Immigrant Catholic School Educators: Working across Cultures, Immigrant Catholic School Educators: Working across Cultures, Opportunities and Perspectives Opportunities and Perspectives

: While the major ity of our Cath o lic schools in the United States today are far from their roots as schools run by immi grants for immi grants, the stories of immi grant teach ers in our Cath o lic schools remain. With the major ity of immi grants com ing to the United States today from Mexico and Latin America, the His panic edu ca tors in our Cath o lic schools are highly diverse. A strik ing find ing from the “ Cultivating Talent” report is that nearly 40% of His panic teach ers and 27% of His panic lead ers in Cath o lic schools are immi grants, pro ceed ing from nearly every Span ish-speak ing nation, mirroring the back grounds of stu dents and fam i lies in their com mu ni ties (Ospino and Wyttenbach, 2022). Their pres ence enriches the Cath o lic edu ca tional expe ri ence in the United States with impor tant global per-spec tives. This paper aims to tell the counternarratives of immi grant teach ers and shed light on the con tri bu tions they con tinue to bring to Cath o lic school com mu ni ties and the chal lenges they face.

F rom its very begin nings, immi grants and their descen dants have shaped Amer i can Cathol icism. Euro pean immi grants made nota ble con tri bu tions to the Amer i can Cath o lic expe ri ence in the 1800s and early 1900s, par tic u larly as they formed small com mu ni ties of parishes that spon sored schools for their chil dren. During a time of per va sive xeno pho bia and Anti-Cath o lic sen ti ment, these Cath o lic schools responded by cen ter ing immi grant stu dents' lan guages and cul tures, mak ing the paro chial school a social and intel lec tual cen ter for newly arrived immi grant fam i lies (Bryk et al., 1993). Some eccle sial lead ers, such as the immi grant bishop Saint John Neumann, pri or i tized Cath o lic edu ca tion and stra te gi cally established con nec tions with reli gious orders in countries of ori gin to help staff schools (Gowen & Mercedes, 1957). Thus, the Cath o lic schools in the United States were truly an immi grant enter prise envisioned by immi grant bish ops, built by immi grant fam i lies, and staffed by immi grant teach ers.
The his tory of the United States reveals epi sodic waves of immi gra tion. The peak of the for eign-born pop u la tion reached its peak in 1890, when 14.8% of the U.S. pop u la tion consisted of immi grants (see Figure 1; Pew Research Center, 2020). The pro lif er a tion of Cath o lic schools quickly accom pa nied this 19th cen tury surge, to the point that in 1900 there were an esti mated 3,500 Cath o lic schools edu cat ing all age groups. That num ber nearly dou bled by 1920, with more than 6,551 Cath o lic schools serv ing 1.7 mil lion ele men tary-aged stu dents alone (Walch, 2016). This explo sive growth of Cath o lic schools con tin ued well into the 20th cen tury. Contrasting this growth with today, the for eign-born pop u la tion of the United States cur rently stands at 13.7% of the pop u la tion (44.8 mil lion), with immi grant ori gins diff er ing dras ti cally from the 19th cen tury surge (Budiman, 2020;Wang & Wu, 2021). According to the Pew Research Center, Euro pean and other North Amer i can immi grants made up only a small share of the for eign-born pop u la tion (13%) in 2018, with Asians (28%), Mex i cans (25%), and other Latin Amer i cans (25%) each mak ing up about a quar ter of the U.S. immi grant pop u la tion (2020). The immi grant pop u la tion has more than qua dru pled since the 1960s, and while the birth rate in the United States has decreased in recent years, the num ber of immi grants liv ing in the United States is projected to almost dou ble by 2065 (Pew Research Center, 2020).
Counterposed to the expan sion of Cath o lic schools in the late 19th and early 20th cen tu ries, the num ber of Cath o lic schools has steadily declined since the 1960s. The 5.2 mil lion stu dents enrolled in nearly 13,000 U.S. Cath o lic schools in the 1960s have declined to just over 1.6 mil lion stu dents enrolled in just under 6,000 schools (McDonald & Schultz, 2021). While around 41.6% of the nearly 70 mil lion Cath o lics in the United States iden tify as His panic, only about 2% of His panic chil dren in the United States attend Cath o lic schools (Ospino & Wyttenbach, 2022). The 2022 pub li ca tion out of Bos ton College-Cultivating Talent: A Summary Report of Findings from the National Study Examining Pathways to Increase the Presence of His panic Teachers and Leaders in Cath o lic Schools (here af er, Cultivating Talent)-gath ered valu able data and insights into the expe ri ences of His panic lead ers and edu ca tors in con tem po rary Cath o lic schools in the United States. As with Bos ton College's Cultivating Talent report, our research team made the deci sion to use the term "His panic" rather than "Latino, " "Latino/a, " "Latine, " or "Latinx" for this paper. While the use of the terms "His panic" and "Latino" dates back to the 1970s and 1990s, respectively, the term "Latinx" is more recent. With more than 15 years of polling by the Pew Research Center, half of Amer i cans who trace their roots to Span ish-speak ing Latin America and Spain have "con sis tently said they have no pref er ence for either His panic or Latino as a term to describe the group. And when one term is cho sen over another, the term His panic has been pre ferred to Latino" (Ospino & Wyttenbach, 2022, p. 6). Additionally, in a 2019 bilin gual sur vey of self-iden ti fied Hispanic and/or Latino adults in the United States, only 23% had heard of the term "Latinx, " and only 3% use it (Noe-Bustamante et al., 2020). Thus, in order to pro vide con sis tent lan guage through out, we chose the more widely used term "His panic" for our study and report.
