“I Feel Like I Am In-between; I Am Not from Here or There; I Don’t Belong”: Using Ecomaps to Investigate the Relational Spaces of Latinx Im/migrant Teachers in South Carolina

Calling to mind Massey’s (1998) critique that social theory privileges “a hegemony of temporal sequence” (p. 21) at the expense of spatial frames that assert multiplicity, difference, and potential, this chapter outlines the use of ecomaps as a method to examine the relational spaces of im/migrants. More specifically, I share my reflections on the methodological possibilities, limitations, tensions, and questions that emerged from a research study I conducted with im/migrant K-12 Latinx teachers in South Carolina where they mapped the interactions and interrelations that (re)made the spaces they traveled. This chapter is significant for three reasons: (1) the need in education research generally, but migration/education specifically, for new(er) methods rooted in relational spatial thinking, (2) the introduction of ecomapping into critical educational literature, and (3) the addition of greater nuance to migration and education scholarship about the U.S. South by thinking through im/migrant teachers in addition to students and other stakeholders.