Rethinking the Hispanic Teacher Shortage: Dual Language Rethinking the Hispanic Teacher Shortage: Dual Language Schools as Identity-Affirming Organizations Schools as Identity-Affirming Organizations

: Research has established the con nec tion between the aca demic suc cess of cul tur ally and lin guis ti cally diverse stu dents, and their schools’ abil ity to recruit and retain teach ers that reflect such diver sity (Shirrell et al., 2019). Studies have also high lighted the crit i cal ity of the stu dents’ home lan guage use as a way to enhance aca demic growth and develop their socio cul tural com pe tence and well-being (Feinauer & Howard, 2014). There is no research, how ever, addressing the dif er ences between the expe ri ences of His panic teach ers in bilin gual Cath o lic edu ca tion com pared to those in mono lin gual English Cath o lic edu ca tion. This arti cle high lights the dif er ences cap tured by a recent study, and discusses the poten tial les sons learned from these dif er ences—includ ing their con nec tion to the recruit ment and reten tion of His panic bilin gual teach ers. It con cludes by pro pos ing mean ing-ful future research, and by ofer ing rec om men da tions to (a) affirm bilin gual His panic iden ti ties and (b) pos i tively impact edu ca tors’ career choices and their stu dents’ aca demic expe ri ences.


report, Cultivating Talent: A Summary of Findings from the National Study Examining Pathways to Increase the Presence of His panic Teachers and Leaders in Cath o lic Schools
(here af er, "Cultivating Talent") published by the Roche Center for Cath o lic Education, at the Lynch School for Education and Human Development at Bos ton College. In the report, how ever, data ofer ing spe cific infor ma tion on fac tors afect ing His panic edu ca tors in bilin gual ver sus mono lin gual set tings were lef untapped due to length con straints. This arti cle high lights and orga nizes those find ings, fram ing them within the con cept of iden tity and rel e vant lit er a ture.
The com par i son between the expe ri ences of His panic teach ers in bilin gual ver sus English mono lin gual set tings is mean ing ful because it sheds light on missed or lev er aged oppor tu ni ties in their recruit ment and reten tion. His panic teach ers in bilin gual set tings praise the fact that their bilin gual ism is seen as an asset and not some thing that needs to be fixed (Sada, 2017), and this max i mizes job sat is fac tion and per sonal ful fill ment (DeMatthews & Izquierdo, 2017;Howard & López-Velázquez, 2019). This research sug gests that Cath o lic bilin gual schools tend to be more affirming than non-bilin gual schools-mean ing that more His panic teach ers in bilin gual set tings feel that His panic her i tage is reflected in school events and envi ron ments, that they work with other His panic col leagues, and that their school is com mit ted to serv ing His panic stu dents. This find ing cor rob o rates pre vi ous research in con nec tion to the advan tages of matching stu dent and edu ca tors' demo graph ics in school set tings (Egalite & Kisida, 2017). Data from this research, how ever, ofer a novel approach, as this is the first study com par ing His panic teach ers in Cath o lic bilin gual schools with His panic teach ers in mono lin gual English Cath o lic schools.
Afer mak ing a case for iden tity affir ma tion as a con cep tual frame work and connecting the study with pre vi ous research in the area of bilin gual teacher school expe ri ences, this arti cle will pres ent a sum mary of study find ings. It will then dis cuss impli ca tions pertaining to school designs and mod els and point toward poten tial future research that can con tinue to advance our understand ing of bilin gual set tings' impli ca tions for teach ers and stu dents in Cath o lic schools.

