Introduction

In the U.S., among all public school teachers during the 2015–2016 school year, only 9%, 7%, and 2% were Latinx, Black, and Asian teachers, respectively (Taie & Goldring, 2017), which is clearly disproportionate to students’ populations, which are 15% Black, 27% Latinx, and 6% Asian/Pacific Islander (National Center for Education Statistics, 2017). Additionally, there has been a consistent shortage of bilingual or multilingual teachers in K-12 classes (Hollins & Guzman, 2005). This stubborn shortage of bilingual/multilingual teachers from diverse backgrounds is highly discrepant with respect to the student population in the U.S. In fact, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (2017), multicultural students comprise more than 50% of the U.S. school population, including 10% of Emergent Bilinguals (EB; a.k.a. English language learners) in 2014. Indeed, it has been noted that “this mismatch is seen as problematic for the learner and for the teacher as navigating cultural and linguistic diversity is complex” (Guerra et al., 2014, p. 78).

Teachers from marginalized groups often leave their teaching careers due to the feelings of inadequacy (Clark & Flores, 2001). The complexities involving the rapid change of student demographics, combined with a shortage of bilingual teachers in all subject areas, suggest the need for an in-depth analysis of diverse teacher candidates to identify their needs and challenges in teacher preparation programs. However, little is known about the experiences of and supports put in place for bilingual teacher candidates whose native language is not English, especially during their field experience when they interact with students with whom they may or may not share similar cultural or racial backgrounds.

This study aims to examine the unique challenges linguistically and culturally diverse teacher candidates encounter while teaching within U.S. public schools and seeks ways to support the development of their cultural identity as a teacher in a view of sociocultural approach (Moschkovich, 2002). The sociocultural view allows us to see teacher education as a space of teacher identity development and learning as a sociocultural construction (Clarke, 2008; Morgan, 2004). We pursue these goals by following two bilingual preservice teachers during their one-semester student teaching period. The research questions that drove this research are (1) what challenges and supports do Asian and Latina bilingual mathematics teacher candidates experience during their student teaching? and (2) how do they develop their cultural identities as teachers through their student teaching experience that is paired with mentoring from their university advisor?

Theoretical Perspectives

Research supports the importance of teachers from ethnically minoritized groups as role models for diverse student populations (Zirkel, 2002). Moreover, equitable ethnic representation and distribution among teachers in school have a positive impact on student achievement (Meier et al., 1999). However, teacher shortages exist in areas critical to minoritized students’ success, specifically in bilingual education, special education, mathematics and science education (Flores et al., 2007).

Among teachers of color, the shortage of Asian American teachers has not drawn much attention because of the model minority myth—the pervasive belief that Asian Americans academically excel, especially in mathematics (Kim & Cooc, 2020). A few studies focused on Asian American students found that these students are not uniformly doing well, and doing well does not necessarily mean well-being (e.g., Ng et al., 2007; Wing, 2007). To undermine the model minority myth, which is often used to reinforce the narratives of White Supremacy, and to rethink Asian American students’ achievement and well-being, it is crucial to recruit and retain Asian American teachers.

In fact, the recent review of Kim and Cooc (2020) on Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) teachers emphasizes the important role they play in education by indicating four reflective areas that have emerged from AAPI teachers’ practices and contributions: (1) challenging the curriculum and developing students’ critical consciousness of Eurocentrism, (2) engaging with diverse youth, (3) valuing students’ cultures, and (4) drawing on a shared background. Specifically, in Subedi’s (2008) study, an Indian teacher transformed and transcended her own experiences of being treated as a foreigner into her desire to intervene and challenge her students’ verbal practices of using prejudicial comments and excluding their peers. Similarly, Rodriguez and Cho (2011) described a Korean American teacher who drew from her background as a language learner to support bilingual students in the complex challenges of heritage language learning and identity building. Both Asian immigrant teachers self-reflected and incorporated their own experiences of being racialized into their teaching practices.

Latinx teachers are another group that is evidently disproportionally lacking representation in the classroom compared to the student population. Despite the high demand for Spanish-English bilingual teachers, a study about Latinx teacher identity found Latinx teachers often remained silent, distanced themselves, or internalized the values and perspectives of the school and its teachers to navigate school discourse (Aguilar et al., 2003). To ensure success of Latinx teacher recruitment, Calderón and Díaz (1993) have made the following recommendations: (a) early recruitment; (b) a well-defined support structure; (c) field-based experiences with mentor teachers; and (d) a support system for novice teachers.

