Best Practices for Bilingual Teacher Preparation: A Pedagogy for the Border

What is it about?

As members of a team of bilingual preservice faculty in the South Texas borderlands, we have observed a consistent, pattern of inappropriate practices offered to the English Language Learners in the region’s inadequate PK-12 system, where teaching practices undermined their development Our task is to teach our future bilingual teachers about best practices as we help them develop an awareness of themselves as bilingual, bi-literate professionals who can navigate within the school system and provide positive developmental learning opportunities to their students. In this chapter, we describe the experiences and findings from a five-year research project that employed an innovative approach in the preparation of 63 bilingual teacher candidates. Analysis of data from journals and focus group discussions suggest the development of the critical stance necessary for the development of an additive approach needed for the optimal development of English language learners. Although the study is limited to the specific context of South Texas US-Mexico border communities, the findings have implications for the preparation of bilingual education settings across the nation.

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Why is it important?

Teacher preparation of Latinx teacher candidates, who were often marginalized in their own k-12 schooling, needs to address the impact of their contextual experiences to promote awareness of critical issues in education as they learn to teach. Through our research, we present findings and their implications for special ways of developing these kinds of teacher. We argue that he program for these teacher candidates needs to promote their ability to examine issues in educational settings from a critical perspective, which fosters a critical awareness of hegemonic implications in curriculum and policies, so they can become advocates for their students and promote social justice.