Though many Cath o lic schools in the United States today are far from their roots as schools run by immi grants for immi grants, the stories of immi grant teach ers in Cath o lic schools remain. The His panic edu ca tors in our Cath o lic schools are highly diverse. A strik ing find ing from the Cultivating Talent report is that nearly 40% of His panic teach ers and 27% of His panic lead ers in Cath o lic schools are immi grants, whose roots are in nearly every Span ish-speak ing nation, mirroring the back grounds of stu dents and fam i lies in their com mu ni ties (Ospino & Wyttenbach, 2022). Their pres ence enriches the Cath o lic edu ca tional expe ri ence in the United States with impor tant global per spec tives. This paper aims to tell the counternarratives of immi grant teach ers and shed light on the con tri bu tions they con tinue to bring to Cath o lic school com mu ni ties and the chal lenges they face.

Immigrant Educators in the United States
The immi grant edu ca tor expe ri ence of today across pub lic, char ter, and pri vate schools is dynamic and mul ti fac eted. Of the esti mated 8.1 mil lion PK-post sec ond ary teach ers across all sec tors in the United States, approx i ma tely 857,200 are immi grant teach ers, account ing for 11% of all teach ers (Furuya et al., 2019). Nearly half of these immi grant edu ca tors teach at the post second ary level. In addi tion to sup ply ing a crit i cal labor force and edu cat ing Amer i can chil dren with a dis tinct inter na tional per spec tive, immi grant edu ca tors can also serve as cul tural ambas sa dors for immi grant stu dents who lack famil iar ity with Amer i can tra di tions, cus toms, and social norms (Ospino & Wyttenbach, 2022). Closer anal y sis of the 857,200 for eign-born teach ers reveals an over rep re sen ta tion in post sec ond ary teach ing posi tions, where 22% are employed (Furuya et al., 2019). This sta tis tic is indic a tive of an under rep re sen ta tion at the PK-12 level.
While 11% of pre school and kin der gar ten teach ers are for eign-born, this per cent age drops to 7% for Grades 1-12 (Furuya et al., 2019). For some immi grants, their immi gra tion sta tus or visa cat e gory may pres ent a mas sive obsta cle for work ing as a pub lic school teacher in the United States at the ele men tary or sec ond ary level. Even immi grants who have obtained cit i zen ship sta tus in the United States and hold advanced degrees may run into obsta cles if they received their edu ca tion out side of the United States. The pro cess to have a for eign-issued degree rec og nized by accrediting bod ies is com plex and at times pro hib i tive. Therefore, fewer for eign-born edu ca tors may pur sue the licen sure or cer ti fi ca tion required for employ ment (Furuya et al., 2019). Recent immi gra tion pol icy changes and the com plex ity of most states' teach ing licens ing pro cesses have aggra vated the teacher short age in United States pub lic schools. Thousands of teach ing posi tions in the areas of bilin gual edu ca tion, for eign lan guages, math e mat ics, and sci ence remain vacant every year in the United States-posi tions that well-qual i fied immi grant teach ers could fill (Ospino & Wyttenbach, 2022).
In addi tion to these pro fes sional chal lenges, immi grant edu ca tors face per sonal chal lenges when they come to the United States, such as accli mat ing to a new coun try, iso la tion, and racial and lin guis tic dis crim i na tion (Fee, 2020). Further, for immi grant edu ca tors employed in schools, it is not uncom mon to expe ri ence hard ships, such as dif culty in social i za tion and inter ac tion with col leagues and admin is tra tors (Schmidt, 2010).
Considering the lin guis tic bar ri ers in schools that immi grant teach ers ofen face, teach ers described the first hand expe ri ence of their "lin guis tic abil i ties as lia bil i ties" (Connally et al., 2017, p. 25). This phe nom e non is exem pli fied by such expe ri ences as that of a para pro fes sional pur su ing teacher credentialing who was told by a col league, "there are other oppor tu ni ties for peo ple like you. You can't be a teacher in America with such a heavy accent" (Connally et al., 2017, p. 4).
Communication shapes the teach ing pro fes sion, not only in the craf of teach ing but also in build ing social cap i tal with col leagues and fam i lies. Accented English, as well as diff er ent manner isms from the dom i nant cul tures, may be met with dis crim i na tion (Oloo, 2012). Smith's 2018 study of three Afro-Carib bean immi grant teacher edu ca tors underscored that even native English speak ers, such as these three highly edu cated and qual i fied uni ver sity-level edu ca tors, found that they were char ac ter ized as "'non-native' speak ers of English in the United States, " and that they contended with dis crim i na tion on the basis of their accents: "I think from the time I open my mouth, peo ple refuse to lis ten. I don't think they try to under stand me . . . . The expec ta tion for any one not speak ing the Amer i can accent is that you're not speak ing English" (p. 270).
