Raciolinguistic chronotopes in bilingual teacher candidates’ language portraits: A call for centering race in bilingual teacher education

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study explored 17 bilingual teacher candidates’ (bilingual TCs) representations of their lived experience of language via linguistic portraits. Specifically, attention was paid to the semiotic elements (space, place, time, and the body) these bilingual TCs employed and the ways this assemblage of elements formed raciolinguistic chronotopes. Analysis demonstrates that raciolinguistic chronotopes enabled bilingual TCs to portray their experiences of racialization as Spanish-English bilinguals in the United States. Analysis also shows the ways these TCs often vacillate between adhering to and challenging raciolinguistic ideologies. Findings have implications for how language portraits are utilized as a teacher learning tool in teacher education programs serving bilingual TCs of Latina/o descent. Keywords: language portraits, raciolinguistic chronotopes, racialization, teacher candidates, teacher education.