This study draws from a sociocultural approach to understand how two bilingual teacher candidates of color see themselves as mathematics teachers of quality while also being aware of their cultural identity in practice. From this sociocultural perspective, learning is a situated process that occurs through social interaction, negotiation, and collaboration. For instance, teacher identity can be developed through various levels of complex and continued learning processes that involve the self, family, community, and school (Miller-Marsh, 2002). The identity of culturally and linguistically diverse teachers is even more complex partially due to their multiple social and political identities.

Research has shown that teachers of color often define their personal experiences within a cultural framework, drawing on family and community values, and expressing deeper cultural consciousness (e.g., Clark & Flores, 2001; Galindo, 1996). Galindo (1996) referred to this practice as a “bridging identity,” whereby teachers of color draw from their cultural experiences to inform their view of the role and purpose of schooling. The awareness and development of teachers’ cultural identity is important because cultural factors may shape teacher decision-making in instruction (Evans, 1989). Furthermore, the cultural biographies embodied by teachers of color lead them to counter the rigid and standardized curriculum being enforced in public schools (Apple, 1992). To conclude, we focus on cultural identity, defined as “significant way(s) in which a person is defined or defines oneself as connected to culture” (Berry & Candis, 2013, p. 45). We also emphasize the importance of cultural identity because it interrelates with one’s self-concept, which indicates how an individual sees or values themselves (Clark & Flores, 2001).

Context and Methods

This study was initiated when two mathematics teacher candidates (MJ and Ana, both pseudonyms) approached the first author and disclosed their fears and concerns about teaching native-English speaking students as non-native English speakers themselves. To support their growth as educators, we followed and shadowed their student-teaching journeys, observed what challenges they faced, and how they coped with these challenges. The student teaching course was a semester-long and lasted for 16 weeks at one school site. Specifically, during the student teaching period, the first author mentored them both formally (once a month, face-to-face) and informally (e.g., texting, emails). The mentoring sessions were audio-recorded and later analyzed, along with the second author, through multiple compare-contrast discussion sessions focused on the individually coded themes that emerged.

MJ was an Asian international student (she came to the U.S. several years after graduating from college) and a mother of two elementary-age daughters. When MJ started her teacher preparation program, pursuing a secondary mathematics license, she already had a master’s degree in statistics. English was her second language, and Korean was both her native and home language. She often shared her anxiety about speaking English in a classroom full of native English speakers, even before she started student teaching. For this reason, she chose to complete her student teaching at a high school embedded within a large metropolitan area that has a racially and linguistically diverse student population.

Ana’s family moved from Mexico to California when she was in middle school. At that time, she was identified as an ELL [EB] by her school district. She then majored in mathematics at a four-year college and moved to a small city in the Midwest to enroll into a teacher preparation program where she could also earn her master’s degree. Ana’s prior teaching experiences before entering the teacher preparation program included working with middle and high school students at a public high school and a private institution in California. Before starting student teaching, she also shared her anxiety related to teaching native English speakers because she had a traumatic encounter during her tutoring experience when high school students laughed at her accent, and the classroom teacher did not chime in to support her. Moreover, while completing her teacher preparation program, she failed the practicum course (a pre-student teaching field experience course that requires class observations and a few assignments of classroom teaching) in which she did not feel connected to the cooperating teachers and the students in the White-dominant rural school where she completed the course.

We focused on student teaching because this is when teacher candidates are first immersed into full-day teaching and face the realities of the classrooms before they develop the practical skills and knowledge needed to handle such real situations. We developed a storyline for each of their student teaching experiences based on the monthly mentoring sessions. The monthly meeting sessions between the first author and MJ were conducted through online conference calls and were video recorded because MJ’s student teaching site was out of state. The meetings with Ana were audio recorded because her school site was in town, so she could attend the meetings in person.

We listened and watched the collected data several times and spent at least 12 h in our iterative compare-contrast data analysis sessions. First, when reviewing the two bilingual teacher candidates’ stories, we identified three phases: the beginning phase, the middle phase, and the ending phase. Consequently, each phase within MJ’s and Ana’s stories were analyzed using three analytical dimensions: (a) Anticipation (what concerns they had beforehand), (b) Challenges (what difficulties they encountered), and (c) Navigation (how they responded to and grew from the challenges). Each of their storylines was sent to the corresponding bilingual student teacher for member check (Creswell, 1994). The finalized stories are provided below, each written in chronical order to emphasize their growth as their student-teaching journey evolved.

