Disrupting the Pan-Diversity Approach to Preparing Teachers of Multilingual Learners

• In Event: Meeting the Needs: Centering Multiple Dimensions of Language

Abstract

This mix-methods study examined how a nationally ranked teacher education program prepared students to address the needs of multilingual learners (MLs) through a comprehensive analysis of the program faculty’s perspectives and practices, curriculum design, and two intern teachers’ learning to teach MLs in the field. The findings revealed a significant absence in ML-specific preparation and a pan-diversity approach to teacher preparation, which treats diversity as inclusive of all forms of differences without attending to the specific needs of any subgroups of diverse learners, particularly MLs. The study calls for disrupting the pan-diversity approach by building faculty’s expertise, redeveloping the curriculum, and updating licensure standards and exams to bring language from the periphery to the center of all teachers’ knowledge base.

Authors

• Yue Bian, University of Washington - Bothell

• Guofang Li, University of British Columbia