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Integrating Cultural Identity Stories
Integrating Cultural Identity Stories from Preservice Teachers in a Bilingual Education Program:
An Action Research Study
Latino(a) students in a bilingual education teacher preparation program told their cultural
stories that became mosaics of their journey in becoming culturally responsive teachers. They
added bits and pieces of their cultural markers that created mosaic art of beauty. They began this
process as they told their stories, reflected about their past, and named their cultural identities.
Whatever meaning they made of their stories; however the mosaic of their journey appeared,
they were becoming culturally responsive teachers that are so desperately needed in the
classroom today.
This paper describes the multicultural efficacy of teacher candidates as they reflected about
their cultural identity. Their cultural identity stories provided valuable information about the
beliefs and perspectives immigrant and children of immigrant teacher candidates told as they
explored their own cultural identity. The culminating analysis of their stories described their
cultural journeys through the following themes: Telling their Family Background and
Immigration Stories, Establishing New Traditions, Negotiating their Education, and Giving Back
to the Educational System. These cultural identities described the mosaic journey that the teacher
candidates took.
Cultural Mosaic: Sociocultural Theory, Reflective Practice, and Multicultural Efficacy
The cultural mosaic metaphor reflects the integration of the various cultural elements and
markers that describe the cultural identity of individuals. By describing the changed or blended
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Integrating Cultural Identity Stories
identities, individuals maintain their uniqueness while blending with their new identity (Eliam,
1999). Cultural mosaics are a complex system with localized structures; linking cultural tiles in
what seems to be chaotic or random ways. They are metaphors that describe multidimensional
structures within complex systems. The cultural mosaics simultaneously observe the global and
local influences of individuals and groups while creating patterns of cultural identity (Chao &
Moon, 2005).
Researchers use the theoretical framework of sociocultural and sociopolitical theories
(Giroux, 1992; Nieto, 2002) by focusing on the issues of teaching and learning in culturally
diverse settings,. Many of the sociocultural theorists (e.g., Banks, 1988; Gay, 2003; LadsonBillings, 1995; Nieto & Bode, 2008; Sleeter, 2008; Trueba & Delgado-Gaitan, 1988) place
people in their context in the world, and they view people from within their cultural, social, and
political settings. Rather than living in isolation, people, in the light of this, are a part of a bigger
social context that involves their social, political, and cultural worlds.
Teacher candidates use the reflective practice as a part of their teaching and learning
process. They begin making connections with their students. These connections lead to
developing empathy for their students. They find ways to commit to the learning process. Kyles
and Olafson (2008) found that preservice teachers needed multiple opportunities to reflect about
their beliefs about teaching and their students. They found that they developed relationships
with their students, which created the fragile teaching moment of transformative teaching.
Donnell (2007) described a transformative process that teacher candidates made when
they increased their personal teaching efficacy by focusing on the learning process with their
students. The transformative pedagogy described by Vygotsky (1986) and Freire (1993),
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Integrating Cultural Identity Stories
explained that the teaching process had to be a mutual or reciprocal learning process between the
teacher and the student. The relationships of the teacher/student dissolve into a mutual learning
process.
Method of Inquiry
Teacher candidates in this qualitative study described their cultural background through
cultural markers fé (faith), lengua (language), and sangre y tierra (blood and land) (Nieto 2002;
Cummins, 1996). They claimed their identities as they were woven into their cultural identity.
The research questions were:

When teacher candidates focus on culture, identity, and language in their teacher
preparation classes, will they increase their multicultural efficacy?

When teacher candidates tell their cultural identity stories, will they increase their
cultural connections and empathy for their students?
The study was conducted in an urban education teacher preparation program in a South central
city in the United Sates in 2009 and 2010. The participants were preparing to become bilingual
education teachers. They were immigrant or children of immigrant parents from Mexico or
Central or South America. The participants were identified as teacher candidates because they
were in the last stages of the teacher preparation program.
The teacher candidates participated in class lectures about culture, identity, and language
that was based on the literature given above. Then, they followed the reflective writing process
to create a cultural identity story. In this prewriting process, the participants identified cultural
markers (Nieto, 2002; Cummings, 1996). Next, they wrote a Seven Minute Autobiography as
described by Schneider (1994). They shared their stories with a partner in the class session.
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Integrating Cultural Identity Stories
Finally, the participants wrote a 5 page paper about their cultural identity based on these
prewriting activities.
The cultural identity paper was part of the data collection for the study. The participants
described their family background, educational experiences, work history, and a statement about
why they were in the teacher preparation program. They followed the writing process by
including the cultural identity markers that were important to them. The participants also told
stories about their travels to the U.S., traditions and celebrations, and different foods that they
prepared and ate with their families.
The analysis of the data was completed by a team of researchers. The researchers
independently reviewed and analyzed the data by using Glaser’s (1965) comparative analysis
method. By looking at the data first inductively and then deductively (Lewins & Silver, 2007),
words and chunks of words of the stories were coded, while looking for themes, patterns, and/or
connections.
