Transnational Lessons from Mexican-Origin Border Crossing Future Teachers: Decolonizing Teacher Practices

Grounded in frameworks of decoloniality and transnationalism, this study examines how organizational behaviors in education—particularly in teacher preparation—can shift to more inclusively serve transnational youth, challenging Eurocentric, nation-bound assumptions about pedagogy, belonging, and professional development. The present study aims to understand Mexican-origin returnees and transnational migrants who came back to Mexico to pursue English teacher preparation degrees in Guanajuato and Hidalgo after spending significant periods of time on either side of the Mexico-U.S. border. Our study aimed to recognize and describe the experiences that shaped their English teaching practices and professional commitments to teaching English as a foreign language. Using narrative inquiry within a longitudinal qualitative study of 28 Mexican-origin pre-service English teachers, our research was guided by frameworks of decoloniality and transnationalism. Our findings reveal that for participants, U.S.-based teaching approaches were recalled most often as the best compared to Mexican ones. Participants also reflected on how their experiences of learning and adapting to a new culture contributed to their professional identity and how their ability to adapt constituted a form of international-mindedness. We argue that through the comparison and adoption of multiple decolonial practices, teacher preparation programs can produce culturally responsive pedagogies that cross borders. By illustrating how teacher preparation programs can cultivate culturally responsive pedagogies that transcend national boundaries, the study highlights the potential of decolonial and transnational perspectives to transform organizational behavior at multiple levels of educational practice and policy.