"Crazy, Brave New Kid Learning a New [Virtual] Land": Multidirectional Mentorship for, with, and by a Bilingual Teacher Candidate/Writer

ABSTRACT

The closing of universities and pK-12 schools in March 2020 pushed teacher preparation programs to explore virtual models of providing teacher candidates with clinical experiences. This case study chronicles a multiple-semester collaboration between a bilingual graduate-level teacher candidate (TC) and university faculty members (authors) exploring what it might mean to enact writing instruction in a fully virtual community of in-service teachers, undergraduate- and graduate-level TCs, and children in grades K-5. Drawing on Garcia et al.'s (2016) current/corriente metaphor, the TC's translanguaging performances in the community across time were examined to track the multidirectional flows of mentorship that shifted the community's engagement as digital writers and writing teachers. Findings identified three critical flows of mentorship made possible by the virtual infrastructure (a) mentorship between TCs and in-service teachers;(b) mentorship between TCs and faculty members;and (c) and mentorship between families/caregivers and TCs. These multidirectional flows disrupted traditional hierarchical notions of university-pK-12 school demarcations, offering insights into possibilities for reimagining more effective virtual clinical models for preparing TCs who can enact culturally sustaining writing pedagogy as a means of sustaining all children's cultural and linguistic practices.