(Re)constructing a Border Pedagogy: Centering the Borderlands in Latinx Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

As teacher educators on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, our goal is to (re)conceptualize a pedagogical approach for bilingual teacher development informed by teacher education research in the borderlands and anchored in the myriad of historical, sociopolitical, cultural, and linguistic realities of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands – a border pedagogy. Our (re)conceptualization is based on a metasynthesis of bilingual teacher education research from the four U.S.-Mexico border states and additionally draws from critical race theory in education and border theory scholarship to examine the geopolitical context of the borderlands as impacted by colonization and whiteness. Principles for (bilingual) teacher development and design are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher preparation
• bilingual education
• pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ We use the terms “Latinx” and “Mexican/Mexican-American” throughout this paper. The term “Latinx” is used in reference to a larger, U.S.-based community comprised of groups with cultural, linguistic, and/or historical roots in Latin America. The term “Mexican/Mexican-American” is used when referencing our specific context on the U.S.-Mexico border where the community has historically identified as such to describe their ethnic roots.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the College of P-16 Integration/University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley [Special Interest Research Groups].