The Ambiguity of (non)Belonging: Latinx Teachers Negotiate Critical Social Studies in the U.S. South.

This comparative case study examines the experiences of two Latinx teachers in the South-eastern United States who navigate critical social studies without substantive support in their schools. Their school spaces and experiences are myriad and overlapping, but generally the teachers describe being outside the traditional social studies curriculum, the color evasive, progressive project of U.S. schooling, and the dominant racial-ethnic categories of the U.S. South. Similar to Colomer’s (2019) articulation of the double-bind experienced more generally by Latinx teachers in the South, we found the two teachers navigated contexts that were made more meaningful and more hostile because of their presence and praxis. We name this type of double bind unique to Latinx Social Studies teachers in the South as the ambiguity of (non)belonging. We aim to center the efforts of these two teachers and highlight the ambiguities of (non)belonging that simultaneously fuel and flatten their drive to continue as critical social studies teachers in the U.S South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]