Themes that emerged from the data analysis: Culture Matters
The participants found that culture did matter and that culture was important to them as
they began developing as teachers. The cultural themes that emerged were: Telling Their
Family Background and Immigration Stories, Establishing New Traditions while Maintaining the
Old, Maintaining Spanish and English Languages. Negotiating their Education, and Giving Back
to the Educational System.
Telling their family background and immigration stories.
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Integrating Cultural Identity Stories
The teacher candidates told their stories about their family background. Some
participants’ parents or grandparents migrated from Mexico, while many of the participants’
parents came from Central or South America. Their parents came to the U.S. to work as day
laborers. JG stated:
My roots go deep in Mexican soil. Not just because my parents were born in Mexico, but
my family can be traced all the way back to my great-great-grandparents. My
grandmother Juventina (and her side of the family) was born in Ocotlán, Jalisco and my
grandfather Ramiro was born in Linares, Nuevo Leon. On my mom’s side of the family
everyone comes from Bustamante, N.L. My mom’s ancestors were some of the first
people settling in the small town.
The teacher candidates recognized the sacrifices that their parents made for them when they
came to the U.S.
Establishing new traditions while maintaining the old.
Because the teacher candidates lived in two worlds, they began to find ways to maintain
and create new traditions. They described how important the Latino family network was. A
family tradition was to celebrate all of the family birthdays, holidays, weddings, and funerals
with the large, extended family. Elizabeth described Christmas at her house:
Traditions can especially be seen during the holidays. This is the time of year when
family members join each other in celebration of Christmas or New Years. Traditional
foods are cooked and shared with all the guests. This includes the always must haves, the
tamales, women gather around in the kitchen and make large amounts of mouthwatering
tamales. Tamales made of pork, chicken, beans, cheese and peppers, sweet tamales made
of fruit, hot or hotter or just plain ones. They usually make enough for that day and days
to follow. Left over tamales are re-heated on the skillet and accompanied by a hot cup of
coffee.
Maintaining Spanish and English languages.
The teacher candidates used both languages in their home and school cultures. They were
proud that they maintained their Spanish language to communicate with their parents and
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Integrating Cultural Identity Stories
grandparents. They were raised in bilingual homes where their grandparents spoke Spanish, their
parents spoke English and Spanish, and they spoke both languages. Joy said:
Language was very important to my parents because they wanted their children to be able
to speak both languages. They believed that it would help us become more successful
with life in the United States. They also strongly believed that if they would not teach us
Spanish, they were going to strip us of our culture and identity. I can now thank my
parents for instilling my cultural background in me and showing me how a family can
educate their children while showing them their origin.
Negotiating their education.
The teacher candidates and their parents learned how to negotiate the education system. .
Some of the students participated in the bilingual education programs while others were in
English as a Second Language programs. They experienced the high or low expectations of their
teachers because of their ethnicity. They witnessed the additive or negative perspectives of their
teachers. These teacher candidates successfully negotiated the education system by graduating
from high school and then entering into the higher education system.
Giving back to the educational system.
The teacher candidates found that whether they had good or bad school experiences, they
wanted to give back to their students by helping them become successful bilingual students.
They wanted their students to have good experiences about being successful in school. They
wanted to help their students negotiate through the educational system. They saw that the
children in their classrooms looked like they did. They felt that they were mirroring their
students. They had empathy for their students as they explored their cultural identities (Donnell,
2007). Ceci stated,
The other day I was at work and I was given the opportunity to test the children in their
oral language proficiency. The students that I tested had a confused look on their faces as
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Integrating Cultural Identity Stories
to why I was taking them out of their classroom. When I looked at their faces, I could
picture myself the way I felt when I first entered the U.S. It is not just a language issue; it
is also a whole new way of life, a new culture. Culture can be defined in many ways, but
in order to comprehend the differences of culture in each of the students, one has to first
identify how it affects them in the society they are in.
The teacher candidates were experiencing what Félix-Ortiz et al (1994) described as high
bicultural identities. They easily negotiated between the Latino and European American
cultures. They were comfortable with using both English and Spanish. They could navigate
easily between different cultural settings. By reflecting about their cultural identity, the teacher
candidates discovered what was important to them. They could identify what they kept and what
they let go of in their lives. They refused to abandon their language and culture to become a part
of another culture.
As the teacher candidates began to make connections with their students through
language, traditions, and background, they began to see their students differently. They
connected their cultural identity stories to the students’ cultural identity stories. They developed
their confidence in the teaching because the students began to see them as teachers. Sometimes
the students would say, “Are you a teacher? Wow!” and other times, they would say, “Miss, do
you speak Spanish?” Donnell (2007) believed that this was because the students and teacher
candidates began to see each other as “active agents” (p. 225). The teacher candidates had a
transformative learning process as they made deep connections to their students.
Ladson-Billings (1995) emphasized that students’ culture does matter in teaching.
Learning cannot take place in the classroom when students experience a discontinuity or a
mismatch between their home and school culture (Gay, 2000; Nieto, 2002). These teacher
candidates found that culture did matter. They began the reflective process of looking back at
their own culture. They named their culture, identified their experiences, and described their own
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Integrating Cultural Identity Stories
perspectives. By reflecting about their learning experiences, the teacher candidates discovered
their passion for wanting to make a difference in the lives of their students.
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