Escuchemos Las Voces Bilingües de Nuestros Educadores Rurales: Who and What Matters for the Education of Secondary English Learners in a Rural Florida School Community

Guided by constructive epistemology and grounded in Greenwood’s place-conscious education theory and critical race theory in education, (CRT), this narrative-informed qualitative study critically examines how the lived experiences of three bilingual educators shape their work with English Learners (ELs or multilingual learners, MLs) in a Florida rural school community. Primary data consist of videorecorded interviews and photo elicitation that illuminated teachers’ told life narratives. Findings from this study demonstrate that the voices of the bilingual teachers matter for improving EL education in this rural community. The teachers’ reflections about their “ontological-becoming,” their engagement with the rural school community, and the inequities experienced by their EL students constantly shape and dictate their professional identities and instructional decisions in their work with ELs. Promising practices that matter for the education of ELs in this rural community are discussed, such as the importance of the centrality of EL-teacher relationship building; bridging racial, cultural, and linguistic gaps in the classroom; recognizing que “uno [an EL] aquí es como un fantasma” in the rural school community; and advocating for ELs by increasing their visibility and becoming the voice of ELs and their families.