Using a holistic biliteracies framework, this longitudinal comparative case study explores how two racioinguistically marginalized BPSTs (one heritage Spanish/English bilingual and one initially Spanish-dominant Mexican national) grew in their understanding of biliteracies development and their enactment of biliteracies pedagogies in the beginning…

Numbers of Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) programs are rapidly growing in the United States, especially in the New Latinx Diaspora in the South. With fast expansion comes a need for DLBE teachers, but there is a lack of programs in this region to prepare teachers with specialized knowledge for DLBE instruction. This phenomenological…

Language proficiency exams have been used since the development of bilingual education. The purpose of the following case study is to demonstrate how the English and Spanish proficiency exams given to a child for admission into a dual language (Spanish-English) program framed a child in a deficit view and missed the proficiency the child had…

Heritage Spanish speakers (HSSs) in the U.S. who seek certification as bilingual teachers must show Spanish language proficiency. The state of Texas requires candidates to pass the Bilingual Target Language Proficiency Test (BTLPT) a test seen as a gatekeeping mechanism (Clark & Flores, 2002) in a field that presents chronic shortage of…

There is an expectation of bilingual proficiency as a requirement for admission into most bilingual teacher preparation programs, as well as licensing criteria and job requirements for bilingual teaching positions. Nevertheless, we must acknowledge the dynamic nature of bilingualism and that prospective teachers differ in the level of support they…

Wondering about possible reasons for the continuous shortage of bilingual teachers in the U.S., this five-year longitudinal qualitative narrative inquiry examines potential "leaks" in the pre-kindergarten to college (PK-20) Latinx bilingual teacher pipeline (BTP). We adopt Ocasio's Latino Teacher Pipeline framework which establishes…

This article compares Spanish proficiency assessments across three states (Texas, Arizona, and California) in relation to four overarching themes: (a) verification methods of proficiency; (b) test-task authenticity; (c) impact of pedagogical content knowledge in test performance; and (d) conceptions of language 'correctness' on the scoring…

Objective: In response to the question 'how can teachers develop health literacy events that leverage students' cultural and linguistic resources', this study highlights how two teachers developed a culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum that sought to promote health literacy. Design: The study details findings from a larger…

Many bilingual preservice teachers in Texas are not able to get certified because of language limitations. Although they have grown up listening and speaking their native language at home, with family and friends, many face challenges when using academic language in a formal setting. There is a mismatch between their language level and their…

Currently, there are 1.3 million English Learners (EL) in California public schools (CDE 2018). The passage of Proposition 58, which presented multilingual education as key to students' future economic success without every using the word bilingual, lifted the previous restrictions on bilingual education programs and increased the demand for…

Although direct engagement with neighborhood espacios deepens student understanding, less is known about the benefits of this approach to bilingual teacher preparation programs. Our article addresses this gap by highlighting community walks, or caminatas, as a pedagogical approach with futurxs maestrxs bilingües (FMBs). Specifically, we propose an…

Emerging from nearly two decades of language suppression wrought by Proposition 227, a "Bilingual Education Renaissance" is underway in California as new programs proliferate at a much faster clip than the state can produce certified bilingual teachers. California's policy shift is built upon an officially stated view of bilingualism as…

How to better prepare future bilingual teachers for foreign language learning classrooms and their challenges is a key consideration in education, a concern echoed across the world as such programmes, where curricular content is taught in a foreign language, grow in popularity. This article presents student profiles and satisfaction for the first…

As a reaction to new citywide regulations requiring Child Development Associate (CDA) credentials and associate's degrees in early childhood education for those working in childcare facilities and home daycares in Washington, DC, Briya Public Charter School (Briya) created pathways to further the education for their largest population, Spanish…

This is a case study of supplementary support sessions for Spanish proficiency offered in a bilingual teacher preparation program in Texas throughout an academic year. The support sessions were created to assist pre-service bilingual teachers in further developing their command of Spanish through extra practice, feedback, and test preparation in…