Stories of self, stories of practice: enacting a vision of socially just pedagogy for Latino youth

Abstract

This narrative inquiry examines how one Latina novice teacher articulates and implements a vision of teaching for social justice within the contexts of her teacher education program and her practice as a bilingual resource teacher. Informed by Latino/a critical race (LatCrit) theory, the analysis traces connections between stories of self and practice, focusing on her development of an innovative middle school literacy course for Spanish speakers. This article highlights the ways in which she recruits her experiences as a member of a marginalized group and brings them to bear on practice in the crafting of a critical pedagogy that takes learners’ interests and concerns as central while encouraging social action. Findings are discussed in light of the following themes: critical questioning and resistance; analysis of systems of oppression and positioning; and encouraging social action and practicing democracy. This study has implications for teacher preparation committed to socially just pedagogies for all children, but especially for Latino/a youth.

Keywords:

• teacher thinking and knowledge
• teacher socialisation
• teacher education curriculum

Notes

1. All names of people and places are pseudonyms.

2. Patricia was hired as a BRT because she is a native Spanish speaker. She earned her initial teaching certification in elementary education and later enrolled in a bilingual education master’s program to obtain add-on licensure. During this study, she had just begun her graduate studies.

3. Life history analysis was conducted by a research team that included myself, another doctoral student who identified as African-American and Latina, and a Latina faculty member. We also employed member-checks, shared emerging theories, and sought confirmation of our interpretations with participants.

4. I add that these stories are ‘co-constructed’ because, as Flannery (2008) clarifies, ‘narratives and identities emerge in the contexts of interaction in which social actors, dotted with histories, engage in social practices and position self and others’ (pp. 111–112). In other words, the storyteller/participant shapes her story in particular ways for the listener/researcher, who is implicated in the telling. I argue that Patricia and I share experiences and understandings from our collaboration in the larger study and in the teacher education program, and these become the ‘histories’ through which we construct her stories of practice at JMS.

5. García (1999) provides a comparison of the ways in which immigrant ELs experience bilingual programs in New York City and attributes differences to schooling experiences in their home countries. She asserts that it is important for educators to take into account the detailed history of prior schooling in choosing programming options because ‘going to school in Latin America means very different things for the children of the poor than for the children of the middle class’ (p. 66).

6. JMS’s Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and Latino Parent Empowerment Group met separately, although both were open to all parents.