"Working in What I Studied". Teacher training and employment in a transnational context

Abstract

In the Mexico-United States transnational migration, the presence of Mexican teachers of basic education is notable. Nevertheless, most of them work in activities that are not related to their professional profile; therefore, we questioned ourselves about the policy actions that have an impact on teacher training in Mexico and the experiences of immigrant teachers who manage to work as educators. The objectives are to identify the conditions of schooling in a teacher training school in the Mixteca region of Puebla and to learn about the training processes of two female graduates who intend to work as teachers in the United States. We conducted qualitative research with a documentary review and life stories. Among the results we identified that there are no certified educational processes for the labor insertion of Mexican teachers in the United States; the analyzed institution does not provide educational content for transnational contexts, and in the two life histories, continuing education appears as a strategy to access teaching in the country of arrival.