Making meaning, doing math: high school English learners, student-led discussion, and math tracking

Praxis crisis and the trouble with science teacher education for emergent bilingual learners

“…While Tate emphasized the role of teacher quality in students' opportunities to learn science, Tate also pointed to course‐taking opportunities at the secondary level as aspects of curriculum differentiation that play a gate‐keeper role, arguing that “a central question for those interested in urban school reform is how school systems can increase access to rigorous high‐quality science courses” (Tate, 2001, p. 1022). Drawing conclusions similar to Tate's analysis of factors affecting minoritized students' opportunities to learn science, Callahan et al (2020) identify course placement, or tracking , as one of two key factors that shape science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning for EBL students in secondary schools (the other factor being instructional experiences). It has been well established that participation in advanced courses is not completely based on students' merit: Participation in advanced coursework has as much to do with students' socioeconomic, racial, and gendered status (or more, one could easily argue) as it does with academic preparedness or “ability” (Callahan, 2005; Gamoran, 2010; Oakes, 1990).…”

“…The heavy constraints placed upon EBL students and their teachers in science create “seemingly intractable” tensions for equity‐minded novice teachers, who while confronting a very different reality in placement, may only loosely grasp that liberatory, or even accessible, science education is possible and doable (Gutiérrez & Calabrese Barton, 2015, p. 575). Preservice teachers learning to work with EBLs in science encounter a dual deficit in which EBLs structurally have limited opportunities to learn science (Callahan, 2005; Callahan et al, 2020) and novice teachers have limited opportunities to practice how to teach science to EBLs (Faltis & Valdés, 2016; Rodriguez, 2019).…”

“…EBLs perform better on content and language achievement measures while meeting high school graduation and college admissions requirements when they have access to rigorous academic coursework such as advanced secondary science courses (Callahan, 2005, 2017; Gamoran, 2017; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). Their overall success and retention in these courses, however, is highly dependent upon the teachers' ability to facilitate learning environments in which EBL students feel both challenged and supported to engage in rigorous coursework (Callahan et al, 2020; Lyon et al, 2016; Olsen, 2010; Thompson, 2017). Improving the preparation of science teachers to expand EBLs' opportunities to learn is, therefore, a social justice imperative and has been the subject of increasing attention in science education research over the past decade (Lyon & Tolbert, 2021; Rutt et al, 2020).…”

“…(López, 2017; Morales‐Doyle et al, 2020; Rodriguez, 2019). Just like cursory or isolated attention to issues of language development and scaffolding is insufficient to prepare science teachers for high‐quality instruction with EBLs, cursory or isolated attention to issues of systemic inequity is insufficient to prepare critically aware teachers who can support EBL students' overall opportunities to learn science (Callahan et al, 2020; Gutiérrez, 2016; López, 2017; Morales‐Doyle et al, 2020).…”

“…The implications for teacher education are twofold: Science teachers must be better prepared to facilitate opportunities for EBLs to learn science through inclusive and integrated science-language instructional approaches, and they must be well-equipped to negotiate (or subvert) oppressive structural barriers that systematically exclude EBL students from school science (Bartell et al, 2019;Callahan et al, 2020;Rodriguez, 2015Rodriguez, , 2019. While there is a growing body of research that addresses the former challenge, the latter has been an understudied challenge in science teacher education (Lyon & Tolbert, 2021;Viesca et al, 2019).…”