Transforming teacher education: Developing ideological clarity as a means for teaching with courage, solidarity and ethics.

摘要

The study examined and documented how teachers develop ideological clarity within the context of an International Teacher Education Program designed to prepare teachers for linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms with large populations of English Language Learners, whose first language is Spanish. This study set out to examine, through the teacher participants' voices, some of the factors that promote the development of their teaching ideology. Teachers in the study were provided a pedagogical space and an infrastructure to examine and question "what they do and how, why and with whom they do it.";The study addressed one major research question: What are the personal and professional dynamics prospective teachers negotiate in becoming biliteracy educators in an international context? Three specific sub-questions guided the research: (1) What are the ideological tensions faced by prospective teachers as they negotiate their sociocultural position in becoming biliteracy teachers in an international context? (2) What are the linguistic tensions prospective teachers negotiate in becoming biliteracy educators in an international context? and (3) What are the pedagogical tensions prospective teachers negotiate in becoming biliteracy educators in an international context? The study was conducted as a critical ethnography, using focus groups, interviews, journals, program documents, portfolio---candidates' final products, linguistic and culture surveys, anecdotal field notes, and the case studies of four selected program graduates.;The findings of the study point to the ideological, linguistic and pedagogical tensions faced by prospective teachers as they negotiate their development as biliteracy teachers in an international and domestic context. The four case studies illustrate the social contradictions and socio-political conditions faced by prospective teachers working with linguistically diverse student populations, how their beliefs are connected to their pedagogical practice, how they use different approaches to negotiate their pedagogical and ideological perspectives. The four case studies also document teacher values, cultural experience of difference, personal freedom development, ideological clarity, and levels of social consciousness.;The study contributes to our understanding of how prospective biliteracy teachers develop the 'self awareness' necessary to bring about ideological and political clarity, and understanding of diversity, racism, sexism, classism, and the ethical commitment to educational equity.