First Advisor
Pugh, Kevin
Document Type
Dissertation
Date Created
8-2023
Department
College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Psychological Sciences, SPS Student Work
Abstract
United States public schools post-Coronavirus Disease 2019 are experiencing a crisis as teachers leave the profession in record numbers, and enrollments in teacher preparation programs across the country continue to decline (Pelika, 2022). Simultaneously, Latinx students’ populations continue to grow while Latinx educators struggle to stay in the teaching profession and for the first time in decades, the achievement gap between Latinx students and their White peers has begun to grow (Amos, 2020; Bailey et al., 2021). Latinx teachers play a crucial role in helping Latinx students experience success in public schools, but a growing sub-population of resentful White Americans have accused public schools as spaces used to indoctrinate students into anti-White ways of thinking. In their crosshairs are activist teachers who, according to these White Americans, are pushing anti-White rhetoric in the classroom. Activist Latinx teachers have long existed in the United States, but now they are now being targeted for practicing emancipatory teaching practices. In this narrative case study, I explored the experiences of a single activist Latinx teacher who has been non-renewed from two different schools in the first 2 years of his teaching career. While he continues to persist and fight for his students, his experiences teaching in high schools that predominantly serve Latinx students reveal how difficult it is for an activist Latinx teacher to exist in the current teaching environment in the United States. Through his retelling of stories surrounding his experiences, I found a remarkable resilience in this participant who, despite extraordinarily hostile treatment from his administration and peers, persists for his students. Through the analysis of his experiences, I hope to show what persistence looks like for an activist Latinx teacher in a turbulent time for teachers in the United States.
Extent
230 pages
Local Identifiers
Cropp_unco_0161D_11158.pdf
Rights Statement
Copyright is held by the author.
Recommended Citation
Cropp, Simon Lewis, "The Inevitabilities of Activist Teaching: Exploring the Experiences of an Activist Latinx Teacher in United States Public Schools After the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 Pandemic" (2023). Dissertations. 1016.
https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations/1016