Teachers as Creative Designers in Transnationalism

Abstract

The current goals of the standards-based reform environment can be limiting to teachers’ freedom and creativity. This occurs at a time when immigrant diversity transforms U.S. cities and innovative pedagogical responses are increasingly necessary. The confluence of these two processes is underexplored. Ethnography in New York City and Los Angeles demonstrated how, in classrooms serving immigrant ELs often characterized as the forgotten, neglected “margins” (hooks, 1994) three teachers responded to their transnational, multilingual contexts by developing creative practices. Case studies describe teachers as designers who enacted (a) contextually relevant curriculum making, (b) epistemically open assessment, and (c) critical languaging. It is argued that teachers who work with immigrant ELs in complex contexts are provided with opportunities to be creative designers—an opportunity currently limited by the standards-based reform movement in schools.