Paradigmatic Tensions in Translanguaging Theory and Practice in Teacher Education: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

Translanguaging is now well documented as both theory and practice/pedagogy (e.g., Cenoz & Gorter, 2021; Creese & Blackledge, 2010; García, 2009; García et al., 2021; García & Wei, 2014; Lin, 2019; Ossa Parra & Proctor, 2021; Otheguy et al., 2015; Paulsrud et al., 2021; Pontier et al., 2020; Sánchez & García, 2021; Tian et al., 2020). As a theory, it highlights the unique, dynamic, creative, and intelligent ways that multilinguals perform while drawing on their entire linguistic repertoire (García & Wei, 2014). As a transformative practice/pedagogy, translanguaging provides access to otherwise incomprehensible texts and oral messaging (Celic & Seltzer, 2013; Creese & Blackledge, 2010), creates and sustains possibilities for effective interaction with diverse groups of students (García et al., 2017), counters hegemonic policies and expectations of both schools and society (Gort & Pontier, 2013; Sánchez et al., 2018), mirrors the community’s languaging practices (Martin-Beltrán, 2014), and affirms marginalized students’ identities (Canagarajah, 2011; Durán & Palmer, 2014; Sayer, 2013). Given its liberatory nature, translanguaging has been gaining traction with many critical TESOL and bilingual education scholars who draw on translanguaging in teacher education programs (Deroo & Ponzio, 2019; Robinson et al., 2018; Tian, 2020). However, preservice teachers report that the theories and practices taught in these programs are at odds with ideologies and practices in the academic settings that they observe and participate in (Pontier & Deroo, 2022; Pontier & Tian, in press), an indication that translanguaging has yet to be regularly taken up in PreK-12 classrooms (and beyond). Similarly, inservice teachers have expressed reservations toward or disagreement with instructional approaches that leverage both their own and their emergent bilingual students’ full linguistic repertoires (Martínez et al., 2015; Pontier & Ortega, 2021). We therefore recognize the critical need to focus on the role of translanguaging in teacher education. We see teacher education as a collaborative process among multiple stakeholders, including teacher educators, pre-service teachers, and in-service teachers. In other words, it is a continuous journey on which pre-service teachers and in-service teachers are co-designers and co-learners along with teacher educators (Tian & King, in press; Tian & Shepard-Carey, 2020), and not a linear set of tasks with a finite end. As such, it serves as a bridge to bring together diverse perspectives and experiences, including unlearning and relearning to develop and engage in translanguaging stance, design, and shifts (García et al., 2017). In an effort to help us better prepare pre-service teachers and provide professional development for in-service teachers to grapple with paradigmatic shifts in theory and pedagogy regarding working with emergent bilinguals, this special issue explores the study and use of translanguaging from university coursework to pre-service teacher clinical placements to in-service teacher development. These experiences in teacher education are presented through a focus on diversity of geography within the U.S. (New England, South Florida, Colorado, Central California), teacher backgrounds, subject area (i.e., TESOL/bilingual education, science, English language arts, and social studies), and teacher education as both formal education and professional development. Our special issue examines how teacher educators, preand in-service teachers take up translanguaging theory and practice in teacher education. We specifically unpack the dynamic and complex process in which they grapple with the paradigmatic tensions between traditional monolingual-