"Ponte a Batallar Conmigo": One Teacher's Implementation of the Fourth Pillar in Her Two-Way Bilingual Education Classroom

• In Event: 66.057 - Establishing Sociopolitical Consciousness as the Fourth Goal of Dual-Language Education

Abstract

Objective
As the growth of two-way bilingual education (TWBE) has simultaneously sparked enthusiasm and concern, there are concerted efforts to prioritize issues of social justice and equity, especially for language minoritized students (Howard et al., 2018). A key element in these efforts is introducing a fourth pillar: the development of critical consciousness for all TWBE stakeholders (Authors, 2017). In this study, we document how a fifth-grade TWBE teacher in Texas enacted this fourth pillar.

Perspectives
TWBE is enrichment-oriented bilingual education in which speakers of two different language groups learn together in K-12 classrooms. Students learn both languages through content instruction (Howard et al., 2018). Overall there is much potential to support all students to succeed academically and to become bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural—often described as the three “pillars” of TWBE (Lindholm-Leary, 2001).
However, an increasing body of research illuminates significant challenges, especially the lack of equitable access and opportunities for linguistically and racially minoritized students (Valdés, 1997; Authors, 2017). To address this, we proposed a fourth pillar, critical consciousness (Authors, 2017; Freire, 1997), in which TWBE stakeholders must interrogate power, critically listen, engage with discomfort (Authors, In Press), and integrate humanizing pedagogies (i.e. praxis to transform inequitable structures by journeying with students on the path to liberation; Salazar, 2013).

Methods & Data Sources
Author 1 conducted a year-long participatory ethnography (Barab et al., 2004) in a fifth-grade TWBE classroom that explored how the teacher integrated critical consciousness into all facets of her practice, while also documenting gentrification processes throughout the school. Data sources included field notes of schoolwide events and her classroom, and interviews with her students. In addition, as both researcher and teacher identified gentrification as a challenge facing this school and community, they worked to implement a unit that encouraged students to critically engage with its challenges.

Results
A thematic analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1984) revealed the teacher prioritized the infusion of TWBE’s fourth pillar. She pushed students to listen critically to testimonios about how gentrification impacted their lives, she engaged parents in (sometimes) uncomfortable situations in an effort to bridge differences, and she continually exposed power imbalances to her students, colleagues and supervisors. Her engagement with humanizing pedagogies offers a rich example for TWBE (and other) settings that want to combat inequity. For example, a student commented on a parent’s testimonio on gentrification, “when Marisa’s mother came it really helped me understand how it was driving people who lived in [city] out of [city].”

Significance
This work advances the project of building more equitable learning spaces, by supporting bilingualism, biliteracy, biculturalism, and critical consciousness for all students in TWBE programs. It illustrates how critical consciousness can impact myriad facets of TWBE through practices that interrogate power, historicize contexts, encourage critical listening, and embrace discomfort (Authors, In Press). Understanding and embracing critical consciousness has potential to transform TWBE; this study can serve as an example of resilience and a model for embracing and leveraging our nation’s diverse, multilingual future even in uncertain, xenophobic times.

Authors

• Dan Heiman, University of North Texas

• Claudia G. Cervantes-Soon, Arizona State University

• Deborah K. Palmer, University of Colorado Boulder

• Lisa M. Dorner, University of Missouri - Columbia