Developing Teacher-Leaders for Multilingual Students on the Mexico–United States Border

Abstract

This brief describes how three school districts, one charter school system, a county office of education, and one institution of higher education collaborated to develop the leadership, equity, and access for languages (LEAL) professional development certificate for teacher-leaders committed to serving multilingual learners on the Mexico–United States border. LEAL was designed and implemented using knowledge, dispositions, and skills for critically conscious pedagogy as the guiding framework to create consensus definitions of teacher-leaders of multilingual students. Researchers reviewed and interpreted weekly meeting agendas, email correspondence, and the evaluation plan to define and use criteria for the selection of LEAL participants. Researchers implemented an innovative collaborative process of surveys, meetings, and goal-setting with school district and charter school system administrators to identify current in-service teachers that would exemplify commitment to serving multilingual learners in their schools and communities. This brief highlights the importance of interinstitutional partnerships for calibrating consistent definitions of teacher-leaders as well as the value of creating customized seminars and conferences for collegial collaboration across local education agencies (LEAs).