Becoming a Bicultural High School Teacher in the United States: An Autoethnography of a Latina Educator

This research was guided by two autoethnographic questions, namely: How does autoethnography enable understanding of the needs of emergent bilinguals in the sociopolitical context of local and federal language policies in the United States? As well as extended by the following ancillary questions: a. What are the patterns and variations that emerge from journal entries crafted by the author of this study? And b. What are the patterns and variations that emerge from state and national news pieces between the years 2015 and 2020? This narrative serves not only to present the challenges encountered within the field of multicultural education as a Latina educator, but also to critique and question the status quo, advocating for meaningful change. Ultimately, this work stands as a testament to the power of autoethnography as a methodological tool for Social Science research, demonstrating its capacity to not only generate knowledge but also to inspire transformation among researchers and educators alike. This work emphasizes the significance of introspective inquiry as a determinant for broader social understanding and progress in the field of multilingual education in the United States.