The Role of Teacher Education in Teaching Science to Emergent Bilingual Learners

The increasing attention in science education reform documents to language and literacy, coupled with the growing linguistic diversity of United States classrooms, means that science teacher educators and researchers are facing an important task of preparing secondary science preservice teachers (PSTs) to teach a language‐ and literacy‐integrated form of science in linguistically diverse classrooms. Unfortunately, research in this field is in its nascency, and while some studies have addressed PSTs' instructional planning for and implementation of language‐ and literacy‐integrated science instruction, none have considered the unique contextual factors that inform PSTs' uptake of these reform‐oriented instructional practices, despite many studies suggesting student‐teaching contexts are a key factor in PSTs' instructional decisions. The purpose of this multiple case study was to consider the unique contextual factors that supported and constrained three PSTs' uptake of language‐ and literacy‐integrated science practices through a Cultural‐Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) lens. Findings indicated that PSTs' implementation of language‐ and literacy‐integrated science instruction was shaped by interactions among the mediating elements of their student teaching activity systems, including PSTs' division of labor with mentor teachers, the classroom and school norms, PSTs' perceptions of their classroom communities, and PSTs' past life experiences and resources. These findings highlight the roles that different elements of learning‐to‐teach contexts can play in PSTs' enactment of reform‐oriented instruction. Implications for science teacher education, instruction for emergent bilinguals, and research are discussed.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining preservice science teachers' implementation of language‐ and literacy‐integrated science through a cultural historical activity theory lens

Rutt

Mumba

2022

“…Teachers in mainstream classrooms report feeling underprepared to teach EBLs and often regard EBLs as less capable of engaging in content learning than their native English‐speaking peers (Banilower et al, 2018; Faltis & Valdés, 2016; Lucas et al, 2015). These inequities are compounded in secondary science, where EBLs experience significantly fewer opportunities to learn science than other students, whether it be through the deficit orientations of teachers, the denial of opportunity that occurs through their exclusion from advanced science coursework, and/or an overemphasis on decontextualized language development in segregated EL classrooms (i.e., without core academic content) (Callahan, 2017; Lyon & Tolbert, 2021; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018).…”

Section: The Trouble With Science Teacher Education For Emergent Bili...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their overall success and retention in these courses, however, is highly dependent upon the teachers' ability to facilitate learning environments in which EBL students feel both challenged and supported to engage in rigorous coursework (Callahan et al, 2020; Lyon et al, 2016; Olsen, 2010; Thompson, 2017). Improving the preparation of science teachers to expand EBLs' opportunities to learn is, therefore, a social justice imperative and has been the subject of increasing attention in science education research over the past decade (Lyon & Tolbert, 2021; Rutt et al, 2020). Less attention, however, has been given to structural factors that exclude EBL students from opportunities to learn in secondary schools.…”

Section: How Ebl Students Are Denied Opportunities To Learn Science T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite these formidable barriers, teachers—including novice and preservice teachers—can be drivers of curriculum and policy change in their schools (Landt, 2004; Lane et al, 2003; Liddicoat et al, 2018; Williams & Tolbert, 2021). While science teachers need to be able to learn how to drive change, advocate against—or subvert—unjust policies that limit students' opportunities to learn science such as those we have described, very little research has been conducted on how they can be prepared to do so (Bartell et al, 2019; Lyon & Tolbert, 2021; Morales Doyle et al, 2020).…”

Section: How Ebl Students Are Denied Opportunities To Learn Science T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Praxis crisis and the trouble with science teacher education for emergent bilingual learners

Tolbert,

Spurgin,

Ash

2023

In this study, we explore how preservice secondary science teachers articulated their agency and structural awareness within racist–nativist policy and schooling environments that limit emergent bilingual students' opportunities to learn science. Our praxis‐oriented analysis led us to characterize novice teacher participants' discursive positionings within this structure–agency dialectic—that is, what it means to teach science well with emergent bilingual learners in the context of structural exclusions—as deficit, distancing, or discerning. We then discuss how these preservice teacher positionings were a function of tension management for working within the structure–agency dialectic. In our discussion, we refer to this phenomenon as praxis crisis, that is, the disjuncture between theory and practice that occurs as teachers negotiate the real and perceived constraints of their work. We consider how the concept of praxis crisis that emerged from our work can be a critical dialogic tool for transformative learning in science teacher education research and practice, and how a praxis‐oriented methodological approach can support more expansive and nuanced understandings of teacher learning.

“…Over the decades, research into the effective teaching of science to emergent bilingual 1 and multilingual students has converged around key theoretical perspectives and led to expansive empirical evidence around how to support emergent bilinguals' science learning and language/literacy development 2 (see reviews by Lyon & Tolbert, 2022;Buxton & Lee, 2014;Lee & Luykx, 2006;Rutt et al, 2021). For example, instead of just making science content comprehensible and accessible, science teachers would support emergent bilinguals as they continuously navigate the language demands (e.g., vocabulary, syntax, and discourse) necessary to emulate authentic science practices and make sense of complex scientific ideas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reframing formative assessment for emergent bilinguals: Linguistically responsive assessing in science classrooms

Lyon

2022

Self Cite

Research into the effective teaching of science to emergent bilinguals has converged around key theoretical perspectives and led to expansive empirical evidence that emphasizes the integration of science learning with language/literacy development. Simultaneously, formative assessment has been touted as one of the key components of effective teaching in science classrooms. I address a critical research gap by connecting the teaching of emergent bilinguals in science classrooms to formative assessment through sociocultural perspectives and linguistically responsive teaching-thereby reframing the traditional model of formative assessment into a framework for linguistically responsive assessing. To illustrate the challenges and opportunities of translating a framework of linguistically responsive assessing into practice, I analyzed the formative assessment practices of two middle school science teachers with whom I worked through ongoing professional learning in support of emergent bilinguals through assessing. Both teachers (1) framed learning goals and assessment around meaningful and relevant student contexts, (2) planned multimodal assessment interactions to scaffold science learning and language/literacy development, and (3) attempted to elicit students' lived experiences. Yet, I also observed missed opportunities that provide additional insight into the continued challenges of ensuring that formative assessment for emergent bilinguals