Making Meaning of Work: Uncovering the Complexity of Immigrant Experience in a Multicultural Landscape

摘要

Many educators draw the public's attention to the need for diversifying the teaching force. They argue that teachers from diverse cultures offer a variety of perspectives (Delpit, 2001), encourage students to participate in community work, and exhibit cultural awareness and appreciation of differences (Torres, Santos, Peck, & Cortes, 2004). In 2003-2004 across the United States, however, minority teachers represented only 16% of K-12 teachers, less than one-third of the percentage of culturally diverse students (NCES, 2006). Furthermore, the majority of teachers were monolingual English speakers unprepared to work with linguistically diverse children (Nieto, 2002), and they had limited experiences with cultures other than their own (Hollins & Guzman, 2005).