Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

The High School In The Middle Of Everywhere: Nebraska’S Lincoln High, Edmund T. Hamann, Janet M. Eckerson, Mark Larson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In 2002, world-renowned author Mary Pipher published a book about her home city, Lincoln Nebraska, playfully titled “The Middle of Everywhere” a tongue-in-cheek rejoinder to the idea that Nebraska is ‘the middle of nowhere.’ But word play aside, her title was empirically apt, as her volume documented how immigration and refugee resettlement were demographically transforming Nebraska’s capital city. As in other cities, resettlement was concentrated in some areas of Lincoln, placing differential burdens on different parts of the community’s institutional infrastructure. Of interest to readers of this volume, Lincoln’s refugees and immigrants were concentrated in the city’s oldest high school. …

Religious Influences On The Growth Of Literacy Practice, Loukia K. Sarroub, Cassandra Schroeder

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Religious influences on the growth of literacy practices are well documented and span more than a century of research ranging from disciplines such as social and cultural anthropology to sociology to language and literacy studies in education. Intellectuals known across disciplines such as Benedict Anderson, Lila Abu-Lughod, Pierre Bourdieu, Jonathan Boyarin, Clifford Geertz, Michaela de Leonardo, Shirley Brice Heath, Alan Peshkin, Claude Lévi Strauss, and Brian Street broke new ground in the 20th century in connecting literacy to religious literacies. In recent years, the work of contemporary language education scholars such as Huamei Han (2018) as well as English education …

“It’S Like They Don’T Recognize What I Bring To The Classroom”: African Immigrant Youths’ Multilingual And Multicultural Navigation In United States Schools, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, Alex Kumi-Yeboah, Anthony Mawuli Sallar

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Discourses of African immigrant children are rare in educational research. As such, African immigrant educational experiences are often obscured (in part, owing to the model minority myth about Africans based on higher education degrees received by African immigrants), as well as the actual experiences and realities for African immigrant K-12 students. This qualitative study examines cross-cultural educational experiences of 30 Black African immigrant youth in U.S. schools. The findings reveal multiple participants’ struggles with cultural and linguistic differences, stereotypes and marginalization in the school environment, low expectations from teachers, and adjusting to new schooling practices. The African youths’ voices exhibited …

Preservice Elementary Teachers Conceptions And Self-Efficacy For Integrated Stem, Deepika Menon, Deef A. A. Shorman, Derek Cox, Amanda Thomas

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Educational reform efforts have emphasized preparing highly competent and confident preservice teachers to deliver effective K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) instruction. Self-efficacy is a key variable that influences motivation and performance, and therefore it is necessary to support the development of preservice teachers’ integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy. This mixed-methods study investigates how preservice elementary teachers’ integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy is shaped during their participation in a newly redesigned STEM semester consisting of three concurrent methods courses (science and engineering, mathematics, and technology methods courses). The quantitative data sources included the Self-efficacy for Teaching Integrated STEM instrument administered as …

Migrants, Covid-19, And Italy: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Construction Of And Resistance To Nationalist Discourses, Alessia Barbici Wagner, Theresa Catalano, Bryan Meadows

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Migration has historically been a controversial issue around the world and one that has often been harnessed by people in power (or people hoping to gain power) for their own political agendas. In times of a global pandemic, the scapegoating of migrants has only increased, often rooted in nationalist ideologies which lead to policies and practices that harm migrants and the larger society. The present paper employs multimodal critical discourse analysis to explore how nationalist ideologies supported by right-wing populism are constructed visually and verbally during COVID-19 on Italian social media in regard to migration. We analyze Giorgia Meloni’s (leader …

From Bilingual To Biliteracy: Learning From Families, Stephanie Wessels, Guy Trainin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This study examined the home literacy practices of bilingual families. We were specifically interested in the literacy practices families developed to answer the challenge of biliteracy. Through the home visits and supplying high quality bilingual books, we listened, observed, and gained a deeper understanding of the children and their families which allowed us and educators reading this piece to make connections between children’s home literacy practices and literacy practices in the classroom. After discussing the use of bilingual books, the following four themes emerged from the data: families negotiating biliteracy using bilingual books, the role of Spanish, siblings and literacy …

