“A lot for one human to handle”: the experiences of two dual language bilingual education teachers in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

ABSTRACT While the challenges that educators have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic are widely acknowledged, there is little scholarship that provides opportunities for teachers to share their stories. This article documents the journeys of two dual language bilingual education elementary teachers, one in Georgia and one in Texas, which were a part of a narrative inquiry into the experiences of United States educators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grounded in a conceptual framework that centers humanity as a key dimension of teaching bilingual learners, we found that the teachers enacted humanizing pedagogy to counteract a range of dehumanizing experiences that they, as well as their students and families, faced during the early days of the pandemic. We attend to the ways in which the teachers’ stories inform the field of dual language bilingual education moving forward.