Biographical Statement
CPED application: September, 2010
I came to teaching, and to my current position as a secondary teacher of Spanish as a foreign language and Spanish for Spanish speakers, in a very roundabout way. After a brief stint as a mediocre Spanish student in high school and college, and as an English Creative Writing major, I studied abroad in Costa Rica, met my husband, who is from Argentina, moved to Argentina, learned to speak Spanish fluently and then returned to Nebraska determined to be a more effective Spanish teacher than those by whom I had originally been taught. While in my graduate teacher-education program my husband and I began to work for the Lincoln Journal Star's short-lived Spanish language publication "Hispanos Unidos." It was here that I became committed to Spanish language education for Spanish speakers in the United States, which I came to see as an issue of social justice and today defines my professional and academic interests.
During our employment at "Hispanos Unidos" my husband, who served as the paper's editor, repeatedly encountered difficulties hiring qualified translators and reporters. These jobs, relatively secure and well-compensated, were inaccessible to the majority of immigrant Spanish speakers, with the exception of a few who, like my husband, had received their post-secondary education outside the United States. The Spanish language skills of the majority of the applicants were inadequate to perform the professional tasks associated with producing the publication.
Why should our society depend on the importation of already educated Spanish speakers to fill the rapidly increasing number of positions that require advanced levels of Spanish proficiency? There are millions of Spanish speakers living in the United States, but because our system rarely provides a robust linguistic education in Spanish, many are denied the opportunity to use their natural bilingualism to improve their socioeconomic situation through professional employment. Because I know from anecdotal experience and the research literature that Spanish-speaking bilinguals value and wish to preserve and develop their Spanish language abilities, advocacy and educational policy relating to culturally sensitive and bilingual education are among my research interests.[1]
I accepted my first full-time teaching position at a start-up charter school in Florida, attracted by the opportunity to engage in bottom-up design and implementation of an experiential and interdisciplinary education model. While I enjoyed and learned a great deal from the close collaboration with a small group of exceptional colleagues, the systemic inability of the school's leadership to articulate clear goals and procedures, combined with other personal considerations, led me to return to Nebraska after only a year.
I subsequently accepted my current position at Crete High School, where I have been employed since 2006, because of the larger number of Spanish speaking students served by the district, the district's relatively progressive attitudes toward serving this population, and the opportunity to expand an existing program of Spanish for Spanish speakers. I have come to appreciate many of the conditions of my current employment, including the curricular freedom I am allowed and the administration's willingness to support and encourage faculty projects and initiatives. My experiences both in Florida and in Crete have affirmed my belief that classroom teachers can and should be at the forefront of efforts to improve instruction and reform public schools. Consequently, it is my hope that doctoral study will provide both skills and opportunities to participate more effectively in local discourse about educational policy and practice, as well as to contribute to broader academic and national conversations on the subject.
Doctoral study would potentially help me to work more effectively in several leadership positions related to my professional and academic interests. I currently serve on a committee which secured and is implementing an Education Quest grant aimed at improving college access for minority and first-generation high school graduates, I also serve on a district-wide committee reviewing teacher evaluation procedures and as the section leader for the Nebraska state writing examination in Spanish. The opportunity to engage with colleagues, professors and research literature in the Ed.D cohort would allow me to explore ways to better serve my profession, and the students I serve in these capacities.
First and foremost, however, I am a classroom teacher and I have a passion for curriculum and instruction. In terms of future research, I may have the most to offer the scholarly community and my profession in this area. Serving as the de facto leader of my district department, I have ample experience with Spanish language and literacy curriculum K-12, for native and non-native speakers alike. I have a unique environment and experience, and therefore opportunity, to engage in research about Spanish literacy pedagogy for native Spanish speakers. During my tenure at Crete I have advocated for and designed an expanded curriculum for Spanish speakers that now includes three levels of Spanish for Spanish speakers at the high school, including a course which produces a Spanish language section of the high school's student newspaper and new courses which began this school year for Spanish speakers in middle school. [2] Additionally, I have consulted for Lincoln Public Schools as they designed their first Spanish for Spanish speakers course at North Star High.
The dearth of pedagogical materials and scholarly research relevant to classroom teachers working with native Spanish speakers drives my primary research interest. While the teaching of fractions, for example, yields hundreds of research studies, both quantitative and qualitative, and hundreds more “tips and tricks” books and articles for teachers, there is almost no such scholarship regarding teaching, say, the placement of the written accent to Spanish speakers in the United States. Meanwhile, more and more teachers are attempting to teach these skills, informed only by our background in foreign language education, or English language acquisition. Particularly absent from existing research is the teaching of Spanish literacy skills in secondary schools, because few dual language programs exist at this level. However, in “New Latino Diaspora” communities, like the one in which I teach, secondary Spanish for Spanish speakers courses are becoming increasingly common. These teachers, curriculum and the students they serve deserve scholarly attention.
