From English-only to Renacimiento: The Role of State Policy Making and Grassroots Program Development in (Re)Building California’s Bilingual Teacher Pipeline

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 7:45 am
  In Poster Session: Innovating Curricular Designs for Bilingual Teacher Education in the US: Programs, Policies and Partnerships

Abstract

Objectives: As the Bilingual Renaissance (Author) takes hold across the U.S, the growth of dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs has greatly outpaced the capacity of the nation’s bilingual teacher pipeline. Perhaps no state embodies this challenge more than California. The nation’s most populous state, with the largest number of multilingual learners, California is emerging from nearly two decades of English-only language policies, dramatically undone by the passage of Proposition 58 in 2016 and the introduction of the Global California Initiative in 2018. These policy changes, reflective of a “rebirth” of positive views towards multilingualism, have brought forth a large-scale expansion of DLBE programs.
In the spirit of “Unforgetting Histories, Imagining Futures,” and demonstrating the power of state policymaking and grassroots program development to propel transformation in the realm of DLBE, this poster presentation tells the story of California’s efforts to rebuild and revitalize the bilingual teacher pipeline decimated by two decades of English-only policies.
Methods: Using a sociolinguistic lens (García, 1983; 2022), we apply an autoethnographic case study approach informed by those involved in both statewide policymaking and the grassroots bilingual teacher education program development chronicled in this research. Beginning with a brief history of DLBE in the state, we examine the state’s contemporary efforts to enhance the quantity and quality of bilingual/dual language teachers through adoption of new bilingual licensure standards in 2021 and introduction of the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program in 2019. We explore the impact of these steps statewide and on a more granular regional level through examination of how these initiatives have complemented the work of grassroots actors at the university, school district, and community levels who have founded, operated, and grown a nascent Bilingual Authorization Program within the State’s Central Valley heartland.
Results: We find that while California’s steps to rebuild and revitalize its bilingual teacher pipeline have been imperfect, state policies have nevertheless significantly increased the number of licensed bilingual teachers while also establishing refreshed bilingual licensure standards that center and celebrate the rich ethnolinguistic assets of California’s multilingual learners. At the regional level, we demonstrate how the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program—through financial support for Bilingual Authorization candidates–has generated a consistent pipeline of new bilingual teachers in the state’s linguistically diverse Central Valley. Also, within a place where ethnolinguistic and historical richness notably stands out (the same region that gave us the Farmworkers Movement and Steinbeck’s Joads), the Bilingual Teacher Performance Expectations have fostered institutional support for dual language pedagogies that center the transnational cultural y lenguaje(s) of a singular place.
Significance: At a paradoxical moment of DLBE resurgence amidst a federal administration hostile to multilingualism and educational equity, this research provides guideposts for how state and regional entities can fulfill the promise of the Bilingual Renaissance in an uncertain time. Our poster presentation concludes with recommendations for how these entities can nurture a dynamic bilingual language teacher pipeline that centers and enhances the lived experiences, ethnolinguistic pathways, and sociohistorical diversity of multilingual learners in California and beyond.

Authors

• Adam Sawyer, California State University - Bakersfield

• Adeli Ynostroza Ochoa, California State University - Bakersfield