Over the last few years, we have been conducting a literature review of bilingual teachers and their practices of advocacy for emergent bilinguals. As English-only practices dominate the schooling for this group of students, advocacy for bilingualism and multilingualism is more important than ever (Herrera & Murry, 1999). Our goal has been to link conceptual discussions of advocacy with observed practices of advocacy and to use these insights to inform teacher preparation not only for bilingual teachers but also for ESL and mainstream teachers.

In our review, we drew on 26 empirical studies of bilingual teachers and paraprofessionals published between 1987 and 2009. Each study was reviewed to identify examples of teacher advocacy in the classroom and beyond the classroom, and to identify potential sources of knowledge and experience that teachers drew on to rationalize their actions. In reviewing these studies, we began with the assumption that the term “advocacy” might not be explicitly used by researchers to describe the work of bilingual teachers, but their findings could include activities often associated with advocacy in conceptual discussions of the construct. We limited our search to studies undertaken in the United States and to teachers working with English language learners or limited English proficient students (thus excluding heritage language teachers).

WHAT IS ADVOCACY?

Definitions of advocacy abound in the literature but they share an emphasis on action on behalf of others and a focus on individual and collective efforts to shape public policy in ways that ensure that individuals are treated equitably and have access to needed resources including a range of social services and educational opportunities. Activities to reach this goal of a more just society vary tremendously. For teachers, advocacy work almost exclusively occurs in the classroom and in the local contexts of school and/or community.

ADVOCACY IN AND BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

Our review of the literature prompted a distinction between bilingual teachers’ acts of advocacy in the classroom and those that they engage in beyond the classroom (the school, the community, state/federal level). Both are summarized below with selected examples from the empirical studies.

Advocacy in the Classroom: Teaching As Advocacy

An important finding from our literature review was that bilingual teachers’ advocacy takes place through teaching and that the classroom is therefore an important site for advocacy. On the basis of findings from studies of school failure with language minority students, Cummins (1986, 2000) called for educators (and institutions) to embrace an additive approach to incorporating learner language(s) and culture(s) into the school context and replace the existing transmission-oriented pedagogy with a transformative pedagogy, which involves “collaborative critical inquiry to enable students to analyze and understand the social realities of their own lives and their own communities” (Cummins, 2000, p. 260). Lima (2000) argued that teachers must enable students to advocate for themselves by providing them with the tools they need to assume a political role in their school and society, and thus be equipped to challenge the status quo.

Advocacy in the classroom begins with teachers affirming students’ linguistic and cultural identities through curricular and pedagogical decisions. Examples of curricular and pedagogical choices as advocacy included, among others:

• making space in the explicit curriculum for students to share their histories or focused studies of immigration and the contributions of their home cultures and languages in themes within the “mainstream” curriculum (Arce, 2004; Bos & Reyes, 1996; Brito, Lima, & Auerbach, 2004; Constantino & Faltis, 1998; Ernst-Slavit & Wenger, 2006; Flores-Dueñas, 2005; Garcia, 1991; Jimenez, Gersten, & Rivera, 1996; Lemberger, 1997; Leone, 1995; Moll, 1992; Montero-Sieburth & Perez, 1987; Shannon, 1995).
• carefully constructing a curriculum that exposed students and families to community advocates of bilingualism and inviting students to research their native language and how they use it (Brito et al., 2004; Shannon, 1995).
• making parallels between their own experiences and those of their students, and explicitly teaching students how to negotiate the norms of mainstream society so they could cross cultural boundaries to access opportunities in a mainstream society without losing their native cultural and linguistic identities (Brito et al., 2004;Ernst-Slavit & Wenger, 2006; Garcia, 1991; Lenski, 2006; Montero-Sieburth & Perez, 1987).

Teaching as advocacy also takes place through language choices. One of the most powerful (and highly politicized) ways that bilingual teacher advocates shape classroom discourse to affirm students’ cultural and linguistic identity and ensure academic success is by promoting the use of students’ native language in the classroom. Acts of advocacy in this category included, among others

• advocating for and being part of additive bilingual program implementation (Flores Dueñas, 2005; Jimenez, Gersten, & Rivera, 1996; Lemberger, 1997; Perez, 2004).
• engaging in hybrid bilingual practices that reflected an additive bilingual stance, particularly when working in subtractive bilingual environments (Brito et al., 2004; Constantino & Faltis, 1998; de Jong, 2008; Dubetz, 2004; Lemberger, 1997; Leone, 1995; Manyak, 2002; Shannon, 1995.

Advocacy beyond the Classroom

Despite the call for collective action beyond the local level (e.g., Crawford, 2008), few studies documented advocacy activities that took place outside the classroom. Teachers who took their advocacy beyond their teaching primarily did so by engaging in advocacy in the broader school or community context. Examples of this kind of advocacy include, among others

• mentoring new teachers and serving as resources for mainstream colleagues and administrators (Jimenez, Gersten, & Rivera, 1996; Lemberger, 1997; de Oliveira & Athanases, 2007; Perez, 2004; Souto-Manning, 2006).
• building respectful and trusting relationships with families and community organizations (Bos & Reyes, 1996; Galindo & Olguín, 1996; Jimenez, Gersten, & Rivera, 1996; Lemberger, 1997; Lenski, 2006; Leone, 1995; de Oliveira & Athanases, 2007; Shannon, 1995).