Identity Affirmation and Imagined Worlds
In this study, iden ti ties are defined as self-under stand ings, "espe cially those with strong res o nance for the teller" (Holland et al., 1998, p. 3) and as how a per son under stands his or her rela tion ship to the world, "how that rela tion ship is constructed across time and space, and how the per son under stands pos si bil i ties for the future" (Norton, 2013, p. 5;Sada, 2020, p. 11) From this per spec tive, iden ti ties are not sim ply ways in which indi vid u als iden tify them selves, but are also "rela tional" and "posi tional, " since peo ple's "choices (or posi tions) are not socially neu tral" (Holland et al., 1998, p. 126). This defi ni tion of iden tity is mean ing ful here because it looks at how His panic teach ers see them selves (and shape their iden ti ties) through the eyes of oth ers. Unfortunately, choices and/or iden ti fi ers such as accents, lan guage use, tra di tions, skin color, and ward robe have his tor i cally placed indi vid u als within a social sta tus or cat e gory-where social and lead er ship mobil ity is diffi cult-and cer tain claims for a bet ter life can be either accessed or restricted. These choices and/or iden ti fi ers are per ceived by oth ers within rela tion ships and tend to posi tion indi vidu als as majoratized supe ri ors or minoritized infe ri ors, forg ing static iden ti ties.
Furthermore, Holland et al. (1998)-build ing on Anderson's (1983) and Caughey's (1984) idea-state that "by mod el ing pos si bil i ties, imag i nary worlds can inspire new actions" (p. 49); this in turn leads iden ti ties to reshape, evolve, and acquire new facets and dif er ent sta tus, pro vok ing other new actions that work as rein forc ers of the new iden tity. This frame serves as our par a digm and helps us see iden ti ties as inter sec tional and mold able, rather than static and sin gle fac eted. It also ofers param e ters for our "iden tity affir ma tion" defi ni tion, since to affirm iden ti ties is to ofer lever age in oth ers' imag ined worlds, dem on strat ing gen u ine pos i tive dis po si tions toward an indi vid ual's var i ous attri butes (includ ing lin guis tic and cul tural iden ti fi ers) and pro duc ing a sense of belong ing and self-worth. For exam ple, when we act gen u inely inter ested in some one's spe cific lan guage or tra di tion and learn from them, or when we actively lis ten to some one's per spec tives and ideas, seek ing to cre ate syn er gies out of dif er ences, we are posi tion ing that indi vid ual's iden tifi ers and con tri bu tions as pre cious resources in our com mu nity-cre at ing an imag ined caste-free world where we all belong. Subsequently, that imag ined world moves indi vid u als to pro duce more acts and lan guage of accep tance, appre ci a tion, and affir ma tion.
Identity affir ma tion is at the core of this study because it emerged as a key fac tor when ana lyz ing the dif er ences between His panic teach ers in bilin gual and English-only set tings. In our sam ple of His panic teach ers, 86 teach in a mono lin gual English Cath o lic school (as the lan guage of instruction), and 55 teach in a dual lan guage Cath o lic school. Dual lan guage schools have the goal of maintaining stu dents' home lan guage while devel op ing English and/or bilin gual ism. Teachers in these pro grams teach grade-level con tent in two lan guages, typ i cally English and a lan guage other than English (LOTE); ofen, the LOTE is a lan guage that many of the stu dents speak at home. There are mul ti ple advan tages of dual lan guage edu ca tion. These can include new neu ro sci en tific under stand ings (e.g., brain plas tic ity, adapt abil ity, and cre a tiv ity; Fox et al., 2019); socioemotional ben e fits (e.g., inter gen er a tional inter com mu ni ca tion; Farruggio, 2010) or socio cul tural com petence (e.g., open ness to diverse per spec tives and dia logue facil i ta tion; Liberman et al., 2016); and prac ti cal ben e fits (e.g., bilin gual ism in the work place; Gándara, 2018). Recently, stud ies have focused on the ben e fits that bilin gual set tings bring to iden tity affir ma tion and the efect that this affir ma tion has on indi vid u als' well ness (Cummings et al., 2015;Sada, 2020;Shin, 2017). As Cath o lic edu ca tion adopts dual lan guage edu ca tion-with 45 known pro grams in the coun try-lead ers are see ing that bilin gual and pluricultural per spec tives ofer an ideal venue to fos ter the Chris tian prin ci ple of social jus tice (United States Conference of Cath o lic Bishops, 2000) while lay ing the foun da tion for the afore men tioned ben e fits.

