Expanding Our Reach: Cross-Institutional Collaborations and Teacher Preparation in Hispanic Serving Institutions

Abstract

This paper addresses the role of cross-institutional collaborations among Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI). Specifically, we focus on the Enseñamos en el Valle Central Initiative—a five-year, Title V, Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions (DHSI) grant for recruiting and preparing bilingual, Latinx teachers with a strong sense of self and service to their communities. While California four-year state institutions have historically been at the helm of preparing bilingual Kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) teachers, this has not been the case for community colleges, which continue to be the first entry point into higher education for many Latinx communities. We discuss how the process of a two-week summer institute among two- and four-year faculty at two community colleges and one university expands conventional notions of teacher preparation, and how these non-normative approaches can lend to stronger pathways into the profession. Moreover, we share how our faculty development approaches disrupt the status quo in teacher preparation and how non-tenured Faculty of Color navigate the politics of disruption and how these race-gendered experiences hold relevance for how we understand teacher preparation and expanding access to underrepresented Teachers of Color into the teaching profession.