Learning From Our Community: Preservice Teachers' PhotoVoice to Learn How to Best Support Emergent Bilinguals

• In Event: Latina/Chicana Scholars Speak to Literacy Teaching and Learning for and Within Diverse Community Contexts

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
The overall purpose of this study is to understand how pre-service teachers can learn from their community in order to better support emergent bilinguals in their classroom.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Critical Race theory (CRT) and Latino Critical Race theory (LatCrit) are the theoretical underpinnings of this study. CRT analyzes the role of racism and its intersections with other forms of oppression in the lives of People of Color within educational institutions and beyond (Solórzano, 1998). In addition, LatCrit uses the experiences of Latinos in the US, including immigration, language diversity, and others, to understand the lived realities of Latinos (Valdés, 1998).

Methods & Data
The research methodology used for this research project was Photovoice. Photovoice is a community-based participatory research methodology that involves participants producing photographs to represent their perspectives and reflecting on their everyday lives (Wang & Burris, 1997). The photographs were “central artifacts for discussion in an in-depth interview and focus group” discussions (Novak, 2010, p. 292). Photovoice was chosen because it integrates Paulo Freire’s (1970) approach to critical consciousness.
This study took place in the fall of 2018 in a bilingual section of a clinical course in a Midwestern University. There were 15 students in the course. The majority of them (13 out of 15) white female non-native Spanish speakers. Each student was placed in pairs in a dual language (Spanish-English) elementary classroom setting (2nd grade-5th grade). As part of the course assignments, students were required to explore the community in which their school was located and take pictures to capture their perceptions. These pictures and responses to photovoice questions were used in a gallery walk and discussion that took place during class.

Findings
Findings demonstrated that many of the students made deficit-based assumptions about the community and the individuals in the community when they first took the pictures. The focus group discussions as well as discussions with community members (i.e. students, cooperating teachers, individuals who live in the community) challenged these ideologies by providing counternarratives. Throughout the clinic course, topics around immigration, language, race, and privilege were often explored and facilitated by the infusing of CRT and LatCrit theoretical frameworks.

Significance
The elementary and secondary school teacher workforce in the United States is not as racially diverse as the students or the population at large. As a result, emergent bilinguals are likely to have a teacher who is culturally and linguistically different from them throughout most of their schooling. Given this context, pre-service teachers need to be well prepared to meet the needs of their future diverse classrooms. This study demonstrates how cross-cultural understanding can be developed in pre-service teachers.

Author

• Sandra Lucia Osorio, Illinois State University