Adding Critical Earth Consciousness to the Conversation on Critical Consciousness in Dual Language Bilingual Education: Two Case Studies

• 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: This presentation seeks to familiarize viewers with the current state of the conversation on critical consciousness development in DLBE and then use two case studies to push that conversation to better include Earth consciousness.
Theoretical Framework: We define critical Earth consciousness as focusing on the health of the Earth: the land, its waters, its air, and its interdependent web of living things. Delavan (2020) draws on the thought of John Dewey and Vandana Shiva to invoke dialogue as central to how TESOL and other language teachers can engage with Earth consciousness in their teaching. Building on this, we argue that Earth consciousness is dialogic and humanizing in an expanded way that Paulo Freire’s (2000) original conceptions of critical consciousness did not reach (Bowers, 2004; Misiaszek & Torres, 2019). We argue that Earth consciousness involves dialogue and reciprocity with the more than human, returning humans to their interconnected position rather than a central and dominant position.
Methods: We use a case study approach (Merriam, 2007; Yin, 2017), analyzing two instances of teaching about the health of the Earth in DLBE settings for how fully they meet our definition of critical Earth consciousness. The data for the first case study originated in one of the authors’ dissertation research, and the data for the second case study emerged from one of the authors’ lived experiences and the related learning materials.
Findings: The presentation addresses a small case study illustrating how a Latina Spanish DLBE teacher taught a lesson aimed to develop her kindergarteners’ critical Earth consciousness from an asset-based approach as part of a collaborative professional development focused on teacher critical consciousness development. This case demonstrates that (a) DLBE teachers can easily make curricular space for discussing the Earth and that (b) making such curriculum potentially transformative means making space for authentic and empowering dialogue.
Next is a larger case study of how a Latina student experienced a lesson on sustainable development and her reflections on this unit plan in a secondary AP Spanish world-language immersion class. Despite a clear focus on a specific conflict over development near Lake Atitlán in Guatemala, the teacher and the slideshow prioritized the learning of language forms in preparation for the AP exam over genuinely helping students understand conflicts over sustainable development. We read this as an instance of the perennial problem of a version of DLBE where a focus on language overshadows, or is out of balance with, a focus on content relevant to students’ needs and interests (Valdés, 2018).
Significance: To date, little DLBE research has focused on the Earth consciousness. Delavan et al. (2024) reviewed the literature and found that scholarship on Indigenous-language immersion was the only significant discussion of it within the DLBE landscape in the US. McCarty and Baker (2024) remind us of the present and historic Earth-conscious work happening consistently across Indigenous-language immersion settings. The final section of our paper focuses on supporting teacher educators with recommendations on how to enact what we envision.

Authors

• Juan A. Freire, Brigham Young University

• Garrett Delavan, University of New Mexico

• Trish Morita-Mullaney, Purdue University

• Erica Freire, None