“Just Attaching A Face”: Engaging Local Refugee Communities In Preservice Teacher Education Focused On Students With Immigrant/Refugee Backgrounds, Stephanie Wessels, Theresa Catalano, Jenelle Reeves, Alison E. Leonard, Uma Ganesan, Alessia Barbici-Wagner, Consuelo Gallardo

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This arts-practice research study explores what happens when preservice high school teachers (aka teacher-learners) and local refugee communities engage in the co-creation of art together via an arts-and community-based project. Grounded in social justice teacher education, the researchers conducted a 2-week workshop in which participants included preservice high school teachers and local Yazidi community members who explored art in a museum together, spent time getting to know each other and their backgrounds, and re-created some of their stories in the form of dance. Findings reveal a variety of ways in which the workshops helped teacher-learners develop interculturality, increase understanding of …

Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts: Centering Science Within Elementary Stem Education, Deepika Menon, Amy S. Bauer, Katie L. Johnson, Elizabeth Hasseler, Amanda Thomas, Ricardo Martinez, Guy Trainin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Conceptualizing STEM Integration

For our reform efforts, the fundamental question to consider was, “What is STEM learning, or what should count as STEM learning?” The different models and definitions for Integrated STEM education range from STEM disciplines traditionally taught as separate and distinct content areas to integration among the four STEM disciplines (NAE and NRC, 2014; Stohlmann et al., 2012). Teacher educators are often challenged to design STEM learning experiences within teacher preparation courses that prepare for the reality of classrooms while presenting pedagogical alternatives (Corp et al., 2020). Many researchers, for instance, Roehrig et al. (2012) distinguish between content …

Teaching Assistant Responses To Covid-19: Investigating Relationships Between Stress, Self-Efficacy, And Approaches To Teaching, Cody R. Smith, Deepika Menon, Annette Wierzbicki, Jenny Dauer

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This study investigates the self-efficacy of undergraduate and graduate TAs associated with changes in instruction after the COVID-19 disruption to the spring 2020 semester.

Guiding research questions include: (i) What are the relationships among TA teacher efficacy and stress resulting from the COVID-19 disruption? (ii) What experiences do TAs describe that contribute to their stress and teacher efficacy?

Implications of the results for supporting TAs during similarly stressful events and circumstances are discussed.

Multicultural Teacher Knowledge: Examining Curriculum Informed By Teacher And Student Experiences Of Diversity, Vicki Dea Ross, Elaine Chan

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Herein, we consider how we might support teacher candidates to meet the learning needs of an increasingly diverse student population, in part by encouraging candidates to draw from their own experiences to inform their developing teacher knowledge about multicultural education. We conducted a school-based, long-term narrative inquiry to explore complexities of multicultural teacher knowledge. We document ways in which two practicing teachers, William and Janine, drew from their experiences of diversity in their teaching, and schooling, to build their body of multicultural teacher knowledge that, in turn, informed their work with their students. We recognize the importance of acknowledging teacher …

Understanding "Death": Creating Student Opportunities For Meaningful Emotional Expression In The Science Classroom, Zachary Schafer, Lawrence C. Scharmann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Understanding death as natural and integral to life cycles has been considered crucial and relevant in science teaching. The concept of death not only defines the physical end of life but also the end of a cycle and the beginnings of transformation. Adopting a broader definition of death thus empowers educators to directly address the affect and emotion that occurs for all students.

Social Justice In Teacher Education: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Tara Ratnam, Elaine Chan, Darlene Ciuffetelli Parker

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Editorial: Social Justice in Teacher Education: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Tara Ratnam, Darlene Ciuffetelli Parker, and Elaine Chan

Teacher Candidates’ Responses to Examining Personal Privilege: Nuanced Understandings of the Discourse of Individualism in Critical Multicultural Education, Erin Feinauer Whiting and Ramona Maile Cutri

Narrative Reconsiderations of Teaching as Negotiated Curriculum for Social Justice and Equity, Candace Schlein, Dianne Smith, and Charles Oakley

Radical-Transformative Agency: Continuities and Contrasts With Relational Agency and Implications for Education, Anna Stetsenko

Computer Science for Equity: Teacher Education, Agency, and Statewide Reform, Joanna Goode, Max Skorodinsky, Jill Hubbard, and James Hook

