Teacher Activism for Emergent Bilingual Learners

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Thirteen
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers Transcending Justice Across Multilingual Contexts (Table 9)

Abstract

This study employed post-colonial traditions of qualitative research to investigate what informed the pedagogical moves of four teacher activists of emergent bilingual learners (EBLs). Coloniality of power (Quijano, 2020) served as a theoretical lens to examine the historical underpinnings of language education legislation impacting EBLs. Interviews, artifacts, field visits, and personal communication were data sources. Findings were presented in four separate portraits that evidenced a nonlinear and dynamic relationship between the participants’ in-classroom and out-of-classroom activism. This study concluded that teacher activists of EBLs possess dispositions with unique compositions, exhibit a keen critical awareness of raciolinguistic ideologies, and employ the use of culturally sustaining pedagogies in their classrooms. Implications for teacher education and conceptions of activism are presented.

Author

• Cyrene Crooms, Montclair State University
  Presenting Author