Ana Maria Villegas

Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers: Rethinking the Curriculum

To successfully move the field of teacher education beyond the fragmented and superficial treatment of diversity that currently prevails, teacher educators must articulate a vision of teaching and learning in a diverse society and use that vision to systematically guide the infusion of multicultural issues throughout the preservice curriculum. A vision is offered of culturally responsive teachers that can serve as the starting point for conversations among teacher educators in this process. In this vision, culturally responsive teachers (a) are socioculturally conscious, (b) have affirming views of students from diverse backgrounds, (c) see themselves as responsible for and capable of bringing about change to make schools more equitable, (d) understand how learners construct knowledge and are capable of promoting knowledge construction, (e) know about the lives of their students, and (f) design instruction that builds on what their students already know while stretching them beyond the familiar.

Linguistically Responsive Teacher Education: Preparing Classroom Teachers to Teach English Language Learners.

Students who speak languages other than English are a growing presence in U.S. schools. As a result, many mainstream classroom teachers are finding that they have English language learners in their classes. Unfortunately, most mainstream classroom teachers have had little or no preparation for providing the types of assistance that such learners need to successfully learn academic content and skills through English while developing proficiency in English. In this article, the authors identify a small set of principles that can serve as the linguistic foundation for the teaching of English language learners in mainstream classes. The authors then outline linguistically responsive pedagogical practices that flow directly from those principles. They conclude with concrete suggestions for how teacher education programs can incorporate the knowledge and skills that will prepare all preservice teachers to be linguistically responsive.

Critiquing Teacher Preparation Research: An Overview of the Field, Part II.

This is the first of a two-part article that aims to chart the contemporary landscape of research on teacher preparation and certification. It is based on a review of more than 1,500 studies published between 2000 and 2012. Part 1 provides information about how the review was conducted and describes the theoretical/analytic framework the authors developed to guide the review. The framework combines ideas from the sociology of knowledge and research as social practice. This framework situates the research on teacher education within salient economic, intellectual, and demographic developments of the past half century and also examines the practices of researchers who are differently positioned from one another, have divergent purposes and audiences, and who work both inside and outside teacher education. Part 1 also analyzes the first of three major research programs—research on teacher preparation accountability, effectiveness, and policies, identifying strengths and weaknesses in this body of studies.This is the first of a two-part article that aims to chart the contemporary landscape of research on teacher preparation and certification. It is based on a review of more than 1,500 studies published between 2000 and 2012. Part 1 provides information about how the review was conducted and describes the theoretical/analytic framework the authors developed to guide the review. The framework combines ideas from the sociology of knowledge and research as social practice. This framework situates the research on teacher education within salient economic, intellectual, and demographic developments of the past half century and also examines the practices of researchers who are differently positioned from one another, have divergent purposes and audiences, and who work both inside and outside teacher education. Part 1 also analyzes the first of three major research programs—research on teacher preparation accountability, effectiveness, and policies, identifying strengths and weaknesses in this body of studies.

School failure and cultural mismatch: Another view

Recently, the school failure of minority students has been explained in terms of incompatibilities in the ways that language is used at home and in school. This theory has stimulated numerous studies. The research shows in detail how teachers and minority students often misinterpret each other due to different assumptions about the appropriate ways of using language in the classroom. This paper reviews the literature dealing with home-school disjunctures in language use, and examines the theory critically. It argues that the approach to school failure prevalent throughout the research in this area is seriously flawed. By narrowing the focus of analysis to home-school connections, this line of investigation diverts attention away from existing social inequalities that sustain the widespread academic failure of minority students. Attention is given to the relationship between school and society—a missing link in much of the sociolinguistic literature. The paper further argues that culturally sensitive solutions to the school problems of minority students that ignore the political link between school and society are doomed to failure.

Preparing Linguistically Responsive Teachers: Laying the Foundation in Preservice Teacher Education

It takes teachers many years to develop expertise in the complex set of knowledge, skills, and orientations needed to teach culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students well. The process begins in preservice preparation and continues into the early years of teaching and throughout a teachers career. This article examines preservice teacher education as the first phase in the continuum of teacher development for teaching ELLs. Drawing on our framework of orientations and pedagogical knowledge and skills for preparing linguistically responsive teachers (Lucas & Villegas, 2011; Lucas, Villegas, & Freedson-Gonzalez, 2008), we show how Feiman-Nemsers (2001) framework of central tasks for learning to teach can serve as a guide for identifying tasks for learning to teach CLD students and for guiding the construction of a coherent approach to preparing teachers of CLD students that begins in preservice programs, laying the foundation for continued development throughout the teaching career.

