Disrupting Siloed Spaces in Teacher Education: Collaborative Learning in Pursuit of Critical Inclusive Literacy for Multilingual Learners Labeled with Disabilities

Abstract

Multilingual youth labeled with disabilities require a holistic approach to literacy instruction that addresses both language and learning needs. Unfortunately, teacher candidates are often prepared in siloed programs that may address language or unique learning needs, but not both. This can perpetuate deficit framing of this population of learners and lead to disjointed and decontextualized instruction that does not account for the breadth or depth of student needs. In this study, I sought to understand the ways in which teacher education programs within one large urban university supported teacher candidates in working with multilingual youth labeled with disabilities in literacy instruction. Program directors and course instructors were interviewed, and relevant course syllabi and other artifacts reviewed. I also argue for an interdisciplinary praxis-oriented approach to better prepare teachers across different programs to collaborate toward the enactment of critically inclusive literacy practices. A small group of participants across programs were individually interviewed and later participated in a series of small group collaborative inquiry sessions designed to promote critical reflection and collaboration. Findings revealed how teacher candidates may benefit from increased strategically designed opportunities in teacher preparation to reflect, plan, and problem solve to support multilingual youth labeled with disabilities.