Using Multimodal Portraits as a Path to Critical Self-Reflection in MLL Teacher Preparation

• In Event: Multimodal Identity Work: Visual and Embodied Approaches to Critical Reflection in Teacher Education

Abstract

Grounded in the framework of humanizing understandings (HUs) and its underpinning framework of Humanizing Pedagogy, this study investigates how language portraits can serve as a multimodal tool to 1) promote critical reflection on preservice teachers' (PSTs') linguistic, cultural, and racial identities and 2) support the development of their HUs as foundational to their humanizing practices in multilingual classrooms. Research conducted globally on teachers of multilingual learners (MLLs) has demonstrated that reflection can promote culturally and linguistically responsive praxis, positive beliefs towards linguistic diversity, and critical, anti-hegemonic, and anti-racist stances. We argue that language portraits allow for PSTs’ critical examination of themselves as sociocultural beings - including their backgrounds and intersectional identities - and support their development of humanizing practice with MLLs.

Authors

• Yueyue Wang, University of Maryland

• Golnar Fotouhi, University of Massachusetts - Lowell

• Jessica B Crawford, University of Maryland

• Loren Jones, University of Maryland

• Johanna M. Tigert, University of Turku

• Megan Madigan Peercy, University of Maryland

• Melanie F. Hardy-Skeberdis, University of Maryland

• Daisy Fredricks, Grand Valley State University

• Cesar Guitunga, University of Maryland