Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Teachers' Discourse On English Language Learners: Cultural Models Of Language And Learning, Amy Heineke

Amy J. Heineke

This qualitative case study explores teacher learning about English language learners (ELLs) in a small-group, school-based context at an urban elementary school inArizona. Sociocultural perspectives on teacher learning guided the analysis of teachers’ participation in a teacher study group over six months. The teacher study group aimed to support educators of ELLs at a time of new language policy implementation, which required ELLs to enroll in an English language development (ELD) classroom for four hours of skill-based English language instruction.

In the first semester of language policy implementation, I collected discursive data that showcased the social interaction of teachers and …

The Influence Of University Coursework On Pre-Service Middle And High School Teachers’ Experiences With Multicultural Themes, Geeta Verma

Geeta Verma

The study explored the influence of university-based teacher education courses on pre-service middle and high school teachers’ experiences with multicultural themes in a secondary science alternative certification program. Eight participants (N = 8), six women and two men, volunteered to be a part of the study that took place over a period of four semesters. Qualitative data was collected, coded and analyzed to make meaning of the participants’ experiences. Data comprised of participants’ reflective journals, personal and group interviews, and classroom observations done in middle school practicum and high school student teaching placements. The findings indicated that while the participants …

“Push It Real Good!”: The Challenge Of Disrupting Dominant Discourses Regarding Race In Teacher Education, Kara Viesca, Cheryl Matias, Dorothy Garrison-Wade, Madhavi Tandon, Rene Galindo

Dorothy Garrison-Wade

Despite efforts to redesign an urban teacher education program for social justice and equity, faculty became aware of racialized issues teacher candidates of color faced in the program. Therefore, this study examined the perspectives of teacher candidates to learn about how race is impacting teaching and learning for pre-service teachers. Overall, we discovered the dominant narratives, often called majoritarian stories (Love, 2004), were extremely difficult to disrupt and essentially remained largely intact for teacher candidates in our program. In addition, we found that majoritarian stories helped to maintain a level of superficiality for teacher candidates regarding issues of race. For …

"These Rights Go Beyond Borders And Pieces Of Paper": Urban High School Teachers And Newcomer Immigrant Youth Engaging In Human Rights Education, Juliet Schiller

Juliet A Schiller

This qualitative study explored the ways that two ninth and tenth grade teachers and their newcomer immigrant students engaged in HRE using elements of critical pedagogy at an urban pubic high school. Research data included eight months of classroom observations and interviews with two teachers and nineteen of their students across four of their classrooms. In this study, the complexity of engaging in HRE with newcomer students was brought to light as two teachers enacted their vision of critical pedagogy, human rights content and learning goals, as well as English language instruction.

The findings in this study conveyed that engaging …

Autobiographies In Preservice Teacher Education: A Snapshot Tool For Building A Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Annmarie Gunn, Susan Bennett, Linda Evans, Barbara Peterson, James Welsh

Linda S. Evans

Many scholars have made the call for teacher educators to provide experiences that can lead preservice teachers to embrace a culturally responsive pedagogy. We investigated the use of brief autobiographies during an internship as a tool (a) for preservice teachers to examine their multidimensional culture; and (b) for teacher educators to assess preservice teachers' developing understandings about cultural responsive pedagogy and then further design curriculum to enhance these understandings. Using qualitative methods, we analyzed the preservice teachers' (N=24) autobiographies and an interview with the professor of this course. Based on the findings of this study, we suggest teacher educators need …

In Pursuit Of A New Perspective In The Education Of Children Of The Refugees: Advocacy For The “Family”, Zeynep Isik-Ercan

Zeynep Isik-Ercan

This paper describes a qualitative inquiry into the experiences of Burmese refugee families with elementary schools in the U.S. and proposes a new perspective for serving the educational needs of refugee children. Data included in-depth interviews with 25 Burmese families in a midsize Midwestern city. Findings from the preliminary analysis demonstrated that due to their own limited school experiences, the parents did not know how they could advocate for their children’s schooling and use academic opportunities. While the parents appreciated and encouraged their children’s school learning, they lacked the resources to support their children in negotiating academic contexts. Moreover, the …

Review Of The Book: Standing On The Outside Looking In: Underrepresented Students’ Experiences In Advanced Degree Programs By Mary F. Howard-Hamilton Et Al. (Eds.), Zeynep Isik-Ercan

Zeynep Isik-Ercan

No abstract provided.

“I Go To School Six Days A Week”: The Role Of Cultural And Religious Practices Within Hybrid Turkish-American Communities In Supporting Academic And Socioemotional Growth, Zeynep Isik-Ercan

Zeynep Isik-Ercan

No abstract provided.

