Volume 15 Issue 3 2021 AMAE Special Issue Centering Translanguaging in Critical Teacher Education: Cultivando Nuevos Conocimientos de Translenguaje en la Educación de Futuros Docentes Guest Editors Pablo C. Ramirez California State University, Dominguez Hills Armando Garza Ayala University of New Mexico Editors Patricia Sánchez The University of Texas at San Antonio Antonio J. Camacho AMAE, Inc. Associate Editors Julie L. Figueroa Sacramento State Lucila D. Ek The University of Texas at San Antonio Managing Editor Christian Fallas-Escobar The University of Texas at San Antonio Association of Mexican American Educators Journal A peer-reviewed, open access journal http://amaejournal.utsa.edu ISSN: 2377-9187 Ramírez & Garza Ayala Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2021, Volume 15, Issue 3 4 Centering Translanguaging in Teacher Education: Cultivando Nuevos Conocimientos de Translenguaje en la Educación de Docentes Bilingües Pablo C. Ramírez California State University, Dominguez Hills Armando Garza Ayala University of New Mexico Translanguaging recognizes that students come into school with a linguistic potential that keeps them bajando into their past and simultaneously subiendo not toward a dominant standard language or even two or three standard languages, but toward creative languaging that opens up limitless possibilities of knowledge generation (García, 2017, p. 258) In the past decade alone, the proportion of Latina/o/x children in U.S. schools has risen from 11 to 23 percent of the entire K-12 student body (California Department of Education, 2018). This demographic change has had an enormous impact on schools where an increasing number of students are still developing language and literacy skills in Spanish, while at the same time learning how to speak, read, and write in English. The Office of English Language Acquisition (2015) reports that with the increase of diversity in student population, bilingualism has also burgeoned in K-12 schools. Although there has been an expansion of bilingual education in varied forms (e.g., one-way or two-way dual language bilingual education) and bilingualism is seen with positive eyes, we need to remember that language and bilingual practices are always racialized (Flores et al., 2021). Therefore, Latina/o/x and other linguistically and culturally minoritized students in K-12 educational contexts continue to be confined in DOI: https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.15.3.450 https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.15.3.450 Centering Translanguaging in Teacher Education Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2021, Volume 15, Issue 3 5 instructional language models that exclude the full use of their linguistic and cultural resources; these inequities are persistent even in bilingual classrooms (Cervantes-Soon et al., 2017; Garza Ayala, 2020). Sociocultural scholars in the field of bilingual education are proposing the implementation and free enactment of translanguaging pedagogies and practices to counteract language and literacy injustice and promote academic achievement (e.g., Cioè-Peña & Snell, 2015; García et al., 2017; Ibarra Johnson & Garza Ayala, 2021). Currently, translanguaging as a way to understand how teachers and students can promote fluid, dynamic bilingualism while teaching and learning has received serious attention (e.g., Canagarajah, 2011; Duarte, 2019; García & Otheguy, 2021; Hornberger & Link, 2012). According to García (2009), translanguaging is about a new linguistic norm, a creative way of being, acting, and languaging in different sociocultural and political contexts. Thus, translanguaging use allows discourses to flow freely, and gives voice to new sociocultural realities. As it is well known, translanguaging does not refer to two separate languages nor to a synthesis of different language practices or to a hybrid mixture (García, 2009). Rather, translanguaging refers to new language practices that make visible the complexity of language exchanges among people with different histories (García & Wei, 2014). In multilingual/bilingual teacher education programs, in nationally and international contexts, a number of publications (e.g., García, 2017; Rosiers et al., 2018; Rowe, 2018) have documented distinct ways in which translanguaging is advancing Emergent Bilinguals’ (EBs) language and literacy practices in schools. Nevertheless, research explorations on translanguaging as a frame and pedagogy continues and critical questions keep arising. To what extent are teacher education programs across the U.S. incorporating translanguaging pedagogies for all new teachers? We argue that new teachers need to acquire new perspectives, ideologies, and preparation in translanguaging as a teaching and learning tool for EB students, in both mainstream and bilingual education classrooms. Consequently, new teachers will be equipped to better serve the growing bilingual Latina/o/x and other linguistically minoritized student populations. Given the importance, relevancy, and timeliness of translanguaging use across K-16 educational settings, the special issue examined the collective knowledge of translanguaging as theoretical framework and pedagogical tool and explored the manner in which translanguaging is enacted in teacher education programs (both English-only and bilingual/multilingual). Further, this volume explored the intersections of translanguaging Ramírez & Garza Ayala Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2021, Volume 15, Issue 3 6 and teachers’ ideologies as well as Latina/o/x students’ linguistic practices in English-medium classrooms and bilingual education programs. Translanguaging Pedagogías y Maestras/Maestros/Maestres According to García et al. (2017), translanguaging pedagogy requires three central features. First, teachers need to develop a critical stance about language, languaging, and language users. Second, teachers should be intentional in their particular lesson design to ensure dynamic bilingual practices by students. Lastly, it is important for teachers to consider shifts in language use in the classroom setting. García et al. (2017) provide examples of how exemplary teachers, in three different locations across the U.S., made use of these three features in diverse classrooms. Accordingly, teachers, regardless of their languaging origins must be able to react to, interpret, and enact translanguaging in ways that advance students’ understanding