Caminando Juntos en la Luz: Illuminating Latinx Preservice Teachers’ Multimodal Testimonios of Acompañamiento

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Innovations in Bi-/Multilingual Teacher Education: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Multimodality, and Beyond (Table 1)

Abstract

This presentation explores the experiences of bilingual Latinx pre-service teachers through testimonios of acompañamiento, focusing on personal multimodal narratives of community support. Latinx, pre-service teachers illuminate the impact of family encouragement and cultural transmission in their journeys towards becoming teachers. The study, grounded in Gloria Anzaldúa's Geographies of Selves and Enrique Sepúlveda’s Pedagogy of Acompañamiento, uses qualitative methods to analyze themes from interviews, journals, and discussions among two cohorts of pre-service teachers. Findings reveal tensions between bilingual identities, the crucial role of family support, and the influence of literature in cultural development. Emphasizing asset-and arts-based and humanizing pedagogies, the research advocates for transformative approaches in bilingual teacher education to address systemic racism and promote inclusivity.

Authors

• Paty Abril-Gonzalez, University of Texas at Austin

• Holland Kowalkowski, University of Texas at Austin

• Amanda Susan Byrd, University of Texas at Austin

• Andy Schleisman, University of Texas at Austin