It’S Not Just The Language: Culture As An Essential Element In Pre-Service Teacher Education, Linda Evans, Annmarie Gunn

Linda S. Evans

We’re not even two weeks into this course, and already I feel that the readings are speaking directly to me: to my prejudice, my (unadmitted) racism, my unresolved feelings about foreigners in my country, and all of the sentiments I hold dear about what it means to be American, and what those who are not native to this country “should” be doing to fit in. I am one of those people who have thought, if not actually said, that once they are in the United States, they need to speak English. So, now, I am ashamed that I have been …

Cross-Cultural Moral Explorations In Plagiarism, Bradley Baurain

Bradley Baurain

No abstract provided.

Morality, Relationality, And Listening Pedagogy In Language Education, Bradley Baurain

Bradley Baurain

Listening pedagogy in language education treats listening proficiency almost exclusively as a function or skill, the purpose of which is to generate products or outcomes desired by language users. Though listening is rhetorically acknowledged to be an active and complex process of making meanings within contexts and relationships, in practice teacher education and pedagogical discourse treat listening simply as a linguistic transaction and listening pedagogy as a technical and instrumental process of skill building, with the goal of enabling learners fluently to perform such transactions. Such a means-to-ends orientation, however, is inadequate or insufficient to encompass holistic moral and relational …

Voices, Identities, Negotiations, And Conflicts: Writing Academic English Across Cultures, Bradley Baurain, Ha Phan

Bradley Baurain

No abstract provided.

The Aesthetic Classroom And The Beautiful Game, Bradley Baurain

Bradley Baurain

No abstract provided.

Course Design And Teacher Development In Vietnam: A Diary Project, Bradley Baurain

Bradley Baurain

No abstract provided.

A Faith-Based Case For The Dream Act, Bradley Baurain

Bradley Baurain

No abstract provided.

Multilevel And Diverse Classrooms, Bradley Baurain, Ha Phan

Bradley Baurain

No abstract provided.

Christian Witness And Respect For Persons, Bradley Baurain

Bradley Baurain

Respect for persons has been widely acknowledged and discussed as a key moral dimension in education and teaching English to speakers of other languages. Christians believe in this value, particularly as it is articulated within scripture and tradition. Recent critics, however, seem to perceive a basic incompatibility between a Christian religious imperative to bear witness to one’s faith and a moral imperative to respect other persons. Beginning from an argument that all teaching is teaching for change, this essay makes a case that the two are not only not contradictory, but in fact should be consanguineous. Key issues explored include …

Small Group Multitasking In Literature Classes, Bradley Baurain

Bradley Baurain

Faced with the challenge of teaching American literature to large, multilevel classes in Vietnam, the writer developed a flexible small group framework called ‘multitasking’. ‘Multitasking’ sets up stable task categories which rotate among small groups from lesson to lesson. This framework enabled students to work cooperatively in a variety of formats and the teacher to generate a wide range of materials and activities efficiently. It also spurred students to develop more independent learning skills and the teacher to experiment more freely with new techniques. In a narrative and reflective format, in terms both of what he expected and what he …

Solving The Multilevel Dilemma, Bradley Baurain

Bradley Baurain

No abstract provided.

Beginning Teacher Standards: Impact On Second-Language Learners And Implications For Teacher Preparation, Ronald Solórzano, Daniel Solórzano

Ronald Solórzano

Discusses preservice and inservice beginning-teacher preparation, identifying areas of teaching that challenge the cultural deficit model by examining the role of teaching standards in addressing second-language learners' needs. Describes demographic changes within the classroom; reviews literature on effective teaching practices; and identifies a teaching-standards framework that could benefit beginning teachers of second-language learners.

Content Analysis Of Funded Enhancement Project Applications--Fiscal Year 1995, Adelina Alegria, Reynaldo Flores Macias, Ana Maria Rodrigues Resnik

Adelina Alegria

The 97 bilingual education program enhancement projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs in fiscal 1995 are analyzed for their demographic characteristics, goals and objectives, instructional characteristics, parent and family services, professional development, personnel training, and other program features. A subset of 33 programs was selected for in-depth analysis of features other than demographics. The 97 proposals, distributed among 21 states, served 53,535 students, 36,283 of whom were limited-English-proficient, from 78 language groups and at all grade levels. California received over half the funded projects. School districts were the main beneficiaries …

An Unquiet Pedagogy : Transforming Practice In The English Classroom, Eleanor Kutz, Hephzibah Roskelly

Eleanor Kutz

An Unquiet Pedagogy argues for a new approach to teaching English in the high school and college classroom, one that reconceives the relationship of literacy and the learner. The title is taken from an essay by Paulo Freire in his book with Donaldo Macedo entitled Literacy: Reading the Word and the World. Like Freire, the authors believe that pedagogy must be critical -- that it must examine the assumptions that teachers and students bring to any educational enterprise, that it must take into account the contexts of learners' lives, and that it must question, rather than quietly accept, existing practices. …