Training Gaps: What Teacher Candidates Learn and Want to Know to Effectively Educate Immigrant-Origin Students in Their Classrooms

Strong school-based relationships are key to promoting students’ educational success and wellbeing. These require educators to know the students in their classrooms. Relationships with adults in the school building may yield additional benefits for immigrant-origin students when school personnel help them maneuver through unfamiliar systems and policies. In this paper, we examine how one teacher education program in California prepares future teachers to educate children of immigrant backgrounds. Specifically, we investigate whether and in what ways the topics of immigration, immigration policies, undocumented status, and migration-related trauma are covered and whether teacher candidates learn how growing up in immigrant-led households may affect students. We find that both faculty and teacher candidates strongly believe in the importance knowing about immigration; yet, they report limited treatment of such topics in the program. Our findings highlight structural issues that exist within teacher education programs and state credentialing standards, and we identify potential opportunities to incorporate meaningful learning about immigration within teacher education.