of content instruction in classroom settings (Henderson & Ingram, 2018). Studies associated with translanguaging pedagogy have shown that teachers who engage in translanguaging practices with their students improve flexible language proficiency and content learning (García & Kano, 2014; Li & Luo, 2017; Ramirez & Faltis, 2019). Within translanguaging pedagogy, two particular theoretical perspectives shape teachers’ instructional practices: language space and intentionality. In a translanguaging learning setting, teachers seek to provide EBs access to rich content and foster academic success. Consequently, in this translanguaging space, teachers should be intentional in instructional goals associated with linguistic and academic growth from a bilingual perspective. This intentional translanguaging pedagogy is strategic having in mind how best to support bilingual and multilingual students (Howard et al., 2018). The Special Issue The articles presented in this volume are guided by diverse theoretical frameworks and research lenses that examined translanguaging in linguistically diverse educational contexts. Contributing authors use their entire linguistic repertoire to explore particular pedagogical features adding rich findings to the field of translanguaging in education. The special issue begins with “Learning and Teaching en Dos Idiomas: Critical Autoethnography, Translenguaje, y Rechazando English Learner,” by Melissa Arabel Navarro Martell. The author highlights the important role of self-reflection in teacher education and its Centering Translanguaging in Teacher Education Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2021, Volume 15, Issue 3 7 impact on pre- and in-service teachers’ translanguaging identity. Navarro’s critical auto- ethnography examines pivotal moments in the author’s life that shaped her view of bilingualism, education, and identity. The author offers recommendations for future educators and teacher education programs. Using a case study methodology, Cori Salmerón, Nathaly Batista-Morales, and Angela Valenzuela, in “Translanguaging pedagogy as an enactment of authentic cariño and an antidote to subtractive schooling,” examine translanguaging pedagogy through the lens of politics of caring, subtractive education, and authentic cariño. The authors collected data from literacy instruction in fourth grade bilingual and ESL classrooms to expand and re-affirm that translanguaging can be seen as an enactment of intellectual, familial, and critical cariño. In “Where the Translanguaging Rubber Hits the Road: Ideological Frictions, Mixtificaciones y Potentialities in Bilingual Teacher Preparation Programs.” Eduardo Muñoz- Muñoz examines the relationship among California public teacher preparation programs, their bilingual teacher candidates, and the districts that host their field placements that ultimately hire them. Drawing from metaphorical concepts of ideological and implementational spaces, Muñoz- Muñoz shares five retratos that highlight bilingual candidates’ ideological stances and expands a dialogue on teacher preparation ecology. Next, using a self-study methodology in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, Alcione N. Ostorga explores the role of translingual pedagogies in “Translanguaging Practices for the Development of Latinx Teacher Candidates: A Pedagogy for The Border.” The author explores the application of translanguaging pedagogies for bilingual Latinx teacher candidates in a college course that is needed for teaching certification. Ostorga found that a translingual dialogical teaching approach shaped bilingual teacher candidates’ critical stance on bilingualism as a resource for teaching and learning. Going to the elementary classroom, Stephanie Eller and David Nieto examine the role of dynamic bilingualism and idiolect in “Idiolect and Identity: Fourth Grade Students’ Translanguaging, Comprehension, and Self-Identity.” Through their qualitative study, the authors explore EBs’ translanguaging practices, and reading comprehension strategies during read-alouds. Their emergent findings suggest that when students’ idiolects are supported and encouraged, they are able to develop positive self-identities. Ramírez & Garza Ayala Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2021, Volume 15, Issue 3 8 In “Ruptures of Possibility: Mexican Origin Mothers as Critical Translanguaging Pedagogues,” Idalia Nuñez and Suzanne García-Mateus use critical discourse analysis to explore why and how Mexican mothers raise bilingual children; and consequently, they study their powerful roles as critical translanguaging pedagogues. Drawing from border thinking, the authors presented two themes: the manner in which mothers recognize and draw on the ruptures of cultural and linguistic worlds and how they sustain language through family and cultural practices. The authors propose these findings to advance teacher education by including translanguaging as part of the curriculum and reframing how teachers and teacher candidates perceive the role of families as key contributors for bilingual learning. In the collection of poems “Trenzando Poetry,” Yuliana Kenfield, colleagues, and friends, invite readers to reflect on the role of trenzando identity and education. The poems presented are based on intergenerational dialogues that challenge pre-service teachers and teacher educators to learn, unlearn, relearn, and dismantle sociolinguistic ideologies and practices that promote or suppress languages. Further, the poets share poems and art to reaffirm the sociolinguistic legacies of their ancestors who represent the Quechua, Navajo, Spanish, and English languages. This special issue includes a book review that takes us to experience translanguaging in academic written texts. Minea Armijo Romero’s book review of “Bilingualism and Bilingual Education: Conceptos Fundamentales” synthesizes the book in three major sections: theory, practice, and acción. As a translanguaged book, Armijo Romero translanguages constantly in her review, modeling how the authors used their languaging in writing. She breaks the linguistic norms that are usually imposed in mainstream and bilingual schools when teaching the so-called academic language. Lastly, as a special feature, Nelson Flores provides a closing commentary that examines the work of contributing authors in this special issue. His insight amplifies the need for teacher educators and other stakeholders to reconceptualize bilingual/dual-language education policies and practices—which includes the need to dismantle raciolinguistic ideologies and to build upon the linguistic dexterity of bilingual students of color. Centering Translanguaging in Teacher Education Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2021, Volume 15, Issue 3 9 References California Department of Education. (2018). Global California 2030: Speak, learn, lead. California Department of Education. https://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/documents/globalca2030report.pdf Canagarajah, S. (2011). Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy. Applied Linguistics Review, 2(1), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110239331.1 Cervantes-Soon, C. G., Dorner, L., Palmer, D., Heiman, D., Schwerdtfeger, R., & Choi, J. (2017). Combating inequalities in two-way language immersion programs: Toward critical consciousness in bilingual education spaces. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 403- 427. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X17690120 Cioè-Peña, M., & Snell, T. (2015). Translanguaging for social justice. Theory, Research, and Action in Urban Education, 4(1). Duarte, J. (2019). Translanguaging in mainstream education: A sociocultural approach. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(2), 150-164. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1231774 Flores, N., Tseng, A., & Subtirelu, N. (2021). Bilingualism for all or just for the rich and white? Introducing a raciolinguistic perspective to dual language education. In N. Flores, A. Tseng, & N. Subtirelu (Eds.), Bilingualism for all?: Raciolinguistic perspectives on dual language education in the United States (pp. 1-18). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781800410053 García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Wiley-Blackwell Pub. García, O. (2017). Translanguaging in schools: Subiendo y bajando, bajando y subiendo as afterword. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 16(4), 256-263. https://doi:10.1080/15348458.2017.1329657 García, O., Ibarra Johnson, S., & Seltzer, K. (2017). The translanguaging classroom: Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Caslon. García, O., & Kano, N. (2014). Translanguaging as a process and a pedagogical tool for Japanese students in the US. In J. Conteh and G. Meier (Eds.), The multilingual turn in languages education: Benefits for individuals and societies (pp. 258–277). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783092246-018 García, O., & Otheguy, R. (2021). Conceptualizing translanguaging theory/practice juntos. In City University of New York-New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals (Ed.), Translanguaging and transformative teaching for emergent bilingual students: Lessons from the CUNY_NYSIEB project (pp. 3-24). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003003670-2 García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137385765_4 Garza Ayala, A. (2020). At the intersection of culture, bilingualism, and mathematics: Breaking language norms in a seventh-grade dual-language classroom for biliteracy development. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1-15. https://doi:10.1080/13670050.2020.1859984 Henderson, K. I., & Ingram, M. (2018). “Mister, you’re writing in Spanglish”: Fostering spaces for meaning making and metalinguistic connections through teacher translanguaging shifts in the bilingual classroom. Bilingual Research Journal, 41(3), 253–271. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2018.1481894 Hornberger, N. H., & Link, H. (2012). Translanguaging in today's classrooms: A biliteracy lens. Theory Into Practice, 51(4), 239-247. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2012.726051 https://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/documents/globalca2030report.pdf https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110239331.1 https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X17690120 https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1231774 https://doi.org/10.21832/9781800410053 https://doi:10.1080/15348458.2017.1329657 https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783092246-018 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003003670-2 https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137385765_4 https://doi:10.1080/13670050.2020.1859984 https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2018.1481894 https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2012.726051 Ramírez & Garza Ayala Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2021, Volume 15, Issue 3 10 Howard, E. R., Lindholm-Leary, K. J., Rogers, D., Olague, N., Medina, J., Kennedy, B., Sugarman, J., & Christian, D. (2018). Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education (3rd ed.). Center for Applied Linguistics. Ibarra Johnson, S., & Garza Ayala, A. (2021, November 10-13). Linguistic and literacy justice for K- 12 marginalized students through biliteracies [Conference session]. La Cosecha Dual Language Conference, Albuquerque, NM, United States. Li, S., & Luo, W. (2017). Creating a translanguaging space for high school emergent bilinguals. CATESOL Journal, 2(1), 139–162. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F13621688209512 Ramirez, P., & Faltis, C. (2019). This Issue. Theory Into Practice, 58(2), 101-106. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1569401 Rosiers, K., Van Lancker, I., & Delarue, S. (2018). Beyond the traditional scope of translanguaging: Comparing translanguaging practices in Belgian multilingual and monolingual classroom contexts. Language & Communication, 61, 15-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2017.11.003 Rowe, L. W. (2018). Say it in your language: Supporting translanguaging in multilingual classes. Reading Teacher, 72(1), 31-38. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1673 U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition (2015). Our nation’s English learners. https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/el-characteristics/index.html https://doi.org/10.1177%2F13621688209512 https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1569401 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2017.11.003 https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1673 https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/el-characteristics/index.html Translanguaging Pedagogías y Maestras/Maestros/Maestres