Literature Review
Our review of the lit er a ture encompasses research that has suc cess fully connected stu dents' aca demic per for mance and the teach ers' pop u la tion rep re sen ta tion. The review also includes a body of research high light ing the pos i tive efects of using stu dents' native lan guage in instruc tion. Bridging these two con cepts-the sim i lar i ties in pop u la tion rep re sen ta tion between stu dents and teach ers (spe cifi cally, between His panic, Span ish-speak ing stu dents and teach ers) and the use of stu dents' home lan guage-is sig nifi cant, because we posit the depen dance between these con cepts: Efective bilin gual edu ca tion requires bilin gual teach ers or teach ers that can use the stu dents' home lan guage. Further, we sug gest that the more we suc ceed in recruiting and retaining bilin gual teachers, the more we will set CLD stu dents up for suc cess. The review con cludes with an over view of the pres ence of His panic edu ca tors in Cath o lic schools, includ ing their moti va tions, sup ports, and chal lenges in their pro fes sional path ways.

A Faculty that Reflects the Student Population
To improve the aca demic suc cess of CLD stu dents, schools must be able to recruit and retain teach ers that reflect their stu dents' diver sity. Students whose teach ers match their racial iden tity have more pos i tive per cep tions of their teach ers' care for them, expe ri ence higher lev els of inter est in their school work, and have more pos i tive out comes in teacher-stu dent com mu ni ca tion and guid ance com pared to peers who do not have a racial iden tity match with their teach ers (Castro & Calzada, 2021). Studies also show that mid dle school stu dents who have a racial iden tity match with their teacher are more likely to con sider going to col lege because of their teacher's influ ence, and ele men tary stu dents with a racial iden tity match with their teacher can more eas ily under stand what they are learn ing in class based on how their teacher explains it (Castro & Calzada, 2021). Teachers of color have been shown to be par tic u larly well suited to explaining mate rial in a cul tur ally rel e vant and engag ing way-cru cial for the suc cess of CLD stu dents (Castro & Calzada, 2021). This emphasizes the impor tance of hir ing and retaining teach ers who reflect the iden ti ties of their stu dents.
This pos i tive impact of teacher match and teacher bilin gual ism is espe cially impor tant in the edu ca tion of His panic stu dents. His panic stu dents are less likely to be suspended from school when they have His panic teach ers, allowing them to have more instruc tional time and focus and to com plete their stud ies (Shirrell et al., 2019). Bilingual His panic teach ers in par tic u lar also have higher lev els of His panic stu dent achieve ment, com pared to mono lin gual His panic teach ers and non-His panic teach ers; this is due to bilin gual His panic teach ers' self-effi cacy in using efec tive main stream and cul tur ally respon sive teach ing prac tices (Egalite & Kisida, 2017). To efec tively serve His panic stu dents and pro mote their aca demic suc cess, schools must recruit and retain His panic teach ers through cre at ing school envi ron ments that sup port their iden tity affir ma tion.

Linguistic Choices that Reflect Schools' Languages
School, dis trict, and dioc e san admin is tra tors face many choices when establishing an edu cational model and instruc tional pro grams. One choice con cerns lan guage use for instruc tion and for learn ing. While most schools teach stu dents to code switch between social and aca demic lan guage dur ing instruc tion (Ballinger et al., 2017), most over look translanguaging-the abil ity to use the stu dents' entire lin guis tic rep er toire in the lan guage(s) they know-dur ing instruc tion. Translanguaging, how ever, is an efec tive way to develop meta lin guis tic skills in bilin gual and mul ti lin gual stu dents, which in turn fos ters lit er acy, cog ni tive devel op ment, and cul tural and lin guis tic iden tity affir ma tion (Hopewell & Escamilla, 2015). Research has shown that cap i tal iz ing on stu dents' home lan guage, by cre at ing spaces dur ing instruc tion when stu dents can make lin guis tic con nections, leads to more efec tive lan guage devel op ment (includ ing English and the LOTE or home lan guage devel op ment; Howard et al. 2018;Lindholm-Leary, 2012), among the many afore mentioned ben e fits. His panic edu ca tors play key roles in reflecting the iden ti ties of their stu dents: They pro mote stu dents' use of their home lan guage to sup port their aca demic growth, and they model socio cul tural com pe tence and well-being. In order to recruit and retain His panic teach ers, schools must affirm the iden ti ties of those edu ca tors to cre ate wel com ing spaces (Baez Cruz, 2021;Ospino & Wyttenbach, 2022).

