Translanguaging Pedagogy as an Enactment of Authentic Cariño and an Antidote to Subtractive Schooling

This article explores translanguaging pedagogy through the lens of the politics of caring, subtractive schooling, and authentic cariño (composed of intellectual, familial, and critical cariño). We begin with a broad overview of translanguaging and situate it in the theoretical frameworks of the politics of caring, subtractive schooling, and authentic cariño. We ground our approach in the notion that educators must hold heteroglossic language ideologies. We draw upon examples from literacy instruction in bilingual and ESL fourth grade classrooms to argue that translanguaging pedagogy can be seen as an enactment of intellectual, familial, and critical cariño. We conclude with a call for teacher educators to consider enacting authentic cariño and translanguaging pedagogy in their university classrooms by making space for bi/multilingual pre-service teachers to use their full linguistic repertoires. In this way translanguaging pedagogy, politically aware authentic caring, and authentic cariño can be viewed as part of a broader program of preparing teachers to value authentic ways of bilingual languaging and biliteracy development.

Leaders’ Perspectives on the Preparation of Bilingual/Dual Language Teachers

This research and policy brief uplifts findings from a 2020 survey of 223 California school district leaders. Findings regarding the preparation of beginning bilingual/dual language educators indicate that leaders rated teachers’ linguistic competencies in two languages as the most important ability, followed by teachers’ understanding of bilingualism and biliteracy development and linguistic pedagogical knowledge. Respondents rated beginning bilingual teachers’ preparation to meet the needs of their districts/schools as “moderately well” (M=3.1 out of 5). The brief concludes by identifying policy recommendations for state and local levels as well as for institutions of higher education policies and practice in this statewide “new ecology of biliteracy”: (1) data collection and reporting on bilingual teacher demographics and authorization; (2) increased quality of fieldwork and clinical experiences for future bilingual teachers; (3) increased funding for bilingual teacher preparation programs to diversity pipelines into bilingual education preparation programs, recruitment, support, and program completion; and (4) differentiated professional development experiences for beginning bilingual teachers including mentoring, learning communities, and cross-departmental teams.