CONCLUSION

Our review offers a picture of bilingual teacher advocacy as a multifaceted, complex phenomenon. The bilingual teachers in our studies illustrated that advocacy must be broadly defined to include teaching as an act of advocacy. Although advocacy takes place at different sites or policy levels (at the classroom level and beyond), bilingual teachers advocate in the sites closest to them professionally, that is, their classrooms, schools, and communities. Moreover, advocacy activities vary greatly, including curricular, pedagogical, and language choices in the classroom as well as engagement with colleagues, parents/communities, or legislature. The choice for specific advocacy acts must be considered in the context of broader, sociopolitical, and professional local realities.

REFERENCES

Arce, J. (2004). Latino bilingual teachers: The struggle to sustain an emancipatory pedagogy in public schools. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 17(2), 227-246.

Bos, C. S., & Reyes, E. I. (1996). Conversations with a Latina teacher about education for language-minority students with special needs. Elementary School Journal, 96(3), 344-351.

Brito, I., Lima, A., & Auerbach, E. (2004). The logic of nonstandard teaching: A course in Cape Verdean language, culture, and history. In B. Norton & K. Toohey (Eds.), Critical Pedagogies and Language Learning (pp. 181-199). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Constantino, R., & Faltis, C. (1998). Teaching against the grain in bilingual education: Resistance in the classroom underlife. In Y. Zou & E. T Trueba (Eds.), Ethnic identity and power: Cultural contexts of political action in school and society (pp. 113-131). New York: State University of New York Press.

Crawford, J. (2008). Advocating for English learners: Selected essays. Clevedon, England:Multilingual Matters.

Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power, and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Cummins, J. (1986). Empowering minority students: A framework for intervention. Harvard Educational Review, 56(1), 18-36.

de Jong, E. J. (2008). Contextualizing policy appropriation: Teachers’ perspectives, local responses, and English Only policy. The Urban Review. Retrieved from www.springerlink.com/content/x8730v565uu602v4/ on August 1, 2008

de Oliveira, L. C., & Athanases, S. Z. (2007). Graduates’ reports of advocating for English language learners. Journal of Teacher Education, 58(3), 202-215.

Dubetz, N. E. (2004) Improving ESL instruction in bilingual programs through inquiry-based professional development. In D. Tedick (Ed.), Second Language Teacher Education: International Perspectives (pp. 231-255).Mahwah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Ernst-Slavit, G., & Wenger, K. J. (2006). Teaching in the margins: The multifaceted work and struggles of bilingual paraeducators. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 37(1), 62-82.

Flores-Dueñas, L. (2005). Lessons from la maestra Miriam: Developing literate identities through early critical literacy teaching.Journal of Latinos and Education, 4(4), 237–251.

Galindo, R., & Olguín, M.(1996). Reclaiming bilingual educators’ cultural resources: An autobiographical approach. Urban Education, 31(3), 29-56.

Garcia, E. E. (1991). Effective instruction for language minority students: The teacher. Journal of Education, 173(2), 130-141.

Herrera, S., & Murry, K. G. (1999). In the aftermath of Unz. Bilingual Research Journal, 23 (2-3), 179-198.

Jimenez, R. T., Gersten, R., & Rivera, A. (1996). Conversations with a Chicana teacher: Supporting students’ transition from Native to English language instruction. The Elementary School Journal, 96(3), 333-341.

Lemberger, N. (1997). Bilingual education: Teachers’ narratives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Lenski, S. D. (2006). Reflections on being biliterate: Lessons from paraprofessionals. Action in Teacher Education, 28(4), 104-113.

Leone, B. (1995). A self-contained first and second grade bilingual classroom in the Midwest. Bilingual Research Journal, 19(3 & 4), 587-609.

Lima, A. H. (2000). Voices from the basement: Breaking through the pedagogy of indifference. In Z. F. Beykont (Ed.), Lifting every voice: Pedagogy and politics of bilingualism (pp. 221-232). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Publishing.

Manyak, P. C. (2002) “Welcome to Salón 110”: The consequences of hybrid literacy practices in a primary-grade English immersion class.Bilingual Research Journal, 26(2), 213-234.

Moll, L. (1992). Bilingual classroom studies and community analysis: Some recent trends. Educational Researcher, 21(2), 20-24.

Montero-Sieburth, M., & Perez, M. (1987). Echar Pa’lante, Moving onward: The dilemmas and strategies of a bilingual teacher. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 18(3), 180-189.

Perez, B. (2004). Becoming literate: A study of two-way bilingual immersion education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Shannon, S. M. (1995). The hegemony of English: A case study of one bilingual classroom as a site of resistance. Linguistics and Education, 7, 175-200.

Souto-Manning, M. (2006). A critical look at bilingualism discourse in public schools. Bilingual Research Journal, 20(2), 559-577.

Nancy Dubetz is an associate professor at Lehman College, City University of New York, where she coordinates teacher certification programs in childhood and childhood bilingual education. Her current research focuses on the preparation of teachers of emergent bilingual learners & English learners.

Ester J. de Jong is associate professor of ESOL/bilingual education at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Originally from the Netherlands, she earned her doctoral degree at Boston University in bilingual education and worked for 5 years as the assistant director for bilingual education/ESL in Framingham, Massachusetts. She has been involved in two-way bilingual education for over 15 years. Additional research interests include integrated, linguistically diverse, classroom settings and language policy in education, and mainstream teacher preparation for linguistically and culturally diverse students.