Becoming an activist Chicana teacher: a story of identity making of a Mexican American bilingual educator in Texas

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dc.contributor.advisorUrrieta, Luisen
dc.contributor.advisorValenzuela, Angelaen
dc.creatorJackson, Linda Dolores Guardiaen
dc.date.accessioned2009-11-23T22:29:09Zen
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-11T22:19:44Z
dc.date.available2009-11-23T22:29:09Zen
dc.date.available2017-05-11T22:19:44Z
dc.date.issued2009-08en
dc.descriptiontexten
dc.description.abstractThis person-centered ethnography focused on the ways one exemplary veteran Mexican American bilingual educator’s (MABE’s) cultural resources and professional experiences influenced her teaching practices. The study examined her life history and classroom practices to explore the trajectory of her identity making. The framework utilized in this research included a sociohistorical/sociocultural lens and Chicana/Latina feminist theories. Specifically, my research investigated the multiple spaces where a MABE navigated between an additive bilingual education model and a subtractive one. The study relied primarily on data collected from oral life history interviews augmented by participant observations at a school in a large, central Texas district. The participant, a first grade teacher with 28 years of classroom experience in the same district, was interviewed over a four-year span. Further, classroom observations occurred during a full school year. Additional interviews with educators who worked with the participant at critical moments in her professional life provided not only triangulation of information, but also a multiplicity of perspectives and foci on the educational landscapes wherein she operated. Narrative analysis of the data involved the decoding and deconstruction of a MABE’s active participation in the processes of performing and (re)presenting her identity production including being silenced and speaking up. The findings revealed a dialectic and dialogic process between personal experiences, early schooling, impositions of policies, and daily-lived classroom experience while constantly navigating and negotiating the challenges of educating culturally and linguistically diverse students. A primary finding revealed the construct of autobiographical consciousness as a MABE’s critical awareness of the historical legacy, lived experiences, and the contexts in which she teaches. The study documented silencing through marginalization, as well as establishing voice through agency to understand construction and reconstruction of identities.en
dc.description.departmentCurriculum and Instructionen
dc.format.mediumelectronicen
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/6709en
dc.language.isoengen
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.en
dc.subjectBilingual educationen
dc.subjectTeacher narrativesen
dc.subjectMexican American bilingual educatorsen
dc.subjectTexasen
dc.subjectClassroom observationen
dc.subjectChicanaen
dc.subjectActivist teachersen
dc.titleBecoming an activist Chicana teacher: a story of identity making of a Mexican American bilingual educator in Texasen

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