Design …

Discourse In Inquiry Science Classrooms, Diisc, Version 2.0 (User’S Manual For An Observation Research Instrument), Elizabeth B. Lewis, Dale R. Baker, Lyrica L. Lucas, Amy Tankersley, Elizabeth Hasseler, Ana Rivero, Brandon Helding

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This is a user's manual for the externally validated Version 2.0 of the Discourse in Science Inquiry Classrooms (DiISC) instrument. The instrument is best suited for use in conducting research in secondary (grades 6-12) science classrooms that focuses on teachers' instructional practices, but can also be used as a professional development tool for teacher self-reflection and identifying goals for instructional change. The DiISC Version 2.0 is aligned with a model of a scientific classroom discourse community and articulated characteristics of social constructivist lessons in the categories of inquiry, oral and written discourse, and academic language development and essential learning principles.

Noyce Science, 2012-2021 Ten Cohorts Of Teachers, Master Of Arts For Science Teaching Brings Science To Life, Unl Noyce Track 1, Phase 2 Grant Activity Brochure, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Elizabeth Hasseler, Lindsay Augustyn, Tori Pederson, Grace Kovar

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Summary of UNL NSF Robert Noyce Track 1, Phase 2 grant (2015-2020) to recruit and prepare new secondary science teachers and associated research activities.

The perennial drive to recruit and prepare science professionals to become science teachers requires an enormous, collaborative effort. At the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, we have pledged ourselves to that worthy cause of educating new science teachers. This report summarizes the accomplishments of and celebrates those science teachers who have dedicated themselves to educating diverse youth and fostering a love of science in a world of STEM possibilities. They are the new generation of educators who face, …

Developing Critical Cultural Awareness In The Elt Classroom, Akiko Takagi, Aleidine J. Moeller

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In the current age of globalization, migration, and immigration, integrating interculturality into language instruction is essential in order to prepare language learners to become competent intercultural speakers (Byram, 2020), described as competent communicators (Byram & Zarate, 1996) who engage with complexity and multiple identities and who “avoid the stereotyping which accompanies perceiving someone through a single identity” (Bryam et al., 2002, p. 5). Intercultural speakers are successful not only in communicating information but also in developing human relationships with people of other languages and cultures with whom they live and work. In contrast to monolingual native speakers (NSs), intercultural speakers …

Secondary Science Teachers’ Curricular Use Of Ngss Engineering Practices, Elizabeth Hasseler, Amy Tankersley, Ana M. Rivero, Lyrica L. Lucas, Elizabeth B. Lewis

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

We investigated how often teachers integrated engineering into science lessons to address Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) performance expectations using data from a multi-year study of secondary science teachers. Only 7.14% of middle school (MS) lessons contained engineering practices. Engineering was included in lessons for students to apply or support the learning of scientific content.

Presider: Amy Tankersley

Conflict Of Allegiance: Professional Development Challenges In Transforming Science Teachers' Identities And Practices, Elizabeth B. Lewis

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Case studies of two biology teachers, Cathy and David, from the same minority-majority, urban U.S. high school, provide insights into their instructional practices while they engaged in long-term professional development (PD). Findings suggest why science teachers engaged with PD may, or may not, adopt more adaptive pedagogical approaches in the service of reform-based teaching. Gee’s institution- and affinity-identity constructs were used as analytic lenses regarding teachers’ perceptions of teaching, learning, and agency in the dual contexts of their school’s institutional environment and PD community. Over time, Cathy adopted more inquiry-based instructional practices she learned through PD seminars in building a …

(Re)Turning To Freirean Philosophy In Preparing Content Teachers To Work With Multilingual Students, Kara Viesca, Peiwen Wang, Brandon Heinz, Alexa Yunes-Koch

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In 2019, Bettina Love published a call for abolitionist teaching, an effort for educational freedom and racial justice. In her work, she centered the role of theory in teaching calling it a "North Star." She suggested that theory provides teachers a "steadfast tool" that explains the experiences of people minoritized due to racism, sexism, ableism, linguicism, etc., as well as provides language for and knowledge about intersectional issues of injustice. Love literally calls theory a "practical guide" as well as a "location for healing" (Love, 2019, p. 132).

