Complexities in Context: Pathways to Preparing Teachers for Cultural and Linguistic Diversity

Abstract

In light of an increasingly diverse student population, teacher education programs are faced with the challenge of preparing educators for cultural and linguistic diversity. This qualitative multicase study investigated the ways in which three distinctive pathways of teacher education prepared teacher candidates for culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. The findings indicated that teacher candidates across the various programs had varying opportunities to learn and enact practices specific to linguistically responsive teaching. These were mediated through various contextual factors within each program that both afforded and constrained opportunities to learn and enact linguistically responsive practices. This research study will contribute to several strands of scholarship within teacher education: teacher preparation for English Language Learners, alternative pathways to teacher preparation, and practice-based teacher education.