The roots of teachers’ critical advocacy for multilingual learners: Connecting personal histories to action

• In Event: Advocacy, Community, and Transformative Practice in Education

Abstract

In today’s challenging climate, teachers of multilingual learners (MLs) face increased pressure to provide multifaceted supports to students and families. To advocate for MLs ethically, effectively, and sustainably, teachers must be critical of themselves, their political contexts, and their pedagogical work. Drawing on interviews with teachers who identify as advocates, this study finds that when asked about the “roots” of their advocacy work, participants made critical connections between their own histories - their upbringings, personal lives, and formative experiences - and their work with MLs. This paper promotes a vision of teacher education that frames teachers as historical beings and advocacy not as heroic, outsized acts of individuals but as on-going, sustainable, and foundational to teaching MLs.

Authors

• Rebecca E. Linares, Rowan University

• Kate Seltzer, Rowan University