Translanguaging for Biliteracy: Teacher Agency in Dual Language Bilingual Education
摘要
Dual language bilingual education (DLBE) teachers enact agency and work as advocates to provide relevant education for emergent bilingual students. This ethnographic study draws upon a transperspectival approach to language teacher agency and explores two Spanish-English DLBE teachers’ agency in implementing translanguaging pedagogies for biliteracy in Spanish Language Arts and Social Studies classrooms. The findings from the interview and classroom interactional data indicate that the two teachers created and modified teaching materials as they implemented translanguaging pedagogy, while also engaging in flexible language use in interactions. The strategies they incorporated were informed by their previous teaching experiences, various literature sources and research, and professional development sessions offered by the school and the district. In their teaching, they invited students’ full linguistic repertoires as resources for learning in literacy events, thus promoting a translanguaging space. This chapter calls for DLBE teachers and educators to become translanguaging policymakers in their classrooms and in wider educational contexts.