Research Findings

MJ’s Story

MJ’s student teaching site was at a 9th grade-only high school whose population breakdown was as follows: approximately 88% Hispanic students, 77% at-risk students, 92% economically disadvantaged students, and 27% Emergent Bilinguals (EBs). At her school, Black teachers (42%) and White teachers (36%) were the most dominant groups, and there were no Asian teachers. Her cooperating teacher was a White male who was bilingual in English and Spanish. Most students spoke Spanish, and they translated each other’s sayings and ideas between Spanish to English.

The Beginning Phase

Since MJ and many of her students were not native English speakers, sometimes it became difficult to communicate in English. However, she pointed out how she felt more comfortable working with them than with students who were native English speakers, as she explains in the following excerpt from her first interview:

Teaching is fine… but interact[ing with students] is challenging, not only English is a problem… Yes. English is the problem. When I watched the cooperating teacher, he created a good atmosphere by making a joke… this kind of thing [having casual conversations with students] is more difficult than teaching.

As for teaching, she disclosed her disagreement with the teaching practices used at the school because neither the school professional learning community (PLC) nor her cooperating teacher incorporated problem-solving aspects into the lessons, but instead implemented a traditional lecture-style teaching approach. In the beginning of her student teaching, MJ’s ideas and suggestions regarding the use of problem-solving aspects/approaches were not seriously considered and often went ignored. The following excerpt sheds light onto how her ideas were rejected:

I wanted to make my lesson fun, but my co-op teacher just seeks a handout. I think they [the school math teachers] don’t have experience with problem solving. I wanted to use problem solving/activit[ies] and student presentation[s], but it’s hard here.

The cooperating teacher, however, was supportive and confident in MJ’s level of English proficiency. For example, when MJ shared her high anxiety and concerns about her English, the cooperating teacher encouraged her by explaining that her English is okay for teaching and communication, and he even suggested that she think about how to immediately provide appropriate responses to her students.

To complement her English-speaking skills, MJ practiced pronouncing her students’ names by recording the school’s Spanish teacher’s pronunciation. She understood how frustrated the students were when someone would pronounce their names incorrectly since she often experienced this as well. Moreover, MJ shared her discomfort concerning students giggling when she spoke English. At first, she thought they were making fun of her English. Later, though, she decided to ask the students why they were giggling and discovered the giggles were not directed toward her. MJ felt that she was gradually overcoming her English anxiety while also resolving her cognitive biases, such as the one described above. Her cooperating teacher also provided her with practical advice, such as writing any key words on the board, especially when she struggled to pronounce them, and spelling out words rather than using acronyms.

Although MJ liked the united environment and appreciated how teachers cared about her, she sometimes felt that having a conversation amongst these members was still difficult because she could not understand some of the teachers’ jokes, and even when she did understand some of them, MJ was not sure how to respond in a culturally appropriate way. As a result, she had no choice but to cultivate a mainly official and professional relationship with other members of the teaching staff since it was hard for her to have personal conversations.

The Middle Phase

Despite MJ’s effort to speak clearly, the act of questioning or responding to questions in English remained to be a challenge for her. She did say, though, that “it’s getting better”, as she describes below:

My students are getting familiar with my [accent]. After building a relationship, I think English is not a problem. My co-op teacher said, English is not a problem in teaching. I know I still have flaws in my English pronunciation, but there are many EBs in my classes, anyway. Now [the] relationship has been built, so they [students] can ask me multiple times [when they do not understand what I say].

Her strategies to interact and build a relationship with her students had improved, as her excitement concerning the forging of these new connections is clearly present in the following statement:

I realized showing interest and caring is important. When students were absent, I asked why you were absent and showed how I cared about their personal life. Absence is common in this school, I said to them I missed you, and then talked with them using cheering comments. I first thought students might ignore me, but it worked!

She also shared her success stories about her teaching. When she explained what a slope was using the English word, steep, she soon realized many students were not familiar with this word. She looked up the corresponding Spanish word and applied it to the lesson, then students understood. Her cooperating teacher supported her idea to use Spanish as a tool to both learn English and teach mathematics, and she noticed that her students liked when she incorporated the use of their first language.

