Preservice Teachers’ Experiences of Learning to Teach Emergent Bilinguals in Rural Context: A “Place-Based” Perspective

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 1:45 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Place-Based Educational Ontologies: Teaching for Justice, Remedy, and Repair (Table 8)

Abstract

With increasing EBs nationwide, it becomes crucial for teacher education programs to ensure that teachers are well equipped to teach those students. However, teachers in rural settings oftentimes felt less prepared to work with EBs. Furthermore, there's a noticeable lack of research on intersections of teacher learning, EBs, and rural education. This study focuses on pre-service teachers' learning experiences about teaching EBs, especially considering the rural context of their training program. Primary data sources include interviews and reflective journals. Findings showed most pre-service teachers felt inadequately prepared to teach EBs, pinpointing a significant shortfall in learning opportunities. This concerns both coursework and field experiences, largely attributed to constraints of rural locations of the teacher preparation program.

Author

• Xuexue Yang, SUNY - College at Oneonta