Copyright by José García 2016
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Copyright by José García 2016 The Dissertation Committee for José García Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: DACAmented Educators: The Educational, Professional, and Life Trajectories of Undocumented Pre- and In-Service Educators Committee: Luis Urrieta, Jr., Supervisor Jennifer K. Adair Noah De Lissovoy Martha Menchaca Angela Valenzuela DACAmented Educators: The Educational, Professional, and Life Trajectories of Undocumented Pre- and In-Service Educators by José García, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2016 Dedication A nuestros padres y madres, los primeros soñadores. To our parents, the original dreamers. Acknowledgements Primero que nada, I would like to thank the twenty Latina/o DACAmeneted pre- and in-service educators that made time from their busy schedules to regalarme sus historias de vida that are at the core of this dissertation. I am very much indebted to you and am very honored and humbled to have crossed paths with you. Thank you to the following people that connected me with most of the participants in this study: Dr. Deborah Palmer, Dr. Haydeé Rodríguez, Dr. Viridiana Díaz, Carolina Alfaro, and Jennyffer Morales. Muchas gracias to my dissertation committee members: Dr. Luis Urrieta, Jr., Dr. Noah De Lissovoy, Dr. Angela Valenzuela, Dr. Jennifer Adair, and Dr. Martha Menchaca. Thank for your mentorship and support in seeing this project through, and in encouraging my intellectual curiosity throughout my time at the University of Texas. Dr. Urrieta, ¿qué le puedo decir? I still remember the morning you called me a little past 5 AM (7 AM Central Time) to tell me that I had been awarded a Diversity Recruitment Fellowship. I thanked you for the call, told you I would call during my lunch hour, hung up, and got up to get ready to go to work with my kindergarten students. I have nothing but agradecimiento por haberme traido a Academeland y por todas sus palabras y tiempo en estos cinco años que hemos tenido el placer de caminar juntos, algunas veces a la par y otras veces no tanto pero al fin del camino andamos los mismos senderos. Ha sido una bendición trabajar con usted. Muchas gracias por todo. v En una de nuestras pláticas in my first weeks adjusting to the demands of graduate school, you told me the following words, Dr. Urrieta, “mucha gente se despierta pensando que tu estas aqui.” I carry those words with me and everyday I strive to do my best as a way to reciprocate those prayers and thoughts. Too many people encouraged me in the process of completing this study. Gracias a las familias García Pérez y Díaz Martín por su cariño. Gracias a la familia Aguilar Alvarez for hosting me while I conducted interviews throughout the San Joaquín Valley. Gracias to my colleagues in Cultural Studies in Education and in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Muchos abrazos para mis colegas Blanca, Brenda, Eric y mi tocayo, José. Gilberto y María les agradezco de todo corazón sus consejos. Too many people were instrumental in ensuring that one day I would type these words as part of a doctoral dissertation. Mil gracias to all my maestros/as who have mentored me in one way or another at different points in my life. Pablo Rodríguez, can’t thank you enough for everything I picked up from you in those warm spring nights in the San Joaquín Valley eating tacos in the back of La Vencedora and in the long drives cutting through the valle’s fog on our way home after a performance. To the other poetas del Rudo Revolutionary Front, Vero (Kika Ruda), Victor (Victor-e), Jaime (Jamón), el rasquache les dice, ¡rudo! rudo! rudo! rudo! Thank you to all of my 2nd grade and Kindergarten students, but especially to Ana Patricia and Luis Roberto. I can’t wait to find out about all the great things you will do; the world is yours, professors. Thank you to the “kinder mafia” and my teacher colleagues. vi A big thank you to Dra. Julia Curry who one Saturday morning outside the Dr. King library told me I needed to go on and pursue a doctoral degree; the first time anyone had suggested such a thing. De ahí pal’ real. Dr. Marcos Pizarro, gracias for all your kind words and consejos throughout the years. Dr. Magdalena Barrera, thank you for the pláticas de literatura y scifi. Dr. Gregorio Mora-Torres, gracias por sus porras, el pan before class, and yes, vamonos al Chivas Grill por unos tacos. Dr. Julia G. Cruz (QEPD) thanks to you I survived during my undergraduate years. Your cariño and apoyo got me to this point. Dra. Cruz, you encouraged my curiosity and fostered my academic identity, especially during our outside of class literary tertulias accompanied with tacos. I can’t thank you enough. Dr. JC Myers, thank you for taking the time to entertain my questions on political theory, especially on Marxism, over coffee and blueberry muffins. Mil gracias a mis amigas/os de siempre Ricardo, Catalina, Miguel y Maricela. Les agradesco su amistad. Muchas gracias papá y mamá por sus sacrificios y por su amor incondicial. To my borther Julio and sister Lili, thank you por su comprensión. Peewee, thank you for putting up with my rants. Finalmente, Esther, I do not have words to thank you enough for choosing me as your compañero de vivencias. Guadalupe, papá te quiere mucho y todos los días doy gracias por tenerte con nosotros. ¡Adelante! vii DACAmented Educators: The Educational, Professional, and Life Trajectories of Undocumented Pre- and In-Service Educators José García, Ph. D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2016 Supervisor: Luis Urrieta, Jr. This qualitative study examines the educational, professional, and life trajectories of twenty Latina/o Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries pursuing careers as educators. The dissertation explores the participants’ rationales for pursuing careers as educators, the roles they ascribe to educators, their perspectives on education, and expressions of precariousness amongst DACA beneficiaries. The participants in this study met the following criteria: Latina/o, DACA beneficiary, pre- or in-service educator. The ages of the recruited participants ranged between 19 and 32 years old, and included undergraduate students majoring in education, student teachers, graduate students in education, and in-service pre-K-16 educators. The participants were asked to narrate their educational trajectories, career choices, and initial experiences working in public schools as educators. These narratives provide insight into the motivations that compelled Latina/o DACA beneficiaries for pursuing careers in education, and the intricacies of adjustment to the profession as novice educators. I draw from Critical Race Theory, Latina/o Critical Theory, and theories of figured worlds and multiplicity to advance the concept of vivencias, that is, a lens to examine the conditions of existence generated by the participants in relation to everyday struggles under conditions of precariousness. I use various methods, including viii life history interviews, ethnographic interviews, and participant observations to create biographical counterstories that simultaneously reveal histories of oppression and resistance. The findings of the study are presented in chapter 4 and 5. Chapter 4 presents the biographical counterstories of five participants that display the overall themes of the study: educational trajectories, rationale for pursuing careers as educators, perceived roles of educators, perspectives on education, and expressions of precariousness. Chapter 5 further elaborates on these themes by drawing on the life history interviews of the rest of the participants. The findings of this study highlight the need for further studies with college educated Latina/o DACA beneficiaries and their experiences transitioning to professional careers. The insights of Latina/o DACA professionals can provide colleges and universities with valuable information as to how best serve undocumented immigrant college students in their academic and professional preparation. ix Table of Contents List of Tables ....................................................................................................... xiv List of Figures ........................................................................................................xv CHAPTER 1-INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................1 Introduction .....................................................................................................1 Research Questions .......................................................................................15 Need for the Study ........................................................................................16 Purpose of the Study .....................................................................................26 Scope of the Study ........................................................................................28 A Word on the Use of Spanish .....................................................................31 CHAPTER 2- REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ..........................................................32 Overview .......................................................................................................32 “Una herida abierta”: A Sociopolitical and Historical Overview of Mexican Immigrant Experiences .................................................................................38