MJ again confirmed that her bonding with the school’s teachers was improving and now she felt as if she was part of the community because the teachers and school staff started to share informal and personal information with her. One significant change noted during this time was that MJ started to openly express and share her cultural identity as both a foreign and Asian teacher in both positive and negative ways. It was interesting because she only shared her anxiety regarding her lack of English proficiency at the beginning of her student teaching during her interviews. Now, she found that she could use her racial and cultural identity as a way to build relationships with students who share the same or similar racial backgrounds. For example, one girl from Nepal approached MJ and expressed how hard she was trying to be successful in her class, and MJ noticed how this student opened up to her with ease. However, there were still some concerns with being a foreign teacher that MJ self-identified. During her interviews, she often said, “There are problems [with being] a foreign teacher” regarding the relationships she cultivated with both her colleagues and students, which she describes further in the following excerpt:

One good thing about being a foreign teacher is that students think I am different. They see me as friendly. There is another new teacher, a White female, but workers here are mostly Hispanic and they are friendlier to me than her. … I have stress about language, though. I need to watch YouTube videos and other online sources to memorize English expressions. I have to do an additional study that other teachers don’t have to do.

Because she felt she needed to work more and harder as a foreign teacher, her coping strategies even included her dress code. The other student teacher at the school wore an attire to school that was somewhat casual, but MJ felt she needed to wear a formal attire because she was a foreigner, so she wanted to complement her “handicap” (as mentioned by her) by dressing professionally.

At the same time, MJ started noticing that she had an advantage when it came to developing an awareness of EBs’ learning experiences. She found that she could easily identify effective strategies for EBs that her cooperating teacher tended not to notice. For example, when they used a video in class, MJ thought turning on the Spanish captions would be helpful, but the cooperating teacher had not thought of this as a needed support. In addition, she could create quality language objectives that the school required for all teachers to write on the board. Her well-written language objectives garnered the attention of other teachers who would come over to see her objectives.

The Ending Phase

Towards the end of her student teaching, MJ revealed that disciplining students was the most challenging task she faced as a student teacher. In the beginning, she did not know what to say when behavior problems occurred: “I thought it’s because I was inexperienced, but there was some language issue[s,] too.” MJ struggled to address students’ misbehavior because she could not think of an appropriate response immediately. Consequently, she tried to memorize what her cooperating teacher said in response to these kinds of discipline-related situations.

With her expanding emphatic approach to students, MJ started to see how the students were not supported appropriately by other teachers and pointed out the following:

Teachers work hard but don’t care about students’ lives. I saw patterns, students laying down and disappearing. I asked why and students explained to me their reasons. When I talked to my co-op teacher, he was surprised that I cared about this. … I think listening to students is worthwhile because I can build a good relationship and because of this, when I had observation [from the student teaching supervisor], my students were cooperating very well. One boy directly told me he would do well for my observation.

MJ felt that having a student ally could be a sign of success in building a positive relationship with her students, especially with those who struggled because of family-related and/or personal reasons. She believed that the trusting relationship she had built with her students was fostered due to her conscious efforts in genuinely caring about her students’ lives outside of school. MJ also discovered that her status as a non-native English speaker was valuable as it encouraged the EBs in her class to speak more. When her cooperating teacher—a native English speaker—asked them to express their thinking, they were reluctant to respond or did not answer. However, when MJ encouraged these same EBs to speak or make a presentation in class, they usually responded well to her questions and directions.

At the end of her student teaching, MJ reflected on her student teaching experience by comparing the classroom to what she experienced during her practicum (a mandatory four-week field experience before student teaching):

In that White school [MJ’s assigned practicum site], students didn’t ask [for] help and didn’t show their work and didn’t say hi… To be honest, no single student asked me for help. Here [MJ’s student teaching site], they [the students] asked me for help so much and talked to me. I tried very hard there [at the practicum site], but the teacher simply wrote I have a language problem on the report [without any support]. I think I did really well in teaching and prepared a lot, but I got this comment and it was shocking to me. But here, all teachers said English is not a big problem. I earned confidence here. I want to go diverse schools where they need me.

Ana’s Story

While she was repeating the practicum course at different school sites, Ana learned the importance of “asking for help and having a conversation with a cooperating teacher in the areas that she needed help.” She expressed later that she had been uncomfortable to ask others to help her because she thought this action might make others underestimate her abilities as an educator. With this mindset, Ana started her student teaching at a middle school in a small rural town with a high Hispanic population. This school district runs a Spanish bilingual program, which provides several Spanish-only classes, including Spanish mathematics classes, until the 6th grade.

