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Moral Identity Work by Citizen and Noncitizen Teachers at an Alternative School

Bibliographic Data

ID2365455
AuthorsEmily R Cabani (0000-0002-5634-2670, Sam Houston State University, corresponding author), Emily R Cabaniss (Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA)
Year2014
Volume43
Issue5
Pages624-653
Publication date2014-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Ethnography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-2416 • E-ISSN: 1552-5414
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0891241614532499
OpenAlexW2160105671
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited50

This article examines the rise and fall of collective moral identity by two groups of unequally positioned teachers in a new school for immigrant and refugee students who were learning English. One group was composed of predominately white, US-born tenured teaching professionals. The other consisted of racially and ethnically diverse, foreign-born teachers who were participating in a cultural exchange program and had temporary visas to work in the United States for one to three years. Using participant observation and in-depth interviewing, I show how school administrators and organizational arrangements fostered the development of a shared moral identity that allowed teachers to see themselves as virtuous-if beleaguered-professionals who were doing important work. Although their identity work helped bridge cultural differences and promoted feelings of closeness between the groups, it did so by deflecting and masking inequalities in their structural positions. I show how these inequalities and the reluctance of teachers and school administrators to acknowledge them ultimately eroded their sense of solidarity and undermined their efforts to maintain a shared moral identity

Closeness · Collective identity · Feeling · Identity (music · Immigration · Interview · Pedagogy · Political science · Refugee · Sociology · Solidarity · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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