Becoming a Bilingual Teacher on the Border: Success as a Language Ideology

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 9:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Bi-/Multilingual Teacher Education: Critical Consciousness, Ideology, and Race (Table 1)

Abstract

Drawing from the theoretical lenses of language ideologies (Woolard, 1998) and dynamic bilingualism (García, 2009), this qualitative case study analyzed the ways that bilingual preservice teachers (PSTs) in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands have come to understand bilingualism and what is necessary to become a bilingual teacher in this context. Participants described the ways that standardized testing has defined success for them as bilinguals, both during their K-12 years and again during their teacher education program. Such experiences arose through monoglossic framings of participants’ bilingualism, and the concept of success was re-framed as a language ideology. The study’s findings hold important implications for the future of borderland bilingual education and teacher certification exams.

Author

• Laura Salazar, University of Texas - El Paso