Aquí No Hay Pobrecitos: Decolonizing Bilingual Teacher Education in The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

ABSTRACT

This article describes bilingual teacher preparation at a public university on the U.S.-Mexico border. I examine colonizing language ideologies that are reproduced in the local schools and teacher preparation programs, and show how preservice teachers engaged in Participatory Action Research to counter negative ideologies about bilingualism and bilingual children (Flores 2013). Through the use of decolonizing pedagogies (Tejeda, Espinoza & Gutierrez, 2003) aimed at disrupting a cycle of linguistic and cultural reproduction, participants learned to question and challenge deficit views toward Mexican-origin and bilingual learners. Alternative pedagogies included language and literacy autobiographies, case studies of emergent bilingualism, and analysis of the local linguistic landscape. I show that decolonizing pedagogical tools are necessary for transforming persistent negative ideologies about Spanish and Tex-Mex that continue to silence many children and teachers in the region.

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Luz A. Murillo

Luz A. Murillo is Associate Professor of Bilingual Education and Literacy/Reading at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on the literacies of migrant, transnational, and Indigenous children, families, and educators in and out of school.