Funds of Knowledge, Intersectionality, and Transformative Resistance: A Portrait of a Chinese Immigrant Teacher

Immigrant teachers-who make up approximately 8% of the American K-12 teaching workforce-bring valuable diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, language, and religion. However, they also face unique challenges in addition to the systemic difficulties affecting all teachers in the U.S. education system. These challenges include navigating restrictive immigration policies, credential recognition barriers, hiring discrimination, limited career advancement, and difficulties adapting to curricula and school environments as non-native English speakers. Furthermore, they may experience racial, ethnic, and linguistic discrimination from students, parents, colleagues, and administrators, as well as structural discrimination embedded in institutional policies at the school, state, and federal levels. While there is extensive research on the discrimination faced by minoritized students and teachers of color in U.S. schools and by immigrant teachers of color in international schooling contexts, little attention has been given to the specific discriminatory experiences of immigrant teachers within the United States.