Coming to Voice: Preparing Bilingual-Bicultural Teachers for Social Justice

Abstract

This study examined the development of bicultural voice in Latina/o preservice teachers. Researchers used survey, interview, and observational data to probe students' knowledge, beliefs, and orientations related to teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students. The researchers found that the bilingual cohort courses afforded students with opportunities to juxtapose personal narratives with broader social contexts, thereby allowing students to examine and critique the ideology and curricula of schools. The authors assert that cultivating social justice orientations in bilingual-bicultural preservice teachers is crucial to the empowerment of bilingual-bicultural teachers and their students.

Possibilities and challenges of early critical literacy practices: Bilingual preschoolers’ exploring multiple voices and gender roles

“…According to Yi (2008), the number of bilingual children enrolled in most US schools increases each year. However, bilinguals often confront a variety of barriers in public and private schools (Cummins, 1996; Fitts et al, 2008; Garcia and Kleifgen, 2010; Igoa, 1995). For example, children from diverse cultural backgrounds often encounter difficulties in school such as low academic achievement (e.g.…”

Disability and the Meaning of Social Justice in Teacher Education Research: A Precarious Guest at the Table?

“…Six studies (Donahue, 1999; Fitts et al, 2008; Hoffman-Kipp, 2003; Moule, 2005; Oikonomidoy et al, 2013; Regenspan, 2002) focused on one well-defined marker of social identity other than disability, such that taking up disability may not have seemed relevant. None included lists of social identity markers in framing these studies.…”

Examining Current and Future Ecuadorian Educators’ Experiences Using Action Research in the English as a Second Language Classroom

“…Thus, current and future teachers could learn how to analyze social, economic, and cultural relations in their society. Teachers' identities as educators (Fitts et al, 2008) require that they have opportunities to empower themselves and their students. This inquiry into the presence or absence of ar in Ecuador's schools sought to establish whether teachers have opportunities to engage in reflective practice, if they are taught how to conduct ar, if they know how to document and examine formative and summative data, and if the educational system in Ecuador supports bottom-up changes and the creation of teacher leaders and researchers.…”