His panic Educators in Cath o lic Schools
The Cultivating Talent study sug gests that His panic teach ers in Cath o lic edu ca tion are highly moti vated, driven by val ues, and supported in their pro fes sional suc cess by a sense of His panic sup port and men tor ship (Ospino & Wyttenbach, 2022). Over half of the His panic teach ers have con sid ered run ning for pub lic office. Two thirds knew that they would become a teacher early on, and affirmed that there was a His panic teacher role model whom they admired and who inspired them in their deci sion to enter the pro fes sion. His panic teach ers also stated that being His panic and work ing in a place that aligns with their val ues is impor tant (75% of them selected this as key in their job choice). Most (86%) agreed that their work helps them live their life's pur pose, and all of them affirmed receiv ing ori en ta tion regard ing the dio cese or net work's mis sion, beliefs, and val ues as essen tial part of their deci sion to teach within that con text. However, 44% have con sidered leav ing Cath o lic edu ca tion, with 81% responding that it is due to low sal ary and/or lack of ben e fits, and 26% agree ing that there is no room for growth. Furthermore, the research points toward a poten tial sense of iso la tion among His panic edu ca tors; with only 38% of teach ers hav ing the oppor tu nity to col lab o rate, and with only 41% hav ing a men tor-and 20% meet ing with their men tor on a weekly basis. Only 9% of His panic teach ers in Cath o lic edu ca tion were encour aged by a pas tor to become a teacher; how ever, there were some cases where the pas tor's influ ence in posi tion ing parish ion ers as edu ca tors became evi dent and help ful for these to dis cover align ment between the teach ing pro fes sion and their ide als.

Data Collection
Data for this arti cle come from the (2022) Cultivating Talent study, conducted through the Roche Center for Cath o lic Education at Bos ton College. The data were gath ered via a national sur vey, focus groups, and inter views. All research activ ity and mate ri als were approved by the Bos ton College Institutional Review Board. Participants in the study were Cath o lic school teach ers and school lead ers who iden ti fied as His panic. The sur vey was dis sem i nated through a data base of His panic and non-His panic Cath o lic school lead ers devel oped inter nally at the Roche Center for Cath o lic Education. Participants took the sur vey through Qualtrics. The sur vey included one set of ques tions for all respon dents and sep a rate sets of addi tional ques tions for teach ers, and a sec ond set for school lead ers. Participants were asked to indi cate their role in their school and received the cor re spond ing sur vey. They were also asked whether they worked in a dual lan guage school. Data col lec tion via the sur vey took place from July and Novem ber 2021.
Survey ques tions reflected the the o ret i cal frame work for the Cultivating Talent study. Items focused on a voca tional sur vey across four domains: (a) per sonal dis cern ment, (b) dis cern ment with(in) the insti tu tion, (c) from the com mu nity into the Cath o lic school, and (d) from the Catho lic school into the com mu nity. Responses to these ques tions pro vided insights on the expe ri ence of His panic edu ca tors in Cath o lic schools.

Sample
For this arti cle, we used only data from teach ers' responses from Ospino and Wyttenbach's (2022) report, sep a rat ing those work ing in dual lan guage schools and those in English-only schools; among these, 86 teach in English-only Cath o lic schools (as the lan guage of instruc tion) and 55 in dual lan guage Cath o lic schools. The com plete teacher sam ple identifies as Cath o lic (97%) and as female (81%); 37% are under 40; 67% are mar ried, of whom the major ity have children (66%); and 42% enrolled their chil dren or grandchildren in the school where they teach. This study also indi cates that the His panic edu ca tors in Cath o lic schools in the United States are highly qual i fied: They have an aver age of 13.7 years of teach ing expe ri ence, 58.3% have a mas ter's degree, 9.6% have a doc toral degree, and 64% are licensed (by states) as teach ers.

