Preparing Critically Conscious Dual-Language Teachers: Recognizing and Interrupting Dominant Ideologies

Abstract

Due to the preK–12 student growth, the exponential growth of dual-language programs, and the gentrification of dual-language education, the need for critically conscious dual-language teachers is undeniably vital today. Institutions of higher education, in particular colleges of education, find themselves at the center of a transformative era, in both theory and practice, with respect to dual-language teacher preparation. Currently, dual-language teacher educators’ conversations revolve around the challenge in identifying, naming, and confronting pressing issues related to the preparation of dual-language teachers and their readiness to meet the demands created by the proliferation of dual-language schools across the nation. This article centers on the fundamental matters of recognizing and interrupting dominant ideologies and hegemonic practices that have made their way into dual-language classrooms by explicitly addressing how a teacher’s ideology, sociocultural/linguistic funds of identity, and pedagogy announce or denounce dual-language teachers’ critical consciousness that leads to the creation of equitable teaching and learning spaces.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional Resources

1. Alfaro, C., & Hernández, A. (2018). A critical self analysis for bilingual teachers: ideology, peadagogy, access, and equity. (IPAE) (pp. 487-496). RASE.

This article offers a process of critical self-examination for educators inclusive of the four tenets Ideology, Pedagogy, Access and Equity (IPAE) to propel educators to ask the tough questions to cause reflection and recalibration. Given historical and deeply engrained English monolingual, assimilationist, and deficit ideologies regarding linguistic diverse students, it is incumbent for dual language teacher preparation and professional development to address the role of ideological clarity, pedagogical clarity, access for all, and equity in shaping the curriculum and instructional biliteracy processes. This article makes the case that equally as important to a teachers' knowledge of technical and biliteracy methodological skills is their critical consciousness and praxis that leads to educational equity for all.

2. Bartolomé, L. I. (Ed.). (2008). Ideologies in education: Unmasking the trap of teacher neutrality. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

In this book, Bartolomé provides readers with a courageous challenge to consciously and deliberately rupture the invisibility of destructive pedagogical beliefs—beliefs upheld by the most-well-intended teachers. More significantly, this volume represents a missing link in teacher preparation to render all teachers more conscious of the indomitable responsibility they hold in the creation of a more just education for a diverse society.

3. Berriz, B., Wagner, A., & Poey, V. (Eds.). (2018). Art as a way of talking for emergent bilingual youth: A foundation for literacy in K–12 schools. New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor and Francis.

This book features effective artistic practices to improve bilingual, biliteracy, and bicognitive development in preK–12 education. Offering rich and diverse examples of using art as a way of talking, this volume invites teacher educators, teachers, artists, and researchers to reconsider how to fully engage bilingual students in their own learning and best use of the resources within their own multilingual educational settings and communities.