Revolutionizing Bilingual Teacher Preparation: Ideological and Political Clarity

• In Event: 66.057 - Establishing Sociopolitical Consciousness as the Fourth Goal of Dual-Language Education

Abstract

Objectives/Purposes
Much of the discussion about preparing teachers to work with diverse students focuses on providing preservice teachers with language expertise, technical skills and content knowledge. Although it is important for teachers to be well versed in a variety of teaching methodologies as well as proficient in the languages of instruction, this technical focus should not prevent teacher educators from addressing the role of political and ideological clarity in teachers’ thinking and teaching. The purpose of this paper will be to engage colleagues in dialogue around the concept of ideological clarity, how to assist teacher candidates and in-service teachers in developing it, and to provide examples of how exemplary Dual Language Education (DLE) teachers actually put their clarity to practice in the classroom.

Theoretical Framework
I utilize a critical pedagogy theoretical framework to examine the significance of teacher political and ideological clarity that challenges the notion of bilingual teacher preparation as a monolithic construct. A large majority of teachers enter their DLE classrooms without ever having had the opportunity to deconstruct and to challenge their unconscious ideologies (Author, 2017; Ek, Sánchez, & Cerecer, 2013; Freire, 1993). Teachers’ ideological orientations are often reflected in their beliefs and attitudes and in the way they teach and interact with students in the classroom (Author, 2014; Author, 2017; Marx, 2006; Marx & Pennington, 2003).

Context
Currently, bilingual teacher educators’ conversations revolve around the challenges to confront the pressing issues related to the preparation of teachers across the nation. Furthermore, these conversations typically revolve around the state/national standards and so-called best teaching practices. Whereas the focus on best teaching practices to meet rigorous standards (Spanish and English) is important, it is equally imperative to interrogate the role ideology plays in how teachers work with historically subordinated student groups.

Research Design
N/A (Position paper)

Conclusions
Teachers who engage in the process of developing ideological clarity come to realize that they are their own bilingual, bicognitive, and bicultural voices of activism as well as advocates for their students, families, and communities. Unless teachers engage in the process of consciously questioning the status quo, their worn beliefs, and their classroom practices, they will, at best, become technicians that continue to perpetuate the existing dominant ideology and social order. I contend that teacher educators as well as classroom teachers must resist and contest persistent hegemonic ideologies and practices being transferred from monolingual classrooms into DLE settings (Darder, 2015; Delpit, 2008; Freire, 2016).

Scientific/Scholarly Significance
There is a critical need to help bilingual teachers develop ideological and political clarity that will enable them to interrogate their own deficit views of low-socio-economic culturally and linguistically diverse students and of the nonstandard languages and funds of knowledge they bring to the classroom. As well, teachers need to critically examine if and how their views are manifested in their teaching practices. By purposely studying the construct of ideology in DLE teacher preparation coursework and professional development, teachers can be more comprehensively prepared to effectively work with bilingual student populations and their families.

Author

• Cristina Alfaro, San Diego State University