Researchers indi cate that there are lim ited data regard ing the expe ri ences of the immi grant teacher (Arun, 2008, Cho, 2010, Lee, 2010& Oloo, 2012. Most of the lim ited research that does exist focuses on immi grant teach ers in countries other than the United States. There is a pau city of data regard ing for eign-born teach ers cur rently work ing in U.S. Cath o lic schools. A 2015 study of adult Cath o lics in the United States found that 27% were for eign-born and that the major ity of these indi vid u als were from countries in Latin or South America (Lipka, 2015). The 2017-2018 National Teacher and Principal Survey revealed that 85.9% of Cath o lic school teach ers are White, 7.6% are His panic, 2.8% are Black, and 2.5% are Asian. No data were included regard ing what percent age from each group may be for eign-born or as to their countries of ori gin. In the 2020-2021 aca demic year, 9% of fac ulty in Cath o lic PK-12 schools (includ ing lead ers and part-time fac ulty mem bers) were His panic (McDonald & Schultz, 2021). As with the National Teacher and Principal Survey, the data pro vided did not indi cate the per cent age of His panic fac ulty mem bers who were for eign-born.
This lack of data pres ents an oppor tu nity and call to cap ture the cul tural com pe ten cies, global wis dom, and exper tise that for eign-born edu ca tors can bring to U.S. Cath o lic schools. Further, cap tur ing immi grant edu ca tor counternarratives cre ates an oppor tu nity to high light their rep re senta tion in the Cath o lic school sys tem. Amplifying the voices of immi grant teach ers in U.S. Cath o lic schools would expand and reshape the dom i nant nar ra tive of who a teacher is. One area for growth iden ti fied in the Cultivating Talent report is to "high light these con tri bu tions" of immi grant Cath o lic school edu ca tors, thus "extend[ing] the Amer i can his tory of cen ter ing the immi grant in our Cath o lic insti tu tions, parishes, as well as schools" (Ospino & Wyttenbach, 2022, p. 51). Attentiveness of the Cath o lic sec tor to edu cat ing, supporting, and pro vid ing devel op ment opportu ni ties for immi grant edu ca tors can yield impor tant fruits for Cath o lic schools.

Methodology
Data for the Cultivating Talent: His panic Educators in Cath o lic Schools report were gath ered from a national sur vey, focus groups, and inter views. Data col lec tion occurred from July to Novem ber 2021 and all research activ ity and mate ri als were approved by the Bos ton College Institutional Review Board. Participants in the study were Cath o lic school teach ers and lead ers who iden tify as His panic. The Qualtrics sur vey was dis sem i nated through a data base of His panic and non-His panic Cath o lic school lead ers devel oped inter nally at Bos ton College's Roche Center for Cath o lic Education. The sur vey included one set of ques tions for all respon dents and sep a rate sets of addi tional ques tions for teach ers, and a sec ond set for school lead ers. Participants were asked to indi cate their role in their school and received the appro pri ate cor re spond ing sur vey. They were also asked if they were for eign-born and sub se quent ques tions followed from their cho sen response.
For the pres ent arti cle, we draw from the Cultivating Talent report data, disaggregating teachers' and lead ers' responses, sep a rat ing those who iden tify as for eign-born from those who were born in the United States. The full sam ple size for this paper is 94 for eign-born par tic i pants. We then reviewed tran script data from the for eign-born Cath o lic school teach ers and lead ers who par tic i pated in one-on-one con ver sa tions and focus groups. Drawing from this rich data set, we con tem plated the stories and insights of the immi grant edu ca tors and school lead ers and uti lized open cod ing to iden tify and ana lyze themes of for eign-born Cath o lic school edu ca tors.
For this the matic induc tive anal y sis of the stories and insights of immi grant Cath o lic school teach ers and lead ers, we situated our anal y sis within a meth od ol ogy of counternarratives. We followed Cho (2010) who wrote that "[c]ounter stories bring com plex ity and rich ness to the prevailing con cept of who can be a teacher and are trans for ma tive in nature as they have the potential to dis rupt com mon under stand ings of what the jour ney to becom ing a teacher might involve" (p. 32). The counternarrative approach pro vi des an oppor tu nity to lis ten to and amplify the stories as shared by immi grant edu ca tors-and thereby to redi rect or dis rupt the dom i nant his tory and story of the United States edu ca tor, in order to invite us all into the real ity of what is, and the possi bil i ties of what may be (Cho, 2010;Mora, 2014;Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). As one immi grant Cath o lic edu ca tor recounted in a focus group in our study, when an immi grant par ent saw her in her role as a school leader and learned more of her story, she turned to her lit tle daugh ter and said: "One day, you're going to be like her. You're not going to be wash ing clothes like me. You're going to be like her." The event was trans for ma tive, and the record ing and recounting of this event in the words and voice of the immi grant edu ca tor her self is an exam ple of the con tin u ous trans for ma tive power of such counternarratives. For the pur poses of this paper, we pro vide a sum mary of the find ings from the 94 immi grant Cath o lic edu ca tors who par tic i pated in the study and pro vide an expan sive counternarrative per spec tive from two par tic i pants.

