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Where are the bilingual teachers? The Hispanic voice is scarce in US schools.

2023-02-07T18:38:19.343Z


School authorities are trying creative ways to attract teachers who speak both English and Spanish. In addition, in the Axios Latino newsletter, a high-impact ruling for Latin America.


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 Axios Latino is the newsletter that summarizes the key news for Latino communities in the hemisphere every Tuesday and Thursday.

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1. The Topic to Spotlight: Behind the Shortage of Bilingual Teachers

teacher shortage

in the United States it particularly affects bilingual students and students who are learning English at the same time as other subjects, activists warn in an interview with Keldy Ortiz, a reporter for Axios.

Big Picture

: The Latino population has skyrocketed in the past decade, especially in cities on the South and East Coast, which had historically lower Hispanic presence.

  • The number of people who speak a language other than English has nearly tripled in the last 40 years.

  • But teacher vacancies — fueled by low wages and burnout, and aggravated by the pandemic — are through the roof, with a particularly difficult time filling slots for educators who can teach classes bilingually.

[Latino teachers are stampeding into retirement]

School authorities are

getting creative to attract more bilingual teachers.

Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

  • In Arkansas, some districts are helping bilingual practitioners get their teacher's licenses through a federally funded university project overseen by Diana Gonzales Worthen, who says there are other similar programs to recruit more bilingual teachers.

  • In Houston, the nonprofit group Latinos for Education has a scholarship program to help Latino teachers obtain bilingual certification, according to Armando X. Orduña, director of the organization in that city.

  • Orduña says they want to avoid a common practice in school districts in Houston and the rest of Harris County (where the Latino population grew between 2010 and 2020), which often move bilingual specialists from one school to another, creating instability for the students.

Yes, but

: District leaders need to consider cultural competency and not just language when hiring bilingual teachers, says Feliza Ortiz-Licon, policy director for Latinos for Education.

  • He adds that bilingual teachers often feel unsupported because their talents are being “harnessed” by schools but not given leadership opportunities.

  • "Much more is demanded of bilingual educators, demands that we call the '

    invisible tax

    '", the invisible attrition, explains Ortiz-Licon.

  • Those additional demands include asking them to translate or interpret to help parents who only speak one language, as well as providing extra support for students, despite receiving little training to do so.

    "The stress of being an educator increases a lot," sums up the expert.

2. A ruling with repercussions in Latin America

An unprecedented decision by a human rights court on how the Bolivian justice system should treat cases of sexual violence could have repercussions throughout Latin America.

Why it matters

: Latin America, and Bolivia within the region, have some of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world.

[Read more about this case and what the woman who sued says]

Details

: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared in a ruling released on January 19 that Bolivia is responsible for violating due process and the human rights of Brisa De Angulo, a lawyer and neuropsychologist who denounced being raped as a teenager.

Brisa De Angulo at the 2019 Dave Kotinsky/World of Children Awards via Getty Images

  • The court required Bolivia to reform the penal code regarding crimes of sexual assault and create protocols so that rape investigations are handled with greater sensitivity to avoid further traumatizing the victims.

The intrigue

: The ruling is legally binding in Bolivia and can also be used as a precedent in similar cases throughout Latin America, says Citlalli Ochoa of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the Washington College of Law.

  • That could increase the chances that sexual crimes, the vast majority of which go unpunished, will be prosecuted in places like Mexico, where half of all women say they have been sexually harassed or assaulted in their lifetime.

3. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean

1. Former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes

announced that he will leave his business group after being sanctioned by the United States for alleged corruption (an accusation that he has denied).

  • Grupo Cartes is a huge company in Paraguay that has restaurants, banks and other subsidiaries.

Chile asks for international help to contain the fire that is devouring thousands of acres of its territory

Feb 5, 202300:26

2. At least 24 people have died

in Chile due to forest fires in the south of the country.

  • The fires have been fueled by a strong heat wave in the southern summer;

    but, in addition, the authorities announced on Monday the arrest of 10 people for allegedly making the fires worse.

4. 🎼 Green music

The artist MartĂ­n Primo is convinced that plants sing to us and is developing mechanisms to use these sounds as therapy.

Artist claims to make music with plants and trees using their electrical pulses

Feb 1, 202302:56

Details

: Primo, who lives in Miami, uses a device that records the electrical pulses that flow from trees and other plants near their roots, and uses those pulses to create instrumental sounds.

  • He then creates melodies that he says can calm people down.

In his own words

: "There is a melodic variation, perhaps a tree makes certain notes and others make others," Primo told Telemundo.

  • "Communicate this language, develop sensitivity and be able to perceive those things that are vibrating but from which we separated so long ago," he adds.

Thanks for reading us!

We return on Thursday.

 Do you want to read any of the previous editions?

Latinos have 'brown-eyed soul': this is how they reap success in R&B music

Are Latinos a race?

A definition change in the Census sparks controversy

Why Latino parents care more about their children: "We are affectionate, we are warm... that can be excessive"

Hispanic-led podcasts succeed in the US

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2023-02-07

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