Challenging Systemic Barriers and Advancing Multilingual Education Through MEDALLA: Hacia Nuevos Conocmientos y Espacios Lingüísticos

Abstract

In California, multilingual (ML) teachers seeking Bilingual Authorization or ongoing professional development must confront the field's sedimentary tensions. Cultivating culturally sustaining approaches to language learning in PreK–12 school communities requires embedding humanizing practices at the core of ML teacher education and professional development. Project MEDALLA (Multilingual Educator Development Advancing Language Learning Achievement/Activism) is based at a Hispanic-Serving Institution in Los Angeles. This article delineates MEDALLA's unique approach to bilingual teacher education, which fosters biliteracy and critical family–school relations while generating networks of educators committed to transformation. Informed by critical frameworks that unabashedly commit to sustaining students' and families' identities/knowledge and to thwarting oppressive ideologies, we describe how MEDALLA provides pathways to Bilingual Authorization and structured professional development for pre- and in-service teachers of color. The project's innovative methods include conducting grant activities in Spanish (the partner language), integrating critical bilingual family literacy, developing a year-long Plurilingüe Teacher Fellowship for mentor teachers, creating a holistic student teaching model, and strengthening partnerships. We believe that Project MEDALLA provides a model for supporting teachers' critical practices that advance students' and families' language and academic goals while building solidarity.