A Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) Teacher’s Journey Toward Holistic Spanish Literacy Through Coaching Grounded in Cariño and Confianza

• In Event: Addressing Issues of Equity Through Critical (Multilingual) Language Awareness in Teacher Education

Abstract

This case study draws upon a socio-constructivist (Vygotsky, 1986) and Latina cultural wealth (Alfaro & Bartolomé, 2017; Solórzano & Yosso, 2001) framework to examine a DLBE teacher’s pedagogical growth of authentic and holistic Spanish literacy, in the context of a dialogic Latina-to-Latina coaching partnership. Findings reveal that the teacher transitioned from teaching literacy in a fragmented manner to teaching all components of Spanish literacy, centering meaning-making. Her students showed an increase in engagement, decoding, encoding, oracy, and comprehension. We uncovered that this journey took time and was non-linear due to systemic pressures. This study sheds light on how to support DLBE teachers’ learning of asset-based holistic Spanish literacy grounded in dialogic coaching partnerships, centering Latinx cultural wealth of cariño and confianza.

Authors

• Mariana L. Sánchez, University of Maryland

• Sandra Natalia Gutiérrez, University of Maryland

• Melinda E. Martin-Beltran, University of Maryland