Retracing, Reflecting, and Reimagining Schooling Experiences of Bilingual Students With a Bilingual Teacher Education Program

• In Event: Constructing a Counterstory: Experiences and Testimonies of Prospective Teachers of Color

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to utilize testimonios to understand the experiences, practices, and relations of teacher candidates and educators in a bilingual teacher preparation program in Massachusetts, a state that has embodied the struggle against anti-immigrant and anti-bilingual sentiments. Xicana/Latina feminist theories (Cervantes-Soon, 2018; Villenas, 2006) and methodological approaches (Delgado Bernal, Burciaga, & Flores Carmona, 2002; Perez-Huber, 2008) were used as a lens to examine the ways that testimonio enabled educators to reconceptualize bilingual teacher preparation as a catalyst of intentional personal and social transformation. The testimonios revealed how educators considered the intersectionality of multiple power structures beyond language and ethnicity that have shaped their schooling experiences and their students from minoritized backgrounds.

Authors

• Jasmine Alvarado, Boston College

• Mariam Gorbea, Boston College

• Mariana Sanchez, Boston College