Terri L. Rodriguez

Who Are Latino Prospective Teachers and What Do They Bring to US Schools

In this article, the authors draw on life‐history methods to investigate the family, school, university, and teacher education experiences of three Latino teacher candidates in a large, midwestern, research‐oriented university in the United States. They show how in university social experiences and in teacher education classes and field experiences, these young men often felt misinterpreted in interactions with white females in particular. Also evident is their strong desire to make personal connections with youth and families they teach. The authors offer suggestions for how teacher educators can be more responsive to prospective male elementary teachers and teacher candidates of color.

Millennial Teacher: A Storied Landscape of Diversity in “New Times”

In this article the authors explore the ways in which the historical location of millennial prospective teachers is markedly distinct from that of previous generations. Through a case study of one prospective teachers life history, millenial themes of globalization and shape-shifting are highlighted and analyzed in relation to one prospective teachers learner biography.

Stories of self, stories of practice: enacting a vision of socially just pedagogy for Latino youth

This narrative inquiry examines how one Latina novice teacher articulates and implements a vision of teaching for social justice within the contexts of her teacher education program and her practice as a bilingual resource teacher. Informed by Latino/a critical race (LatCrit) theory, the analysis traces connections between stories of self and practice, focusing on her development of an innovative middle school literacy course for Spanish speakers. This article highlights the ways in which she recruits her experiences as a member of a marginalized group and brings them to bear on practice in the crafting of a critical pedagogy that takes learners’ interests and concerns as central while encouraging social action. Findings are discussed in light of the following themes: critical questioning and resistance; analysis of systems of oppression and positioning; and encouraging social action and practicing democracy. This study has implications for teacher preparation committed to socially just pedagogies for all children, but especially for Latino/a youth.

“Ms. Morales needs to go back to English class”: Narratives of a bilingual Latina preservice English language arts teacher in a diverse society

This narrative inquiry aims to better understand and document how a bilingual Latina preservice elementary teachers experiences as an immigrant student and English learner (EL) inform the construction of her professional identity and practice as an English language arts (ELA) educator. Although the study participant voices a lack of confidence, she enacts sound pedagogical practices in light of generative language arts standards and recognition of her biliterate/bilingual resources. Drawing upon sociocultural literacy theory, this research challenges hegemonic narratives that position non-native speakers (NNSs) of English as linguistically deficient and offers counternarratives to ideological discourses around Standard English (SE).

Telling Our Stories: Navigating Social JUSTICE-ORIENTED Teaching on the Ground

Abstract This chapter weaves together the voices of five teachers and teacher educators (two first-year classroom teachers and three teacher education faculty) collaborating to better understand socially just outcomes in the field of English language arts teacher preparation. Building from the premise that it is the seeking of multiple perspectives and the notion of voice that lie at the heart of socially just pedagogy, this collaboration aims to tell one story – a research narrative – through many voices. As White, female educator-researchers who experience privilege along a multitude of dimensions (e.g., socioeconomic status, language, race, ability, sexual orientation), the authors embrace activist-ally identities that seek to understand systemic injustices; act with an empowered and critically self-reflective sense of agency; and mobilize their resources in concert with others. This chapter narrates the authors’ learning of how activist-oriented teaching and research is (and might be) conceptualized and realized in the contexts of their work in one public high school, one K-12 charter school, and one teacher education program. Each author will share the inspirations, successes, and barriers she encountered while purposefully eliciting the perspectives, questions, and voices of multiple stakeholders, including K-12 students, cooperating school personnel, families, and other community members. Through the telling of this story as a collage of many voices, the authors hope to encourage others to act as allies for social justice on the ground – that is, in the teacher education and K-12 classrooms where we learn to teach as we consider how that learning impacts those it most directly affects.

A Content Area Reading Course Re-Imagined: A Situated Case Study of Disciplinary Literacies Pedagogy in Secondary English Teacher Education

This study investigates the experiences of one secondary preservice English teacher facilitating an out-of-school e-book club with urban youth while enrolled in a required course entitled Content Area Reading. Data were generated through field notes, interviews, course assignments, and book club artifacts and narratively analyzed using holistic thematic inductive and deductive coding schemes. Findings show how the participant recruits his experiences and identities as a reader, a former grant writer, and an aspiring English teacher to develop a disciplinary literacies pedagogy informed by his knowledge of disciplinary Discourses and youths’ lives. These findings have implications for how teacher educators prepare secondary English teachers to craft relevant and engaging content literacy instruction.