Results
The study found key dif er ences in the moti va tions, con texts, and expe ri ences of His panic teach ers in dual lan guage Cath o lic schools in com par i son to those in mono lin gual English Cath olic schools.

Motivations
Growing up, 78% of dual lan guage teach ers wanted to be teach ers, com pared to 48% of nondual lan guage teach ers. The for mer teach ers were then supported in their aspi ra tions, with 82% of dual lan guage teach ers receiv ing encour age ment from oth ers to become a teacher com pared to 61% of non-dual lan guage teach ers. They were also supported in their school con texts; 74% of dual lan guage teach ers had His panic teach ers or role mod els in their schools to whom they could look up when explor ing the pro fes sion, com pared with 50% of non-dual lan guage school teach ers. Dual lan guage school teach ers also plan on remaining lon ger in Cath o lic edu ca tion than non-dual lan guage teach ers, with 73% of dual lan guage teach ers say ing they are plan ning on remaining in Cath o lic edu ca tion as long as they are able, com pared to 65% of non-dual lan guage teach ers.
Dual lan guage teach ers were also ofen moti vated by the oppor tu nity to work with His panic stu dents and fam i lies. When con sid er ing tak ing a role in their Cath o lic school, dual lan guage teach ers (47%) were more likely to cite their school's com mit ment to serv ing His panic chil dren and fam i lies as a moti vat ing fac tor when com pared to non-dual lan guage teach ers (18%). This also supported them in remaining at their schools: 27.78% of non-dual lan guage His panic teach ers have con sid ered leav ing their schools because of a lack of diver sity among stu dents and fam i lies, com pared to 5% of dual lan guage teach ers.
These moti va tions that affirm dual lan guage teach ers' iden ti ties are more mean ing ful when con sid ered along side their low com pen sa tion: 65% of bilin gual His panic teach ers rank their sal ary as 1 or 2 (out of 5), with one quar ter of them mak ing less than $40,000 a year; and, when con sider ing their active involve ment in school lead er ship, His panic teach ers in dual lan guage Cath o lic schools are ofen entrusted with lead er ship roles in cur ric u lum devel op ment and out reach pro jects, since only one quar ter of prin ci pals in dual lan guage Cath o lic schools in the United States speak the part ner lan guage (Span ish, Mandarin, and Lakota).

Context and Collaboration
The school con texts of dual lan guage teach ers and non-dual lan guage teach ers also vary. Teachers in dual lan guage schools more ofen see their iden tity and cul ture reflected in the school, its stu dents, and its staf than non-dual lan guage teach ers. Dual lan guage teach ers respond at higher rates than non-dual lan guage teach ers that their schools cen ter on His panic her i tage, pro vide inter pre ta tion and bilin gual mate ri als for fam i lies, involve fam i lies in the plan ning of cul tural events, and have art that rep re sents the His panic com mu nity. They also see His panic her i tage reflected in the Cath o lic iden tity of the school at higher rates; 79% of dual lan guage teach ers always or ofen feel their schools' Cath o lic tra di tions reflect their cul tural back ground, com pared to 49% of non-dual lan guage teach ers. This cor re lates with the fact that 96% of the parishes of the schools where dual lan guage teach ers work have a Mass in Span ish, com pared to 60% of the parishes of the non-dual lan guage schools.
Dual lan guage teach ers are also more likely to work with other His panic teach ers and school lead ers, find ing rep re sen ta tion and men tor ship through their col lab o ra tion: 76% of dual lan guage teach ers have His panic school lead ers in their school, com pared to 50% of non-dual lan guage teach ers. Likewise, 98% of dual lan guage teach ers work with other His panic fac ulty, com pared to 90% of non-dual lan guage teach ers. This is then reflected in men tor ship. Dual lan guage teach ers are more likely to seek out men tor ship from other His panic teach ers, lead ers, and staf in their schools than non-dual lan guage teach ers, and they are more likely to have His panic men tor teachers (53%) than non-dual lan guage teach ers (25%). This all con trib utes to a school com mu nity in which His panic teach ers are more likely to remain in their posi tions. Only 5% of dual lan guage teach ers have con sid ered leav ing their Cath o lic school because of a lack of diver sity among the staf, com pared to 31% of non-dual lan guage teach ers.

