‘I see you': Indigenous language study in a bilingual teacher education program

ABSTRACT

Even though Indigenous Latino/a/x students sometimes have different experiences from other students in bilingual programs in the US, they are often homogenized into the overarching category of ‘Latino/a/o/x.’ Using narrative inquiry and the sub-genre of collective autoethnography, this paper tells the story of our experiences studying K’iche’ and Kaqchikel as part of a graduate course in a bilingual teacher education program. Drawing on Critical Latinx Indigeneities theory, we found that studying Indigenous languages as part of a bilingual teacher education course and critically reflecting on this together helped increase our multilingual awareness, know and connect to our students and community, and learn more about ourselves in the process.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous Latino/a/x students
• Critical Latinx Indigeneities
• dual language
• bilingual programs
• multilingualism

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Following Hamann and Harklau (2021), we use the term Latino/a/x in order to be more inclusive but also to acknowledge the different terms people use to refer to themselves and populations they study. However, when citing specific scholars directly, we use their preferred term.

2 All names of people or institutions are pseudonyms for the purposes of blind review.

3 All quotations from participant researchers in this section come from our reflection sessions recorded on Zoom on June 3, 2021.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Theresa Catalano

Dr. Theresa Catalano is Professor of Second Language Education and Applied Linguistics in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She teaches courses focused on language education such as Foundations of Bilingual Education and Teaching Multilingual Learners in the Content Areas. Her research focuses on world language, dual language, and English as an additional language, education and migration (including intercultural education and arts-based approaches to education) as well as the connection of language and visual communication to ideology, power and social inequality.

Hector Palala Martinez

Hector Palala Martinez is a doctoral student in Curriculum Studies and new technologies in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Hector teaches courses related to the integration of technology for future high school teachers as well as bilingual education and in all his classes he promotes justice, dignity and human rights. Previously, he was a professor of education at the Universidad de San Carlos in Guatemala, and before that, an elementary teacher. His research centers on the intersection of bilingual/multilingual education and technology (in particular, Mayan languages), literacy programs in Indigenous languages, pedagogy of tenderness, and artificial intelligence for education.

Dan Moran

Dan Moran is a master’s student in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he is pursuing his English as a second language endorsement and bilingual endorsement. He is also a bilingual kindergarten teacher and coordinator of the bilingual program in Fremont, Nebraska. His research interests include bilingual education and teacher preparation for bilingual programs.