Pan-Diversity Integration as an Equity Trap: Lessons From Preservice Teachers’ Preparation for Teaching English Language Learners in a Predominantly White Institution in the United States

Abstract

Background: Nationally, there is an overwhelming body of research that has revealed a systemwide underpreparedness of both pre- and in-service teachers who are predominantly White and monolingual for teaching English language learners (ELLs) throughout the United States. Despite various responses to address preservice teachers’ underpreparedness to teach ELLs, there has been a lack of transformative change in White mainstream preservice teachers’ preparation to teach ELLs, due to teacher education programs’ indiscriminate, pan-diversity approach to diversity as inclusive of all forms of difference, without explicitly attending to any form of difference such as those confronted by ELLs. This pan-diversity approach endorses generic fairness as sameness practices that may lead to equity traps that shape preservice teachers’ patterns of thinking and behavior that hinder the possibilities for creating equitable schools for children of color, including ELLs. Purpose: The widespread underpreparedness of teachers for ELLs suggests an urgent need to reexamine how teacher education programs are providing opportunities for learning about ELL-related knowledge and practice. The goal of this study is to understand 433 preservice teachers’ experiences of learning to teach ELLs in a predominantly White teacher education program under a pan-diversity framework. Research Design: A mixed-methods design that includes surveys and interviews was used to address two central research questions: What are preservice teachers’ perceptions of learning to teach ELLs in a predominantly White teacher education program that utilizes a pan-diversity framework? How do their opportunities to learn ELL-related content differ across subprogram groups? Quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were used to analyze the data generated from the survey and interviews. Findings: Triangulation of our quantitative and qualitative data revealed systemic neglect of ELLs in both coursework and field practice in the teacher education curriculum, resulting in underpreparedness among the preservice teachers across the subprograms. The results indicate that the current pan-diversity integration approach has served as an “equity trap” that will preclude the preservice teachers from becoming successful with their future ELLs. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the critical need to eliminate the pan-diversity equity trap to systemically incorporate ELL issues within teacher education to not only transform preservice teachers’ deficit thinking about ELLs but also fill their knowledge and skill gaps for working with ELLs. The study has significant implications for teacher education programs to transform ELLs’ status from invisibility to rightful prominence in the program.

Supporting and Advocating for Immigrant and Refugee Students and Families in America’s Urban Schools: Educators’ Agency and Practices in Everyday Instruction

“…The school was on the list of schools that did not meet the Adequate Yearly Progress goals under the No Child Left Behind Act. Situated in a large urban center with its unique, diverse demographics, the school adopted what Li and Jee (2021) call a pan-diversity approach to diversity in that all children were seen as the same and students and staff were discouraged from discussing or asking about cultural differences. The schools were short of teachers and many teachers also reported lacking teaching resources.…”

Learning to expand our communities to support coaching for equity: a collaboration of seven university-based teacher preparation programs

“…Equity does not directly result in equality, and nor does it result in inclusion, as literature may suggest. These misconceptions may lead TPPs to enact a “pan-diversity” approach that perpetuates the status quo by emphasizing an indiscriminate view of differences (Li and Jee, 2021, p. 127). We approach equity with an assumption that learners enter classrooms with visible resources and beneath the surface are their historical, social and cultural strengths (Muhammad, 2020).…”

“COVID has Brought Us Closer”: A Proleptic Approach to Understanding ESL Teachers’ Practices in Supporting ELLs In and After the Pandemic

“…This disturbing finding is consistently corroborated by the evidence yielded from studies conducted in other North American context that ELLs are not sufficiently supported in their academic learning in the public school system (Escamilla et al, 2018;Guo & Maitra, 2017;Han & Cheng, 2011). On the one hand, teacher education courses have been failing to either sensitize teacher candidates to cultural and linguistic diversity they are expected to encounter in future classrooms or to provide pedagogical tools or strategies to grapple with these differences (Durgunoglu & Hughes, 2010;Gunderson, 2000;Li & Jee, 2021;Webster & Valeo, 2011). On the other hand, the quality of specialized support that ESL (and special needs) students are entitled to receive is often most severely compromised in the face of the perennial issue of teacher shortage.…”