Findings: The Immigrant Cath o lic Educator Experience
We have orga nized the find ings into two sec tions. First, upon conducting an anal y sis of the Cultivating Talent sur vey data of His panic school edu ca tors in Cath o lic schools who self-iden ti fied as for eign-born, we pro vide a pro file of these immi grant edu ca tors. Secondly, upon reviewing transcripts from the focus groups and one-on-one inter views conducted, we pro vide counternarratives from Carolina and Maria-a Cath o lic school leader and teacher, respec tively-who shared extensively their per sonal and pro fes sional expe ri ences as immi grant Cath o lic school edu ca tors.

Profile of Immigrant Cath o lic School Educators
We begin with an anal y sis of the demo graph ics to pro file the immi grant Cath o lic school educa tor. Out of the 94 for eign-born edu ca tors in the sur vey, 97.9% are from countries/ter ri to ries in Latin America. The most com mon countries of ori gin are Mexico (33.0%), Cuba (13.8%), Colombia and Peru (8.5% each), and Venezuela (7.4%). Many of the immi grant edu ca tors reside in states that have large Latin Amer i can immi grant and His panic pop u la tions: 24% live in Florida, 13.8% live in California, and 9.6% live in Texas. Most of the edu ca tors sur veyed are full-time teach ers (54.3%). Those who are not full-time teach ers are split among prin ci pals (13%), assis tant prin ci pals (4.3%), other pro fes sional staff (coun sel ors, social work ers, cur ric u lum coor di na tors; 6.4%), and other roles. Out of the 22.3% of respon dents who selected "Other" as their role, five respon dents serve in roles that may be directly related to their immi grant back ground: Span ish teacher, Span ish immer sion teacher, and roles asso ci ated with His panic enroll ment and out reach. Nearly half of respon dents (52.7%) indi cated that they teach in a dual-lan guage or for eign lan guage immer sion school, dem on strat ing that they are both fill ing a demand in mul ti lin gual schools and con trib ut ing their lin guis tic assets to these school envi ron ments.
Foreign-born teach ers in the United States tend to be highly edu cated (Furuya, 2019). When exam in ing their edu ca tional back grounds, 95% have bach e lor's degrees, 54% mas ter's degrees, and 12% doc toral degrees. Many respon dents (40.5%) received degrees (any level) from insti tu tions out side of the United States. Half of the respon dents have a teach ing license (50.5%); how ever, only 54.3% are full-time teach ers. Respondents on aver age have worked for 12 years in the Cath o lic school sys tem, dem on strat ing a com mit ment to their com mu nity. These data indi cate that the major ity of immi grant His panic Cath o lic school edu ca tors come to their Cath o lic school commu ni ties well-edu cated and their ded i ca tion dem on strates a loy alty to serv ing the Cath o lic school com mu nity.

His panic Identity
When asked if being His panic influ enced their deci sion to become a teacher, most immi grant edu ca tors said "no" (72.0%), though some said "yes" (28.0%). Despite the low num ber of "yes" responses, the sur vey indi cates that His panic iden tity is impor tant to many immi grant edu ca tors in a vari ety of ways. For exam ple, the major ity of immi grant edu ca tors con sider them selves a per sona puente in some way; these "bridge build ers" most com monly build rela tion ships with His panic teach ers, stu dents and fam i lies. The least com mon group with which they net work is Church lead ers.

Mentorship
Almost 70% of immi grant edu ca tors (69.2%) had His panic role mod els in their schools when they explored the pro fes sion. However, only 37.6% reported being mentored by some one of His panic descent who influ enced their deci sion to go into edu ca tion. This 30% diff er ence might sug gest a gap between the sta tus of role mod els and men tors and/or the exis tence of His panic men tors out side of an edu ca tor's school of employ ment. One third of respon dents who were assigned a men tor teacher at their school had a His panic men tor teacher. Almost every respon dent iden ti fied at least one other His panic fac ulty mem ber, staff mem ber, or leader at their school. However, the num ber of respondents who pur pose fully sought out these indi vid u als for men tor ship and/or sup port was much lower. Two thirds (66.0%) of those with other His panic fac ulty have sought their men tor ship; over half of those with His panic lead ers have sought their men tor ship (58.2%); and over half of those with other His panic staff have sought their men tor ship, guid ance, or sup port (55.3%).

