“The Soccer Field, It Has Dirt”: A Critical Analysis of Teacher Learners in Contact With Emergent Multilingual Students

ABSTRACT

In today’s globalized world, superdiversity and global migration have led to an increased focus on emergent multilingual students and how schools can best serve them. The authors explore how teacher learners in an undergraduate course on emergent multilinguals in a mid-sized university in the Midwest critically reflect on their learning in a practicum experience. Utilizing tools and perspectives from critical discourse studies (CDS), the researchers/teacher educators examine ideologies that surface in teacher learner reflections on their practicum experiences to find out how they renegotiate (or withhold) their beliefs while connecting to critical readings, coursework, and their experiences working with emergent multilingual students. Findings reveal ethnocentrism, gaps in understanding of language practices, continued misconceptions about language learning, and ideologies that view languages other than English as a privilege. However, findings also show some areas of growth resulting from their participation in the teacher education program. The authors then provide suggestions for further improvement of teacher education courses focused on emergent multilinguals.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Brandy Judkins, Kari Mackiewicz, and Emily Suh for their collaboration. In addition, we are grateful to our wonderful participants, and the excellent reviewers and editor whose comments greatly improved our paper.

Notes

1. We use the terms emergent multilingual students or emergent multilinguals to refer to students that are developing bi- or multilingual competences with the support of their school and community (cf., García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017). Use of other terms such as ELLs or ELL students are either quotations from the data or taken directly from authors we are citing.

2. Bolded words denote points of focus in the analysis”