South Texas Teachers’ Narrativas de Bilingüismo and Biliteracy: Languages “of the Flesh”

• In Event: “Politic Born of Necessity”: Latina and Latinx Feminists Remembering Genealogies, Imagining Futures

Abstract

As part of this collective, interactive Latina/x-centered session, my paper draws upon one larger reflexive question: How do I, as a Chicana teacher educator, prepare maestras to work in our local Latinx communities? Using an overarching framework of the “nepantla paradigm” to “theorize...the experience of mestizas living in between overlapping and layered spaces” (Anzaldúa, 2000, p. 176), I first focus on my unique herstory of immigration, bilingualism, and biliteracy to undergird the work in my university classrooms. Next, I describe the pedagogical tools I utilize collaboratively with my Chicana/x/o colleagues to encourage Latina/x/o students to bring their whole selves to their reflective writing as they cultivate their critical consciousness.

In terms of the empirical data that undergirds my curricular approach, this paper draws from a collaborative study I conducted at our HSI (Hispanic-Serving Institution), which examines the professional and personal narratives of Chicana/Mexicana heritage teacher candidates preparing to teach in bilingual classrooms across Texas. Using qualitative methods, the study takes a close look at the family migration histories (Hatch & Wisniewski, 1995), biliteracy development (Pérez & Torres-Guzmán, 2002), and language ideologies (Shieffelin, Woolard & Kroskrity, 1998) of these bilingual teacher candidates to better interpret their language history map assignments (Olsen & Jaramillo, 1999) and written literacy trajectories prepared in undergraduate classrooms. Both literacy artifacts and audio-recorded presentations were collected and analyzed.

Data sources reveal how the maestras have acquired the many varieties of Spanish, English, TexMex, Spanglish and/or Pochismos across transnational and borderland spaces. Their stories shed light on the lack of school support for heritage language learning while highlighting the significance of family literacy practices for language and cultural development and maintenance. These language experiences are not unlike the way in which “theories of the flesh” develop, “where the physical realities of our lives...all fuse to create a politic born out of necessity” (Anzaldúa and Moraga, 1981, p. 23). The maestras’ narratives also demonstrate that future classroom teachers hold the possibility of being active agents in disrupting dominant ideologies of one-language, one-nation, one-culture—if teacher-educators are prepared and willing to offer these spaces of reflection.

Author

• Patricia Sanchez, University of Texas - San Antonio