Journeys Into The K-12 Classroom: Latina Teachers' Narratives of Becoming

A Project in Humanizing Inquiry (San Pedro & Kinloch, 2017), this qualitative dissertation study combined in-depth interview with a LatCrit framework to story the journeys of three Latinas into teaching. Data analysis underscored the layered racialized systems of oppression that marked the three women’s educational identities and professional trajectories. Notable forms of oppression included deficit-laden interactions within schools and schooling that largely predicted the individual women as failures. Likewise, much more intimate familial messaging framed teaching as a dead-end career. With the support of key mentors and through their own determination, the three women, nevertheless, were able to make sense of who they were, what they valued, and the teachers they would ultimately become. Implications for diversity-oriented teacher education and research are presented.