Exploring the Intersectionality of Language and Navigational Capital in Mexican and Chicana/o/x Racialized Bilingual Teacher Candidates

• In Event: Changing Paradigms and Practices in Teacher Preparation in Support of Emergent Bilinguals

Abstract

Purpose and Theoretical Framework

This study sought to understand the complexity of Mexican national and Chicanx Indigenous (MCI) teacher candidates’ language and literacies at one Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in the U.S./Mexico borderlands. This region’s immigration and nationalistic policies affect Mexican and Chicanx students’ ideologies as they prepare to to enter the field of bilingual education to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students. The region’s Spanish usage influences emergent bilinguals’ confidence in their degree of bilingualism, their literacies, and their identity (Anzaldua, 1987). Using a critical race theoretical framework, I critique borderland language repertoires through Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth model (2005) to understand how these teacher candidates’ diverse languaging practices are influenced by borderland language repertoires and may impact their future literacy pedagogies. I tease apart how MCI racialized students’ language and literacy ideologies are influenced by borderland language repertoires. The study asks: How do Mexican and Chicanx racialized bilinguals make sense of their bilingual identities?

Methods and Data Sources

I collected data from three MCI Latinx students enrolled in a bilingual education methods course. I leveraged opportunities for MCI Latinx students to explore language and navigational capital (Yosso, 2005) by conducting a participatory action research (Chatterton et al., 2007) project to further understand the students’ cultural and language backgrounds. This project identifies how borderland Spanish language repertoires (highly proficient, highly biliterate) and conceptions of standardized Spanish influence the cultural and linguistic identity and literacies of MCI students. The purpose of this research is to explore MCI preservice bilingual teachers’ current understanding of the intersection between race, language, and navigational capital.

I conducted a self-language analysis with each participant through participatory action research to gain a better understanding of their cultural and language background experiences. Methods used were audio recorded discussions where students described cultural and language artifacts, and field notes were documented and analyzed using the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).

Results & Significance

By valuing and expanding on students’ language and navigational capital (Yosso, 2005) through course readings and discussions, they developed a critical awareness of how their bilingualism was shaped by covert, oppressive borderland ideologies. Additionally, they developed a critical awareness of the oppressive forces on their bilingualism, biliteracy, and identity. The self-study offered students a liberatory process to reconceptualize their cultural and linguistic assets and foster a sense of agency to become active participants in borderland communities, which may be a critical feature of their future work as literacy teachers.

Findings revealed a favorable association between active reflection about their bilingualism, biculturalism, and the influence of these on their identity. Analysis of the influences of students’ confidence in their biliteracy revealed three forces: (1) bilingualism/biliteracy in borderland context; (2) standardized view of Spanish in border communities; and (3) language on cultural identity. Implications suggest that critical reflection and awareness about the dynamic nature of culture and language within borderland communities offer rich opportunities for liberating processes among the diverse Latinx students at HSIs that will support their future critical literacy pedagogy.

Author

• Susana Ibarra Johnson, New Mexico State University