Making Visible Awareness in Practice: Literacy Educators in Diverse Classrooms

Abstract

Teacher-educators who are aware of differences that present themselves in diverse student populations must increasingly work to help teachers to connect with students in ways that allow them to improve literacy outcomes. Despite its potential for helping to address the needs of diverse students, awareness of culture and language often tends to be touted primarily as an expectation for teachers who work in K-12 schools and classrooms. It is less visible as a requirement for teacher-educators, despite the ever-increasing need for them to have the skills and expertise to guide teachers who work with culturally and linguistically diverse students (CLDs) in underperforming schools. This study was therefore developed to show the ways in which teacher-educators demonstrated awareness of language and culture while supporting the instructional literacy practices of in-service teachers and the literacy learning of CLDs. More specifically, the purpose of this study was to identify the elements of critical multilingual and critical multicultural awareness displayed by three literacy educators, who were supporting students' writing practices in diverse K-12 literacy classrooms within a research-practice partnership, over a period of one academic year. Findings show that the educators reflected awareness in their support for CLDs' literacies as they experienced transitions, confronted deficit views, capitalised on verbal, visual and written scaffolds with students and teachers, and fostered authenticity. The study presents implications for literacy educators who wish to reflect awareness when responding to CLDs' literacies in schools.John, a middle-school English language arts (ELA) teacher for five years, was recently asked to transfer to a 'turnaround' campus to support the diverse literacy needs of this student population, using the balanced literacy model. As John quickly realised, the demographics of the campus were quite different from his previous experiences. Challenged by the new setting, John's principal offered the support of a literacy teacher-educator from a nearby university with whom her school had previously worked. While John felt eager to learn, he also wondered whether the educator would have sufficient 'hands-on' experience with the culturally and linguistically diverse students (CLDs) 1 in his setting to be able to help him implement balanced literacy for this diverse student population.Teacher-educators who are aware of differences presenting themselves in diverse student populations must increasingly work to help teachers connect with students in ways that allow them to improve literacy outcomes (Haddix, 2017;Risko et al.,

(Critical) Multilingual and Multicultural Awareness in the Pedagogical Responsiveness of Educators

“…In doing so, this study highlights the importance of making intentional collaborative research efforts of literacy educators' responses to cultural and linguistic diversity a key element of partnership work. It also confirms the usefulness of having literacy educators use narratives in the form of SPNs (and otherwise) (see Louis et al, 2016) as a means of obtaining their insights about difference that illuminate their awareness regarding language and culture (Smith et al, 2020). Though modest, the transferability of this work is useful for considering how SPNs, in conjunction with collaborative research, can facilitate the professional development of LTEs for diversity across national and international contexts.…”

“…This misconception, which questions the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs wherein literacy educators function, is reflected in efforts to enhance teacher quality that minimize and sublimate the role of literacy/ELA teacher educators, many of whom work toward ensuring that teachers adequately address diversity in literacy knowledge, literacy application, and ongoing experience with teacher development in literacy instruction and assessment (Risko et al, 2017). We argue in this study that identifying explicitly the ways in which literacy/ELA educators develop awareness concerning their capacity for addressing diversity in schools is critical if these educators are to remain central to the adequate preparation of literacy/ELA teachers for diversity in American schools (Haddix, 2017;Smith et al, 2020;Smith & Warrican, 2021).…”

“…The research concerning teacher educators' ability to respond to linguistic and cultural difference reflects a tendency to focus on and raise questions about teacher educators' perceptions of the CLD teachers whom they prepare, their knowledge for working with CLD K-12 students, and their ability to model appropriate ways (i.e., pedagogies) of addressing cultural and linguistic diversity as they work with CLD learners and their teachers in K-12 classrooms (see de Jong et al, 2013;Haddix, 2017;Lucas & Villegas, 2013). Though teacher educators often have limited understandings of how to respond to certain differences in language and culture (Gay, 2014), they can learn to respond to difference using several avenues, one of which is through the use of [C]MA and [C]MLA (i.e., Smith, , 2018Smith et al, 2020). Awareness can help educators to modify perceptions, knowledge, and pedagogy that in turn, allows them to adequately prepare teachers for diverse student populations Smith et al, 2020).…”

“…Though teacher educators often have limited understandings of how to respond to certain differences in language and culture (Gay, 2014), they can learn to respond to difference using several avenues, one of which is through the use of [C]MA and [C]MLA (i.e., Smith, , 2018Smith et al, 2020). Awareness can help educators to modify perceptions, knowledge, and pedagogy that in turn, allows them to adequately prepare teachers for diverse student populations Smith et al, 2020). Thus, this study addressed the following questions:…”

Working towards more socially just futures: five areas for transdisciplinary literacies research

“…To advance anti‐racist, abolitionist approaches (Love, 2019) and address youth marginalisation in transdisciplinary literacies research, teacher training and professional development must incorporate sustainable social and racial justice trajectories. That is, professional development must centre CRP (Ireland et al, 2018; Lee, 2015; Milner, 2007; Smith et al, 2020; Smith & Warrican, 2021). Specifically, teacher training needs to introduce pre‐ and in‐service teachers to gender‐diverse and BIPOC perspectives and make this a priority (Canada 2067, 2018; Castek et al, 2019; George et al, 2020; Ireland et al, 2018; Lee, 2015; Smith & Warrican, 2021; Whitley & Hollweck, 2020).…”