The work of Paulo Freire has long served as the kind of …

Dancing Across Difference: Arts And Community-Based Interventions As Intercultural Education, Theresa Catalano, Amanda R. Morales

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

There is an ever-present need to foster and maintain intercultural competence in today’s teaching force. Although much research details how to do this, few studies document how to utilize arts and community-based (ACB) approaches to align with the goals of intercultural education. This qualitative study examines reflections from 61 teacher learners who participated in an ACB intervention with community partners while enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate course focused on serving students with immigrant/refugee backgrounds. The aim of this study was to find out what the characteristics of good intercultural education are, as well as how ACB approaches can provide …

“At School, It’S A Completely Different World”: African Immigrant Youth Agency And Negotiation Of Their Adaptation Processes In Us Urban Schools, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, Hanihani Moundiba Traore, Guy Trainin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

African immigrant youth adaptation processes in US schools remain underresearched. Using qualitative case study, this article examines West African immigrant middle- and high-school youth adaptation experiences in US urban schools. Findings show that racialized experiences, English proficiency levels, and multilingualism affected social relationships (both supportive and conflicted) with families, communities, peers, and school contexts. These experiences crucially influenced African immigrant youths’ adaptation processes. Participants drew from community resources and developed resilience skills to negotiate acculturative stressors when seeking friendship, belonging, and an integrated sense of identity in their new home. Recommendations for further supporting positive adaptive strategies are discussed.

Preparing Teachers For Culturally Responsive/Relevant Pedagogy (Crp): A Critical Review Of Research, Wen-Chia Chang, Kara Viesca

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Context: Proposed more than two decades ago, culturally relevant/responsive teaching or pedagogy (CRP) is one promising approach to transform education experiences of historically marginalized groups. The development of CRP has since inspired changes in teacher education programs and resulted in considerable research on preparing teachers for CRP. However, critics have argued that much work on CRP has not fulfilled its transformative potential of addressing racism and the white-supremacist foundations underlying teacher education research and practice, and have urged CRP research to grow from the existing knowledge base and to innovate.

Purpose of Study: This study critically examines the research practices …

Representing Transition Experiences: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis Of Young Immigrants In Children’S Literature, Xiaoyan Gu, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Because literature can serve as a mirror for children’s self-reflection and a window into humanizing insights on immigrants and immigration, it can be a powerful educational tool to promote understanding of immigrant learner’s experiences and needs. However, this has not always been the case. As such, informed by our theoretical framework of critical discourse studies (CDS) and raciolinguistics, this study explores the representations of immigrant children’s experiences in children’s literature. Employing multimodal critical discourse analysis, the authors analyze the visual and verbal representations of immigrant children (and the ideologies behind them) in 18 picture books with immigration themes. Findings reveal …

Spiritual And Religious Meaning Making In Language And Literacy Studies: Global Perspectives On Teaching, Learning, Curriculum And Policy, Mary M. Juzwik, Robert Jean Leblanc, Denise Dávila, Eric D. Rackley, Loukia K. Sarroub

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Purpose—In an editorial introduction essay for the special issue on Religion, Literacies, and English Education in Global Dialogue, the editors frame papers in the special issue in dialogue with previous scholarly literature around three central lines of inquiry: How do children, youth and families navigate relationships among religion, spirituality, language and literacy? What challenges are faced by language and literacy teachers and teacher educators around the globe who seek to respond to diverse religious and spiritual perspectives in their work? And what opportunities do teachers seize or create toward this end? How are developments of language and literacy theory, …

Changing Faces And Persistent Patterns For Education In The New Latinx Diaspora, Edmund T. Hamann, Linda Harklau

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The study of education in the New Latino/a/x¹ Diaspora (NLD) was initiated in the 1990s with an understanding that education research from regions where the Latino/a/x presence is long-standing might not always fit well for places where Latino/a/x populations were newer and where histories of discrimination, political organizing, and resistance were much more limited. This chapter is the fourth in a series of "bigger picture" examinations of the status of education in the NLD over the past two decades (following Hamann, Wortham, and Murillo [2002] and Hamann and Harklau [2010, 2015]). Like previous iterations, this chapter points to gaps …

