Teacher Education For Inclusive Bilingual Contexts

This text demonstrates how collective reflection can function as a central part of effective teacher preparation for work in inclusive bilingual environments. Through analysis of rich qualitative data, Teacher Education for Inclusive Bilingual Contexts shows how group reflection supports pre-service educators to recognize the intersectional circumstances faced by students and understand their identities beyond the possible confines of disability. This, in turn, engenders reconceptualization of standardized expectations and implicates the educator in developing student agency through individualized use of routine, language, and materials. The author offers cultural historical activity theory and disability studies in education as a basis for dialectal interactions to unearth contradictions and misunderstandings surrounding language acquisition and the learning of emergent bilinguals and highlight the ways in which educators can disrupt oppressive practices through expansive learning opportunities. This insightful volume will be of interest to researchers, scholars, and postgraduate students in the fields of inclusive education and disability studies, bilingual and language education, and teacher education.

This casebook is designed to broaden L2 teacher knowledge, thinking, and practice with regard to making language and learning accessible to all students. Language teachers are especially accountable for promoting socially just, inclusive, decolonizing, and multicultural pedagogical practices and curricula; at this critical juncture in history, this book is intended to raise language teachers’ awareness of the importance of critically examining and reflecting on the intersectionality of language education and inclusive pedagogical practices. Language teacher educators can use this text in their courses and workshops to build on and extend theoretical foundations, while making critical practical connections. The 12 cases presented here cover a range of inclusive language teaching and learning issues that practitioners are likely to face in their respective teaching contexts. All the cases are based on real-life dilemmas faced by practitioners in the field and have been informed by discussions with pre-service and in-service student teachers. The cases represent a range of classroom contexts: K–12 ESL/sheltered English immersion, world language, and post-secondary EAP; private, charter, and public schools; and urban and suburban settings. The cases are accompanied by pre- and post-problem sets and in-class discussion questions. This volume applies the case-based pedagogy often used in some fields to that of second language teacher education to encourage pre- and in-service teachers to grapple with the types of dilemmas and decisions teachers confront every day. The cases here are not intended as exemplars of practice to be emulated or illustrations of existing theories; instead, they are problem-based narratives that resist clear-cut answers or solutions and remain open ended to stimulate further investigation and reflection. The goal is to mimic the complexity of the classroom where teachers confront a range of pedagogical and learning challenges, and the ensuing experience requires critical, real-time decisions that demand keen professional discernment.

Inclusion concerns the overcoming of barriers to learning and participation for all, regardless of ability or disability, and is now a central tenet of basic education policy globally. Increasingly, teachers need to be able to implement inclusion into their daily practice. This book stems from its contributors' shared attitude towards education based on the values of equity, entitlement, community, participation and diversity, and examines the ways in which teachers are prepared for inclusion in teacher education institutions as much as schools. Using examples of practice from schools and teaching institutions across the UK, Norway, New Zealand and the USA, the contributors use a valuable comparative approach to explore crucial questions, such as: * How are ideas and practices of inclusive schools reflected in the curriculum of teacher education? * What tools do teachers need to implement inclusion? * What are the policy and cultural contexts for the development of inclusion? * How are the barriers to learning and participation overcome in teacher education itself? This book provides an insightful analysis of whether inclusion is an achievable aim for the 21st century. Its international array of experienced contributors have put together a text that offers a distinct pedagogical focus, which makes it a key reference tool for academics, students and researchers everywhere.

This volume contains selected papers from the tenth and eleventh International Language Teacher Education (LTE) conferences held in 2017 at the University of California, Los Angeles, and in 2019 at the University of Minnesota, respectively. In keeping with the mission of the biennial LTE conference, both events addressed the education of teachers of all languages, at all instructional and institutional levels, and in all the many national and international contexts in which this takes place, including: English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) instruction; foreign/modern/world language teaching; bilingual education; immersion education; indigenous language education; heritage language education; and the teaching of less commonly taught languages. A common theme across the two LTE conferences was diversity. Whereas the first conference targeted the diverse nature of student populations in an increasingly multilingual world and the importance of language teacher educators in addressing the challenges and potentials of this diversity, the second conference highlighted the desire to explore teachers and teacher educators as individuals functioning within diverse sociocultural contexts. The papers in this volume provide a view into this diversity as they address the various perspectives, contexts, languages, and frameworks in which language teacher education takes place.

