Teachers Without Borders?

The Hidden Consequences of International Teachers in U.S. Schools

Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Education & Teaching

• Author: Alyssa Hadley Dunn
• ISBN: 9780807771600
• Publisher: Teachers College Press
• Publication: December 15, 2009
• Language: English

*Teachers Without Borders?*is the story of four Indian teachers who came to the United States in the face of tremendous personal and professional odds to teach in urban schools. Their experiences are brought to life in this groundbreaking empirical study through interviews with their principals, district representatives in charge of recruitment and orientation, recruitment agency personnel, and union representatives, as well as in-depth classroom observations and student commentary. This well-researched work raises an essential question: If international teachers face daily exploitation, a lack of personal and professional support, and a lack of pedagogical and cultural preparation, are they able to give urban students the high-quality multicultural education they need and deserve?

Book Features:

• An engaging case study that tackles competing discourses about immigration, globalization, and teacher quality.
• The voices of international teachers highlighting the successes and challenges of their experience and comparisons to teachers in other cities across the country.

Alyssa Hadley Dunnis an assistant professor of urban teacher education at Georgia State University.

“*Teachers Without Borders?*underscores the need for teacher educators and district personnel to incorporate culturally relevant pedagogy into their programs and professional support.”

—From the Foreword byJacqueline Jordan Irvine

“*Teachers Without Borders?*documents the advent of hiring international teachers to fill shortages in urban schools. Dunn’s extraordinary analysis shows the lack of preparation of these teachers and, as important, she teaches us how to build the kind of support that will transform this kind of teacher recruitment into a system that matters for students, their schools, and their communities.”

—Ann Lieberman, Senior Scholar, Stanford University, co-author ofTeachers in Professional CommunitiesandHow Teachers Become Leaders

“Alyssa Hadley Dunn argues that both students and international teachers are being misled. This is an excellent and important study.”

—Carl A. Grant, Hoefs-Bascom Professor, University Wisconsin-Madison

“In this highly readable case study, Dunn exposes how the rhetoric of ‘cultural awareness’ used to justify hiring temporary international teachers masks a deeper devaluation of teachers, students of color, and pedagogical knowledge.”

—Christine Sleeter, professor emerita, California State University, Monterey Bay, co-author ofTeaching with Vision: Culturally Responsive Teaching in Standards-Based Classrooms

"This book will transport you through the local and the global, interweaving nuanced portraits of teachers from abroad with troubling unveilings of the bigger picture behind teacher recruitment and school reform. Insightful, passionate, and expansive, this book is a must-read.”

—Kevin Kumashiro, University of Illinois at Chicago, author ofBad Teacher! How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture;

“In this brilliantly rendered case, we see the human consequences when advocates adopt profit-driven strategies, assume quick-fix solutions, and embrace an arid view of teaching and learning. We can also glimpse pathways toward creating a system capable of educating all children in our wildly diverse democracy.”

—William Ayers, educator and bestselling author ofTo Teach, Third EditionandTeaching the Taboo