Critiquing Teacher Preparation Research

This is the second of a two-part article intended to offer teacher educators a cohesive overview of the sprawling and uneven field of research on teacher preparation by identifying, analyzing, and critiquing its major programs. The article discusses research on teacher preparation for the knowledge society and research on teacher preparation for diversity and equity, the second and third programs of research the authors identified through their massive review of research on initial teacher education, 2000-2012. Guided by their “Research on Teacher Preparation as Historically Situated Social Practice” theoretical/analytic framework, the authors describe the multiple clusters of studies comprising each of these programs of research and examine the social practices in which researchers engaged within one cluster selected from each. This article also suggests new directions for research on teacher education based on lacunae in the literature and on our analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing field.

Increasing teacher diversity by tapping the paraprofessional pool

has become increasingly diverse racially and ethnically. This growing diversity is nowhere more apparent than in public elementary and secondary schools. In 1993, students of color made up over one-third of K-12 enrollments, up from less than one-quarter in 1976 (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 1982, 1996). While the number of teachers of color also increased during this time period, their proportional gains pale in comparison to the dramatic demographic shift in the student population. Specifically, the fraction of people of color in the teaching force rose from 10 percent in 1976 to 13 percent by 1993 (NCES, 1996). As these figures indicate, the racial/ethnic disparity between teachers and students already evident 20 years ago has grown with time. This gap, which has serious social and educational implications for the nation and its schools (Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy, 1986; Hidalgo & Huling-Austin, 1993; Smith, 1989), is expected to grow even wider in the years ahead unless immediate steps are taken to actively recruit more people of color into teaching (DarlingHammond, 1990).

Closing the Racial/Ethnic Gap Between Students of Color and Their Teachers: An Elusive Goal

This article examines minority teacher recruitment policies and programs of the past two decades and explores their influence on the racial/ethnic makeup of the teaching force in elementary and secondary public schools. The results show that while important progress has been made toward increasing the overall number and proportion of minority teachers in the public schools, those gains have been eclipsed by the rapid growth of the minority student population. As a result, the racial/ethnic gap between students of color and their teachers has actually increased over the years. The authors provide an overview of current minority teacher recruitment state policies and introduce the Teacher-Student Parity Index, a new metric for comparing the proportions of teachers and students from different racial/ethnic groups to gain a more textured understanding of the demographic reality of todays schools than is presently found in the literature. The authors conclude with recommendations for policy and research.

Creating a Nontraditional Pipeline for Urban Teachers: The Pathways to Teaching Careers Model

Many urban districts have responded to teacher shortages and forecasts offuture shortages by establishing initiatives to recruit teachers from traditional and nontraditional sources. The Pathways to Teaching Careers Program takes the latter approach, focusing on the more diverse and older pool of teaching paraprofessionals, uncertified/emergency-certified teachers, and returned Peace Corps volunteers. Multiyear evaluation results confirm that Pathways has exceeded its recruitment goals and graduated early cohorts of participants at rates higher than the national average who are performing well. This article outlines key program components and evaluation data, discussing implications of the Pathways modelforfuture recruitment efforts.

Increasing the Racial and Ethnic Diversity of the U.S. Teaching Force

Diversity is a fact of life in the United States, as evident in the student population served by the nation’s public schools. Already, students of racial and ethnic minority backgrounds account for a full one-third of elementary and secondary enrollments (National Center for Education Statistic [NCES], 1993), and it is projected that by the year 2000 nearly 40% of all school-aged youths will be of color (Hodgkinson, 1986).1 The composition of the teaching force, however, does not mirror the demographic profile of the student body. At present, racial and ethnic minorities account for approximately 13% of the teaching force (NCES, 1993). Unless active measures are taken to attract more people of color into teaching, their representation could drop to a meager 5% by the end of the century (Darling-Hammond, 1990; Smith, 1992). This striking discontinuity between the cultural backgrounds of teachers and their students has come to be seen by some as a matter with serious social and educational implications for the nation and its schools (Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy, 1986; Hidalgo & Huling-Austin, 1993; Mercer & Mercer, 1986; Smith, 1989).