Over the last few decades, the United States of America (USA) has experienced an increase in the number of K-12 students due to increasing waves of immigrants and the high birth rate of immigrant families. Most of today's K-12 classes reflect a diversity of non-English speaking (NES) students whose English proficiency challenges their academic…

In this article, the author focuses specifically on how what she calls non-specialist teachers (i.e., those who are neither bilingual nor ESL teachers) can benefit from the practices of bilingual and ESL teachers, and how teacher educators can incorporate this knowledge in their curriculum and pedagogy. To do so, she uses examples from research…

This study explores how bilingual teachers with an immigrant background construct professional identity in the context of initial literacy and second language teaching of adults. Specifically, the study seeks to understand what the teachers' membership of different work-related communities means for their professional identity and what capital the…

Presently, across the nation, immigration headlines grip the public's attention with negative messages, under the assumption that immigrants are stereotyped as either individuals with criminal intent or people who are unpatriotic to the United States. Under this thought, politicians scramble to meet the needs of their state by protecting their…

From a sociocultural perspective, identity is understood as constructed through active negotiations with others (Gee, 2006; Lantolf, 2009). Language constitutes a mediation tool used to create meanings in new social and cultural contexts as individuals become members of new communities of practice (CoP). In doing so, an ongoing process of sharing…

Leadership takes on a tone of urgency when we are struggling for justice. At the same time, the right to lead -- the agency to embrace a leadership identity -- can also feel more distant when we are marginalized by the dominant society. For bilingual education teachers working with immigrant communities, the development of critical consciousness,…

Freire (2005) encourages people to take "critical ownership of the formation of ourselves" (p. 44) in order to be able to act upon the world in what he (1993) calls "praxis." This praxis consists of the development of critical consciousness leading to transformative action. Critical consciousness and praxis should be conceived…

Research has established the connection between the academic success of culturally and linguistically diverse students, and their schools' ability to recruit and retain teachers that reflect such diversity (Shirrell et al., 2019). Studies have also highlighted the criticality of the students' home language use as a way to enhance academic growth…

Via a multi-domain, multi-response classroom observation instrument, we observed and analyzed treatment and control teachers' pedagogical differences when applying cooperative, collaborative, and peer-tutoring (CCP) strategies in Grade 1 bilingual classrooms with English learners (ELs). We found that with the support of ongoing, structured, and…

Language usage in US K-12 classrooms and beyond continues to be an issue of equity (Navarro Martell, 2021; Palmer et al., 2019). Teachers expect racialized students who appear to be Latinx to know and perform as if their native language is Spanish, mientras a otros se les celebra sus intentos de usar el espan~ol; otro idioma colonizador. Some…

The term 'CLIL' has been used in Australia for over a decade, and the approach has helped to invigorate languages education in both primary and secondary schools. In particular, the flexibility of CLIL has led to a range of teachers accessing CLIL training: from teachers in structured programs where schools have committed to organisational change,…

Although Dual Language Immersion Education is growing in popularity in the United States, staffing these programs represents one of the greatest challenges for school administrators. Ironically, this is the case even for Spanish-English Dual Language Immersion programs despite the fact that the United States has the second highest number of…

Given that bilingual education has been under assault for most of its modern existence in the United States, many bilingual educators have acquiesced to transitional bilingual education: the use of the primary language only until English is firmly established. While this placated some critics, the research now demonstrates that this is not in the…

This case study highlights the social-cultural relevant pedagogical impact a bilingual teacher has on the middle school ESL classroom through her Latina identity and lived experiences. Data gathering occurred over six months through the principal participant's in-depth interviews, classrooms observations, and document analysis of classroom…

Purpose: Affect is central to the process of teaching and learning. The recent affective turn in literacy education has further underscored its critical potential as an act of resistance against dehumanizing forces that impact students' schooling and life experiences (Dutro, 2019; Leander and Ehret, 2019). This article, taking up the notion of…