Binational Teacher Preparation: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

• In Event: The Students We Share and the Teachers We Need Between the US and Mexico

Abstract

Currently, there are more than 53,000 U.S. citizen students in Baja California’s schools (Piña, 2018). Some have grown up on the Mexican side of the border, but many have been displaced, mostly from California, and have lived part of their lives in the U.S and now part in Mexico. Many intend to come back to the U.S., to study and to live. However, their futures depend greatly on how well we are able to educate these students on both sides of the border. This paper imparts lessons learned from an earlier program to prepare teachers binationally to better understand, and meet, the educational needs of immigrant students to the U.S., and how that learning has been applied to a new, “two-way” project model that aims to equip teachers on both sides of the border with the knowledge and skills necessary to welcome, teach, and learn with and from immigrant students who are often minoritized.

The International Teacher Education Program (ITEP) was established as a California State University (CSU) system-wide bilingual (Spanish/English) credential program in the 1990s for elementary multiple-subject teacher candidates with the goal of preparing bilingual teachers with the cultural and linguistic knowledge needed to meet the needs of the large immigrant Spanish-speaking student population in California (Alfaro, 2008). Ten CSU campuses participated in ITEP, including San Diego (the original site), San José, Fresno, East Bay, Long Beach, San Bernardino, Sacramento, Sonoma, Bakersfield, and Fullerton. The ITEP prepared culturally and linguistically competent teachers with a high level of academic Spanish and a strong knowledge base about the Mexican educational system to be better prepared to receive immigrant students in U.S. schools. The program brought CSU students together sessions of coursework and student teaching. Part of the summer, fall, and spring sessions were spent in Mexico. ITEP students participated in methods courses alongside Mexican normalistas and taught for nine months in Mexico and three months in bilingual schools in San Diego, near the Tijuana border.

Several studies found that teachers who participated in ITEP grew personally and professionally by coming to understand the circumstances facing immigrant students. They developed empathy toward transnational students and families, enhanced their cultural competence, developed an appreciation of globalization, and came to further appreciate the significance of inclusive pedagogies to transform classrooms (Alfaro, 2018; Alfaro, 2008a, 2008b; Hamann, 2008; Kasun & Saavedra, 2016).

We have since applied six lessons from ITEP to develop a reciprocal program that also benefits Mexican educators who teach students with experiences in the U.S. Sponsored by the Baja California Secretary of Education, the Superintendent of Public Instruction for California, San Diego State University, the University of California, and the California Association for Bilingual Educators; the goal of this new initiative (Formadores de Docentes Binacionales [FDB]) is to prepare teacher educators and public school teachers in both countries. We conclude with a discussion of future directions for FDB, including research needs and scalability to other regions (especially along the Mexico-US border).

Authors

• Cristina Alfaro, San Diego State University

• Patricia C. Gándara, University of California - Los Angeles