Addressing Bilingual Teacher Shortages: Sustained Impact of an Innovative Grow-Your-Own Approach

• In Event: Grow-Your-Own Programming in Bilingual Contexts: Engaging Stakeholders to Address Inequality in the Educational Pipeline

Abstract

Objective
Like most states, Texas has a critical shortage of bilingual teachers. As of the 2017-2018 school year, this number approximates 7,600 teachers (Author, 2018). The state mandates that school districts provide a bilingual teacher for any grade level with twenty or more students of one language group. Unfortunately, the state has minimally focused on recruiting the number of bilingual educators needed. This presentation focuses on the long-term outcomes of a university’s Grow-Your-Own (GYO) teacher preparation program using an asset-based approach. Key in the GYO was the recruitment of normalistas (resident foreign-born teachers) and paraprofessionals. Our research indicates that these educators bring personal and professional experiences as well as linguistic and cultural competencies that coincide with the lived experiences of bilingual learners. This research provides a replicable model for the recruitment and retention of career bilingual educators.

Theoretical framework
We pursued this research using a critical social constructionist framework and the belief that bilingual teacher program models must promote the linguistic, cognitive, and cultural assets bilingual learners bring to the classroom. The GYO approach demonstrates the viability and need to recruit potential teachers from within the community (Ross & Ahmed, 2016; Valenzuela, 2016). Through GYO approaches, community-oriented and social justice perspectives are reinforced and sustained over one’s teaching career (Ross & Ahmed, 2016).

Methodology
Qualitative case study methodology and semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to document program model outcomes. Member checking supported the study’s trustworthiness.

Data Sources
Twenty years after the program ended, participants were contacted using social media including Facebook and LinkedIn. Nine participants provided in-depth reflections of program outcomes. Using NVivo coding, participants’ English and Spanish interviews were recorded and transcribed to identify themes, codes, and categories.



Results
Preparing normalistas and paraprofessionals together in coursework provided benefits in the form of improved Spanish literacy for U.S. born paraprofessionals, while normalistas benefited from exposure to paraprofessionals’ English proficiency and U.S. classroom experience.

Shared lived-experiences provided mechanisms through which teachers formed connections with students. Normalistas interacted with students and parents with a very high degree of articulation reflective of common experiences growing-up in Mexico and shared immigrant experiences with students’ families. Immigrant teachers became role-models within immigrant communities. After twenty years in the field, both groups have remained in the field and committed to bilingual education. Equity was promoted in teachers’ ability to relate to students linguistically, culturally, and experientially. The ability to relate experientially is important because bilingual learners observe the success of teachers from similar circumstances to theirs. Additionally, teachers did not harbor deficit attitudes about bilingual learners sometimes found among peers.

Scholarly Significance
This work is significant because it documents a replicable GYO model for the recruitment, preparation, and retention of successful bilingual teachers to alleviate shortage areas. University teacher preparation programs must be creative in identifying potentially successful recruits from their communities. Investing in the community through a GYO approach demonstrates a commitment to those we serve and empowers those who have been marginalized. Moreover, our study reveals the sustained impact of the GYO approach.

Authors

• Belinda Bustos Flores, The University of Texas - San Antonio

• Gregory Brian Pulte, The University of Texas at Austin

• Lorena Claeys, The University of Texas - San Antonio

• Amalia Guirao, The University of Texas - San Antonio