Bilingual Education and ESL Faculty Publications and Presentations

Swimming Upstream: Preparing Future Teachers to Effectively and Compassionately Teach Latino(a) Children

Claudia Peralta et al. — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:40:45 PST

As teacher educators, we struggled to prepare our predominantly white teacher education students to effectively and compassionately teach Latino/a children. We designed a stream of lessons that afforded preservice teachers an opportunity to explore the potential inherent in learning about the in- and out-of- school lives of Latino students, and the power of incorporating what they learned into culturally and contextually relevant lessons. A critical analysis of our students' work, transcribed discussions, and fieldnotes will be used to examine the benefits and challenges that arose in response to our efforts to more effectively prepare future teachers to teach linguistically and culturally diverse populations.

The Pros and Cons of Progress in a Neoliberal World: Transforming the Lives of Men, Women and Children

Roberto Bahruth — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:04:33 PDT

Careful consideration of changes occurring in a globalized world turning on neoliberalism provides insight into the many ways, both positive and negative, that cultural foundations are affected in societies around the world. Young people today are growing up in a world changing at the speed of the microchip with clear implications regarding the ways in which humanity is transforming for men, women and children alike. It is time for women to assert their voices as equal partners in the struggle for democracy, basic human rights, and social justice.

Niños Cultural y Lingüisticamente Diversos: Apuntes de una Experiencia Docente

Claudia Peralta Nash — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:09:38 PDT

He regresado a California después de ausentarme varios años (cinco para ser exacta) y tomo conciencia de que los requisitos académicos e institucionales, tanto para los alumnos como para los estudiantes en práctica docente, han cambiado tremendamente. Lo que en un principio eran "ideas" de requisitos, hoy se han convertido en "requisitos" que pueden impedir la obtención de un diploma o incluso frustrar la consecución de un título profesional, como por ejemplo el de educadora.

Bilingual Teacher Beliefs and Practice: Do They Line Up?

Claudia Peralta Nash et al. — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:52:24 PST

A qualitative study used observation and collection of artifacts to examine the pedagogical strategies of six teachers; four taught in a two-way bilingual education school, while the other two were first-year teachers in a school setting with large numbers of English language learners. Informal interviews were conducted throughout the time of the study; semi-structured interviews were conducted at the end of a semester of observation and recording of field notes. Some interviews attempted to uncover the beliefs teachers had about student learning, and in particular, that of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Teachers were asked about the influences and sources of their beliefs. Other interviews explored teacher identities as educators of culturally and linguistically diverse students and how these identities fit in school settings that were or were not welcoming of such students. Transcripts of taped interviews were compared with field notes and collected artifacts in order to determine the degree to which teachers used strategies related to what they said they believed to be important for culturally and linguistically diverse students. It was determined that there were numerous cases where teacher practice confirmed statements made in interviews.

Anti-Capitalist Analytical Fusion: Science, Pedagogy and Revolution

Arturo Rodriguez — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:00:11 PST

In this paper I review recent work in neo-liberalism and science education as they relate to critical social analysis. I take the position that under neo-liberalism, education in general and science and technology in education in particular press the energies of teachers toward the production of workers, the everyday tools for the expansion of empires, the police state and the war machine. This is by no means a comprehensive view of the field, instead it is an exploration in the further development of a personal critical revolutionary praxis standing in solidarity of pedagogies that are progressive, activism oriented that seek to promote the revolutionary project. A radical departure from the stricture of academic journal writing this paper reflects the critical voice I have been developing over the last several years. It is a fusion of auto-ethnography, critical social theory and free verse.

A Critical Foundation for Bilingual Education

Matthew David Smith et al. — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:44:49 PST

In this paper we weave lived experiences, those of a bilingual social studies teacher at a middle school in a large city in the Southwestern US, with critical theory/pedagogy and bilingual education. The purpose of this paper is to present an articulation of the practice of critical pedagogy in a bilingual educational context principally under the constraints of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and its counterpart Race to the Top. We seek to share a few approaches that Matt, a bilingual social studies teacher, initiated to mitigate the effects of an oppressive but official curriculum and to encourage and foster the development of critical bi-literacy among his students.

