Moving into Critical Spaces: Making Meaning of One Rural Educator’s Experiences Working with Latinx Immigrant Students

Abstract

This research highlights the experiences of one rural educator in a Midwestern elementary school. Initially grounded in Swanson’s middle range theory of caring (1991, 1993), the author sought to make meaning of how the participant worked with immigrant students, specifically undocumented Latinx students, through an ethic of care. As tensions emerged from classroom-based observations and interviews, the author chose to draw upon Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a way of examining how racism operates within educational spaces. Guided by Clandinin and Connelly’s (2000) narrative form, through the description (telling) and reflection (retelling), the author makes meaning of racial biases, microaggressions, and the exclusion of undocumented Latinx students.