Equity and Inclusivity for Multilingual Learners in Teacher Education: Innovative Approaches and Expansive Visions

This textbook equips pre-service educators with the tools they need to empower multilingual learners, their families, and communities; promote educational equity; and advocate for the rights of multilingual learners in increasingly complex sociopolitical settings. Featuring contributions from researchers, in-service teachers, pre-service teachers, and community leaders, the book offers expansive and diverse perspectives on the challenges and solutions related to multilingual learners in a myriad of educational contexts and environments. The book goes beyond traditional classroom strategies to cultivate all participants’ active agency and incorporate advocacy for both teachers and multilingual learner students, exploring the intricate connections between praxis and community engagement in a comprehensive way. Addressing a wide array of increasingly common challenges, this thoughtful resource is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students in teacher education and educational leadership preparation programs, as well as teacher researchers and school administrators.

Table of Contents:
1. Storying Lives: Art for Public Engagement in Immigrant Communities as Critical Pedagogy; 2. Actuating Metalinguistic Activity: How Collaborative Translation Fosters Students’ Discussion of Language; 3. Designing and Piloting a Happiness Program for Multilingual Children: A Design-Based Research Approach; 4. “We Can Actually Make Ourselves a Part of the Story”: Scaffolding Multimodal Composing in Multilingual Classrooms; 5. Using Linguistically Diverse Picture Books With Occasional Language Beyond English with Teacher Candidates in Their Internship Experience; 6. The (De-) Humanizing Role of Humor in Multilingual Learning Spaces in Language Instruction: A Review of the Literature; 7. Exploring Effective Strategies for Relationship Building Among Mentor Teacher and Multilingual Teacher Candidates; 8. Fostering Ownership of Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Pedagogy Through Online Teacher Education; 9. Toward a Framework of Antiracist Teacher Education for Multilingual Learners; 10. Theatrical Improvisation and Translanguaging to Empower Multilingual Learners and Multilingual Teachers; 11. From Theory to Practice: Utilizing Inclusive, Practice-Based Approaches in Teacher Education to Support Multilingual Learners; Conclusion

About the Author :
Huili Hong is a professor of the Practice in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Hong studies multilingual learner education and teacher preparation. Her research interests focus on children’s literacy practices in multilingual and multicultural contexts, teacher education, discourse analysis, and narrative inquiry. Ana Christina da Silva Iddings is a professor of the Practice of Education at the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, who specializes in language, literacy, and cultural studies.

Review :
“During these especially complex and polarized times, this book brings together a powerhouse group of researchers committed to opportunity centered practices with multilingual learners. As educators become more knowledgeable about and skillful in identifying assets among multilingual learners, we have a better chance of designing ecological systems of hope, determination, humanity, and transformation. A book for educators who care about and are committed to equity, this book invites us all to keep pressing with multilingual learners toward justice.” H. Richard Milner IV, Ph.D. Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Education & Professor of Sociology Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University “Preparing teachers to work with immigrant and refugee multilingual learners requires not only pedagogical strategies, but especially a critical understanding of social justice. Kneading theory and practice, this book brilliantly shows how teachers’ criticality interacts with their creative use of affect and humor, stories, multimodalities, reflections and discussions to offer students socioemotional support, while displaying their strengths and transforming their learning.” Ofelia García, Ph.D. Professor Emerita in Urban Education and Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures The Graduate Center, City University of New York "This book is an excellent collection for teachers and teacher educators in need of resources to develop their knowledge base about equitable approaches to support multilingual learners in classrooms. Hong & da Silva Iddings bring together authors of various backgrounds to provide different perspectives about issues related to multilingual learners who are or have been classified as English language learners (ELLs). This collection addresses topics such as critical pedagogy in immigrant communities, the preparation of teachers to support MLs, multimodal composing, antiracist and culturally responsive and sustaining teacher education, socioemotional learning, the role of humor and happiness in ML education, among other relevant topics. This is a wonderful contribution to the TESOL field and beyond." Luciana C. de Oliveira, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Graduate Studies/Professor School of Education, Virginia Commonwealth University "Given the current socio-political climate, multilingual learners in our classrooms need support more than ever. This excellent edited volume fulfills this need by providing educators, researchers, and policymakers with valuable insights into designing and implementing humanizing curricula that can bring about transformative and impactful change in and through teacher education." Peter DeCosta, Ph.D. Professor of TESOL and Second Language Studies Michigan State University Co-editor of TESOL Quarterly & President of the American Association of Applied Linguistics