In Zentella's article "'Jose, can you see?'" she says that "Monolingual English-speaking teachers who fear erosion of their job security have helped place bilingual education at the center of heated national debates" (54). This part of the article really surprised me. It makes sense that monolingual teachers, especially in the south, would form a block against bilingual education, fearing that teachers would be required to be bilingual. I just never thought about it I guess.
Teachers form strong voting blocks when it comes to education boards and changes in education. In order for bilingual education to be embraced, these teachers need to be assured that they will not become unemployed as a result. Perhaps there could be a rule that teachers that have already begun teaching are not held to the same bilingual standards of newly hired teachers. That doesn't exactly seem fair... but I'm not sure how else the problem could be solved.
This part of the article reminded me of the movie we watched on Prop 187 and the white teacher with huge glasses that didn't speak Spanish, who was told that she didn't belong at the school. In a way I felt sorry for her because I don't think she saw how biased she was and how that could effect the students. At the same time, I don't think that all monolingual, English-speaking teachers are inherently biased as she was and in fact can be good teachers that are sensitive to latin@ and immigration issues. Also, just because a teacher is bilingual, doesn't guarantee that they don't hold personal biases either against Latino or Anglo students. I think finding a good teacher for multiracial and multiethnic classrooms goes beyond what can be put on a resume.
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2 comments:
I agree with Amber that being bilingual does not guarantee that these teachers will be unbiased towards a certain group and that the best way to ensure acceptance of diversity is for teachers to be more culturally aware. I feel like it is unfair for multilingual teachers who have been teaching for so long to be fired for not being bilingual if they are culturally sensitive to the needs of their students. Job security is a major issue with the economy as it is now and many people will not be willing to have their jobs be put on the line. I feel like this adds to the dislike of immigrants amongst them if their livelihood is being terminated because of their inability to speak in an immigrant language. There needs to be a solution that is favorable to both teachers and students and I think a place to start would be culturally sensitive classrooms.
I agree with Amee and Amber that the issue of bilingual education is very important. While I don't think that requiring all teachers to be bilingual would be a good solution, I do believe that all teachers should be aware and accepting to all cultures especially because teachers have such a huge effect on the success of their students. Also, increasing the cultural awareness of teachers would make them more likely to advocate and vote in favor of improving the education of Latinos. In the future, I would hope that teachers would attend seminars not only to improve their ability to teach academics but also to improve their ability to teach and promote acceptance.
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