Our study asks: what perspectives do teacher educators in Turkey, the United States (US), and Hong Kong (HK) offer on preparing teachers to teach immigrant students?

Our focus on these three contexts is deliberate as each presents a distinct case of immigration. In Turkey, immigrants have recently consisted largely of involuntary refugees displaced by war. The US has a long history of receiving newcomers motivated by both push (e.g., political conflicts) and pull (e.g., economic opportunities) factors. HK’s colonial past and subsequent re-integration with greater China has meant minimal “traditional” immigration, but rather ethnic minorities who are non-Chinese residents, imported workers, and migrants from mainland China. We acknowledge the essentializing nature of these characterizations of immigrant in our attempts to elucidate the phenomenon as it unfolds in each context. Our intention is not to mask the complexity of immigration, but to use these cases to specifically illuminate the unique ways in which the concept of immigrant manifests internationally and therefore, shapes teacher preparation. In light of documented inequities experienced by immigrant children (American Psychological Association, 2012; Sugarman, 2017), we aim to move beyond the boundaries of our own localities to analyze and theorize the needs of teachers who teach immigrant students within the perspective of teaching for social justice on a global scale. Thus, our study responds to “the demand that (both) local and national academic and cultural particularities be given special consideration when discussing issues in education and educational research” (European Conference on Educational Research [ECER], 2022).

Undoubtedly, teacher preparation is an international imperative given the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal #4, to: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (UN, 2021). Our enquiry is timely given unprecedented dramatic increases in transnational mobility in recent years that have teachers in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. struggling to reconsider their everyday practices (European Commission, 2013; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010, 2016, 2019) to accommodate more newcomers in their classrooms. Our changing world has been additionally rocked by the pandemic, exacerbating social disparities, making additional demands on teachers facing students who embody multiple vulnerabilities in addition to their newcomer status. This global issue is framed by specific national concerns as each jurisdiction wrestles with the tensions emerging from conflicting ideologies of cultural assimilation, transformation and diversity; clearly, the “centrifugal forces of interdependency and individuality remain at the heart of most social endeavours'' (ECER, 2022). Thus, teachers must learn to become both cultural brokers (Chang, 2020; Goodwin, 2000) and cultural sustainers (Paris, 2012) so as to support diverse students to integrate new ways of being without compromising or sacrificing their individual cultures and identities.

We conceptualize the perspectives of teacher educators for teachers of immigrant students using theoretical frameworks articulated by two scholars of social justice teaching and teacher education. First, we use bell hooks’ notion of teaching to transgress (1994) to illuminate teacher practice and preparation that can “engage in unprecedented actions” (ECER, 2022) and “enables transgressions” needed to dismantle entrenched educational hegemonies experienced by immigrant youth and “[make] education the practice of freedom” (hooks, 1994, p. 12). Second, we use Cochran-Smith’s theory of teacher education for social justice which “is intended to challenge the educational status quo and be transformative” (2010, p. 458) by interrogating the central issues of teacher education: teachers, curriculum, teaching contexts, and outcomes. Our study offers insight into what seems to be emphasized (or absent) in pre- and in-service teacher education to support immigrant learners, both within the confines of each unique context and also through collaborative global dialogue across three cultural boundaries.

The study was designed as a multiple case study to provide a more in-depth understanding of the phenomenon than a single case can provide. While a case study is an empirical investigation that focuses on a distinct situation (the case) within its real-world context, multiple case studies allow for the analysis of the data both within each case and also across different cases (Yin, 2014). Accordingly, we framed each country context as an individual case and examined the perspectives of teacher educators from Turkey, the U.S., and H.K., given the unique insights teacher educators from each context can offer into teacher preparation/development for immigrant students. We utilized criterion, maximum variation, and snowball sampling strategies (Patton, 1990) to recruit 22 teacher educators from Turkey, the US, and HK, whose research interests and experiences center on preparing teachers to teach immigrant students. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews with participants to gather in-depth descriptive data about each individual’s experiences and perspectives regarding the phenomenon of interest (Patton, 1990) from their own frame of reference and in their own words (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007). The interview schedule we designed included (1) background questions (e.g., race/ethnicity, academic preparation, teaching experience); (2) professional questions (exploring work experiences and research priorities); and open-ended questions related specifically to teacher preparation and immigrant students (e.g., What are some understandings, principles, or goals you have for the teacher candidates in relation to educating immigrant students?) All interviews were conducted online by the researchers from June to October 2021, taking into account COVID-19 pandemic guidelines. The interviews lasted 45-60 minutes on average, were audio-recorded (with participant consent), and transcribed verbatim. Phase One of data analysis began with inductive coding and content analysis, a process of identifying, coding, and categorizing essential patterns (Creswell, 2013) that reveal how respondents see themselves, their work and their priorities for teacher education practice and policy. For trustworthiness, we employed several strategies to ensure credibility (e.g., in-depth interviewing, intercoder reliability, member checking, referential adequacy) and transferability (e.g., purposive sampling, thick description) of the study (Marshall & Rossman, 2011). A second level of analysis involved using our theoretical frameworks as an analytic lens to discern relationships of meaning between teacher educator experiences and perspectives, and social justice ways of teaching and knowing according to hooks and Cochran-Smith.

Date analysis in Phase One illuminated who our respondents are, their work, and their priorities for teacher education. All are teacher educators with immigrant experience–whether first-hand, through generational family histories of immigration, or through professional/educational experiences. Consequently, educating immigrant children held personal meaning for many of the teacher educators we interviewed, connected to their lived experiences and shaping their work. While not a criterion for selection, this was an important factor in respondents’ vocational decisions. For example, respondents reported intentionally integrating social justice issues surrounding immigrants/immigration into their research and teaching and making connections with immigrant communities. Their narratives across the three jurisdictions highlighted what further work needs to be done to ensure socially just education for immigrant students around the globe. First is radical reform in teacher education programs; second is learning about and navigating policies that are often hostile to immigrants; third is the need for research that is context-specific but also cross-cultural and transnational as one way to respond to mass global migration. Phase Two of data analysis is ongoing, utilizing the theoretical lenses afforded by hooks and Cochran-Smith, enabling us to discern connections between teacher educator identities and work, and teacher preparation for educating immigrant students. Preliminary findings include: 1) the relationship between identity and commitments to teaching marginalized populations as each respondent articulated a clear connection to immigrant students as key to their work, an insight into “which teachers are recruited” for social justice teaching (Cochran-Smith, 2010, p. 459); and 2) inserting “a counter-narrative account” that “insist[s] that everyone’s presence is acknowledged” (hooks, 1994, p. 8) by building bridges between immigrant communities and families and teacher preparation curricula, and enabling the capacities of immigrant students contained in everyday, ordinary actions to be instructive to new and experienced teachers and researchers.

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