Testimonios of Latino Male Preservice Teachers as Models for Caring and Bilingualism

This qualitative study of three Latino male preservice teachers in a bilingual education preparation program centers on the use of testimonio as a methodology to give voice to the complex experiences of young Latinos as they navigate their way through career choices and college. While work on male teachers has historically focused on white men and more recently black men, Latinos represent a very large ethnic population in the United States with varied histories, cultural practices, and linguistic practices. While caring has been conflated as a practice of female teachers, the young men in this study illustrate an ethic of care that is more complex than that of affect. Their care is directly tied to their willingness to pay forward their learning and experiences to other Latino children by way of teaching in bilingual programs. The findings of this research illustrate the complex terrain that these young men navigate as they decide on a career in a historically white and female profession. This study offers implications for in-service teachers and their role in cultivating the next generation of male teachers. For universities and colleges of education, this study offers insight into the institutional challenges and support systems these Latino men must circumnavigate.

Where the Translingual Rubber Hits the Road: Ideological Frictions, Mixtificaciones y Potentialities in Bilingual Teacher Preparation Programs

Translanguaging has become a particularly relevant (and controversial) concept for the field of bilingual education, with concrete implications for teacher preparation programs serving teacher candidates (TCs) who may identify as heritage speakers of Spanish. However, the regard and understanding of translanguaging, its pedagogical potential, and the positionality to implement it are not evenly distributed among stakeholders involved in the teacher preparation process. This article explores the relationship among California public teacher preparation programs, their bilingual teacher candidates, and the districts that host their field placements that ultimately hire them. Building on the metaphorical concepts of ideological and implementational spaces (Flores & Schissel, 2014), the space between and encompassing the overlap between credentialing programs and school districts is characterized as a friction space beset by tensions between monoglossic and heteroglossic stances and the pragmatism of “entering the workforce.” The dynamics of this space are illustrated in five retratos constructed on qualitative data obtained through semistructured interviews. Based on the author's localized experiences, the article concludes by proposing approaches to navigate the friction space, reinforce the bilingual candidates' counterideological stances, and advance a much-needed productive dialogue in the teacher preparation ecology.

Centering Translanguaging in Teacher Education: Cultivando Nuevos Conocimientos de Translenguaje en la Educación de Docentes Bilingües

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Idiolect and Identity: Fourth Grade Students’ Translanguaging, Comprehension, and Self-Identity

The practice of translanguaging offers emergent bilinguals the opportunity to access their full linguistic repertoire. This qualitative study uses the lenses of dynamic bilingualism and idiolect, or one’s own unique language patterns, to explore emergent bilinguals’ translanguaging and reading comprehension strategies during a reading think-aloud, as well as the ways that language factors into the construction of self-identity. Data collected from a think-aloud show that the five fourth-grade students used language flexibly when reading and comprehending the texts that were presented in both Spanish and English. The participants, in follow-up interviews, also explained ways that they use translanguaging strategies when communicating with different audiences and how their identity as bilinguals positions them as mediators of their own language use. These findings support the conclusion that when students’ idiolects are supported and encouraged, they are able to develop positive self-identities.

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.

Ruptures of Possibility: Mexican Origin Mothers as Critical Border Pedagogues

In U.S. schools, educators are often regarded as knowledge producers and sole pedagogues, whereas parents (particularly of Color) are perceived as not engaged or interested in their child(ren)'s education (Colgrove, 2019; Nuñez, 2019; Ramirez, 2020). These negative stereotypes and white-centered discourses sustain raciolinguistic perspectives (Rosa & Flores, 2017) of families of Color and immigrant backgrounds. For the present study, we employed critical discourse analysis to explore why and how Mexican mothers raise bilingual children by examining how their experiences inform us about their powerful roles as critical translanguaging pedagogues. Drawing on border thinking and pedagogy of border thinking, the findings revealed two main themes: (1) how mothers recognize and draw on the ruptures of cultural and linguistic worlds, and (2) how they sustain language through family and cultural practices. Lastly, we share implications for educators, teacher educators, and policymakers.

Bilingualism and Bilingual Education: Conceptos Fundamentales

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Translingual Practices for the Development of Latinx Teacher Candidates: A Pedagogy for the Border

This article explores the application of translingual pedagogies within a course on the development of bilingualism for Latinx bilingual teacher candidates (BTCs) in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Using a self-study methodology, it examines the application of translanguaging pedagogies for Latinx BTCs, and their evolving language ideologies. The participants were mostly emergent bilinguals (EBs) whose native Spanish language development was negatively impacted by hegemonic educational practices in the local K-12 schools. Therefore, while the first aim of my pedagogical practices was to promote learning of the content of the course, a second aim was to promote the development of academic Spanish language abilities, required for bilingual teacher certification. Findings include how the use of a translingual dialogic teaching approach led to the emergence of 1) a critical stance with an awareness of bilingualism as an advantageous resource in learning, and 2) the development of initial principles for their future practices that value translanguaging.

Learning and Teaching en Dos Idiomas: Critical Autoethnography, Translenguaje, y Rechazando English Learner

Language usage in US K–12 classrooms and beyond continues to be an issue of equity (Navarro Martell, 2021; Palmer et al., 2019). Teachers expect racialized students who appear to be Latinx to know and perform as if their native language is Spanish, mientras a otros se les celebra sus intentos de usar el español; otro idioma colonizador. Some educators know language can be used as a tool to teach content y que muchos adultos translenguamos mientras navegamos espacios profesionales y personales, not because of our lack of mastery of English or Spanish, pero porque tenemos la habilidad y el poder de navegar y vivir en varios idiomas. Entonces, why are many educators determined to force students to use only one language at a time cuando el translanguage es tan común (Martínez et al., 2015)? This essay provides reflections and lessons learned of one immigrant, formerly labeled “English learner,” who was once a fourth and eighth grade math and science dual language teacher. Inspired by critical autoethnography, this manuscript is written by a current math and science bilingual methods teacher educator and supporter of translanguaging in the P–20+ classroom.

Border Thinking: Latinx Youth Decolonizing Citizenship

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