English learners account for 21.7% of the Texas public school system (Texas Education Agency, 2022). This qualitative study was conducted to examine how teachers of English learners in a dual language program perceived the educational supports they received affected student achievement in science. Teacher participants were asked about their…

This paper presents a qualitative pilot study program evaluation of the Leadership Initiative for Strategic (Bilingual) Teacher Acquisition (LISTA) program in a rural region of Texas. The LISTA program aimed to empower bilingual leaders in education by addressing the limited availability of leadership coaching, particularly tailored to recognize…

This qualitative case study examines how one bilingual teacher draws on their critical consciousness to support immigrant students and their families. Drawing on the construct of conscientization, I argue praxis is the embodiment of critical consciousness through acts of responsiveness and actions educators enact to rewrite unjust spaces and…

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…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perception of the principal and teachers regarding what transformational leadership practices meet the needs of EBs in a DLI PK-8th grade campus in South Texas. The research site was selected for having 40% emergent bilingual students. The campus principal has been implementing a…

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…

Drawing on life stories and classroom observations, this qualitative study examined how six bilingual maestras enacted and embodied critical biliteracies through bilanguaging love. These maestras were born, raised, and now teach bilingual education on the Texas-Mexico border. Their stories revealed contradictory and complex beliefs about literacy…

Teachers' beliefs, professional development, access to hardware/software, and instructional contexts all influence teachers' use of technology (Ertmer et al., 2012; González-Carriedo & Esprívalo Harrell, 2018; Ottenbreit-Leftwich et al., 2010). The first three factors have been studied extensively, but additional research on the instructional…

Texas Education Code requires school districts to provide bilingual education to English learners when enrollment reaches 20 or more students in the same grade level with the same first language (Texas Education Code, 2019a). Rural school districts in Texas are challenged to hire sufficient certified bilingual teachers to implement a consistent…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether English as a Second Language (ESL) Hispanic students, attendance at Title I or Non-Title I schools, and percentage of Bilingual/ESL teachers on campus impacted academic performance as measured by standardized tests. With a rapidly expanding Hispanic population in Texas, it was prudent…

Using testimonios as counterstories, we--a Latina/Indigenous immigrant and white U.S. male--examine our professional trajectories while noting changes that shaped our identities as educators and researchers within a bilingual teacher preparation program. The dual purpose of this paper is: (1) to highlight our struggles as bilingual teacher…

Language policies in the U.S., including matters relating to bilingual education, are tangled up with political tensions and ideology. All too often, the dialogue among educators and policymakers about what constitutes best practices for people learning English -- for whom we will use the term emergent bilinguals (EBs) (Garcia, Kleifgen and Falchi…

As the U.S. teacher shortage continues to worsen, large, urban districts have turned to hiring teachers from abroad, including countries like Spain, Mexico, and the incorporated U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. However, several researchers in the field of have pointed out to the unexamined complexities of hiring Latin American and Spanish teachers…

To support the growing number of English learners (ELs) across the nation, professors in the field of bilingual education are being called to prepare highly effective bilingual teachers who not only have linguistic proficiency in English and Spanish but can also successfully perform in academic settings. As a result, we, two bilingual education…

Dual language programs are a form of bilingual education in which emergent bilingual students receive instruction for content and literacy in two languages (Thomas & Collier, 2019). Dual language programs are developed from policies founded on ideologies that are based on instruction for monolingual students, therefore favoring predominantly…