Portraits as a Multilingual: An Arts-Based Approach to U.S. Multilingual Mainstream Teacher Candidates’ Language Experiences

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 1:45 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Futures of Qualitative Methods and Analysis (Table 3)

Abstract

This study investigates four U.S. multilingual mainstream teacher candidates (MMTCs) in a teacher education program through an arts-based research method. By employing language portraits, the study captures and represents the lived experiences and language ideologies of the MMTCs. By visualizing the MMTCs’ linguistic repertoires and emotional connections to different languages, this study provides deep insights into how multilingual experiences shape their language ideologies and beliefs of teaching emergent multilingual (EMs) in the U.S. mainstream classrooms. The findings underscore the need for holistic support to MMTCs in teacher education programs, advocating for curriculum changes that value language diversity the MMTCs bring to the teacher education programs.

Authors

• Jiameng Gao, University of Washington

• Jie Li, University of New Mexico