Latino Bilingual Teachers: Negotiating the Figured World of Masculinity

Abstract

This article focuses on a group of male teachers from Proyecto Bilingüe, a professional development master’s degree program for bilingual teachers. The study is guided by one broad research question: How do Latino male bilingual teachers negotiate their identities in a gendered profession? Specifically the study addresses: What spaces for authoring gender identities do Latino male teachers provide in elementary schools? Social practice theory of self and identity was used to identify two themes. The first theme highlights the hegemonic masculinities that men were asked to adopt in elementary schools. The second theme illustrates how Latino teachers presented their students with a space to question rigid gendered positions and imagine more flexible boundaries for gender expression via children’s literature.