Integrating Technology into Bilingual Teacher Education Programs: Lessons from a Teacher Educator Affinity Group

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 7:45 am
  In Poster Session: Innovating Curricular Designs for Bilingual Teacher Education in the US: Programs, Policies and Partnerships

Abstract

Objectives. Teacher educators face the core challenge of identifying and operationalizing equitable learning goals for bilingual teacher candidates that critically integrate digital literacy and computing. This poster shares insights from an inquiry conducted within virtual affinity group sessions where participants (teachers and teacher educators) deliberated about what bilingual teacher candidates should know and be able to do in relation to technology upon graduation. By synthesizing core priorities, we aimed to address the challenge of identifying and operationalizing equitable learning goals to integrate critical computing and digital literacies (CDLs).
Methods: The study utilized Participatory Knowledge Building methodology (Santo et. al., 2017) to explore how our group prioritized and made sense of topics related to technology in the education of multilingual learners over the course of a 60-minute orientation and five 90-minute meetings. We analyzed the data below to identify valued learning goal-and-topic areas.
Existing technology standards in TESOL and bilingual classrooms jumpstarted our conversations, but because they were outdated or vague, participants were more likely to draw on readings, their lived experiences as K-12 educators, and on critical lenses described below. Participants referenced experiences piloting and observing tech and computing integrated activities in K-12 and teacher education classrooms. Facilitators asked participants to share these experiences verbally and digitally, took field notes to document ideas that surfaced in conversation, synthesized them into a framework, and reintroduced them to participants for refinement.
Theoretical Framework: We applied and modified various frameworks from computing, teacher, and bilingual education, including the four primary InTASC standard areas, which categorize key content areas for teacher education programs (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2013), translanguaging pedagogy (design, shifts, stance; Garcia et. al., 2017), CS Ed Visions framework (Santo et al., 2019), and the EnCITE framework, which posits that teachers should be prepared to teach about, with, through, and against computing and digital technology (Vogel et. al., 2024). The framework that allowed us to most comprehensively categorize the knowledge, practices, and dispositions listed by participants was the InTASC standards, which encompassed expansive areas of teacher education typically covered in teacher preparation programs.
Results: We generated tables of core understandings, dispositions, and practices for each of the four InTASC content and learning areas: (Multilingual) Learner and Learning, Content and Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Instructional Practice, and Professional Responsibility.
These standards shape an overall stance on technology in bilingual education. For example, practices in one standard related to analyzing the language ideologies implicitly embedded in learning technologies and school systems paired with determining how computing and digital tools or approaches might promote valued learning experiences and interactions for multilingual learners. Another standard promoting vetting digital tools and texts for use in multilingual classrooms lead into teachers advocating for or against them with school principals and other decision-makers.
Significance: Our process and final priorities might serve as a model for the kinds of collective deliberation that faculty members, curriculum committees, and departments might engage as they adapt to the changes that digital tools bring to multilingual learning environments.

Authors

• Jenia Marquez, City University of New York

• Sarane James, City University of New York

• Sara Vogel, City University of New York

• Dominika McPartland, Hunter College - CUNY

• Zena Cooper, Hunter College