In Search of the Chupacabra: Preparing Bilingual Education Teachers in the Borderlands

• In Event: 42.042 - Practice in the Borderlands: Teaching and Teacher Education and the Promise of Educational Opportunities

Abstract

Objectives
The objective of this paper is to generate an emergent theoretical conceptualization of context bound signature border pedagogy for bilingual education preservice teacher development based on data from a five year federally funded research study (Curricular Assessment for Successful Student Outcomes (CASSO).

Theoretical Framework
The concept of border pedagogy has been developed to achieve social justice by addressing the needs of students in K-12 educational settings along the US-Mexico Border communities (Calderon and Carreon, 1999; Romo and Chavez, 2006) and the conscientization of preservice teachers from majority ethnic and cultural groups to the challenges of educating those students (Necochea and Cline, 2005). The work presented here differs in that it attempts to advance the notion of a signature border pedagogy (Shulman, 2005; Author, 2013) for the preservice teachers along this same region, and who are themselves of Mexican origin and also experienced subtractive K-12 schooling (Valenzuela, 1999). The CASSO project was thus aimed at addressing the needs of project participants by modifying the intended, enacted, and assessed curriculum (Porter, 2006) in an attempt to offset the barriers to engagement and success of these preservice teachers.

Methods
Across the 5 year project, a group of participating faculty engaged in focus groups to discuss curriculum modifications, as well as additional learning experiences they provided to address challenges, and to promote transformation in the development of the students. As participant researchers, we analyzed 9 focus group transcriptions applying qualitative content analysis (Sandelowski, 2000; Zhang & Wildemuth, 2009), within and across transcripts, and identifying recurring topics raised by faculty. We also applied Charmaz’s (2006) version of constant comparative analysis and constructivist grounded theory to find deeper themes embedded within relationships among these topics. All data from this project has been approved through a formal IRB process carried out at the site.

Results/Conclusions
We present here a context bound (Zeichner & Conklin, 2005) emergent signature border pedagogy for Latin@ preservice teachers derived from our analysis and propose creating learning activities that raise the consciousness of students to become aware of the effects of educational practices on their own learning and development. Further, we propose the creation of spaces for dialogue among faculty and students to allow for the integration of the pre-service teachers’ cultural and professional identities and to provide activities to remedy areas of academic and linguistic need.

Scholarly significance
Bilingual education teacher preparation faculty face formidable challenges in preparing teacher candidates who have experienced subtractive schooling, in part, due to systemic factors that are beyond their control. On the other hand, and as a matter of social justice, we must explore and identify ways to more fully educate these teacher candidates. We concur with Clark, Sheets and Flores as they state, “This is what we have to do, we must alter habitus of mind—change how teacher preparation is conceptualized, … and establish a new prototype” (2011, p. 237).

Authors

• Michael D. Guerrero, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

• Alcione N. Ostorga, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley