families. This allows Latina teachers to facilitate the incorporation of Latino immigrants and the mobility patterns of Latino children. Latina teachers in both of the school sites encourage one another to actively incorporate aspects of Latino ethnic culture in their teaching and classrooms to help Latino children and parents integrate into American society. High stakes testing, however, results in racial tension among teachers and parents at the school sites, hampering their efforts. These research findings have significance for the sociological fields of race, immigration, work and occupations and education.
Keyword	Latina teachers; multiracial workplaces; interracial relations; middle-class; upwardly mobile; Latina professionals
Language	English
Part of collection	University of Southern California dissertations and theses
Publisher (of the original version)	University of Southern California
Place of publication (of the original version)	Los Angeles, California
Publisher (of the digital version)	University of Southern California. Libraries
Provenance	Electronically uploaded by the author
Type	texts
Legacy record ID	usctheses-m
Rights	Flores, Glenda Marisol
Access conditions	The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.
Repository name	University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository address	USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 7002, 106 University Village, Los Angeles, California 90089-7002, USA
Repository email	cisadmin@usc.edu
Archival file	uscthesesreloadpub_Volume71/etd-FloresGlen-418.pdf