Examining Asset-Based Pedagogical Development for Preservice Language Teachers: Theory into Practice

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 11:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: From Theory to Transformation: Preparing Justice-Oriented Educators Through Critical Literacy, Equity, and Practice

Abstract

Asset-based pedagogy calls the needs for language teacher education to adopt critical approaches that value multilingual learners’ diverse backgrounds, which separates from the deficit perspective that associate MLs’ bilingualism with limited intelligence, lowering expectations and reinforcing remedial ideologies. Drawing on culturally sustaining pedagogy and heteroglossia, this qualitative study examines how pre-service language teachers begin to shift their perspectives. We highlight the experiences of two focal PLTs as they engage multilingual learning environments.
This presentation highlights how asset-based approaches in language teacher education support reflective practice, challenge deficit models, and uncover language ideologies shaping pedagogy. It also deepens the understanding of how power dynamics influence PLTs’ decisions, emphasizing the value of students’ diverse voices, identities, and social contexts in multilingual classrooms.

Authors

• Ziqi Li, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Timothy Monreal, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Erin Kearney, University at Buffalo - SUNY