Mobilizing Intersectional Teacher Identity Work in Professional Development for Secondary Teachers of Emergent Bilinguals

• In Event: You're Speaking My Language: Critical Perspectives on Identity, Equity, and Professional Learning to Support Multilingual Learners

Abstract

This paper reports on a study examining how in-service secondary content-area teachers draw on their intersectional identities to navigate language ideologies and enact equity-focused pedagogies in multilingual classrooms. Situated in a graduate-level PD program in South Texas, the research explores how educators develop ideological clarity and redefine their roles through reflexivity and justice-centered practice. Guided by intersectionality and teacher identity theory, we analyzed multimodal data from 49 teachers. Three key findings emerged: (1) teachers engaged in reflexivity to transform their understandings of multilingual learners; (2) they exercised agency through resistance and advocacy; and (3) they constructed language-teacher identities. Findings show how intersectional identities enable resistance to dominant ideologies and support equitable instruction.

Authors

• Jerry Romero, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Bedrettin Yazan, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Caryn M. Calisi, University of Texas at San Antonio

• Jorge L. Solis, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Kristen Lindahl, University of Texas - San Antonio

• MICHAEL MAURICIO, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Amanda de Oliveira Silva, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Gilberto P. Lara, University of Texas - San Antonio