Arthi Rao

This study focuses on elementary and secondary teacher candidates’ perspectives of how their clinical experiences influence their preparedness in becoming effective culturally responsive educators. Clinical experiences in urban schools embedded within teacher preparation programs have the potential to develop students’ ability to become culturally responsive educators, yet it is unknown how these experiences contribute to teachers’ development in enacting culturally responsive pedagogy. Qualitative data was collected through open-ended survey responses and focus groups with teacher candidates in urban focused elementary and secondary teacher education programs at one college of education. Findings indicated that connecting with students’ cultures and communities, the school/classroom context, and university-school partnerships and alignment impacted teacher candidates’ feelings of preparedness on becoming culturally responsive educators.

In this commentary, the authors explain that, despite well-respected bilingual education policy, Illinois, like most of the U.S. has an inequitable distribution of dual immersion bilingual education programs. Such programs appear mostly in white, middle-class communities rather than in predominantly Latino ones. The authors argue that this inequity is driven by ideological and cultural capital differences among communities. They contend that these inequities must be addressed if more effective additive bilingual education models are to serve emergent bilingual students in the U.S. This commentary uses the case of Illinois to show how hegemonic ideologies and cultural capital continue to drive language program offerings—even when language policy supports bilingual programs for emergent bilingual students. Language scholars note that the number of dual language programs is on the increase across the U.S. This is a positive trend—research favors additive bilingual programs that promote maintenance of the first language while learning a second

As a state with a longstanding tradition of offering bilingual education, Illinois has a legislative requirement for native language instruction in earlier grades through a model called Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE). This model does not truly develop bilingualism, however, but rather offers native language instruction to English learners (ELs) for a few years only to later mainstream them to English-only instruction. Contrasting this approach, culturally and linguistically responsive teaching not only supports EL students' first language maintenance and second language development, but can also affirm critical aspects of their cultural, ethnic and linguistic identities. Through this framework, we present qualitative data from two elementary classrooms in Illinois enacting a TBE and dual language program model. Findings suggest that while program models are indeed one factor that influences enactment of a culturally responsive approach, societal factors and ability for stakeholders to mediate and address pressures are equally important.