Glenda M. Flores

Discovering a hidden privilege: Ethnography in multiracial organizations as an outsider within

In this article I use an ‘outsider within’ epistemology to conduct a reflexive analysis of the impact of researcher characteristics on gathering data in multiracial organizations. The reported research elucidates that the intersection of race, gender, class background, age and occupational prestige influenced the ethnographers social interactions with respondents in the teaching profession. With examples selected principally from two years of ethnographic fieldwork in two predominantly racial/ethnic minority multiracial schools in Southern California, I identify a hidden privilege for Latina professionals. I contend that unlike white or male privilege, which are granted consciously and unconsciously, the hidden privilege is fleeting, and works only when verbally revealed in occupations held in lower prestige.

A New Gendered Occupational Niche: Latina Pathways into the Teaching Profession

Abstract Purpose This chapter explains why college-educated Latinas, the daughters of working-class Latino immigrant parents, are disproportionately entering the teaching profession in the United States. Methodology/approach This qualitative study relies on secondary statistical data, an analysis of regional trends and 40 in-depth face-to-face interviews with Latina teachers that work in Southern California elementary schools. Findings Teaching has traditionally been a white woman’s occupation, but it is now the number one career drawing college-educated Latina women, who are entering the teaching profession at greater rates than African Americans or Asian Americans. Current scholarship posits that teaching is a career that resonates with Latina women’s racial-ethnic solidarity and feminine sense of duty to help others. In this chapter, we show how class background is also a key in understanding why the teaching profession has emerged as the top occupational niche for college-educated Latina women. While racial uplift, gender ideals, and family socialization help explain why college-educated Latinas are going into teaching, we add an emphasis on socio-economic class, demographic and structural context, and collectively informed agency. Research limitations/implications This study sheds light on the factors that shape upward mobility and career outcomes in white-collar jobs for minority students and second generation Latinas, the children of immigrants. Originality/value This chapter offers a sociological analysis that suggests Latina teachers navigate their educational and career choices with collective-informed agency and strong obligations to family members. To best understand why Latina/Chicana college graduates are increasingly concentrated in the teaching profession, we advocate an intersectionalities approach that takes class seriously.

Controlling Images of Space: Latina Teachers and Racial Positioning in Multiracial Schools

Controlling images, which are hegemonic racial ideologies that permeate social institutions, have been applied to racial/ethnic minority groups and individuals, but much less to space. In this article, I show how controlling images of school district space affect Latina teachers’ perceptions of immigrant Latinas/os racial positioning in U.S. racial hierarchies. Drawing on ethnographic data collected from two Southern California multiracial school districts, I find that Latina teachers working in Compton—a city comprising primarily Latino immigrants—are initially encouraged to leave for districts that are not associated with the “Black underclass.” Latina teachers in Rosemead, an ethnoburb comprising primarily Latinos and Asians, on the other hand, enroll their children there, and are able to access resources the more class heterogeneous Asian population provides. Ultimately, Latina teachers perceive undocumented Latina/o immigrants to be below African Americans and Asian Americans in local racial hierarchies due to political ostracism and relative valorization, respectively.