‘Some of us Don’t Like the Chaos’: Comparing Latine Immigrant Parents’ and Early Childhood Teachers’ Discourses of Control in the Classroom

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drawing on data from the multivocal video-cued ethnographic Agency and Young Children Study, we use critical discourse analysis to compare Latine immigrant parents’ and early childhood teachers’ ideas about agency and teacher control in the education of young Latine children. In video-cued focus group interviews, parents and teachers shared a belief in the importance of order and teacher control in the classroom but had very different rationales for these beliefs. Latine immigrant parents shared a deep concern for their children’s learning while teachers focused on their personal preferences and pressure around standards and testing. Through analysis of these perspectives, we consider the ways that racism and childism intersect to create particularly oppressive learning environments for young Children of Color, complicate and challenge long-standing stereotypes about Latine immigrant parents, and push back on teachers’ ideas about the relationship between control and learning.