“It Was Nice To Be Able To Talk to Them Like They Were Family.”: A Mexican American Preservice Teacher’s Testimonio

Abstract

A large body of scholarship focuses on how to prepare White teachers to teach students of Color and guide them to make sense of their Whiteness. Using testimonio, this article adds diversity to teacher preparation literature and makes space for Kelly, a Mexican American preservice generalist teacher, to share her story. In particular, I highlight how her relationships and language ideology influence her ethnic identity construction while participating in the figured worlds of 1) her family, 2) personal K-12 schooling experience, and 3) pre-service student teaching experiences. Kelly’s testimonio is a call to subvert monoglossic language ideologies, value translanguaging, and ultimately prepare PSTs with the self-reflexive capacity to engage in linguistically responsive and sustaining pedagogy.

Keywords

Bilingual/English language learners identity narrative analysis elementary teacher education testimonio

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