Engaging Teacher Candidates with Critical Multilingual Language Awareness and Anti-Racist Translanguaging through the PeCK-LIT Test

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Raciolinguistics and Intersectionality in Language Education

Abstract

Drawing on a case study of a teacher education course in Ontario, Canada, this paper examines teacher candidates’ (TCs) understanding of critical multilingual language awareness (CMLA) and anti-racist translanguaging in supporting multilingual learners. Data came from 410 TCs’ responses to the Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Language-Inclusive Teaching (PeCK-LIT) Test, coded using a 4-point rubric grounded in CMLA and anti-racist translanguaging. Findings show that TCs plan to use various translanguaging strategies to scaffold language and connect learning to students’ lives, but these are framed through monolingual or raciolinguistic lenses. TCs also demonstrated language awareness without the accompanying critical and multilingual dimensions essential to CMLA. The study calls for teacher education to foster deeper, integrative understandings of multilingual and anti-racist pedagogies.

Authors

• Shakina Rajendram, University of Toronto

• Jennifer L. Burton, Concordia University