Experience as Gente Puente
The expe ri ences of dual lan guage teach ers in their schools also dif er from those of non-dual lan guage teach ers, par tic u larly in their own iden tity for ma tion as mem bers of their school commu nity. Dual lan guage teach ers see them selves as gente puente-defined in the study as "bridge build ers, " or indi vid u als who inten tion ally build rela tion ships (Ospino & Wyttenbach, 2022). This rela tion ship with oth ers as gente puente expands to other His panic teach ers, His panic fam i lies, the non-His panic com mu nity, Church lead ers, and com mu nity lead ers, and it is pres ent at higher rates than among non-dual lan guage teach ers; an exam ple of this is that 54% of dual lan guage teach ers engage in advo cacy around con cerns of the His panic com mu nity, such as food inse cu rity, access to edu ca tion, and immi gra tion, com pared to 40% of non-dual lan guage teach ers.

Discussion
Based on the research find ings, dual lan guage Cath o lic schools are more affirming spaces for His panic teach ers, and are there fore more equi ta ble con texts for His panic stu dents and edu ca tors. This cor rob o rates with existing lit er a ture that con nects affin ity of edu ca tors' eth nic ity and race with stu dent suc cess, and research connecting iden tity affir ma tion and work sat is fac tion (Baez Cruz, 2021).
However, even within dual lan guage and iden tity affir ma tion spaces, more atten tion needs to be given to supporting teach ers in other con crete ways. Study find ings indi cate that many His panic teach ers must hold a sec ond job to make ends meet, and many have con sid ered leav ing their cur rent Cath o lic school seek ing bet ter-paid salaries. This points to an underappreciation for the bilin gual work force and sug gests that His panic bilin gual teach ers see them selves as can di dates for bet ter salaries and spaces where they can uti lize their bilin gual skills. It also indi cates that in many cases (at least a quar ter of them), their house holds can not aford one or two low-pay ing jobs. His panic bilin gual teach ers par tic i pate in school pro gram devel op ment at greater rates than those in mono lin gual English schools, and their com pen sa tion should also reflect this.
We have established dual lan guage schools as stron ger iden tity affir ma tion spaces for stu dents and teach ers, and for stu dents' aca demic and socio cul tural achieve ment and com pe tence. We have also established the need for a bilin gual work force in con nec tion to teacher ful fill ment and stu dent achieve ment. According to this anal y sis, it is cru cial to attend to fac tors that will enhance the recruit ment and reten tion of bilin gual His panic edu ca tors. The anal y sis points toward the fol lowing two: the devel op ment of more dual lan guage schools, and the inclu sion of fac tors that sup port teacher pro fes sional devel op ment and iden tity appre ci a tion. Educators seek orga ni za tions where their cul tural, eth nic, and lin guis tic iden ti ties are seen as assets: gifs to them selves, the school com mu nity, and soci ety. Bilingualism and iden tity diver sity are not a defi cit-some thing to be fixed rap idly enough for stu dents to enter English-only class rooms. Rather, they rep re sent tal ents that need to be cel e brated, nur tured, and reflected in our edu ca tional pro grams and orga ni za tional struc tures, includ ing in teach ers' salaries.
Identity and iden tity intersectionality are social con structs (Gonzalez, 2009;Norton, 2013); teach ers' iden ti ties evolve, molded by schools' orga ni za tional fac tors and instruc tional pro grams. Identities can rad i cally be shaped by moments of impro vi sa tions (Holland et al. 1998), in which a struc tural or orga ni za tional change sends the mes sage to teach ers that their inter sec tional identi ties are an asset and that they will be included as part of the pro gram, along with the stu dents' . Positioning His panic edu ca tors as tal ented edu ca tors (in part because of their back ground and lan guage) is fun da men tal to the Cath o lic school com mu nity, and Chris tian social jus tice. Identity shapes peo ple's imag ined world and the future for which they strive; iden ti ties-indi vid ual and shared-also shape the future of insti tu tions to which peo ple belong (Sada, 2020).

