Teachers' lived experiences with Mexican American ELL students in Arizona: a phenomenological study

Abstract

In Mexico-US borderland regions such as Arizona, where a high percentage of ELL students come from immigrant families from Mexico, English-only voter mandates create constraints against effective teaching practices. The specific problem is that although teachers' accounts regarding their varied classroom experiences are needed to contribute to the growing body of knowledge in educating Mexican American ELL students, these experiences in Arizona classrooms are rarely documented because teachers often self-censor when teaching under restrictive laws and policies antithetical to ELL best practice. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and document how mainstream teachers perceived and described their lived experiences with their Mexican American ELL students in elementary schools located in urban areas of Arizona. The findings illustrated teacher's lack of resources, the consequences of English-only policies in Arizona, and lack of appropriate teacher training leading to these students not having the same education as their native speaking counterparts.