Binational Professional Development: Investigating Teacher Learning and Classroom Application at the Mexico-U.S. Border

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

Abstract

Objectives
Educators on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border have been working diligently to highlight the plight of binational students, those that have experienced their education in two countries, to better meet their needs and leverage their linguistic and cultural strengths (Gándara & Jensen, 2021; Jensen & Jacobo, 2019). The plight of Mexican-origin students in the U.S. has long been studied, though we know less about the 600,000 students in Mexican schools that are U.S. citizens (Gándara & Jensen, 2021). This paper reports on a popular professional development model in the U.S. for multilingual students that was revamped to target the learning of educators on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border to better serve binational students. Because we know little about how binational students’ teachers are prepared to work with the bilingual and binational students that may have had an interruption in their schooling, this qualitative study documents how participating in a two-week binational professional development training influenced educators’ beliefs, knowledge, and classroom practices surrounding binational education.

Theoretical Framework
Preparing teachers from two different school systems on different sides of the border is paramount for all students that we share across borders. Binational teacher professional development that focuses on the sociolinguistic, sociocultural, and socioemotional realities of binational students is at the forefront of current efforts (Hamann, Sánchez García, & López López, 2019). We highlight the cultural heterogeneity of everyday border practices that integrates four contextual dimensions that shape binational students’ schooling experiences: sociopolitical, sociocultural, sociolinguistic, and socioemotional (Alfaro & Gándara, 2021).

Methodology & Data Sources
This qualitative study draws on data collected from teacher interviews and classroom artifacts from 20 binational educators from both Mexico and the U.S. who participated in a 2019 binational professional development training. Data was systematically organized and deductively analyzed with the support of the NVivo qualitative analysis software and coding schema (Saldaña, 2015).

Findings & Scholarly Significance
Findings suggest that core principles of the binational professional development model and classroom strategies were integrated into educators’ practices with adaptations on both sides of the border, largely stemming from the distance learning approaches implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the data suggests that the binational professional development training had an impact on educators’ application of guiding principles of second language development and instructional planning for content and language integration. Additionally, binational educators on both sides of the border engaged in everyday practices that demonstrated their knowledge of the four contextual dimensions that impact binational students’ schooling experiences. Binational teacher educators must commit to the dual task of developing teachers’ binational pedagogical practices and sociopolitical consciousness, especially those that teach near the Mexico-U.S. border and those who work with binational students in a variety of regions across both countries. And perhaps more importantly, we must continue to listen to binational educators who interact daily with the students we share across borders.

Authors

• Sera Jean Hernandez, San Diego State University

• Alberto Esquinca, San Diego State University

• Yara Amparo Lopez-Lopez, Educación Migrante Probem BC