Resumen de ‘Mentor, friend, teacher, and learner’: the beauty, opportunities, and challenges of heritage speakers as heritage language educators

Meagan Y. Driver, Gabriela DeRobles

• The last decade has seen an increased interest in heritage language education (HLE), yet only limited work is guided by in-group scholars and community members who themselves identify as heritage speakers (i.e. individuals with family connections to a non-English language). The present study addresses a lack of in-group representation in the research by investigating current barriers and opportunities in HLE through semi-structured narrative interviews with eight in-group HS educators from five different heritage language backgrounds. A thematic analysis of qualitative findings uncovered a multitude of common and critical issues experienced by HS educators, including the benefits and hardships of sharing a sociolinguistic background with HL students and the emotional roller coaster of teaching a personal HL. Findings also outline numerous needs specific to this community of educators, such as increased in-group representation in the field and greater support for social-emotional and professional success and well-being. Results suggest a number of institutional implications to empower current HS educators and encourage a pipeline from HL student to HL teacher for individuals from minoritized language backgrounds.