The Beginning Phase

During Ana’s first visit, her cooperating teacher, who was White male, was teaching the last part of his mathematics class. While she was observing his teaching, Ana brightened up thinking, “Oh, I like this teacher,” as she could tell that he would be open and flexible. In line with her expectations, her cooperating teacher did treat her as a trustworthy colleague and valued her bilingualism as her asset rather than a deficit, which she highlights in the following excerpt:

He always gave me an opportunity to see his lesson PowerPoint or lesson plans and let me make changes to whatever I want. I don’t know, I felt like we know each other for a longer period of time. He’s always talks about his likes/family [with] me, something outside the classroom. I feel that is a connection because we don’t talk only about school, but about my personal life, too. That makes a good relationship. I have a good teacher.

At this time, Ana’s biggest anxiety was classroom management. She had a similar concern as MJ, worrying that she might “not be able to say the right words about the behavior on the spot.” Her cooperating teacher encouraged her to give disciplining her students a try because she would never know how students would react to her classroom management style unless she tried to develop one. It was noticeable when Ana discovered that her ability to speak Spanish helped with her classroom management, as well as when she realized she could express her identity more authentically when she utilized her first language:

I spoke to them [Latino students] in Spanish. It worked better than when I spoke English. When I speak Spanish, it’s more me. I wish when I speak English it’s me, too, but I’m working on it. When speaking Spanish, I can say so [many] more things. I talked to them in Spanish and they listened and worked. I feel that if I did the same to other students in English, I couldn’t have the same impact. I can use more words with more inspiration in Spanish, but in English I feel limited in my vocabulary. When I speak Spanish, it’s [the] real me.

Ana’s own experience as an EB helped her guide the bilingual students in the class. For example, although the students understood English, they responded in Spanish, and Ana said this was what she would do when she was a young EB herself. The cooperating teacher expressed his support by saying “if it’s more comfortable, let them speak Spanish and focus on understanding math concepts.” Ana also had enough confidence to be transparent about her English skills. For example, when Ana introduced herself to the students, she explained that English is not her first language, so they should feel free to ask her to repeat anything she said if they did not understand. Indeed, at times, some students approached her and asked her to repeat what she had said. Ana revealed her amusement about this, explaining, “I liked that. It didn’t make me feel bad but good because it means I am building a relationship with them!”

Because Ana thought her cooperating teacher was an exemplary teacher, she carefully observed every action and comment he made when he was working with his students. After a month of observation, she realized a misconception she previously had and learned how important building relationships is to the teaching of her students, which she reveals in the following comment:

I felt that the students have more respect towards my cooperating teacher, not because he’s male, but because they’ve established a relationship. Sometimes some students told me “thank you”, and I do think that if I don’t have a close relationship with other students [, it’s] because we haven’t spent enough time to build a relationship. I don’t think it’s because of gender, but in practicum, I thought the gender was the issue, but now… there’s many students making connections with me.

During her practicum, she thought the students did not approach her because they did not trust her mathematical ability due to the stereotypes attached to her gender and race. Ana finally found that building a strong relationship is the key to receiving respect from students and not her gender or racial backgrounds.

The Middle Phase

In the middle of the semester, Ana said she “noticed so much improvement” in her teaching and classroom management. This reflection on her improvement was based on the strengthening of her relationships with her cooperating teacher and her students. She now realized her bilingualism and gender can be an asset that supports her teaching and the connections she builds with students, which she explains further in the following excerpt:

With those two EB students, I can see they trust me. I can see that it’s complicated because their teacher doesn’t speak Spanish. I can see explaining in Spanish is a big connection, and another connection is I’m female, so other female students can make connections with me. …. I can see that the students talk to me about their home, friends and their ethnicity. Most students are Spanish speakers, so we make conversations about anything. It’s interesting to see that.

In addition to building a relationship with her students, Ana found that her attitude related to her students asking questions had changed since the beginning. She initially felt that the students treated her as if she did not know mathematics well or how to solve mathematics problems, but after they interacted with her and asked her about mathematics, they began to see and trust her as a mathematics teacher. She even strategically did not give explanations, not because she did not know the answer, but because she wanted her students to find their own solutions. “I can see students trust me”, she said, explaining that “if something went wrong, if I make mistakes, they tell me and show me the mistake. It’s a good feeling because I [now] have a good connection with my students.”

The Ending Phase

Around the end of her student teaching semester, Ana set goals to refine her English in order to improve her classroom management skills, which was the most challenging aspect of teaching for her, as she describes below:

Sometimes when I talk to students, I feel I use the same words all the time, I can’t find other words, so I’m trying to work on expanding my vocabulary. They [my words] need to be respectful, especially on the spot. Sometimes, I think ahead, but when it actually happens… My teacher does a great job [with] that. He said it’s experience [rather than language]. This is your actual first experience working with students daily, so it’s okay.

