Research Findings: We examined the amount of preschool lead/assistant teachers' English/Spanish language use and relations between quality of teacher-child interactions, and Dual Language Learners' (DLLs) English/Spanish bilingual vocabulary in 31 English-medium Head Start classrooms. Measures in this study included (a) children's conceptual…

In this two-year ethnographic study, we explored engineering teaching and learning in fourth-grade, dual language (DL) classrooms. We discuss the biliterate disciplinary practices in these classrooms, examining data (field notes, interviews, artifacts, audio, and video recordings) gathered at a school on the US-Mexico border. Our purpose is to…

With the increased number of Hispanic English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in U.S schools, there has been a need to prepare elementary bilingual education teachers with knowledge of content and language objectives to better serve the language proficiency needs of Hispanic ELLs. The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives and…

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of first-year teachers, recently graduated from an Alternative Route to Teaching (ART) program and hired to teach within Spanish-English Dual-language Immersion strands at local schools. To do so, recordings and observations of classroom practice, teacher interviews, and supplementary data…

Teacher linguistic identity has so far mainly been researched in terms of whether a teacher identifies (or is identified by others) as a native speaker (NEST) or nonnative speaker (NNEST) (Moussu & Llurda, 2008; Reis, 2011). Native speakers are presumed to be monolingual, and nonnative speakers, although by definition bilingual, tend to be…

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…

Bilingual education can promote a sense of school belonging for students through a shared valuing of students' home languages and cultures. This article explores how bilingual education contributes to sense of belonging for students who have more than one home language and are becoming trilingual in school. This qualitative study examines how a…

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…

Bilingual teachers' professional identity inquiry may open up possibilities for agency and equality in U.S. dual language contexts. Deploying Borderland, Agency, and Position theories, this article narrates the life histories of three "nepantlera" Chicanx/Latinx dual language bilingual teachers--Jessica, Roberto, and Marta--who work in…

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…

The following reflective essay describes the literal journey of an undocumented immigrant who left his family in Jalisco, Mexico, as a teenager and eventually became a bilingual educator who earned two master's degrees and a Ph.D. in the United States. Within this narrative, the author not only describes the challenges in crossing into the U.S.…