Professional Development for Bilingual Teachers in the United States: A Site for Articulating and Contesting Professional Roles

Abstract

Professional development for bilingual teachers has traditionally been viewed as a neutral site for training teachers. In the present study, a professional development for bilingual teachers in the United States is explored through ethnographic methods, specifically focusing on both the content delivery, and the interactions between teacher educators and teachers. The present study shows how professional development can become a site for the articulation and contestation of bilingual teacher professional roles. Specifically, it demonstrates how conceptualisations of the roles of bilingual teachers are often mired with differences and lack uniformity, especially because of the different backgrounds and settings teacher educators and teachers operate within. It points to the need to understand the different perspectives within the bilingual educational community. This research places bilingual teacher education within current understandings of learning and professional development, emphasising the situated nature of teaching and learning. Bilingual teachers and their development must be understood as agents who make choices and have differentiated understandings of their profession, rather than as individuals who replicate the content and way they have been trained. This is especially important when we understand the multifaceted roles of bilingual teachers such as language policy agents and advocates.