Staying the Course in Times of Change

Abstract

This article describes how passage of Proposition 227 (P-227), the popular California initiative restricting bilingual education, has influenced teacher preparation to authorize specialized instruction for limited English proficient students. The knowledge base for bilingual cross-cultural language and academic development teacher education is grounded in an additive acculturation model, in contrast to assimilationist philosophy, which underlies policies mandating English immersion for language minorities. Federal court rulings upholding P-227 establish a sequential program to address English language learning as well as content learning and require school districts to provide specialized instruction until language minority students reach academic parity. Legal mandates continue to require teacher education to provide effective teacher preparation programs for schooling linguistically diverse student populations. The response to P-227 by San Diego State University's College of Education is explored to illustrate the reaffirmation of a commitment to educational equity and ongoing program development to support multicultural teaching.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Case Study of ESL Teacher Educator

“…But the truth was that ELL students were growing fast in mainstream classes, especially by the end of 1990's when bilingual programs were deemphasized in the United States. Because teachers were not trained for ESL teaching, they felt at a loss how to teach ELL students (Mora, 2000).…”