ERIC Number: EJ1340477
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0826-435X
EISSN: N/A
Plurilingualism, Equity, and Pre-Service Teacher Identity: Centring [Linguistic] Diversity in Teacher Education
Shank Lauwo, Monica; Accurso, Kathryn; Rajagopal, Harini
TESL Canada Journal, v38 n2 p113-139 2022
Plurilingual approaches to pre-service teacher education hold promise for critical engagement with linguistic, cultural, and racial diversity in equity-supportive ways. Employing critical action research, we as teacher educators implemented an equity-oriented plurilingual approach across three literacy methods courses for pre-service elementary teachers at one Canadian university. Using case study methods and a poststructuralist theory of identity, this paper examines implications of the equity-oriented plurilingual approach for the evolving teacher identities and beliefs about plurilingual pedagogical possibilities of two pre-service teachers: one Chinese Canadian and one White Canadian. Findings from an analysis of field notes, teacher education artefacts, and interview transcripts demonstrate that pre-service teachers' linguistic and racial backgrounds shaped their learning and identity trajectories vis-à-vis plurilingualism, and that critical personal reflection and practicum experiences were key mediators of participants' orientations towards plurilingual pedagogies. Plurilingualism, in concert with multiliteracies, supported a Chinese Canadian pre-service teacher to develop a resource orientation to her own plurilingualism and racialized identity, while challenging a White English-dominant pre-service teacher to confront power inequities and her English-speaker privilege. Implications centre on the importance of greater critical engagement with systemic issues of race and Anglonormativity and the need for more systematic integration of equity-oriented plurilingual approaches throughout teacher education programs.
Descriptors: Multilingualism, Preservice Teacher Education, Critical Theory, Action Research, Equal Education, Teacher Educators, Literacy Education, Methods Courses, Elementary School Teachers, Case Studies, Self Concept, Professional Identity, Teaching Methods, Teacher Attitudes, Practicums, Multiple Literacies, Asians, Power Structure, White Students, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Native Language, Foreign Countries, Student Attitudes, Teacher Education Programs, Sino Tibetan Languages
TESL Canada Federation. 408-4370 Dominion Street, Burnaby, BC V5G 4L7, Canada. Tel: 604-298-0312; Fax: 604-298-0372; e-mail: admin@tesl.ca; Web site: http://www.tesl.ca
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A