Recruiting and Representation
Only 13.8% of immi grant edu ca tors said that they actively recruit teach ers/lead ers of His panic descent. Out of the seven school lead ers whose schools have spe cific pro grams for teach ers to move into lead er ship or admin is tra tive posi tions, only two actively recruit His pan ics for those pro grams. When asked about His panic rep re sen ta tion on the school's board of direc tors, respon dents were split. About one third said that there was His panic rep re sen ta tion (34%), one third said that there was not (33.0%), and the final third said that they were unsure (33.0%). Respondents were sim i larly split when asked about His panic rep re sen ta tion among par ents in the par ent-teacher orga ni za tion (39.3% said "yes, " 30.3% said "no", and 30.3% were "unsure").

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Cultural Programming
When asked if their school has a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) direc tor (or a sim i lar posi tion), only 17.6% of immi grant edu ca tors said "yes, " while a larger num ber said that they were "unsure" (22.0%), and the major ity said "no" (60.4%). Out of those edu ca tors who work at a school with a DEI direc tor, half said that their DEI direc tor is His panic; in addi tion, half said that their DEI direc tor is Span ish speak ing, while 37.5% said "no" and 12.5% were "unsure." Having a school com mit tee for DEI was more com mon than hav ing a DEI direc tor; just 16 immi grant edu ca tors worked at schools with a DEI direc tor, while 22 immi grant edu ca tors worked at schools with a DEI com mit tee (made up of teach ers or board mem bers). On the indi vid ual level, the major ity of immi grant teach ers were involved with cul tural diver sity mat ters/pro grams at school; 38.9% were "some what involved" and 25.6% were "very involved." When it comes to DEI advo cacy in school, equi ta ble engage ment of His panic stu dents in clas ses and/or activ i ties was the most com mon area of advo cacy. Despite their con cern for His panic stu dent engage ment, less than one third of respondents (22.7%) have received for mal train ing in work ing with His panic chil dren and fam i lies.
For those who con sid ered leav ing their school for another job, lack of diver sity at their cur rent school was a less com mon, but still sig nifi cant fac tor. Lack of diver sity among adults at the school was a push fac tor for 18.4% of edu ca tors who had con sid ered leav ing their school; and lack of diver sity among stu dents/fam i lies was a push fac tor for 5.3%. Even more so than diver sity, sal ary seems to be key to retaining immi grant edu ca tors. Those who con sid ered leav ing their school cited sal ary and/or ben e fits as the top rea son (79.0%).
The major ity of immi grant edu ca tors said that the Cath o lic tra di tions at their schools reflected their cul tural back ground "ofen" or "always" (62.3%). The most com mon expres sions of His panic her i tage at respon dents' schools included reli gious feasts (70.1%), Span ish Mass (57.1%), and bilin gual mate ri als sent home (57.1%). Outside of school, 40 edu ca tors said they attend Mass in Span ish, and a sim i lar num ber (41) said they engage with advo cacy for con cerns of the His panic com mu nity.
These pro file data pro vide an over view of who the immi grant edu ca tors are in our Cath o lic schools, what their edu ca tional back grounds are, how they come to the voca tion of Cath o lic educa tion, and how they engage with their school com mu nity and broader com mu ni ties. Recognizing that each edu ca tor has their own story to tell, we fol low this pro file sec tion with two counternarratives that pro vide a deeper under stand ing of the immi grant Cath o lic edu ca tor expe ri ence.

The Power of Family: Immigrant Cath o lic Educators' Counternarratives
Research indi cates that one of the shap ing forces and ensu ing char ac ter is tics of the United States' main stream nar ra tive is that of indi vid u al ism, clas si cally depicted as the lone hero or pro tag o nist (Raeff et al., 2000). Many immi grants from Central and South Amer i can countries, as well as those from numer ous Afri can and Asian countries, are anchored in a col lec tiv ist her i tage. Individualism and col lec tiv ism are "com plex and mul ti fac eted value sys tems that reflect diff er ent his tor i cally consti tuted stan dards for the inter play between inde pen dence and inter de pen dence" (Raeff et al., 2000, p. 59). The counternarratives of immi grant edu ca tors ofen reveal the con trast and even the con flict between these sys tems. We pro pose that by study ing such counternarratives, we may also enter into the dynamic growth that can exist in the space between indi vid u al ism and col lec tiv ism, hav ing nota ble impli ca tions for how Cath o lic schools recruit and retain immi grant edu ca tors and stu dents.

"So I Have A Voice Now": Carolina's Counternarrative
Carolina (a Cath o lic school admin is tra tor) was born and edu cated in Ecuador, where she grad u ated from a uni ver sity. Afer mar ry ing her hus band, who was a U.S. cit i zen, she moved to the United States and "had to start a whole new life." As she was raised in a Cath o lic fam ily and went to Cath o lic schools until enter ing uni ver sity, she sent her daugh ter to a Cath o lic school in the United States. Carolina volunteered at her daugh ter's school.
