Confirming Chanclas: What Early Childhood Teacher Educators Can Learn From Immigrant Preschool Teachers

Source: Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, Volume 32, Issue 1, 2011, pages 55-71.
The perspectives of immigrant teachers have been largely missing from local and national debates on early childhood pedagogy.
Interviews conducted study with dozens of preschool teachers in multiple U.S. cities as part of the Children Crossing Borders study. These interviews examined the children of immigrants' language choices at school. The interviews revealed a specific immigrant teacher critique of typical English language modeling techniques.

These immigrant teachers reposition children's home languages as a valuable form of expression and thus argue for a more empathetic and constructivist view of children of immigrants. Hearing the perspectives of immigrant preschool teachers is especially important for early childhood educators who are preparing young teachers to serve a growing number of children of immigrants in early childhood settings.

This paper argues that early childhood educators need to talk honestly with students about the implications of their responses to children of immigrants in the classroom.
In doing so, the teachers can benefit from consulting the personal experiences and perspectives of practicing immigrant preschool teachers.