Social Studies Teachers’ Attitudes and Beliefs About Immigration and the Formal Curriculum in the United States South: A Multi-Methods Study

Abstract

Teachers’ beliefs and awareness regarding immigration policy is an area of research that has been largely unexplored in the broader discussion of socio-political consciousness and critical social studies education. This study is based on a multi-methods methodology, particularly a partially mixed sequential equal status design (Leech and Onwuegbuzie in Qual Quant 43(2):265–275, 2009). The quantitative portion of this study is based on a survey conducted in 2017 among K-12 teachers nationwide (n = 5190) and a nested sample of 200 Southern Social Studies teachers. (McCorkle in The awareness and attitudes of teachers towards educational restrictions for immigrant students. Doctoral dissertation, Clemson University, 2018a). The qualitative sample is a content analysis from an examination of South Carolina social studies textbooks (n = 8). The quantitative analysis revealed a concerning pattern of unawareness of immigration policy among many teachers as well as a strong relationship between embrace of false immigration narratives and exclusionary attitudes towards immigrant students. The analysis of the textbooks showed little in the formal curriculum that would problematize false immigration narratives and instead demonstrated a tendency to bolster these narratives. The results reveal a need of teacher education programs and additional professional development to help critique these “common-sense” (mis)understandings about immigration that are factually incorrect and help contribute to the larger patterns of xenophobia in the society.