Abstract

In an era of anti-truth, book bans, and curricular scrutiny, teacher preparation programs must prioritize supporting pre-service educators and students, underscoring the critical need to nurture social justice pedagogies. In this bicoastal qualitative case study, we explored the impact of Latinx children’s literature on Latinx preservice teachers enrolled in courses at a Bilingual Teacher Residency Program and in a collaboration between a School of Education and a School of Humanities and Social Sciences Ethnic Studies Department. Focusing on two particular children’s texts, the picture book Beauty Woke by NoNieqa Ramos, illustrated by Paola Escobar, and the poem “Le dicen Fregona” from David Bowles’ Le dicen Fregona middle-grade novel-in-verse, we found that Latinx children’s literature raised participants’ critical consciousness on Latinidad, expanded their language ideologies, and inspired classroom applications to examine issues of language, identity, and culture. Our findings have implications for children’s literature, teacher preparation, and curriculum development.

 

Keywords: Latinx children's literature, teacher preparation, bilingual teacher residency, language ideologies, ethnic studies, latinidad

How to Cite:

España, C., Herrera, L. Y. & Sánchez Hernández, M., (2025) “Exploring the Impact of Latinx Children’s Literature on Bilingual Teacher Preparation: A Study of Beauty Woke and Le dicen Fregona”, International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 14(1). doi: https://doi.org//ijcp.1405