[T]hen I started work ing as a teacher assis tant. Then I went back again to col lege and got my mas ter's in edu ca tion. And then I became a teacher. And then they gave me the early child hood direc tor job, which I've been doing for all these years. (Carolina, Personal Interview, 2022) In our inter view with Carolina, she empha sized the impor tance of fam ily, using the word "fam ily" nine times in the con text of her own story, of her work as a teacher and admin is tra tor, and as a Cath o lic church parish ioner. "It is in the fam ily and the com mu nity where His panic Cath o lics pri mar ily develop our cul tural and eccle sial iden tity, indeed a coun ter cul tural con vic tion in a soci ety in which focus on the indi vid ual tends to pre vail" (Ospino, 2010, p. 417). Carolina's counternarrative illu mi nated the theme of fam ily as a coun ter cul tural con vic tion and as an indi ca tor of the power of col lec tiv ism.
At the out set of the inter view, Carolina was asked to share about her own jour ney to Cath o lic edu ca tion, and the first sen tence of her response anchored her nar ra tive in fam ily. Carolina shared: "I was born and raised in a Cath o lic fam ily. So always, Cathol i cism was very impor tant to us." Note the com mu nal "us" in the sec ond sen tence of her response, empha siz ing yet again a col lec tive value frame of mind. Later in the inter view, as she spoke about becom ing the first His panic admin is trator at her school, she said, I had to do things on my own, and try to find out ways to com mu ni cate with the fam ilies, and really become an advo cate for fam i lies . . . because of the chal lenges that they have with lan guage, with peo ple under stand ing cul ture, and fam i lies spe cifi cally some times, and more . . . . The school hadn't been so sup port ive in that way . . . . Emphasizing com mu ni cation and advo cat ing for fam i lies [as an admin is tra tor], the par ents were really happy. The enroll ment dupli cated like in two years. Like, the school right now has no room for more stu dents. And when we came here, it was about to close. So they [the fam ily]-you see, they see results. And now we have a new prin ci pal. And it's been won der ful. It's good. I'm like, right now, it's like, I'm seen. I've been heard. So I have a voice now. So it's really good. (Carolina, Personal Interview, 2022) The theme of fam ily, of atten tive ness to and advo cacy for fam ily, is inter wo ven here with the theme of lin guis tic and cul tural chal lenges. The space of con flict between col lec tiv ism and individ u al ism is grad u ally transformed into syn ergy and new pos si bil i ties. Carolina's advo cacy for the fam i lies in her school resulted in a sig nifi cant pos i tive impact on the out comes for stu dents and on enroll ment. In fur ther describ ing the effects of her voice for her school com mu nity, she shared about plan ning activ i ties for all fam i lies in the school com mu nity, of advo cat ing for fam i lies, and of instructing par ents so that they can effec tively help their chil dren. This aware ness of the lin guis tic and cul tural chal lenges that immi grant fam i lies may face is not lim ited to the school com mu nity for Carolina, but flows into another aspect of her life that she also char ac ter izes as fam ily-her Cath o lic Church par ish.
I can tell you about the par ish that my school belongs to. They have been won der ful. And they work really hard to wel come His panic fam i lies. They started cel e brat ing also the Mass in Span ish. And they always invite me to talk about the school, to talk about the pro grams we offer, to help the fam i lies to advo cate for social needs that they may have, edu ca tional needs that they might have. And we do it in Span ish. And we have this lit tle cel e bra tion afer Mass. We have empa na das. We have coff ee. We have nice music. And fam i lies really feel connected. (Carolina, Personal Interview, 2022) A connected theme here is that of cel e bra tion. As an immi grant, mov ing from one cul tural space to another cul tural space, Carolina, with her par ish com mu nity, cre ates a wel com ing space of cel e bration through food, lan guage, and dia logue.
Carolina helps to part ner the school with the par ish in com mu nity out reach for the greater neigh bor hood. She explained, So we try to help out in our com mu nity. We are also part ners with a com mu nity health center. We are con tin u ously invit ing peo ple now through Zoom to have a con ver sa tion about nutri tion, and health, and now COVID, and so many things. And we also do it in English, and Span ish, and Mandarin, because in the neigh bor hood is mostly Asian, Chi nese. So we always address the lan guage of the fam i lies we have in this area. (Carolina, Personal Interview, 2022) The cul tural com pe ten cies that Carolina brings with her as an immi grant edu ca tor help to shape a vibrant out reach to the diverse cul tures found within her neigh bor hood.
Carolina's counternarrative reveals the inter wo ven themes of fam ily, nav i gat ing lin guis tic and cul tural chal lenges, and advo cacy. Family is the par a digm for how she sees her self, the school, the Church, and the neigh bor hood. The con ti nu ity of aware ness of and sen si tiv ity for the lin guis tic and cul tural chal lenges expe ri enced by other immi grants seems to stem from her own lived experi ences as an immi grant and as an immi grant edu ca tor (McDevitt, 2018). Having built a new life and established her voice, she uses her wis dom and voice for the ben e fit of oth ers. Some of the most pow er ful advo cates are those who have endured chal lenges and suff er ing them selves. The care and advo cacy for diverse con stit u ents in her school, Church, and neigh bor hood flow from her com mit ment to a broad sense of fam ily.
