Translanguaging in Educating Teachers of Language-Minoritized Students

Abstract

Teacher education programs to prepare those who teach language-minoritized students many times continue to uphold modernist conceptions of language and bilingualism. Translanguaging disrupts the logic that nation-states have constructed around named languages, focusing instead on the language practices of people. Translanguaging theory is changing perceptions of bilingualism and multilingualism as well as the design of language education programs for language-minoritized students. And yet, teachers of language-minoritized students are educated in programs that hold on to traditional views of language, bilingualism, and language education. In the best cases, these teachers are prepared in specialized teacher education programs that credential teachers of a second language or bilingual teachers. In the worst cases, these teachers get no specialized preparation on bilingualism at all. But whether teachers are prepared as “general education” teachers, teachers of a “second language,” or “bilingual” teachers, programs to educate them most often hold on to traditional views about language and bilingualism; they then impart those views to future teachers who design instruction accordingly. Teacher education programs need to help teacher candidates understand their own language practices and see themselves as translanguaging beings. Teacher candidates also need to understand how the students’ translanguaging is a way of making knowledge and how to design lessons that leverage the translanguaging of students and communities to democratize schooling. It is imperative that teacher preparation programs implement a new theory of bilingualism, one that rejects the compartmentalization of languages and the stigmatization of the language practices of language-minoritized students. Providing teacher candidates with the tools to reflect on their experiences and on how raciolinguistic ideologies cut across institutions can help them not only understand but also find ways not to internalize oppressive notions of self, language practices, and teaching.

ITE provision in minority language contexts

“…Course content at ITE, therefore, needs to address these broader issues surrounding bilingual education, drawing on evidence pertaining to contexts out-side of their own, in order that teachers can cater for and understand the diverse bilingual population with whom they will work. Such an approach complements the views of España et al (2019), as expressed in Singleton and Flynn (2021, p. 8): "teacher training programmes must implement new theories of multilingualism which valorize the language practices of linguistic minority students". The extent to which this happens in various ITE contexts is currently unclear, but given the additional political, socio-political, historical and legal complexities surrounding minority languages, including these discussions in minority language ITE is all the more important.…”