With doctoral study I hope to participate in the conversations with scholars and practitioners about what constitutes best practice in Spanish for Spanish speakers instruction. The conversation surrounding the justification for such instruction is already under way; I would like to help guide the nascent discourse about how, as well as why. The culminating project for my Master’s degree, which I submitted as a writing sample with this application, is an example of the work I would like to do and share. It examines the production of a Spanish language section of my school’s student newspaper in an advanced Spanish for Spanish speakers class, both as a pedagogical tool for improving academic language and also as a means of exploring the roles and perceptions of Latino students in U.S. high schools.
As an avid reader of educational research of both the scholarly variety and the paperback “tips and tricks” summaries of research prepared for teachers, I must unfortunately confess that the scholarly research often lacks relevance to my practice. Too much scholarly educational research seems to be about teachers, what they do, or do not do, what they should or should not do; too little educational research is for teachers, and even less is by teachers. Research for teachers ought to be about not only what teachers should do, but what they can do, tomorrow, next month, or next semester, in their classrooms, with the tools they have, not with the tools they ought to have. I believe that teachers who conduct research in their classrooms can do more than improve their own practice, they can inform the practice of their colleagues and those who study and analyze those practices.[3] I hope to learn to more systematically evaluate the effectiveness of my current curriculum and practices and find ways to innovate in the classroom based on defensible research.
1- The reasons to provide heritage language instruction to U.S. bilinguals go far beyond the personal capital for economic opportunity that I addressed in this narrative. The connection between language and cultural identity is strong for U.S. Latinos; in this sense, language maintenance is a question of human rights - community and individual self-determination, (Hornberber & Wang, 2008). Likewise, language diversity can be seen a societal resource, or fund of knowledge, that benefits communities as much as individuals, (Tollefson, 2006). I am now aware that a more robust and layered defense of Spanish language instruction for Latinos is needed if we are to advocate effectively for these programs.
2 -The CPED program has helped me to consider my experience and knowledge as tools which I can leverage not only to improve my own classroom practice, but also grow the expertise of colleagues and advocate for students. In this sense, CPED has equipped me to position myself as a leader of inquiry into practice in my area.
3 - This is still at the heart of my professional interest and activity and truly at the heart of the CPED initiative: How can I help empower other teachers to be seekers and creators of knowledge about practice? I believe that from an "inquiry stance" classroom teachers are in the best position to advocate for themselves and for their students.
I came to teaching, and to my current position as a secondary teacher of Spanish as a foreign language and Spanish for Spanish speakers, in a very roundabout way. After a brief stint as a mediocre Spanish student in high school and college, and as an English Creative Writing major, I studied abroad in Costa Rica, met my husband, who is from Argentina, moved to Argentina, learned to speak Spanish fluently and then returned to Nebraska determined to be a more effective Spanish teacher than those by whom I had originally been taught. While in my graduate teacher-education program my husband and I began to work for the Lincoln Journal Star's short-lived Spanish language publication "Hispanos Unidos." It was here that I became committed to Spanish language education for Spanish speakers in the United States, which I came to see as an issue of social justice and today defines my professional and academic interests.
During our employment at "Hispanos Unidos" my husband, who served as the paper's editor, repeatedly encountered difficulties hiring qualified translators and reporters. These jobs, relatively secure and well-compensated, were inaccessible to the majority of immigrant Spanish speakers, with the exception of a few who, like my husband, had received their post-secondary education outside the United States. The Spanish language skills of the majority of the applicants were inadequate to perform the professional tasks associated with producing the publication.
Why should our society depend on the importation of already educated Spanish speakers to fill the rapidly increasing number of positions that require advanced levels of Spanish proficiency? There are millions of Spanish speakers living in the United States, but because our system rarely provides a robust linguistic education in Spanish, many are denied the opportunity to use their natural bilingualism to improve their socioeconomic situation through professional employment. Because I know from anecdotal experience and the research literature that Spanish-speaking bilinguals value and wish to preserve and develop their Spanish language abilities, advocacy and educational policy relating to culturally sensitive and bilingual education are among my research interests.[1]
I accepted my first full-time teaching position at a start-up charter school in Florida, attracted by the opportunity to engage in bottom-up design and implementation of an experiential and interdisciplinary education model. While I enjoyed and learned a great deal from the close collaboration with a small group of exceptional colleagues, the systemic inability of the school's leadership to articulate clear goals and procedures, combined with other personal considerations, led me to return to Nebraska after only a year.
