Open Access“My Language Learners Seemed Like Ghosts”: A Rural Teacher’s Transformational Journey Implementing the Seal of Biliteracy
Author(s) -
Nidza Marichal,
Arelis Rosario Roldán,
Maria R. Coady
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the rural educator/the rural educator
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2643-9662
pISSN - 0273-446X
DOI - 10.35608/ruraled.v42i1.1180
Subject(s) - neuroscience of multilingualism , pride , pedagogy , bilingual education , psychology , sociology , transformational leadership , political science , social psychology , neuroscience , law
This paper describes the personal and professional journey taken by one secondary Spanish teacher to implement the Seal of Biliteracy (SoBL) for English learners (ELs) in a rural Florida school district. The teacher’s goal was to promote bilingual pride among her ELs and to validate their bilingual abilities, which had been frequently unrecognized in the community. This promising practice in a rural Florida district demonstrated two important transformations: first was the teacher’s personal views about bilingualism as an asset rather than a deficit, and second was the instructional practices she employed and fierce advocacy for the ELs in her rural secondary school. Ultimately, the work of the teacher disrupted inequities that her bilingual students faced and positively affected her EL students’ views of bilingualism and their lives in the rural school community.