Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Publication Date

Summer 7-29-2025

Abstract

This dissertation explores how Spanish Language Arts (SpanLA) teachers in dual language high school programs construct and narrate their identities through pedagogical choices. Using critical narrative inquiry and the theoretical lens of figured worlds (Holland et al., 1998), the study centers the lived experiences of bilingual educators who resist deficit perspectives and reimagine their classrooms as spaces of cultural affirmation, linguistic justice, and transformative pedagogy. Data sources include semi-structured interviews, teacher-selected artifacts, and focus groups. Findings reveal that SpanLA educators enact linguistically and culturally nourishing pedagogies, rooted in ancestral memory, critical consciousness, and a commitment to student agency. These educators braid language-culture, and conciencia crítica into their teaching, positioning themselves as guerreras and guerreros within educational systems that often marginalize their work. Implications extend to teacher education, policy, and curriculum design, calling for systemic recognition of SpanLA as a critical site of bilingual identity formation and educational equity.

Esta disertación explora cómo los y las docentes de Artes del Lenguaje en Español (SpanLA) en programas de educación dual a nivel secundario construyen y narran sus identidades a través de sus decisiones pedagógicas. Utilizando la indagación narrativa crítica y el marco teórico de los Mundos Figurados (Holland et al., 1998), el estudio centra las experiencias vividas de educadores bilingües que resisten perspectivas deficitarias y reimaginan sus aulas como espacios de afirmación cultural, justicia lingüística y pedagogía transformadora. Las fuentes de datos incluyen entrevistas semiestructuradas, artefactos seleccionados por los docentes y grupos focales. Los hallazgos revelan que los y las docentes de SpanLA implementan pedagogías lingüística y culturalmente enriquecedoras, arraigadas enla memoria ancestral, la conciencia crítica y el compromiso con la agencia estudiantil. Estos educadores trenzan lenguaje, cultura y conciencia crítica en su enseñanza, posicionándose como guerreras y guerreros dentro de sistemas educativos que a menudo marginan su labor. Las implicaciones se extienden a la formación docente, la política educativa y el diseño curricular.

Keywords

Spanish Language Arts teachers, bilingual teacher identity, critical narrative inquiry education, figured worlds theory in education, linguistically and culturally sustaining pedagogy, translanguaging and teacher identity, dual language secondary education, Latinx educators and critical pedagogy, bilingual education and resistance, Chicana/Latina teacher narratives

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies

First Committee Member (Chair)

Carlos Lopezleiva

Second Committee Member

Armando Garza Ayala

Third Committee Member

Eva Rodriguez Gonzalez

Fourth Committee Member

Melissa Navarro Martell

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