I subsequently accepted my current position at Crete High School, where I have been employed since 2006, because of the larger number of Spanish speaking students served by the district, the district's relatively progressive attitudes toward serving this population, and the opportunity to expand an existing program of Spanish for Spanish speakers. I have come to appreciate many of the conditions of my current employment, including the curricular freedom I am allowed and the administration's willingness to support and encourage faculty projects and initiatives. My experiences both in Florida and in Crete have affirmed my belief that classroom teachers can and should be at the forefront of efforts to improve instruction and reform public schools. Consequently, it is my hope that doctoral study will provide both skills and opportunities to participate more effectively in local discourse about educational policy and practice, as well as to contribute to broader academic and national conversations on the subject.
Doctoral study would potentially help me to work more effectively in several leadership positions related to my professional and academic interests. I currently serve on a committee which secured and is implementing an Education Quest grant aimed at improving college access for minority and first-generation high school graduates, I also serve on a district-wide committee reviewing teacher evaluation procedures and as the section leader for the Nebraska state writing examination in Spanish. The opportunity to engage with colleagues, professors and research literature in the Ed.D cohort would allow me to explore ways to better serve my profession, and the students I serve in these capacities.
First and foremost, however, I am a classroom teacher and I have a passion for curriculum and instruction. In terms of future research, I may have the most to offer the scholarly community and my profession in this area. Serving as the de facto leader of my district department, I have ample experience with Spanish language and literacy curriculum K-12, for native and non-native speakers alike. I have a unique environment and experience, and therefore opportunity, to engage in research about Spanish literacy pedagogy for native Spanish speakers. During my tenure at Crete I have advocated for and designed an expanded curriculum for Spanish speakers that now includes three levels of Spanish for Spanish speakers at the high school, including a course which produces a Spanish language section of the high school's student newspaper and new courses which began this school year for Spanish speakers in middle school. [2] Additionally, I have consulted for Lincoln Public Schools as they designed their first Spanish for Spanish speakers course at North Star High.
The dearth of pedagogical materials and scholarly research relevant to classroom teachers working with native Spanish speakers drives my primary research interest. While the teaching of fractions, for example, yields hundreds of research studies, both quantitative and qualitative, and hundreds more “tips and tricks” books and articles for teachers, there is almost no such scholarship regarding teaching, say, the placement of the written accent to Spanish speakers in the United States. Meanwhile, more and more teachers are attempting to teach these skills, informed only by our background in foreign language education, or English language acquisition. Particularly absent from existing research is the teaching of Spanish literacy skills in secondary schools, because few dual language programs exist at this level. However, in “New Latino Diaspora” communities, like the one in which I teach, secondary Spanish for Spanish speakers courses are becoming increasingly common. These teachers, curriculum and the students they serve deserve scholarly attention.
With doctoral study I hope to participate in the conversations with scholars and practitioners about what constitutes best practice in Spanish for Spanish speakers instruction. The conversation surrounding the justification for such instruction is already under way; I would like to help guide the nascent discourse about how, as well as why. The culminating project for my Master’s degree, which I submitted as a writing sample with this application, is an example of the work I would like to do and share. It examines the production of a Spanish language section of my school’s student newspaper in an advanced Spanish for Spanish speakers class, both as a pedagogical tool for improving academic language and also as a means of exploring the roles and perceptions of Latino students in U.S. high schools.
As an avid reader of educational research of both the scholarly variety and the paperback “tips and tricks” summaries of research prepared for teachers, I must unfortunately confess that the scholarly research often lacks relevance to my practice. Too much scholarly educational research seems to be about teachers, what they do, or do not do, what they should or should not do; too little educational research is for teachers, and even less is by teachers. Research for teachers ought to be about not only what teachers should do, but what they can do, tomorrow, next month, or next semester, in their classrooms, with the tools they have, not with the tools they ought to have. I believe that teachers who conduct research in their classrooms can do more than improve their own practice, they can inform the practice of their colleagues and those who study and analyze those practices.[3] I hope to learn to more systematically evaluate the effectiveness of my current curriculum and practices and find ways to innovate in the classroom based on defensible research.
1- The reasons to provide heritage language instruction to U.S. bilinguals go far beyond the personal capital for economic opportunity that I addressed in this narrative. The connection between language and cultural identity is strong for U.S. Latinos; in this sense, language maintenance is a question of human rights - community and individual self-determination, (Hornberber & Wang, 2008). Likewise, language diversity can be seen a societal resource, or fund of knowledge, that benefits communities as much as individuals, (Tollefson, 2006). I am now aware that a more robust and layered defense of Spanish language instruction for Latinos is needed if we are to advocate effectively for these programs.
2 -The CPED program has helped me to consider my experience and knowledge as tools which I can leverage not only to improve my own classroom practice, but also grow the expertise of colleagues and advocate for students. In this sense, CPED has equipped me to position myself as a leader of inquiry into practice in my area.
3 - This is still at the heart of my professional interest and activity and truly at the heart of the CPED initiative: How can I help empower other teachers to be seekers and creators of knowledge about practice? I believe that from an "inquiry stance" classroom teachers are in the best position to advocate for themselves and for their students.