Learning to teach english for justice from a translanguaging orientation

Abstract

This research study investigated how undergraduate students understood translanguaging in relationship to language, culture, and power; and how they embodied translanguaging in a TESOL Certificate course to see if translanguaging as pedagogy affords students the elements necessary to teach for justice. Through collaborative qualitative methods utilizing teacher research we analyzed the course work of 19 student participants in the course to see their learning and application of translanguaging. We found the student participants, in response to learning about translanguaging, demonstrated understandings of the connection between language, culture, and power, and its importance in teaching emergent bilinguals. However, we also found that participants struggled with translanguaging in their teaching practice and mostly resorted to using TESOL strategies rather than embodying translanguaging. This research sheds light on the process, program and evaluation of teacher preparation and illuminates the ways in which program design and instructional strategies can best prepare teachers to teach for justice.