Again, Ana thought her English was a “problem”, but her cooperating teacher said, “it’s okay” and reassured her that she would be doing well when she had gained enough experience. He did not see Ana’s English as a deficit. Rather, he treated it as something she can improve on with experience. Ana appreciated his view related to her challenge and revealed that she trusted her cooperating teacher, saying, “Sometimes, I said how I’m feeling [about my lack of vocabulary]. He said it’s [about] years of experience, and he had that feeling, too… He didn’t say you need to work on your English. I really appreciate [that] he didn’t say it.”

As a final remark, Ana shared her wish to work at a school with a diverse student population, noting, “No matter what school, I can make [an] impact, but I feel that for diverse schools, those connections will be [at a] greater scale with those students.”

Discussion, Conclusions and Implications

The two bilingual teacher candidates in this study shared a common anxiety, as well as similar challenges and patterns of navigation. Both had high anxiety related to teaching in English within English-only classrooms but gradually found that their racial, cultural, and linguistic diversities could be used as (1) assets in their teaching practices, (2) assets in their efforts to interact with students, and finally (3) assets in the formation of positive cultural identities, which ultimately looped back to empower them.

Moreover, the two teachers’ cultural identities seem to play a crucial role. Our findings agree with Clark and Flores (2001)’s study that stresses the role of identities and experiences as marginalized people “become central to how they define and comport themselves with others in their occupation” (p. 74). For instance, MJ and Ana showed significant changes in noticing and verifying the embedded strengths in their own cultural identities and then translating them into their teaching practice. Consequently, these changes-in-practice led the two teachers to build positive self-images as bilingual teachers.

Specifically, in the beginning, they perceived their cultural, racial, and linguistic identities to be deficit, despite their high content knowledge in mathematics, because they thought their ethnic and linguistic status might make them look unqualified as teachers. Then, overtime they began to see how their backgrounds could become cultural, social, and navigating capitals when making connections with diverse students, and even when gaining and building relationships even with students who displayed behavioral problems. To sum up, both MJ and Ana shifted their perceptions regarding their cultural identities from a deficit-based view to an asset-rich view that asserts bilingualism, biliteracy, and biculturalism can be forms of cultural capital or cultural wealth.

This study suggests that the teacher candidates of color were influenced by meaningful others, especially cooperating teachers and students. How their cooperating teachers and students treated them as qualified teachers seemed to make a significant impact on their identity development. For instance, the two co-operating teachers in this study actively supported the bilingual student teachers with their asset-rich views, regardless of any differences in race and gender. Both MJ and Ana voiced that their co-operating teachers’ support was crucial, and their student teaching experiences were further maximized when they were placed at diverse schools. Therefore, deliberate care should be taken during both the student-teaching placement process and training to build generative relationships among all participants involved.

Our results shed light on the importance of design field experiences that support bilingual teachers of color for developing positive identity that empowers them. Teacher education programs should include the fostering and enhancement of positive cultural identity development of its teachers. We suggest that teacher education programs, which rarely recognize the critical roles that bilingual teachers play in the U.S. education system, should include a training component for promote a positive cultural identity that will guide the people involved in teacher education, such as program administrators, supervisors, and co-operating teachers, in how to best promote a positive cultural identity amongst student teachers.

González’s study (1997) found that satisfaction, retention, and completion of the teaching program of teacher candidates from minoritized groups was deeply related to (1) academic support and skill development, (2) caring mentors and a supportive network, (3) nurturing environment, (4) cohort design, (5) setting of educational goals, (6) volunteer work, (7) high academic standards, and (8) mediators for navigating and accessing university structure. We advocate a teaching program that cultivates caring mentors and a supportive network as well as one that promotes nurturing environment for bilingual immigrant teacher candidates. and found the important role of these factors. The findings of this study provide teacher educators with insight into the critical importance of relationship-building when supporting bilingual preservice teachers, especially within content areas such as mathematics.

This case study of two bilingual mathematics teachers will impact future studies about teachers with diverse racial and linguistic backgrounds whose stories are often unheard. We suggest further studies of novice and experienced teachers with nondominant backgrounds, such as teachers of color, immigrant teachers, and non-native speaker teachers in STEM. The studies can investigate how teachers from nondominant groups develop their teacher identities, what obstacles they experience in schools, and what resources and support effectively help them overcome challenges they encounter. This line of study may contribute to increasing the diversity in the teacher population.