Fostering Collective Critical Consciousness for Novice Dual Language Teachers

• In Event: Bilingual Education Research Poster Session 2

Abstract

Critical consciousness has been proposed as a new ‘fourth pillar’ for dual language (DL) programs (Cervantes-Soon et al., 2017). In particular, critical consciousness has been offered as a means for teachers to negotiate and transform problematic ideologies and policies in their classrooms (Palmer et al., 2019). Drawing on data gathered during a year-long collaborative ethnographic study, in this paper I demonstrate how five novice dual language teachers developed critical consciousness through shared conversations. I argue that collective dialogue with ‘affective alliances’ was critical to the novice teachers’ growing understandings of inequity (Zembylas, 2005). For teachers of Color, such conversations were important to their emotional survival within a violent system.

Author

• Rachel Snyder Bhansari, Portland State University