MULTILINGUAL EDUCATORS: IDENTITY AND LITERACY

MULTILINGUAL EDUCATORS: IDENTITY AND LITERACY
Eli Garza, California State University San Marcos, United States of America / Gilberto Barrios, California State University San Marcos, United States of America
(Presented at the International Conference on Social and Education Sciences (IConSES), which took place on October 17-20, 2024 in Chicago, USA. (www.istes.org/..., and at the nternational Conference on Engineering, Science and Technology (IConEST) (www.istes.org/...) organized by the International Society for Technology, Education and Science (ISTES) www.istes.org).
This paper examines the ways in which multilingual educators view the development of their own professional identity as teachers of reading and literacy. Teachers who themselves possess biliteracy knowledge and skills are well-positioned to leverage their own understandings of language and literacy to engage their students’ development in making meaning and effective expression. This study explored the extent to which teacher development of their identity as literacy educators incorporates their own linguistic diversity. The study focused on the ways practicing and preservice multilingual teachers view the influence of their biliteracy knowledge and skills on their role as teachers of English literacy, for all students both monolingual & multilingual. The study found that despite their potential advantage, multilingual educators frequently experience barriers that hinder them from recognizing the value of their biliteracy knowledge and skills to their role teaching English reading. This study found that development of the multilingual teacher’s identity includes addressing these challenges. In addition, it found that embracing one’s own linguistic diversity promotes educators' ability to leverage it as a professional, particularly within the context of literacy education.