“In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was made flesh. It was so in the beginning and it is so today. The language, the Word, carries within it the history, culture, the traditions, the very life of a people, the flesh. Language is people. We cannot even conceive of a people without a language, or a language without a people. The two are one and the same. To know one is to know the other. To love one is to love the other.” Dr. Sabine Ulibarrí, El alma de la raza, 1964

Reimagining Freirean Pedagogy: Sendero for Teacher Education

Arturo Rodriguez et al. — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:41:26 PST

Corporatization of the Academy ensures teacher education is less about the preparation of teachers and more about the reproduction of minimally skilled labor and the neoliberal global capitalist status quo. Colleagues from across the US recount in conversation at conferences and in the field the decline of the quality of teacher preparation programs. It is our position as is the position of other Critical educators, Paula Allman, Lilia I. Bartolomé, Antonia Darder, Henry Giroux, Donaldo Macedo and Peter McLaren to name a few, teacher preparation programs may and do benefit from work with colleagues, professors, administrators and other students, who practice a Freirean critical pedagogy. What we mean is their personal pedagogical praxis must be more than talked about in University methods or curricular courses it must be lived by the very professors, administrators and students of critical pedagogy who would prepare the next generation of teachers.

On Democracy and Critical Citizenship

Arturo Rodriguez — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:10:43 PST

In this essay I fuse narrative, social critique and critical understandings of schooling. Across the writing I argue for an increased critical awareness of print and other forms of news media. For the purposes of this paper I propose two major arguments that support critical awareness, they are: knowing what it means to be an informed citizen and practicing a critical democratic citizenship. As a springboard for discussing the major themes I review how print and other news media are used as propaganda and how a seemingly literate populace more easily accepts what are understood as social norms.

Toward a Transformative Teaching Practice: Criticity, Pedagogy and Praxis

Arturo Rodriguez — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:03:23 PST

One method to teach a multicultural class: a teacher walks in to a room calls the class to order, steps to the lectern and begins to deliver knowledge. Socially acquired information is disseminated; that gained over years of study and experience. Another view: I walk into a class where my students are sitting quietly at their desks pen and paper at the ready and quietly ask: shall we form a circle? The students agree and after having done so I follow up with a generative (Freire, 1970): what are your current understandings of Diversity? In following the work of Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, bell hooks, and Maxine Greene among others I undertake an auto-critical approach to the classes I teach. It is a given for me that students bring knowledge to the table, my classes become our classes; we engage in dialogue to interrogate our subject matter: culture and schooling in societies. As the classes I teach are designed for future educators we engage our discussions to push pedagogy and transform teaching.

Literacy sin Fronteras: Deconstructing Borders for Language and Cultural Inclusion

Elva Reza-López et al. — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 20:23:06 PDT

Juxtaposing Cultural Artifacts to Peel the Onion of Hegemony

Roberto E. Bahruth — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:55:47 PDT

In this chapter, I intend to delineate the sources of antipedagogical practices and the unseen consequences to society. In addition, I will describe the workshop presented at the Third International Conference on Education, Labor and Emacipation entitle La yuxtaposición de artefactos culturales para pelar la cebolla de hegemonía: Pedagogía Crítica en la sala de clase. This workshop is designed to reveal the damaging consequences of simplistic approaches to literacy as well as a critical pedagogical response that teachers can begin to consider in the design of lessons with the intention to democratize the classroom. I deliberately requested to provide a workshop since too many conferences consist of papers and panels of experts talking about pedagogy. While I feel these scholarly endeavors are important, I choose to represent an under-represented genre of bringing theory and practice together in a workshop format.

