ARC Seminar: Cristian Aquino-Sterling: Developing and Assessing Spanish Competencies in Bilingual Teacher Education: Current Approaches and Future Directions

Bilingual Education Teachers (English-Spanish) have been identified as generally exhibiting low levels of Spanish competencies. Given the importance of teachers’ academic language skills for advancing the language competencies and academic achievement of emergent bilingual students in K-12 bilingual/dual-language classrooms, scholars in the field continue to advocate for the improvement of Spanish language-related teacher preparation practices. Nevertheless, to-date there is no research that identifies current approaches being implemented across the U.S. for conducting this work. Drawing on pilot research conducted in California, in this presentation I report preliminary results of a study on how Bilingual Teacher Preparation programs in New York City assess and develop bilingual teacher candidates’ language skills for academic subject matter instruction in Spanish. Furthermore, I propose a culturally, linguistically, and professionally relevant model for addressing this need. This work is significant for advocacy seeking to effect change in bilingual teacher preparation policy and practice at state and national levels.

Cristian R. Aquino-Sterling is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at San Diego State University. He holds a BA in Western Philosophy (Fordham University); a MA in Hispanic Literatures & Cultural Studies (Columbia University), and an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction (Arizona State University). He has taught at various public and private K-8 schools in New York City, at Fordham University, and at the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies (University of Pennsylvania). His research addresses two interrelated areas where language and discourse are seen as central elements of K-12 teachers’ pedagogical practice: (a) language demands of Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards and implications for teacher preparation and the education of K-12 students in mainstream and bilingual contexts; and (b) the assessment and development of teaching-specific or “Pedagogical Spanish” competencies (Aquino-Sterling, forthcoming) in the preparation of K-12 bilingual teachers. His works have been published in Boletín de la Federación Internacional Fe y Alegría; Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era (with Beth B. Swadener et al.); International Journal of Language and Linguistics (with Sarah Garrity et al.); International Multilingual Research Journal (with Sarah Garrity et al.); Reading in a Foreign Language (with Cindy Brantmeier et al.), and Voices from the Middle. – See more at: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Public-Programming/Calendar/Detail?id=34714#sthash.vkTWxB2E.dpuf