From 2017 to 2019, the first two authors, Zhongfeng and Elizabeth, and a team of researchers set off on a journey through four iterative cycles of infusing translanguaging into an undergraduate Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages certificate program at a United States urban institution. Their goal was to learn how to prepare future teachers to teach for justice through translanguaging. In this paper the third author, Jessica, joined the team to conduct a critical narrative analysis of this journey. Our collaborative process enabled us to move beyond simply telling our stories toward critically analyzing the power structures and discourses present within them. Our co-constructed narrative highlights key implications for research and practice, and the critical meta-awareness that emerged for us. Lessons learned include openness to change, collaboration, purpose and direction, preparation, and evaluating progress. The authors hope that by sharing these components others may be more likely to succeed in their own journeys with teaching and researching translanguaging.
BakhtinMM (1982) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
2.
BarrosSDomkeLMSymonsC, et al. (2020) Challenging monolingual ways of looking at multilingualism: Insights for curriculum development in teacher preparation. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 20(4): 239–254.
3.
BrunerJ (1991) The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry18(1): 1–21.
4.
CaldasB (2019) To switch or not to switch: Bilingual preservice teachers and translanguaging in teaching and learning. TESOL Journal10(4): 1–16.
5.
DerooMRPonzioC (2019) Confronting ideologies: A discourse analysis of in-service teachers’ translanguaging stance through an ecological lens. Bilingual Research Journal42(2): 214–231.
6.
FaircloughN (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London: Longman.
7.
FaltisCJValdésG (2016) Preparing teachers for teaching in and advocating for linguistically diverse classrooms: A vade mecum for teacher educators. In: GitomerDHBellCA (eds) Handbook of Research on Teaching. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association, 549–592.
8.
GarcíaOJohnsonSISeltzerK (2017) The Translanguaging Classroom: Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning. Philadelphia: Caslon.
9.
GarcíaOKleifgenJA (2018) Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Policies, Programs and Practices for English Learners. New York: Teachers College Press.
10.
GarcíaOKleynT (eds) (2016) Translanguaging with Multilingual Students: Learning from Classroom Moments. New York: Routledge.
11.
GarcíaOWeiL (2014) Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
12.
JohnsonTWellsL (2017) English Language learner teacher effectiveness and the common core. Education Policy Analysis Archives25(23): 1–24.
LabovWWaletzkyJ (1997) Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. Journal of Narrative and Life History7(1–4): 3–38.
15.
Ladson-BillingsGJ (2015) Social justice in education award (2015) lecture: Justice… just, justice! [Video file]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofB_t1oTYhI (accessed 15 February 2022).
16.
National Center for Education Statistics (2019) English language learner (ELL) students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools, by state: Selected years, fall 2000 through fall 2017. Available at: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_204.20.asp (accessed 26 November 2021).
PonzioCM (2020) (Re)Imagining a translingual self: Shifting one monolingual teacher candidate’s language lens. Linguistics and Education60(2): 1–11.
19.
RobinsonETianZCriefE, et al. (2020) Learning to teach English for justice from a translanguaging orientation. In: TianZAghaiLSayerP, et al. (eds) Envisioning TESOL through a Translanguaging Lens: Global Perspectives. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 135–159.
20.
RobinsonETianZMartínezT, et al. (2018) Teaching for justice: Introducing translanguaging in an undergraduate TESOL course. Journal of Language and Education4(3): 77–87.
21.
RosaJFloresN (2017) Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective. Language in Society46(5): 621–647.
22.
SeltzerKde los RíosC (2018) Translating theory to practice: Exploring teachers’ raciolinguistic literacies in secondary English classrooms. English Education51(1): 49–79.
23.
Souto-ManningMV (2014) Critical for whom?: theoretical and methodological dilemmas in critical approaches to language research. In: ParisDWinnMT (eds) Humanizing Research: Decolonizing Qualitative Inquiry with Youth and Communities. London: SAGE Publications, 201–222.
24.
TianZ (2020) Faculty first: Promoting translanguaging in TESOL teacher education. In: LauSMCVan ViegenS (eds) Plurilingual Pedagogies: Critical and Creative Endeavors for Equitable Language in Education. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 215–236.
25.
ViescaKMHamiltonBDavidsonAO (2016) Supporting linguistically responsive teaching. In: ProctorCPHiebertEHBoardmanA (eds) Teaching Emergent Bilingual Students: Flexible Approaches in an Era of New Standards. New York: Guilford Publications, 215–236.