Mágico Encuentro

Roberto E. Bahruth — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:22:10 PST

Cuando aprendemos a caminar detenidamente, sin apuro, la vida nos revela algunos de sus secretos, esos que siempre han estado frente a nosotros y que en nuestra prisa, no vemos o no queremos ver. En mi más reciente visita a Guatemala fui dispuesto a no deterner los días en mis manos, sino dejarlos fluir mientras me dejaba envolver por el ritmo y luz de este país y su gente . Y fue así, como por primera vez, me entregué a esa canción, tan familiar, del viento jugando con los árboles. Muy pronto descubrí cómo un sin fin de colibrís llegaban a mis ojos, cómo el perfume de mil flores me llenaban los pulmones. Me dejé envolver por el murmullo de los riachuelos mientras acompañaba a las nubes a acariciar la cima de los volcanes. Y el tiempo se detuvo y me regaló mil rostros, mil historias y una lágrima.

Ojos Claros

Roberto E. Bahruth — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:22:09 PST

Seis noches seguidas doña Clara soñó agua, soñó cielo, soñó luz. Fue así como Pati anunció, no sólo su nacimiento sino el color de sus ojos y la claridad de su alma. Y fue así, que unos meses después Pati naciera con ojos azules y claros en un mundo lleno de ojos sin luz. Desde pequeña esta niña fue especial y mágica. A su lado las personas no podían evitar sentirse en paz. Muchos empezaron a visitar la casa de doña Clara sólo para verse reflejados en la claridad azul de la pequeña. Sus ojos nunca dejaban de sonreír ni de emanar, además de tranquilidad y amor, un sentimiento profundo de claridad, compasión y humanidad. Pati no era de mucho decir pero, desde que pudo expresarse y en forma de respuesta a todas las preguntas y comentarios, la niña insistía en decir, “mama, es que yo nací grande.”

Teaching Language as a Political Act

Roberto E. Bahruth — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:18:53 PST

"The most powerful act in the world is to name something" Noam Chomsky "Any way of seeing the world is also a way of not seeing the world." Gregory Bateson

An important dimension of critical pedagogy includes the questioning of traditional terminology used to explain reality. In the process of schooling people often learn language which supports the thinking of the dominant paradigm. Many become fluent in the language of impossibility as they are schooled. In response to this, I always try to keep in mind two central points as I teach languages: One is to undo the damage of schooling by helping my students to acquire a language of possibility. Second, I try to expose the ideological influences in language and to offer my students a language of criticity where they become fluent in reading the world critically for themselves to get beyond the propaganda of an antihumane paradigm. For instance, we cannot wage war for peace. This is Orwellian double speak. It is a way of using language to control the way people see the world, or in some cases to prevent them from seeing the world clearly at all. Paulo Freire emphasized the importance of reading the harmony or the dissonance between the word and the world, or to say it another way, between what we say and what we do. Language acquisition, and learning in general, take place through a dialectical process across a variety of world views as learners construct meaning. It does not happen through a duckling stuffing process where official bodies of knowledge are force fed to passive students. The former is pedagogical and humanizing, while the latter is antipedagogical and antihumane. I call the difference between the two education and schooling, respectively.

The Debate on Literacy Teaching, from Phonetics to Whole Language, Through the Lens of Critical Pedagogy

Roberto E. Bahruth et al. — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:40:25 PST

El "Pentagonismo": Idioma del Neoliberalismo

Roberto E. Bahruth — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:47:10 PDT

Las escuelas represenran instiruciones con un incuestionable potencial progresivo. Sin embargo, en los EUU los centros escolares del Estado están organizados para facilitar un alfabetismo superficial en los ciudadanos, de manera que no estén en condiciones de cuestionar la terminología de la educación, ni eI program a imperialista que se sustenta. Para quicnes, dentro de ese país, estamos comprometidos con una pedagogía crítica, capaz de frenar y revertir la enajenacíon de nuestro pueblo, se hace imprescindible en primer lugar retar Ia terminología tradicional y reemplazarla con un idioma realmenre critico. EI idioma demuestra mucho de las orientaciones ideológicas de los programas y de las personas. En las escuelas estadounidenses, eI discurso normalizado refleja definidas orientaciones ante eI alumno, el aprendizaje y lo que significa un ciudadano ideal al final del proceso. Los lingüistas del gran capital proponen una terminología que pretende ocultar la verdad y disimular la explotación de los países "subdesarrollados."

