Bilingual Teacher Leadership for Transformation: Proyecto Maestría Teachers' Activist Pedagogies of Hope

• In Event: Beyond Dreams and Possibilities—Revolucionarias en Acción as Movement Intellectuals Preparing Critical Pedagogues

Abstract

Objectives/purposes:
I share findings from a qualitative study of 54 master bilingual teachers’ experiences during and following participation in a cohort master’s program at a research university in Texas. The purpose of the larger project has been to understand bilingual teacher leadership as a vehicle for transformation in public educational spaces. This paper’s focus is the process by which teachers constructed their personal and professional identities as activists, advocates, and public intellectuals. I examined their experiences both within and beyond the organized master’s degree program, as they grappled with structural/institutional, personal and interpersonal challenges.

Theoretical framework:
Teacher leadership as a field has largely ignored bi(multi)lingual school contexts and the special skill sets of bilingual educators (Ackerman & Mackenzie, 2007). Using participants’ experiences as windows, I explore the kinds of power that teachers in bilingual spaces can gather and assert – and the processes/mechanisms by which they do so - in the face of structural (institutional, political, interpersonal or socio-economic, etc.) barriers. Freire’s (2000) conceptions of praxis and dialogue undergird my analysis as I theorize understandings of teacher agency and activist teacher leadership. Freire asserts: “To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it,” (p.88); this is what Proyecto participants aimed to do.

Method/modes of inquiry
I conducted a qualitative thematic analysis of data (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998), taking a grounded theory approach (Corbin & Strauss, 1990). Theoretical frameworks emerged during analysis process. The study was also participatory in that my extended engagement with participants largely drove development of both master’s program and inquiry process.

Data sources/evidence:
With graduate students, I gathered interview, artifact, and observation data from many of the 54 teachers who participated in Proyecto Maestría from 2007 to 2013. This paper will share data from a select group of focal teachers stretching across the five cohorts.

Results/conclusions:
Key to participants’ successful engagement as activist bilingual teacher leaders were three factors: connections to networks of allies; engagement with critical theory and the time and opportunity to link theory to their practice; and critical cultural and linguistic consciousness that embraced their own identities and centered students and families in curriculum and instruction. Teachers’ empowered activist stance encompassed their classroom curriculum and teaching, engagement with parents/families, interactions with administrators and district leadership, and community outreach and activism. In order to be successful teacher leaders and advocates for and with bilingual children and families, teachers require certain skill sets and supports: networks and collaboration,

Scholarly significance:
It is crucial that we seek out ways to support bilingual teachers to develop activist leadership skills; we need their voices and their expertise in our increasingly linguistically diverse public schools and communities. This study provides ample evidence of the specific types of experiences teachers need in order to take on the hard work of transforming schools for bilingual and emergent bilingual learners.

Author

• Deborah K. Palmer, University of Colorado Boulder