From Deficit to Asset-Based Perspectives on Linguistically Diverse Learners Through Critical Inquiry in Teacher Education

• In Event: Preservice and In-Service Teacher Education: Serving Multilingual Student Population

Abstract

Preparing teachers to develop critical lenses to identify inequities and locate and leverage multilingual students’ resources and learning potential are central teacher education projects. As standardized testing eclipses pedagogical decision-making, teachers increasingly foreground basic literacy routines and test preparation, to the detriment of larger literacy activity. However, preservice teachers (PSTs) benefit from examining student performance, identifying assets, and noticing achievement and learning that is present. Teacher inquiry, informed by teacher noticing, supports such work. We present a study that examines how critical asset-based perspectives are explored among PSTs as they completed their 10-week inquiry projects in ELA classes. Two cases illustrate contrasts in uptake of assets-based focus on student learning, highlighting potential and tensions.

Authors

• Joanna W. Wong, California State University - Monterey Bay
  Presenting Author

• Steven Z. Athanases, University of California - Davis
  Presenting Author

• Julia Houk, University of California - Davis
  Presenting Author