Critical Literacy vs. Reading Programs: Schooling as a Form of Control

Roberto E. Bahruth — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 07:10:47 PDT

In the United States, despite years of educational research demonstrating the ineffectiveness and harm caused by reading programs based upon a behaviorist paradigm, political mandates of state and federal programs insist upon their continued use. One might conclude that this insistence is born out of ignorance, however, it seems clear that the populations most harmed by these programs are the poor and minorities. Privileged class students are also harmed because of the "literalcy" (shallow "literacy") these programs produce. I discuss the politics of literacy and language programs in the United States and how they serve to oppress as they reproduce the status quo. I also offer solutions anchored in generative ways of coming to know and expanded definitions of teaching, learning and literacy.

Persistence of Vision: Hegemony and Counterhegemony in the Everyday

Roberto E. Bahruth — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 07:48:51 PDT

A gathering of subjects of history, activists who are engaging in the struggle for humanization, provides the ideal circumstance for pedagogical explorations that are generative and organic. Contrary to state-sponsored schooling, where inductees are treated as objects, receptacles of what Gabbard³ refers to as "the secular gospel," participants in the International Institute of Peace Education (IIPE) 2008 held in Haifa, Israel demonstrated the power of critical pedagogical encounters to move people to act not only with clarity and determination in, but also if necessary, against the everyday. After years of cultural work in a variety of terrains of engagement, I learned that a persistent, generative question regarding hegemony deserved an activity, which I designed to problematize the inertia of the status quo and neutralize the effects of hegemonic encounters. Implemented at IIPE, the effort was to promote a mindset to counter-respond by exposing inertia as a hegemonic practice.

As is the Sapling, So Grows the Tree: The Importance of Early Care

Roberto E. Bahruth — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:20:37 PDT

All education is political and the ways children are educated early in life has a strong influence on them throughout their adult experience. Examples of these influences are provided from past generations with an argument to address the speed-of-light living of the generation of the microchip world of today's modern society. Children growing up with electronics and with little tolerance for down time crave constant stimulation. They are living a fundamentally different childhood, disconnected from nature's metaphors. Reflective time, quiet time, time spent getting lost in a book are being replaced by microtexting, emails, instant messaging, and cell phone conversations mostly about trivia. Educators must recognize the damaging effects of such a media-dominated lifestyle and provide deliberate pedagogical spaces to balance human development towards healthy adult living.

Changes and Challenges in Teaching the Word and the World for the Benefit of All of Humanity

Roberto E. Bahruth — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:20:36 PDT

In this paper, I will address critical changes and challenges which all educators around the world will have to address if we are to develop a global village in which all humans are respected, allowed to live with dignity and without persecution. Teachers and teacher educators will need to consider the vital importance of helping learners in their moral development as they become competent communicators. Prepackaged, superimposed curricula which do not allow room for teachers and learners to negotiate their words and their worlds simultaneously will eventually come to be seen as counterproductive to the best interests of the societies of the twenty first century. In fact, the basic skills we most need to be teaching, those which help students to develop ontologically while preserving their epistemological curiosity about the world, are conspicuously absent from commercial materials, standardized tests, and courses of teacher preparation. Rather than teachers as technicists who cover a fragmented, decontextualized curriculum, skill by skill, teachers must intellectualize their efforts to design thought provoking activities which require negotiation for meaning and higher order thinking. They will have to learn to read their student s' evolving, developmental proficiencies, as teachers pose critical questions which promote student engagement with issues of language, literacy, culture, ecology, democracy, and humanity.