Reimagining Fronterizo Teacher Education: A Binational Partnership Between Teacher Candidates From Imperial Valley and Tijuana

• In Event: Innovative Educational Partnerships and Projects at the Mexico-U.S. Border: Centering Equity During Uncertain Times

Abstract

Objective
This paper draws on an eight-week binational, bicultural, and bilingual virtual partnership between two institutions which sit across each side of the U.S./Mexico border in the Imperial Valley and Tijuana. Leveraging technology in the midst of a global pandemic, we examine the affordances of a critical fronterizo teacher education (CFTE) approach by merging border epistemologies and critical education for the preparation of critically conscious teachers. Author (2020) defines this approach to the preparation of fronterizo teachers as one that is historically grounded and inspired by both the geographical specificity of the U.S./Mexico border and the Chicana/o-Latina/o population’s historical relationship with schooling. Through this paper, we illustrate ways in which pre-service teachers use their own fronterizo funds of knowledge to design educational proposals grounded in the borderland region. This approach results in new understandings about how pre-service teachers from marginalized fronterizo communities build solidarity and respond to and resist deficit educational practices.

Theoretical Framework
Drawing on a funds of knowledge approach (Moll et al, 1992), we highlight the “historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being” (p. 133) of borderland pre-service teachers from Tijuana, and Imperial Valley. Of particular importance is understanding how the funds of knowledge of preservice teachers from both sides of the US./Mexico border informs the ways they construct lesson plans and approach their future practice.

Method & Data sources
Utilizing a qualitative case study method (Yin, 2003), we explore how pre-service teachers from Tijuana and Imperial Valley co-construct lesson plans drawing from their own lived experiences. Data sources for this project include observations from the 8-week exchange, along with assignments such as peer letters, curricular proposals and testimonios from the 28 participants. For this paper, data derived from seven curricular proposals that were co-constructed collaboratively in groups with an equal number of Mexican and U.S. pre-service teachers. These curricular proposals were analyzed and coded utilizing Atlas.ti software.

Findings and Scholarly Significance
We identified that pre-service teachers drew on as fronterizo funds of knowledge, knowledge specific to those who live near the U.S./Mexico border. Preliminary findings that illustrate this type of fronterizo funds of knowledge were largely around 1) culturally relevant historical situations and experiences, 2) metric systems of measurement and foreign exchange rates, and 3) linguistic challenges. One of the teams proposes letting students be more comfortable using both systems (Imperial System & Metric System), as they are learning about both systems, provide real life examples that they see in everyday life as they will come across measurements of both systems daily. (Speed limits- miles vs. kilometers; Market- pounds vs. kilos). Another team is considering creating awareness in students and promoting inclusive environments, for example, you can read books of Mexican descent and culture. From there students can open a discussion about what they think about social conditions. This overall partnership points to the need for a fronterizo community of practice where we ground the social, cultural and political context of the borderlands to develop critically conscious teachers that serve the needs of this region.

Authors

• Lluliana Alonso, San Diego State University

• Sarina Ayala-Cortez, Escuela Normal Fronteriza Tijuana