Congratulations to Professor Paula Golombek, whose co-authored paper with Aleksandra Ita Olszewska and Maria Coady , titled, “Humanizing power of counter-stories: Teachers’ understandings of emergent bilinguals in rural settings” was recently published in Teaching and Teacher Education. Link to the paper can be found here and abstract is below. Way to go Paula!
This article explores how counter-narratives of undocumented students’ journeys to and life in the United States can disrupt White, monolingual teachers’ understandings of emergent bilinguals (EBs) in their rural classrooms. Online postings and plans of action of two teachers were analyzed through Vygotsky’s theorizing on imagination, emotion, and catharsis, and Nussbaum’s narrative imagination. Reading the counter-narratives triggered an emotional response, enabling teachers to develop an informed empathy and to re-story interactions with previous EBs and understandings of familiar rural spaces. With expanded understandings of undocumented students’ lived experiences, teachers could more responsively address the needs of EBs and their families.