Seeking Clarity In Murky Waters: Nuances Of Equity And Social Justice From A Teacher Perspective, Elaine J. Chan

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In this study, I examined interactions between an English teacher and her students to illustrate ways in which issues of equity and social justice may play out in nuanced ways in the implementation of school curriculum in a diverse, Midwestern high school. These stories of classroom teacher and student experiences reveal complexities of how equity and social justice might unfold for students, and be understood by a teacher as she works with her students, to build a body of “teacher knowledge” (Clandinin and Connelly, 1996) that grows as the teacher gains experience. Examining complexities of “teacher knowledge” as a classroom …

Quality Content Teaching For Multilingual Students: An International Examination Of Excellence In Instructional Practices In Four Countries, Kara Viesca, Annela Teemant, Jenni Alisaari, Johanna Ennser-Kananen, Naomi Flynn, Svenja Hammer, Sara Routarinne

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Observations of Pedagogical Excellence of Teaching Across Nations (OPETAN) is a mixed methods observation study of 31 content teachers, most nominated for their excellence in teaching multilingual students in Germany, Finland, the US, and England. The study relied on an observation rubric that operationalizes seven Enduring Principles of Learning grounded in critical sociocultural theory and pedagogy. Findings revealed excellent teachers emphasize complex thinking, language use, and modeling. Teacher use of small groups, contextualization, and equity-focused practices were areas of potential growth. International research holds promise for understanding and improving K-12 content teaching and teacher education for teachers of multilingual learners.

A Meta-Analysis Examining Technology-Assisted L2 Vocabulary Learning, Aiqing Yu, Guy Trainin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This meta-analysis examines the effectiveness of technology-assisted second language (L2) vocabulary learning as well as identifies factors that may play a role in their effectiveness. We found 34 studies with 2,511 participants yielding 49 separate effect sizes. Following the procedure developed by Hunter and Schmidt (2004), we corrected for sample size bias and measurement error. The overall effect size for using technology to learn L2 vocabulary was d = 0.64, which is a moderate effect size. The Q statistic indicated a significant variability in effect size, so we followed up with a theory-driven moderator analysis. The results of the moderator …

Developing Intercultural Competence In Multilingual Science Classrooms: A Narrative Study, Uma Ganesan, Amanda Morales

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Increased globalization of the world economy, growth in human migration, and rapid developments in science and technology have required people to develop intercultural communication skills. Teachers play a crucial role in developing intercultural competence among students in our globalized, multilingual classrooms. The need for fostering discourse and building intercultural competence among students is a common blind spot in teacher praxis. This can inhibit efforts to cultivate safe and supportive learning environments for all students and can ultimately threaten multilingual student success. As part of a larger study, this narrative inquiry explores the phenomenon of intercultural competence development through the lived …

Diez Cosas Que Maestros Mexicanos Deben Saber De Las Escuelas Estadounidenses, Edmund T. Hamann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

La escuela es un universo institucional que la niñez y la adolescencia migrante tienen que negociar en sus contextos de llegada. A menudo, las niñas, niños y adolescentes (NNyA) migrantes han tenido una experiencia escolar anterior, en un país en el que el sistema educativo opera sobre la base de una serie de normas diferentes. Por eso es importante que las personas que guían la escolarización en el nuevo escenario educativo –en este caso los maestros mexicanos– sepan cómo funciona el sistema educativo estadounidense en el que estaban escolarizados anteriormente sus estudiantes. Con este conocimiento pueden ayudar a sus alumnos …

(Re)Turning To Freirean Philosophy In Preparing Content Teachers To Work With Multilingual Students, Kara Viesca, Peiwen Wang, Brandon Heinz, Alexa Yunes-Koch

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In 2019, Bettina Love published a call for abolitionist teaching, an effort for educational freedom and racial justice. In her work, she centered the role of theory in teaching calling it a "North Star." She suggested that theory provides teachers a "steadfast tool" that explains the experiences of people minoritized due to racism, sexism, ableism, linguicism, etc., as well as provides language for and knowledge about intersectional issues of injustice. Love literally calls theory a "practical guide" as well as a "location for healing" (Love, 2019, p. 132).

The work of Paulo Freire has long served as the kind of …