From Remediation to Acceleration: Recruiting, Retaining, and Graduating Future Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Educators

Abstract

This ethnographic case study explores one mid-western state university's response to the challenge of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), especially Latino/a, student recruitment and retention. BESITOS (Bilingual/ Bicultural Education Students Interacting To Obtain Success) is an integrated teacher preparation program implemented at a predominantly White university that seeks to both increase Latino/a students' initial access to higher education and provide institutional support to facilitate a high rate of graduation. The researchers consider key elements of the BESITOS program model as they relate to and support the sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive dimensions of the CLD student biography. For each dimension, the program model is first placed in the context of existing literature on CLD student education. The key elements and strategies of the program model used to successfully meet recruitment and retention goals are then discussed.To ensure the educational future of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in the United States, institutions of higher education must move from

Within and beyond a grow-your-own-teacher program: Documenting the contextualized preparation and professional development experiences of critically conscious Latina teachers

“…By problematizing difference-blind perspectives and approaches to teaching and learning commonly experienced in education (Johnson & Williams, 2015) the facilitator lifts the veil. He/she provides CLD pre-service and inservice teachers the opportunity, context, and lens through which to question and reflect upon aspects of their own identity in relation to larger social systems (Herrera et al, 2011). Once participants develop a more nuanced perspective of their cultural and familial heritage, and the intersectionalities that exist in their own life histories, they are able to construct more clearly their personal and professional identities as CLD educators.…”

“…In these efforts, I was mentored by fierce 'academic mothers', who invested greatly in my personal and professional development, modeling empowering critical care pedagogies with me and the Latinx students in our programs. In our collaborative research, my mentors, colleagues, and I have published on the successes, failures, and lessons learned from these targeted research and implementation projects as well as our analyses of the larger social, political, and institutional challenges often encountered while doing this work within predominately white institutions (PWIs) (Herrera, Morales, Holmes, & Herrera Terry, 2011;Holmes, Fanning, Morales, & Herrera, 2012). These studies have shaped my continued research and contribute to the existing scholarship in teacher education and diversification in meaningful ways.…”

Personal Agency Inspired by Hardship: Bilingual Latinas as Liberatory Educators

“…Similar to CLD students in other prior studies (Sleeter & Thao, 2007;Valenzuela, 1999), these Latinas spoke passionately about the damaging effects of the culturally subtractive practices they saw at the systemic level and the extreme need for change (Howard & Navarro, 2016). From a critical perspective, participants sought to combat the low-expectations and deficit perspectives that many teachers held toward Latino/a students and to shift the climate of schools from environments that devalue CLD students to environments that validate and support them (Delgado Bernal, 2002;Herrera et al, 2011;Nieto & Bode, 2008).…”

“…Sound practices for recruitment and retention of EL Latino/as have been established in the literature (Herrera, Morales, Holmes, & Herrera Terry, 2011) as well as strategies for effectively supporting nontraditional students in college (Genzuk & Baca, 1998;Genzuk & French, 2002;Lohfink et al, 2012); however, more research is needed to determine the various factors that foster resiliency among college students who are both Latino/a and non-traditional. Furthermore, research in teacher preparation has given little 4 attention to identifying the key factors that influence Latino/a paraeducators, in particular, to pursue a teaching degree or that drive them to persist despite the odds (Ernst-Slavitt, & Wenger, 2006;Romo, 2005).…”

Using Culturally Responsive Teaching with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students with Specific Learning Disabilities to Increase Performance in Algebra I

“…Despite the established need for CRT and the plethora of conceptual literature about how to implement this way of teaching, a dearth of research that focuses on the implementation still exists (Williams Shealey et al, 2011). Some studies (e.g., Herrera, Morales, Holmes, & Dawn Herrera, 2012;Holmes & Herrera, 2009) looked and pre-service teachers' preparation but few have looked at practicing teachers' use of CRT in secondary schools.…”