Future Research
As the sam ple used was a sub set of the total sam ple in the "National Study Examining Pathways to Increase the Presence of His panic Teachers and Leaders in Cath o lic Schools, " a future study with a larger sam ple of teach ers in dual lan guage Cath o lic schools would ofer addi tional insights. A team at the Roche Center for Cath o lic Education at Bos ton College is cur rently work ing on a study addressing this need, focus ing on the orga ni za tional char ac ter is tics that afect the recruitment and reten tion of dual lan guage Cath o lic school teach ers; this includes iden ti fy ing ways that (a) schools serve as iden tity-affirming spaces and (b) those eforts sup port the recruit ment and reten tion of bilin gual edu ca tors. Insights from this sur vey can inform both dual lan guage Cath o lic schools and mono lin gual English Cath o lic schools, and shed light on how to cre ate iden tityaffirming spaces which sup port bilin gual teach ers and poten tial edu ca tors to join their school com mu ni ties and remain in their posi tions. Data from Ospino and Wyttenbach's (2022) report and from the pres ent arti cle's anal y sis can serve as a foun da tion for fur ther research exam in ing lead er ship qual i ties, orga ni za tional con di tions, teacher pipe line sup port, and other fac tors which influ ence iden tity affir ma tion for His panic bilin gual and non-bilin gual edu ca tors.

Conclusion
The con cepts of iden tity and iden tity affir ma tion, in con nec tion with imag ined worlds, con sti tuted the frame for this research, in which we exam ined the short age, recruit ment, and reten tion of bilin gual teach ers. To exam ine the iden ti ties of bilin gual teach ers, we ana lyzed notyet-published data from a larger data set used by Ospino and Wyttenbach in their (2022) report, Cultivating Talent: A Summary of Findings from the National Study Examining Pathways to Increase the Presence of His panic Teachers and Leaders in Cath o lic Schools. We desegregated infor ma tion from two sub sam ples, His panic teach ers in mono lin gual English Cath o lic schools (as lan guage of instruc tion) and in dual lan guage Cath o lic schools. The dif er ences reflected in their per ceptions of iden tity, ful fill ment, and affir ma tion led to rel e vant find ings in the areas of moti va tion, con text, col lab o ra tion, and being gente puente. Key find ings tar get (a) dual lan guage edu ca tion as a par tic u larly affirming space for cul tural, eth nic and lin guis tic iden ti ties, and (b) the prevailing teacher per cep tion that schools need to enhance appre ci a tion for their work and tal ents spe cifi cally through bet ter mon e tary remu ner a tion.
Educators seek orga ni za tions in which their cul tural, eth nic, and lin guis tic iden ti ties are seen as assets-gifs to them selves, the school com mu nity, and to soci ety. Identity and iden tity intersectionality are social con structs (Gonzalez, 2009;Norton, 2013). Moreover, teach ers' iden ti ties are shaped by their school (orga ni za tion, lead er ship, pro grams, etc.) through impro vi sa tions (Holland et al., 1998): school actions or deci sions that carry an iden tity-shaper mes sage-one of defi cit or one that is asset-based. Positioning His panic edu ca tors as tal ented edu ca tors and pay ing them accord ingly is fun da men tal to the Cath o lic iden tity and social doc trine. The iden ti ties that edu cators forge (e.g., via school struc tures, pro grams, lead ers, and man dates) also influ ence com mu nity and soci e tal iden ti ties, which in turn deter mine the imag ined world stu dents and teach ers develop, and the one on which they will base their actions. If schools seek to recruit tal ented His panic and bilin gual teach ers, they must have imag ined worlds (Anderson, 1983;Holland et al., 1998) where pop u la tions' cul tural, eth nic, and lin guis tic iden ti ties are con sid ered assets-and this con sid er ation must be reflected in schools' instruc tional pro grams, struc tures, and com pen sa tion.