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1 – 10 of 69Katherine Espinoza and Karen Kohler
The purpose of this study is to investigate how participating in a multicultural education course impacted bilingual preservice teachers' (BPSTs) conceptions of identity and how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate how participating in a multicultural education course impacted bilingual preservice teachers' (BPSTs) conceptions of identity and how they were able to use their experiential knowledge to create a virtual library based on a variety of topics related to multicultural education.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative case study examines the experiences of three BPST candidates within a multicultural education course during the fall 2020 semester. The authors focused on three preservice teachers’ written reflections, interviews and work samples based on a virtual library project.
Findings
The authors describe the critical role BPST preparation programs have in developing coursework that provides opportunities for building a positive self-identity that values life experiences. Such opportunities foster BPSTs’ ability to create lessons that are reflective of identity and diversity inclusive of culture, language, immigration and LGBTQ+.
Originality/value
For some time now, researchers have examined how teacher education programs should include opportunities to interrogate preservice teachers' own experiences in K-12. However, few researchers have directly documented how to connect these experiences to preservice teacher coursework and create classroom resources based on these critical reflections.
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Andrea Flanagan-Bórquez and Kiyomi Sánchez-Suzuki Colegrove
In this chapter, we analyze and reflect on how our cultural identities and educational experiences as international students who pursued a doctoral degree in the United States…
Abstract
In this chapter, we analyze and reflect on how our cultural identities and educational experiences as international students who pursued a doctoral degree in the United States affected and influenced our teaching philosophy and praxis as professors and educators. In this sense, we examine how our cultural identities and experiences help us define and shape our teaching praxis in the contexts in which we teach. We both are professors of color – Latino and Latino-Japanese – who graduated from doctoral programs in the United States. Currently, we work and serve culturally and linguistically diverse students, including first-generation students, in public higher education settings in Chile and the United States. We used a collection of narratives to delve into the significance of these events in our praxis. As theoretical lenses, we analyze these narratives using cultural identity and the reflecting teacher to examine our practices and identities as educators. We both conclude that our reflections, experiences, and cultural identities have been instrumental in the process of developing a professional identity that guides our teaching praxis in ways that are critical and social justice oriented.
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Cristina A. Huertas-Abril and Francisco Javier Palacios-Hidalgo
Considering the potential of Collaborative International Online Learning (COIL) for cross-boundaries interacting and collaborating effectively, this study aims to explore the…
Abstract
Purpose
Considering the potential of Collaborative International Online Learning (COIL) for cross-boundaries interacting and collaborating effectively, this study aims to explore the intercultural awareness of pre-service language teachers after participating in a COIL project.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a quantitative research approach and an exploratory cross-sectional method, the authors administered a 13-item questionnaire to unveil the perceptions of 64 future language teachers from Spain after their online experience with counterparts from the USA.
Findings
Participants consider that COIL may have enhanced their intercultural and global awareness and equipped them with valuable skills and knowledge for the future, being women more positive than men. Moreover, the results also suggest that those participants who have not traveled abroad consider COIL to be a good opportunity to compensate for the lack of knowledge or experience with other cultures resulting from not having had the opportunity to visit other countries.
Practical implications
COIL needs to be seen as a powerful tool to promote global learning, intercultural understanding and the development of skills among students that will be vital for success in today’s interconnected world. Nevertheless, universities and teacher training centers need to rethink the preparation of future teachers for the increasing demands to prepare students for the requirements of the global world, and to do so, they need to consider that COIL may offer them significant benefits.
Originality/value
This work offers an interesting exploration of teachers’ attitudes toward COIL, providing insights into the potential of online collaboration for developing intercultural awareness.
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This study aims to investigate the integration of heritage language and culture in technology-enhanced bilingual education and examine the dominance of the English language and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the integration of heritage language and culture in technology-enhanced bilingual education and examine the dominance of the English language and culture in computer-assisted language learning settings.
Design/methodology/approach
This research used a narrative inquiry methodology. The data came from semi-structured interviews with 25 bilingual teachers in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and Texas.
Findings
The study found a significant bias in the use of technology toward the target language, often at the expense of heritage language and culture. The curricula analyzed were predominantly focused on superficial cultural elements of the target language, leading to a neglect of deeper cultural engagement.
Originality/value
This research highlights the phenomenon of cultural cringe within bilingual education and the skewed use of technology toward the target language.
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Daniel Sidney Fussy and Hassan Iddy
This study aims to explore motives behind teachers' and students' use of translanguaging and how they use it in Tanzanian public secondary school classrooms.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore motives behind teachers' and students' use of translanguaging and how they use it in Tanzanian public secondary school classrooms.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using interviews and non-participant observations.
Findings
The findings indicate that translanguaging was used to facilitate content comprehension, promote classroom interaction and increase students' motivation to learn. Translanguaging was implemented using three strategies: paraphrasing an English text into Kiswahili, translating an English text into its Kiswahili equivalent and word-level translanguaging.
Practical implications
By highlighting the motivations for translanguaging and corresponding strategies associated with translanguaging pedagogy in the Tanzanian context, this study has significant practical implications for teachers and students to showcase their linguistic and multimodal knowledge, while fostering a safe learning space that relates to students' daily experiences.
