Struggling to-be or not-to-be a bilingual teacher: Identity formation in a Change Laboratory intervention

Abstract

While the methodology of formative intervention research has long been established, the aspect of new instrumentality of Change Laboratory is fragmentally documented. Therefore, in this study, we modified two major Change Laboratory mediating tools used in bilingual student-teaching seminars, namely the disturbance diary and four-field model. These two empirically investigated Change Laboratory tools have mediated transformative agency within the collective movement toward identity formation as the Change Laboratory participants (bilingual preservice teachers) conveyed their dilemma of to-be or not-to-be a bilingual teacher. We provide evidence on the relationship between the bilingual preservice teachers’ identity formation and their participation in the Change Laboratory intervention. The analysis made salient the role of two new Change Laboratory mediating tools, the adapted disturbance diary and individually generated four-field models, for the bilingual preservice teachers’ collective transformation in bilingual teaching. It also crystallized the importance of deepening the bilingual preservice teachers’ analysis of multiple languages and pedagogy as understood in the new bilingual teaching model in the Change Laboratory intervention.

Assessing Key Determinants of Bilingual Education: An Examination of Language Policy, Bilingual Teacher Identity, and Student Language Proficiency

“…This identity shift can be particularly complex in the context of bilingual education, which exposes teachers to two language cultures. Chang et al (2020) assert that bilingual teachers' identities may evolve into cross-cultural identities as they navigate the two languages. Consequently, teacher identity in bilingual education may necessitate a departure from traditional teaching, with resources like bilingual teaching materials often fostering intercultural engagement.…”

Chinese bilingual preservice teachers' reflections on translanguaging pedagogy: The need for critical language curricularization

“…In the process of language curricularization, the inherent contradiction of prioritizing English in translanguaging pedagogy in US bilingual programs may be undergirded by three possibilities. First, studies have illustrated that ethnic minority and other English-dominant teachers who grew up in the US and later obtained their bilingual certifications have expressed linguistic insecurity in educationally using their language other than English due to their own ethnoracial identity formation (Chang et al, 2020a;Daniels & Varghese, 2020;Lemberger, 2013;Varghese & Snyder, 2018). Second, bilingual teachers' (inter)subjectivity is influenced by racialization, standardized testing, educational policy, and institutionalized language teaching (Deroo & Ponzio, 2019;García et al, 2021;Snyder, 2020;Valdés, 2015Valdés, , 2018Valdés, , 2019.…”