Language and Cultural Skills of U.S. Teachers: Informing Policy to Meet the Needs of Transnational Bilingual Students

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

Abstract

Failure to adequately prepare teachers of DLL students has devastating consequences for student achievement, language proficiency classification, and eventually, high school and college completion. What should teachers of transnational students know and do to meet their unique needs? Although state-level language instruction education policies and teacher preparation requirements vary substantially from state to state, there are clear advantages to teachers in states that require knowledge of best practices for the students we share. When teachers have knowledge specific to the linguistic, cultural, and SEL needs of TDLLs, there are sure to be advantages to teachers’ self-efficacy and satisfaction as well as TDLLs’ achievement and SEL skills. Accordingly, although TDLLs are currently ignored in policy debates, policies should reflect the assets TDLLs introduce into classrooms and ensure that teachers can capitalize on their potential throughout compulsory schooling—both in the United States and Mexico. Although some states, like California, are moving in the right direction by repealing policies that have failed to fully meet the needs of DLLs, others remain woefully behind.

This paper begins with a review of the research on the kind of knowledge teachers must have about language and SEL needs of DLLs. Then we discuss some of the unique considerations introduced by the contexts navigated by TDLLs. We analyze data on teacher preparation policies in Arizona, California, and Texas policies. We find that teacher self-efficacy, student achievement trends, and SEL point to the importance of rigorous teacher preparation for all teachers, and specialized training for teachers of DLLs in the early stages of their U.S. education.

While we know quite a bit about the importance of teacher understanding of the linguistic needs of transnational students, less is known about the ways culture, history, prior experience, and national contexts might demand teacher knowledge that is not usually part of pre-service training. For example, what do teachers need to know about the system of education transnational students have experienced and/or might experience in the future? What about how educational and behavioral expectations differ in the United States and Mexico?

Authors

• Francesca Lopez, The Pennsylvania State University

• Lucrecia Santibanez, University of California - Los Angeles