Cultural/Linguistic Immersion in Teacher Preparation for Emergent Bilingual Learners: Defining a New Space for Asset-Based Pedagogies

Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of Els?

“…In addition to strong content and pedagogical foundations, educators of ELs benefit from teacher preparation that includes field-based experience with ELs (Bollin, 2007;Fitts & Gross, 2012;Pappamihiel, 2007). Field experiences can further help teachers recognize and capitalize on students' cultural and linguistic capital (González et al, 1995;Smolcic & Martin, 2019). Indeed, teachers' beliefs about language and their students' experiences affect their practice (Brousseau et al, 1988;Costa et al, 2005;Meskill, 2005).…”

“…Although scholarship details the complexity of content and pedagogical expertise necessary for teaching ELs (Brousseau et al, 1988;Clark et al, 2016;Costa et al, 2005;Daniel & Pacheco, 2015;Faltis & Valdés, 2016;;García et al, 2017;González et al, 1995;Harper & de Jong, 2004;Lucas & Grinberg, 2008;Lucas et al, 2018;Menken, 2013;Motha, 2014;Souto-Manning, 2016;Smolcic & Martin, 2019;Valdés et al, 2013), not all states even require the completion of an approved program for either bilingual education or ELD credentialing. It is highly problematic that with the potential of bilingual education teachers to help close the gap between ELs and their fully proficient peers (August & Shanahan, 2006;Collier & Thomas, 2017;Goldenberg, 2013;Thomas & Collier, 1997), only some SEAs offer bilingual credentialing and within these SEAs, credentialing requirements vary substantially.…”

"To be the person who is not the native speaker". Interculturality as empathy in cross-cultural experiences abroad

“…Some critical studies have noticed that mainstream curricular approaches towards these sojourns are openly depoliticized. Some of them continue reproducing a vision of otherness and interculturality as exotic objects to be recognized to affirm colonial representations (Stein and McCartney, 2021;Smolcic and Martin, 2019;Soto and Méndez, 2019). In recognition of this serious criticism, we must ensure that universities and programs that have included these sojourns as part of their curriculum understand what they offer and what the students bring in order to make curricula-informed decisions.…”