Date of Award

2022-08-01

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Education

Advisor(s)

Christina Convertino

Abstract

Despite the 3.9 million Latinx emergent bilinguals (EB) across U.S. classrooms (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019), most bilingual teachers are White monolinguals (Cochran-Smith et al., 2016). Literature on teacher preparation in bilingual education (BE) has shown that due to the shared identities and origin and similar schooling experiences with their Latinx students, Latinx bilingual teacher candidates have a personal commitment to improving their studentsâ?? educational opportunities (Cervantes-Soon, 2018). Yet, most research on teacher preparation in bilingual education has been conducted in predominantly White-monolingual contexts, using Eurocentric research methodologies and methods, disregarding how the past educational experiences of Latinx inform their consciousness to teach BE to Latinx students. This study sought to fill in the gap in the literature to understand (1) what is the consciousness of Latinas preparing to teach BE in a predominantly Latinx-bilingual-bicultural community and (2) how their past educational experiences inform their consciousness to teach BE to Latinx bilinguals on the U.S.-Mexico border. Pláticas, conceptualized through a Chicana Feminista epistemology, was the methodology/method to design and generate data of five Latina teacher candidates in bilingual education during their one-year teaching residency at an elementary dual language classroom. Findings showed that Latina bilingual teacher candidates were conscious of the ways Latinx students are susceptible and objects of systemic oppression, consciously choose to become teachers to empower and re-connect with Latinx EB to heal their communities from past trauma that they endured as K-12 students, and lastly, the ways in which they sought to disrupt power imbalances with their students establishing reciprocal teaching practices. This study concludes that Latina bilingual teacher candidates' hardship of past educational experiences as Latinx, immigrants, and emergent bilinguals, influenced their consciousness to teach and act as advocates of their Latinx EB and their communities. This study recommends bilingual teacher preparation programs, that rather than continuing to promote Whitestream pedagogies and knowledge, seek ways to decolonize their curriculum by including and nurturing the critical consciousness of Latinx bilingual teacher candidates as they serve Latinx bilingual students.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

250 p.

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Helena Muciño Guerra

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Available for download on Monday, October 07, 2024

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