Tales of Diversity Within Diversity: Urban Educators’ Narratives of Working Immigrant and Refugee Students and Families in Unsettling Times

Abstract

Based on interview data collected in the context of an under-resourced urban school district in the U.S., this chapter presents four urban educators’ (two teachers’ and two school service providers’) narratives about working with immigrant and refugee students and families within three schools with different demographics compositions. The educators’ narratives revealed that the educators had mixed professional stances toward immigrant and refugee children and their families. While some were positive about their tenacity to succeed, others saw them from a deficit lens of culture of poverty that impedes their academic achievement. While the teachers struggled with the precarity of resources, marginal statuses, and instructional difficulty in differentiating lessons according to proficiency levels, the service providers were faced with challenges of reaching and connecting with the parents they served due to their unshared racial, ethnic, linguistic or cultural backgrounds and a lack of trust between home and school. The study has significant implications for asset-based professional development for both teachers and professionals working with minoritized children and families.