Recognizing the Expertise of ELL and Bilingual Educators

I think a lot of times ESL teachers and bilingual teachers feel that they're not really part of the community. I mean, certainly we see it in how bilingual programs are situated in a school many times. I have an article that I wrote many years ago that titled “Bringing Bilingual Education Out of the Basement,” because I've seen bilingual programs in basements and in closets and sort of hidden away from the “regular classes,” but I've never seen a gifted education program in the basement. Ever. So it says something about the respect with which a program is held.

I think that what schools can do is be mindful of placing the bilingual program in a place of prestige, in a place of normalcy so that parents don't feel that their kids are less than because they have to walk down to the basement or that kids don't feel that they're being isolated as if they have a disease, the disease of not speaking English.

So I think that's really important, but also I have great respect for teachers. I love teachers. I love ESL and bilingual teachers. I've written a lot about and with and for them and they often feel a sense of isolation. I think it's important for schools to make sure that there is some connection, that there's some cross-fertilization among teachers who teach different subject areas, because all of them will end up teaching English learners no matter what they teach. So that means having professional development activities that include some content about bilingual education.  What is it? What is ESL? What is the role of the ESL teacher? What is that teacher trying to do? You could even include students in some of those professional development activities so that teachers who might not have some of those students can still learn from them and what they might need.

I think that schools can have activities and events where they invite the parents of students who are in ESL and bilingual programs so that not only do they interact with the bilingual teachers, but also with the staff in general so that other parents understand also what these teachers do and how important their jobs are.

I think it's important for schools to highlight the skills of bilingual teachers, because bilingual teachers have to be regular teachers and they also have to be bilingual and they have to have all that knowledge about what it takes to be a bilingual teacher and all those skills and competencies that other teachers don't necessarily need to have from communicating with families to knowing linguistics and knowing different strategies for teaching, making them a cherished part of the community rather than an alienated or marginalized part of the community.