Lessons learned from exploring the potential of California's mini-corps tutors as future bilingual teachers

ABSTRACT

Currently, there are 1.3 million English Learners (EL) in California public schools (CDE 2018). The passage of Proposition 58, which presented multilingual education as key to students’ future economic success without every using the word bilingual, lifted the previous restrictions on bilingual education programs and increased the demand for programs and bilingual teachers. Recent studies have examined knowledge related to increasing the number of bilingual teachers (e.g. Martínez-Alvarez, P., I. Cuevas, and M. Torrez-Guzmán. 2017. “Preparing Bilingual Teachers: Mediating Belonging with Multimodal Explorations in Language, Identity, and Culture.” Journal of Teacher Education 68 (2): 155–178). A state-wide study of California school districts in 2017 showed that 58% intend to begin or expand bilingual education programs (Harris, V., and A. Sandoval-González. 2017. “Unveiling California’s Growing Bilingual Teacher Shortage: Addressing the Urgent Shortage, and Aligning the Workforce to Advances in Pedagogy and Practice in Bilingual Education.” Californians Together. 4–8). The research questions guiding this work were (1) Does the California Mini-Corps (CMC) program serve as a potential pool for today’s bilingual programs?, (2) If so, what cultural community wealth do tutors bring to teaching?, and (3) What support do tutors identify as critical in a teacher education credential program? In this quantitative study (n = 179), we examine how CMC tutors can address the critical teacher – shortage and identify the assets that graduates of the program bring to teacher education programs. We also explore the needed supports identified by the tutors as critical to their success in teacher credential programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual teachers
• preservice teachers
• heritage Spanish speakers
• teacher shortage
• teacher recruitment community cultural wealth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We note that we are using the term Latinx as the gender-neutral alternative to Latino and Latina. It is a term increasingly used by scholars, activists, and the general public, as well as a growing number of journalists. We use the term Hispanic interchangeably with Latinx when referring to statistics provided by government agencies, which use the label Hispanic to describe this community.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network (CTERIN) (Recruiting and Retaining the Next Generation of Bilingual Teachers, 2018) which operates under the University of California Office of the President.

Notes on contributors

Margarita Jimenez-Silva

Dr. Margarita Jimenez-Silva is an Associate Professor and Chair of Teacher Education at the University of California Davis’s School of Education. She is a first-generation college student and a former elementary and middle school math and science teacher working primarily with Newcomer programs serving students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. Her research focuses on recruiting, preparing and supporting teachers working with CLD students, curriculum development with language supports, and culturally sustaining pedagogies. Dr. Jimenez-Silva’s work has been funded by multiple grants from the U.S. Department of Education Office of English Language Acquisition Services. She is also co-founder of Sisterhood for Equity along with her three sisters who also work in educational institutions and are committed to addressing educational inequities through policy and research.

Nadeen Ruiz

Nadeen Ruiz, PhD, obtained her MA and PhD at Stanford University in bilingual education and linguistics. Dr. Ruiz is the author of over 45 articles and books on a range of topics, including literacy instruction for Latinx students in bilingual general and special education classrooms; Mexican indigenous students and families in the U.S.; preparation of bilingual teachers; transnational teacher education; and Deaf children’s language and literacy development. Dr. Ruiz co-founded the Optimal Learning Environment (OLE) Project, a research and professional development program that focuses on effective literacy instruction for emergent bilingual students in both general and special education classrooms, and for Migrant children. The OLE Project has provided professional development to several thousand special and general education teachers in the U.S. and in Mexico. Formerly, Dr. Ruiz was Chair of Bilingual Multicultural Education at California State University Sacramento and Director of Elementary Education at Stanford University. She is Professor Emeritus in Bilingual Multicultural Education at CSU Sacramento, and Lecturer at the School of Education, University of California at Davis.

Samantha Smith

Samantha Smith is a first-generation college student from a rural community in eastern California. She is currently attending graduate school at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley and contributing to research efforts at the School of Education at the University of California, Davis. Upon graduating with her Master of Public Policy degree, she hopes to continue conducting actionable research and policy analysis. Samantha is currently working on research regarding the urban and rural divide within California as well as analyzing barriers to higher education among rural residents.