Carolina's insights have impli ca tions for school enroll ment and for stu dent out comes. We see in her story that the care for fam ily and her pro mo tion of the inter con nec ted ness of school, par ish, and neigh bor hood helped to trans form a school which was about to close into a school that is now at max i mum capac ity. As many Cath o lic schools in the United States strug gle with enroll ment, what are the les sons to be learned from Carolina's par a digm of fam ily and her cul tural her i tage of col lec tiv ism? Further, it is impor tant to con sider how advo cacy and rela tion ships with fam i lies are parlayed into strong out comes for stu dent achieve ment and flourishing at many other schools. As Carolina pointed out: "And then they get part of the suc cess, because they see you. And they feel you're really close as fam ily. And I think it's part of the enroll ment that has done very well in the past few years" (Carolina, Personal Interview, 2022). I found a totally diff er ent envi ron ment for myself. And I just started to thrive. And like, it was so awe some. Like, my fam ily was so proud and happy. And just the com mu nity and fam ily sense that I felt there was such a diff er ence. (Maria, Personal Interview, 2022) Maria's expe ri ence of thriv ing in the com mu nity and fam ily-ori ented envi ron ment of her Cath o lic school in the DR ulti mately served as a cat a lyst for her work in the United States. Maria had never thought of work ing for a dio cese but a con nec tion at her par ish encour aged her to apply for a role. Out of this social cap i tal came an unex pected path: As Maria stepped into her new role with the dio cese, she was tasked with increas ing His panic enroll ment in Cath o lic schools. Maria described think ing back to her trans for ma tive expe ri ences of Cath o lic edu ca tion in the DR: I started to con nect all of those mem o ries and that real ity to my job here . . . . This is kind of like giv ing back to the same real ity I was in and try ing to get more His panic fam i lies into our schools-cer tainly a chal lenge with mak ing sure that our prin ci pal stayed on bud get, but at the same time, wel comed His panic fam i lies that needed finan cial aid a lit tle bit much more than the reg u lar fam i lies . . . . We did increase from 9% to 18%. (Maria, Personal Interview, 2022) When con sid er ing the sup port Maria was pro vided for her posi tion, she explained that there was no train ing for her role, "so I had to train myself." She sought oppor tu ni ties to develop her social cap i tal, to fos ter buy-in from school lead ers regard ing the impor tance of com mit ting to increas ing His panic enroll ment in schools, as well as devel op ing her skills for effec tively "empower[ing] fam i lies." The power of fam ily was crit i cal for Maria's suc cess in increas ing His panic enrollment through engag ing with Church, school, and com mu nity. As an illus tra tive exam ple, to increase enroll ment in one school, Maria said they began mar ket ing at a Church com mu nity that was 35 or 40 min utes from the school. "And all of a sud den, a few fam i lies-we got 15 fam i lies from that town. And we got a bus for those fam i lies. And those fam i lies started going to that school. And then that school became like 90% His panic" (Maria, Personal Interview, 2022). The enroll ment growth dem on strates how rep re sen ta tion of His panic edu ca tors mat ters to fam i lies as they choose Cath o lic schools. Having some one like Maria and Carolina as immi grant edu ca torswho have dis tinct back grounds and expe ri ences, yet are connected by a lin guis tic and cul tural her i tage-is sought afer by His panic fam i lies.
The strengths that immi grant edu ca tors like Maria and Carolina bring to their school com mu ni ties-or fam i lies-are also dis tinc tive. Yet there is shared wis dom in their fam ily-cen tered par a digm and col lec tiv ist her i tage that chal lenges the sta tus quo and pro vi des new hori zons for how Cath o lic school lead ers and edu ca tors approach the class room, mar ket ing, enroll ment manage ment, advo cacy, and com mu nity part ner ships. Capturing the counternarratives of the immigrant edu ca tor pop u la tion in our U.S. Cath o lic schools shows the rich tap es try of voices, tal ents, and gifs brought to our class rooms and com mu ni ties.

Discussion and Implications
Continuing to under stand the pro file of the immi grant edu ca tor and cap tur ing their counternarratives allows for a deeper under stand ing of the Cath o lic edu ca tor expe ri ence; doing so also rec og nizes the dis tinct per spec tives these indi vid u als bring to our com mu ni ties as well as the strengths of a col lec tiv ist approach to the numer ous facets of Cath o lic edu ca tion. To con tinue to expand upon the immi grant Cath o lic edu ca tor expe ri ence, we pro vide the fol low ing six rec ommen da tions for fur ther research and action: First, high light the con tri bu tions of for eign-born Cath o lic school edu ca tors in the United States through gath er ing and ana lyz ing data, and by lis ten ing to their voices and record ing their stories. In light of the ris ing num ber of Asian immi grants, and mind ful of the rise of prej u dice and hate-based crimes against Asians through out the COVID-19 pan demic (Wang & Wu, 2021), we rec om mend an addi tional focus on immi grant Cath o lic school teach ers from Asian countries.
Second, shaped by data and stories from immi grant teach ers, forge the devel op ment of equita ble human resources prac tices that facil i tate the hir ing, train ing, and retaining of immi grant teach ers. Cognizant of the bar ri ers that exist for many immi grant teach ers, develop "struc tured and sustained induc tion pro grams" to help develop social cap i tal. In this way, human resource depart ments may "becom[e] a stra te gic part ner concerned with adding value to the orga ni za tion" (Oloo, 2012).
