Beyond Borders: Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Binational Teacher Education Curricula

• In Event: Formadores de Docentes: A Binational Teacher Education Project at the U.S./Mexico Border

Abstract

Our study focuses on the learning experiences of pre-service teachers in the U.S.-Mexico border region of California and Baja California to teach binational students, which we define as students who have attended school in a different country than the country where they currently reside. The paper describes how four university teacher education programs (two programs in California and two programs in Baja California) designed and implemented binational teacher education curricula in coursework throughout 2018-2019. After defining our binational teacher education framework, faculty members across institutions integrated learning experiences specific to binational students and international education systems in the content of their courses for pre-service teachers. Our study analyzes the influence of binational teacher education coursework across all institutions on pre-service teachers’ knowledge, dispositions and skills as educators.

Implementing binational/bilingual teacher education curricula in California and Baja California universities required the development of an overarching curricular framework that could be adapted to address variability in program requirements and structures. The framework was informed by themes which research literature suggests shapes binational students’ schooling experiences: (a) sociopolitical, (b) sociocultural, (c) sociolinguistic, and (d) socioemotional (Author, 2019).

This study uses an embedded case study design (Yin, 2003), with each university constituting an analytical sub-unit. Data sources for this study include: (a) course syllabi, (b) signature assignments, (c) teacher candidates’ reflections, (d) ethnographic observations of team meetings and site visits, and (e) survey responses from participating teachers from Fall 2018 pertaining to baseline understandings of sociocultural, sociopolitical, sociolinguistic, and socioemotional dimensions of binational education, the U.S. and Mexican education systems, and cross-cultural knowledge.

Findings from our study include: (a) key considerations for designing binational/bilingual curricula across educational systems and institutions, (b) affordances and constraints of implementing binational teacher education curricula, and (c) impact of binational curricula on pre-service teachers. Results from our study call for future research to further investigate how sociopolitical, sociocultural, sociolinguistic, and socioemotional dimensions can be applied in the design of professional learning opportunities for educators throughout the U.S-Mexico border, not just in California and Baja California.

Our study has significant implications for both policymakers and practitioners. Our study may be used by policymakers to consider expanding their definitions of constituency and stakeholders beyond national borders. Specifically, our study informs teacher educators from both California and Baja California how we have co-designed binational teacher education curricula and to what extent our students (i.e., pre-service teachers) consider the curricula influential in their pedagogical practices. Additionally, the course syllabi and samples of student work for signature assignments from all institutions were catalogued in a resource repository and made available to teacher education colleagues interested in developing or implementing binational teacher education.

Authors

• Karen Gastelum, Escuela Normal Fronteriza Tijuana

• Priscila Azeneth Alvarez-Clark, Benemérita Escuela Normal Educadora Rosaura Zapata

• Gilda Priscila Haro Camacho, Escuela Normal Fronteriza Tijuana

• Daniel Hernández, Benemérita Escuela Normal Educadora Rosaura Zapata

• Cheryl A. Forbes, University of California - San Diego

• Saúl Isaac Maldonado, San Diego State University

• Sera Jean Hernandez, San Diego State University