Repositioning biliteracy as capital for learning: lessons from teacher preparation at the US–Mexico border

Abstract

This study explores biliteracy as understood and practiced in school and community contexts in a particular region of the US–Mexico borderlands, the Rio Grande Valley of southeast Texas. Drawing on capital theory, we contrast the ambivalent perceptions of Spanish/English biliteracy held by local pre-service and in-service educators with biliterate practices that are highly visible in the border communities where they live and teach. One objective of the study is to describe the diglossic nature of bilingualism and biliteracy in the Valley as a context for learning and teaching. We highlight patterns of overlap and difference in the ways that biliteracy is positioned in and out of school in this remarkably bilingual region, and we apply theories of human capital to interpret these patterns. A second objective is to share pedagogies for repositioning biliteracy through teacher education and to suggest directions for further research.

Keywords:

• biliteracy
• human capital
• US–Mexico border
• teacher preparation
• linguistic landscape

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to our former students for sharing their stories of language, literacy, and school on the border, and to our colleagues in the Transnational Literacy Researchers Working Group at Vanderbilt University for thinking with us about the connection between immigrant literacies and social capital. Luz Murillo received support for data collection from the Curricular Assessment for Successful Student Outcomes (CASSO) grant funded by the US Department of Education at the University of Texas Pan American, as well as from UTPA’s Summer Research Initiative Program. Patrick Smith was supported by a faculty grant from the Center for Civic Engagement at the University of Texas at Brownsville and research support from the University of Texas at El Paso. We thank Amabilia Valenzuela and Víctor Santellana for help with references and digital literacies.