Originality/value
The study offers new insights into previous research on the role of language-supportive pedagogy appropriate for teachers and students working within bi-/multilingual education settings.
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Sharon Chang and A. Lin Goodwin
Co-teaching is a foundational mentoring model used in teacher residency programs in urban classrooms throughout the United States of America. Beyond the basic understanding of…
Abstract
Purpose
Co-teaching is a foundational mentoring model used in teacher residency programs in urban classrooms throughout the United States of America. Beyond the basic understanding of co-teaching in categorizing classroom models, the purpose of this qualitative case study is to investigate the dialectical tensions manifested in mentored co-teaching activities through the lens of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT).
Design/methodology/approach
Designed as a qualitative case study of 17 pairs of teaching-residents and mentor-teachers, the authors used thematic analysis to scrutinize archival interview data in an urban teacher residency program located in the largest megalopolis of the USA Northeast. The authors used CHAT-based concept coding to analyze the interview narratives from participants across different secondary school placements as they reflected on their co-teaching philosophy and the relationships they built.
Findings
The authors found that for teaching-residents and mentor-teachers to co-develop as co-teachers, they jointly must learn to resolve the dialectical tensions of unbalanced classroom ownership vs added co-working responsibilities, breaking from routine so that a partnership can grow. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the prefix co- should be understood as (1) shifts in thinking that transcend the status quo and (2) the orchestration of human capital to change norms.
Originality/value
This new understanding of the prefix co- allows teacher education programs to better mediate the dialectical tensions experienced by co-teachers in a mentored co-teaching activity, from individual teacher learning (e.g. a pair/dyad comprising one teaching-resident and one mentor-teacher) to collective co-learning across activity systems (e.g. partnership-based teacher education).
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This paper aims to describe how engaging in an inquiry-as-stance reflexive approach informed the design of a graduate-level early childhood social studies methods course to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe how engaging in an inquiry-as-stance reflexive approach informed the design of a graduate-level early childhood social studies methods course to support the professional identity development of multilingual/Latinx, Black, Indigenous, people of color (ML/L/BIPOC) teacher candidates.
Design/methodology/approach
Nested within a theoretical construct that articulates “unlearning as a disruptive force” (Dunne, 2016), the author used a parallel process that modeled the teaching of social studies methods grounded in critical reflections of students’ cultural and linguistic assets. In so doing, the author shares how she models culturally and linguistically responsive-sustaining pedagogy in practice.
Findings
The findings illustrate that in this course, students begin unlearning internalized deficit narratives that they have been socialized to believe about themselves and, often, their students.
Research limitations/implications
This study is based on only four semesters of teaching one graduate-level methods course to ML/L/BIPOC early childhood educators at one institution, research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.
Originality/value
Through unlearning, ML/L/BIPOC learn to recognize their assets, dispositions, skills and capacities more fully and, thus, are more able to enact culturally responsive-sustaining pedagogy once in their own classrooms. As such, this study has value for applying critical, identity-centered and asset-based pedagogies in teacher preparation programs.
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Mica Pollock, Dolores De los Angeles Lopez, Mariko Yoshisato, Reed Kendall, Erika Reece and Benjamin Carmichael Kennedy
This paper aims to explore a national anti-hate messaging project, #USvsHate, and its call to students to create public messages refusing “hate, bias, and injustice.” Participants…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore a national anti-hate messaging project, #USvsHate, and its call to students to create public messages refusing “hate, bias, and injustice.” Participants indicated that #USvsHate’s invitation to publicly express students’ ideas about equal human value functioned as a next step in furthering youth voice and critical consciousness toward societal inclusion and justice.
Design/methodology/approach
Using grounded theory, analysis drew from teacher interviews (n = 45), student focus groups (n = 30), anonymous participant questionnaires and student-created messages and backstories (n = 250) gathered between 2017 and 2020.
Findings
Participants indicated #USvsHate’s call to amplify student voice offered a next step to act upon awareness of social issues by denouncing hate while promoting inclusivity. Four invitations related to the project’s “anti-hate message” call emerged as important to participants: the invitation to comment personally on improving society; the creative invitation to share perspectives in any media form; the invitation to speak to a promised public audience; and the invitation to join a collective “us” improving society.
Originality/value
Youth voice and critical consciousness scholarship show the importance of supporting K12 youth to develop abilities to speak about injustice while pursuing an inclusive democracy. Still, less research highlights youth who might enter a classroom with some level of such awareness. This research extends existing scholarship by examining a potential next step to inviting critical consciousness and youth voice in any classroom. It also explores the potential pitfalls of this open-ended approach.
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Leading up to and now living amid the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers are faced with strong incentives, even pressure to adopt and use digital technologies. Previous research has…
Abstract
Leading up to and now living amid the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers are faced with strong incentives, even pressure to adopt and use digital technologies. Previous research has focused on teaching with digital technologies as a matter of believing in their importance and receiving specific preparation for integration strategies. Further, teaching with technologies must appear “seamless” during instruction to not distract from what is regarded to be the more important subject matter knowledge. In this chapter, I review and problematize digital instruction focused on convincing teachers to integrate strategies that use digital technologies in a “seamless” way and then propose an alternative view emphasizing posthumanist, relational views of integrating digital technologies.
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