“Prieta, happy in their skin, color, and language”: secondary content area teachers’ navigation of raciolinguistic ideologies in Texas

This study explores how secondary content-area teachers from raciolinguistically minoritized communities engage with raciolinguistic trauma through participation in a professional development (PD) program at a Hispanic-serving institution in South Texas. Drawing on the framework of raciolinguistic ideologies, we examine data from Project MIRRORS, a graduate-level PD program serving 55 teachers, recruited from two school districts and distributed across three cohorts. Through qualitative data analysis of interviews, digital language stories, identity reflections, and collaborative coaching sessions, we document how participants (a) engaged in intersectional identity work, (b) processed intergenerational and schooling-related linguistic trauma, and (c) reimagined pedagogical practices as acts of healing and resistance. The findings highlight three main areas: engaging in intersectional identity work through PD, reflecting on raciolinguistic trauma, and reclaiming linguistic agency through healing-oriented pedagogy. Teachers’ narratives demonstrate that addressing linguistic racism in TESOL requires attending to the emotional and historical dimensions of language oppression. We argue that trauma-informed teacher education grounded in identity work can foster both individual and collective healing by empowering educators to transform classrooms into spaces of linguistic justice and affirmation.