The purpose of this volume is two-fold. First, the book attempts to initiate a research-based dialogue from a variety of perspectives specifically about teacher training and teaching in the context of student linguistic and cultural diversity; and, second, to cast a wide net over three major areas of professional development that have the potential to impact on teacher quality and on the educational services provided to ELLs at all levels of instruction. This book represents a first attempt to a quiet revolution going on in teacher education (Johnson, 2000). It allows the reader to uncover research activities and experiences that constitute individual teacher education program initiatives. A revolution, because it is stirring the very essence of what stands at the core of teacher education, a core that has long been based more on training to teach monolingual English speaking students and less on teaching ELLs, their first and second language development, using their bilingualism to teach academics, and on the process of becoming an effective teacher of ELLs. This state-of-the-art review brings together research on effective pedagogy and teacher training. The nine feature chapters are directly concerned with effective new structures and practices for professional development and are presented in a framework that considers a wide spectrum of topics to address issues such as: what teachers need to understand about English language learners, what kind of professional experiences are likely to facilitate those understandings, and what kinds of teacher education programs and school settings are able to support their ongoing learning. The authors also discuss the implications of their work for helping English language learners connect and benefit from school from the points of view of (1) school reform, (2) teachers’ bilingual proficiencies, (3) teachers’ knowledge and beliefs, and (4) teacher training programming and sustainability.

This edited volume addresses the pressing imperative to understand and attend to the needs of the fast-growing population of minority students who are increasingly considered "superdiverse" in their cultural, linguistic, and racial backgrounds. Superdiverse learners—including native-born learners (Indigenous and immigrant families), foreign-born immigrant students, and refugees—may fill multiple categories of "diversity" at once. This volume helps pre- and in-service teachers and teacher educators to move beyond the demographic backgrounds of superdiverse learners to consider not only their ways of being, motivations, and social processes, but also the ongoing systemic issues of marginalization and inequity that confront these learners. Challenging existing teaching and learning paradigms in the K-12 North American context, this volume provides new methods and examples for supporting superdiverse learners in a range of settings. Organized around different conceptual underpinnings of superdiversity, contributors identify the knowledge gaps and effective practices in engaging superdiverse learners, families and communities. With cutting-edge research on this growing topic, this text will appeal to researchers, scholars, educators, and graduate students in multilingual education, literacy education, teacher education, and international education.

Implementing bilingual and plurilingual education programs has ushered in a transformative era for educators worldwide. These programs have redefined teaching practices and thrust diversity into the spotlight as a central concern. During this paradigm shift, the need to cater to diverse students has become paramount, particularly in monolingual European contexts where bilingual and plurilingual instruction is often perceived as a formidable challenge, especially for learners with special needs. Inclusive Education in Bilingual and Plurilingual Programs assembles a compendium of international theoretical and practical contributions, shedding light on the intricate interplay between diversity and bilingual or plurilingual education. This book delves into the multifaceted realm of attention to diversity in education, where the focus is on tailoring teaching methods to the specific needs of students, encompassing differences in abilities, learning paces, and styles, which empowers students to acquire essential competencies and attain educational objectives at each stage of their academic journey. Secondly, it traverses the landscape of bilingual and plurilingual education, which has emerged in response to the societal, employment, and economic demands for language proficiency beyond one's mother tongue. This book is essential reading for many educational stakeholders engaged in bilingual or plurilingual education. Teachers at every educational level, along with teacher trainers at tertiary institutions, will find valuable insights for tailoring their pedagogical approaches to the unique needs of their students.

This edited volume extends our field of studies by highlighting novel 21st century curricular designs and pedagogical practices in the preparation of future bilingual teachers and their relevance for advancing curriculum, instruction, and educational achievement across bilingual school contexts. In particular, the volume provides a much-needed overview of innovative bilingual teacher preparation practices designed and implemented to develop bilingual teacher professionals equipped to effect curricular and pedagogical changes in bilingual settings. As such, two main questions guiding the orchestration of the volume are: (a) What innovative curricular and pedagogical designs characterize the field of bilingual teacher education in 21st century? and (b) How do or could these innovative curricular and pedagogical approaches for educating future bilingual teachers influence teacher practices in bilingual contexts for advancing curriculum, pedagogy and the achievement of bilingual learners? ENDORSEMENTS: "This collection of chapters in English and Spanish offers readers novel place-based ways of transforming bilingual/biliterate teacher education programs to ensure that new teachers gain pedagogical language, literacy, and content practices that expand language and literacy in heretofore unimagined ways. All bilingual/biliterate teacher educators should read this extraordinary book." — Christian J. Faltis, Texas A&M International University "This volume deftly addresses a topic of great currency on the bilingual education agenda: how to orchestrate curricular and pedagogical innovation in teacher development and how to enact change at the grassroots level through its impact on teaching practices. A must-read tour de force for anyone interested in the development, implementation, or research of quality bilingual teacher education." — María Luisa Pérez Cañado, Universidad de Jaén "Enduring critiques of teacher education, once the sole province of conservative policymakers, now includes many thinkers we formally considered allies. This excellent collection, which includes a host of new and powerful voices, forces all sides to sit up and pay attention." — Kip Téllez, University of California, Santa Cruz