Third, develop a teacher pipe line pro gram for for eign-born teach ers to become fac ulty mem bers of U.S. Cath o lic schools. As Ospino & Wyttenbach note (2022), one nat u ral ave nue for build ing such a path way may be through min is try, at the par ish and com mu nity lev els, as well as via uni versity cam pus min is try pro grams. "Strong par tic i pa tion in par ish life and min is te rial engage ment should be seen as sources of nur tur ing the call to serve as edu ca tors in Cath o lic schools" (Ospino & Wyttenbach, 2022, p. 28).
Fourth, estab lish a crit i cal men tor ship pro gram in one's dio cese or across dio ceses for immi grant Cath o lic edu ca tors. The crit i cal men tor ship design allows under rep re sented teach ers to rec og nize the racial, cul tural, and social iden ti ties along with ways to lever age expe ri en tial knowl edge. It has been found to be an afr ma tive model of sup port for under rep re sented teach ers (Gist, 2021). Given the value mentoring pro grams bring to new teach ers and lead ers, the devel op ment of such a mentoring pro gram could lead to stron ger recruit ment, devel op ment, and reten tion of immi grant Cath o lic edu ca tors.
Fifh, develop and pro vide pro fes sional devel op ment to edu ca tional com mu ni ties around devel op ing cul tural com pe ten cies, par tic u larly around the prin ci ples of indi vid u al ism and col lec tivism. This can fos ter a shared under stand ing among our Cath o lics regard ing the beau ti ful mosaic of the uni ver sal Church, the strengths embed ded in a fam ily-ori ented cul ture, and an appre ci a tion for the wis dom found in a col lec tiv ist approach to our edu ca tional enter prise. While it is imper a tive to pro vide sup port to immi grant edu ca tors, it is like wise crit i cally impor tant to form all Cath o lic edu ca tors in a deeper under stand ing of the numer ous bar ri ers that immi grant edu ca tors-and stu dents-face, so that all Cath o lic edu ca tors may be a part of the solu tion in break ing down said bar ri ers.
Finally, the counternarratives shared in our paper amplify insights from immi grant edu ca tors, hold ing impli ca tions for how to evolve enroll ment mar ket ing and man age ment. Through the para digm of fam ily and the sense of sym bi otic rela tion ships, the immi grant edu ca tors we interviewed had suc cess in increas ing His panic enroll ment at the local and the dioc e san level. Their cre a tiv ity, their under stand ing of the famil ial and Church com mu ni ties, and their own expe ri ences nav i gating bar ri ers for immi grants allowed them to be "bridge build ers, " thus increas ing enroll ment and retaining fam i lies.

Conclusion
While the data for Cath o lic schools-and for immi grant teach ers and lead ers in Cath o lic schools-are not as robust as they were in the late 19th and early 20th cen tu ries, the stories of immi grant Cath o lic edu ca tors hold immense impor tance in the mis sion of Cath o lic edu ca tion. The His panic edu ca tors in our Cath o lic schools are highly diverse, and bring needed per spec tives to our school com mu ni ties. To under stand the future of Cath o lic edu ca tion in the United States, it is vital to under stand who these edu ca tors are, the bar ri ers that they face, and the ben e fits that come from fully wel com ing them into a school com mu nity. Chief among these bar ri ers are the teacher licen sure pro cesses in the United States; the sal ary that Cath o lic schools are able to offer; dis crim i na tion towards peo ple who speak English with a non-Amer i can or non-Euro pean accent; cul tural bar ri ers that make com mu ni ca tion with col leagues and admin is tra tion dif cult; pau city of data; and an Amer i can-cen tric cul tural nar ra tive of indi vid u al ism.
What emerged in the counternarratives was a pow er ful pic ture of the impor tance of fam ily and com mu nity, and how these val ues fuel the voca tion of His panic edu ca tors in U.S. Cath o lic schools. The counternarratives our research explored found dynamic strengths in the inter sec tion between indi vid u al ism and col lec tiv ism. The pres ence of these immi grant edu ca tors enriches the Cath o lic edu ca tional expe ri ence in the United States with impor tant global per spec tives by leverag ing the power of col lec tiv ism. It is of par tic u lar note that the cul tural her i tage and wis dom brought by both Maria and Carolina were cat a lysts for immense ben e fits for each of their schools, includ ing strength en ing com mu nity, increas ing enroll ment, and build ing stra te gic con nec tions with the greater com mu nity. What is abun dantly clear is that the future rel e vancy and sus tain abil ity of Cath o lic schools in the Amer i can edu ca tional land scape is deeply intertwined with both the His panic immi grant com mu nity and with His panic edu ca tors. Further research that con tin ues to build counternarratives of immi grant teach ers will break down bar ri ers and shed light on their con tri bu tions so that U.S. Cath o lic schools can reap the ben e fits that these edu ca tors bring to the table, as well as fully live out their mis sion and bet ter serve their com mu ni ties.