Uncommonly good ideas: Teaching writing in the common core era

A first glance at the slim volume ignites both curiosity and a sense of cautious, hopeful optimism. I wonder howMurphy and Smith’s uncommonly good ideas compare to the best practices of a decade ago, during what these authors might call the “pre-Common Core Era.” I have witnessed several reform initiatives, like many educators, including No Child Left Behind (NCLB), that according to the authors, squeezed writing out of the curriculum (p. 2). The good news, they declare, is that “writing is back in fashion, due in part to the [CommonCore State Standards] CCSS” (p. 3). In Chapter 1,Murphy and Smith argue that uncommonly good ideas in writing instruction are not new; they do, however, “carry a different weight” in the CCSS (p. 4). Thanks to “fewer, higher, deeper” anchor standards, these big ideas are actually “enduring practices” (p. 4). Because of this emphasis, the book attempts to especially appeal to experienced teachers who are too often objects rather than agents of reform (p. 7); however, in my opinion, any emphasis on externally imposed standards will necessarily keep teachers in an object position. I wholeheartedly agree with the authors that teachers must engage in the debates of our profession. The core of the book excavates four big ideas embedded in the CCSS. These include integrating the language arts, extending the range of writing, spiraling and scaffolding, and collaborating. After conceptualizing each, Murphy and Smith ask the reader to “take the plunge” and “dive deeper” through case studies across grade levels (middle school to first-year college). Throughout the book, the authors weave craft workshop lessons into case studies incorporating key elements of the CCSS, including try-it-on writing and mentor texts. Of particular value to novice teachers, Chapter 2 explicitly outlines basic features of lesson design, offering “one model in a world of infinite models” that integrates reading, writing, listening, and speaking (p. 14). I like that the authors provide this template, then focus on the big ideas of writing in subsequent chapters. I also appreciate the attention to modifications, including support for English language learners (ELLs). The authors broaden notions of genre and range in Chapter 3. They extend the idea of range from audience, purpose, and task to considerations of writing conditions (time, collaboration, support, and technology). I find it helpful that the authors provide extensions for genre tasks (narrative, informational, and argument). Yet, I continue to wonder, where is poetry? As in the CCSS, discussion of teaching writing in this genre is absent. A unique thread throughout the first several chapters is the use of food as a personal, approachable topic, especially for writers who are learning to trust each other within a writing community. One of my favorite food-based assignments is in Chapter 3, where students conduct investigations into modern food labels and explain them. A highlight of Chapter 4 is the authors’ clarification that grade level standards represent goals students have broadly achieved by the end of each year. They provide helpful vignettes illustrative of spiraling, scrimmaging, and scaffolding. Murphy and Smith point out in Chapter 5 that collaboration remains central in the CCSS. They provide case studies across three layers of collaboration (student-student, teacher-student, and teacher-teacher) with interesting models of online (e.g., blogs) and long-term projects including student writing samples as well as examples of teachers collaborating in lesson design and curriculum reform. Chapter 6 echoes the call in Chapter 1 for teachers to enter into professional conversations by providing a vignette of a teacher-leader who demonstrates “positive deviance” (p. 135). Here the authors argue that change must come from teachers who are empowered and invested in their knowledge and abilities (p. 136). They write, “we know what happens...when the vision [of reform] and reality collide” and teachers are served with lists of “do’s and don’ts and new caveats about what is acceptable and unacceptable” (p. 4). I hope this book helps resurrect the teaching of writing in secondary English classrooms while anchoring it in the realities of the Common Core Era. I admire the authors for engaging teachers in the conversation. However, I also urge readers to keep a critical eye focused on a CCSS reform movement that promises to level opportunities despite an increasingly inequitable landscape. Murphy and Smith are on target to fuel professional conversations about the importance of writing instruction and to foster both novice and seasoned English teachers’ professional development.