“Estoy acostumbrada hablar Inglés”: Latin@ Pre-service Teachers’ Struggles to Use Spanish in a Bilingual Afterschool Mathematics Program

Abstract

In this article, the author explores factors that appear to contributed to bilingual Latin@ pre-service teachers’ difficulties in using Spanish as an instructional resource while working on mathematical activities with bilingual Latin@ students in an urban afterschool mathematics program. Qualitative analysis of the per-service teachers’ oral and written comments reveals two main patterns associated with their difficulties. The first relates to their schooling/academic experiences, which were predominantly in English. The second relates to their experiences with students in the afterschool program who showed preference in using English. The author discusses implications of the findings for mathematics teacher preparation.