According to Glenda Flores, a sociologist in the Department of Chicano/Latino Studies at UC Irvine, Latina teachers are reshaping our classrooms and our children’s education.
Latinas in education make up the largest category of Latina professionals, outnumbering the next largest category, nursing, three times over. The Department of Labor statistics in teaching demographics shows that Latinas make up the fastest growing non-White group entering the teaching profession.
Flores attributes the influx of Latinas in education to a confluence of historical and social factors she calls the class ceiling. Difficulties in balancing culturally-tied family obligations along with managing structural social forces of gender, ethnicity, and demographic changes channels Latinas into education.
In California, Latinos now make up 52 percent of all K-12 students, and according to Pew Research, 64 percent of the Hispanic population in California is native born creating a strong need for educators who have the cultural competency needed to teach this growing student majority.
Recent headlines have centered around the political gains made by Latinas, but leadership development in government is not the only sphere impacted by growing numbers of Latinas. Flores’ research in Santa Ana, CA illustrates that our children’s formative years will also be increasingly shaped by Latinas.
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