The Affordances of Preparing Bilingual Teachers via Teacher-Education Partnerships

• In Event: 16.060 - Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: 16.060-18 - Bilingual Teachers: Preparation and Perspectives

Abstract

This study investigated a teacher education partnership formed between a university, a recruiting program, and an urban school district to prepare bilingual teachers. Using the lens of cultural-historical activity theory, we analyzed the perspectives of twelve bilingual teachers to identify what affordances the partnership offered them. We found that teachers perceived that partners had different visions for their teaching practice that teachers had to reconcile on their own as they attempted to implement them in their bilingual practice. Conversely, we found that teachers valued having support from different partnership sources. Our study highlights the need to bridge bilingual theory/policy and practice, teachers’ and program’s goals, and the expectations of novice bilingual teachers vis-à-vis the reality of underserved bilingual urban schools.

Authors

• Karla del Rosal, Southern Methodist University

• Diego Roman, Southern Methodist University

• Deni L. Basaraba, Bethel School District 52