Activist Travels: Two Mexican-Origin Teachers’ Transgressions Across Racial Geographies

In this article, we bring together two qualitative studies. The first focused on public bilingual education and school privatization in Wisconsin, and the second examined teacher activism in #RedforEd Arizona. We describe different ways that two Mexican-origin teachers learned and practiced activism in part through their travels across, and transgression of, multiple borders, and we analyze how they subsequently engaged in everyday politicized work. Further, we contextualize the teachers’ travels and activism by examining racial geographies—racialized geographic representations and spatial practices—across two regions of the United States, the Midwest and Southwest. The article contributes to scholarship on the activism of teachers of color and the place-based dimensions of teacher activism. While travel is not inherently transformative, we suggest that it can inspire teacher activism and contribute to teachers’ and communities’ collective work to undo racial geographies.