Erin Feinauer Whiting

Reasons for enrollment at a Spanish–English two-way immersion charter school among highly motivated parents from a diverse community

This study builds on previous work to examine parent reasons for enrolling their children in a two-way immersion (TWI) charter school. This work goes beyond ethno linguistic background variables (language, ethnicity), to include other key variables such as education level, income, religion, household distance from school, and family structure. This study takes place in one school-wide TWI program in a charter school where parents must choose and actively pursue enrollment. These highly motivated parents articulate, in their own voice, their reasons for choosing to enroll their children in this school. Using open-coding strategies, six overarching categories emerged from parent responses about their reasons for enrollment: Bilingualisms/Biliteracy, Educational Experiences, Future and Career Opportunities, Cultural Immersion/Diversity, Preserving Heritage, and Proximity to Home. Chi-square statistics are used to compare demographic characteristics across these six reasons. Our findings show that parents from many different background characteristics share a desire for their child to participate in TWI education. Additionally, there are many factors outside of language dominance that are relevant to parental decisions for enrollment. These data clearly showcase a highly motivated and diverse parent population who report various reasons for choosing the school for their children.

The emotional work of discomfort and vulnerability in multicultural teacher education

This study documents our efforts to implement an ‘ethic of discomfort’ and a ‘pedagogy of discomfort’ in our undergraduate multicultural teacher education courses. Commitments to these moral imperatives inherently involve emotional work for teacher candidates and teacher educators. Such emotional work, particularly in academia, is often invisible and disincentivized. This study examines the following: (1) grappling with students’ emotional reactions that stem from discomfort, (2) engaging in public emotional discourses, (3) negotiating the political dimensions of teaching diverse students, and (4) remaining emotionally available to students as they work through these ideas in their own lives. The implications of this study address the types of preparation and support teacher educators need to facilitate the transformative potential of a pedagogy and an ethic of discomfort. While pre-service teacher education is considered a safe and productive learning space for students to be discomforted, questions are posed regarding the safety for pre-tenured teacher educators involved in this process. We offer a typology of emotional work from a teacher educator perspective in teaching multicultural education.

Examining the Sociolinguistic Context in Schools and Neighborhoods of Pre-adolescent Latino Students: Implications for Ethnic Identity

This study examined the sociolinguistic contexts of neighborhoods and schools in two predominantly Latino communities in the United States. We used census data to assess social and ethnic composition and observational data to compare and contrast environmental print, language use, and availability of community services in Spanish in these schools and neighborhoods. Structured interviews with pre-adolescent (5th grade) students raised questions about how these sociolinguistic contexts might contribute to ways they viewed themselves as part of their ethnic community. Observational results revealed striking differences in the prevalence and use of Spanish across these two communities. Student interviews raised questions about how pre-adolescent Latino students in these two very different sociolinguistic contexts may see themselves in relation to their ethnic group. Implications for supporting ethnic-identity-development processes are discussed.

Food Insecurity and Diabetes Risk Among the Northern Cheyenne

ABSTRACT Using data from a 2001 survey of a representative sample of Northern Cheyenne reservation residents, this paper examines use of a variety of food sources, nutritional health and risk factors, diabetes risk factors, and food insecurity. Results indicate that substantial proportions of the respondents had high levels of nutritional risk, food insecurity, and diabetes risk. Importantly, those using community emergency food sources and informal economic strategies to meet food shortages were more likely to be food insecure. Those with higher nutritional risk and lower nutritional health were also more likely to be food insecure. Finally, being younger, educated and using wages to obtain food increased the risk for diabetes.

Opening Spaces for Teacher Educator Knowledge in a Faculty Development Program on Blended Learning Course Development

Abstract Mandates for technology integration (TI) in teacher education courses continue to gain momentum. However, most teacher educators are not trained in the practices of instructional technology and, when mandated or strongly encouraged to do TI, they can face challenges and even crises of practice and identity. Like other teacher educators facing the seemingly inevitable advancement of TI in teacher education, we were excited, yet cautious, about a program for faculty development on blended learning course development (FDBL). This article reports the self-study of our experiences and the subsequent designing and offering of our courses in a blended learning format. We situate our systematic account of our practice within larger research considerations of how self-study of teacher education methodology can shed light on digital practices. This self-study provides a rich description of how teacher educators can integrate technology as a prolonged and iterative endeavor as opposed to a one-time project that does not fit in with their practice. Three major themes emerge from our study: (1) authentic pedagogical problems and content-area expertise, (2) learning theories and pedagogical beliefs, and (3) design iterations vs. summative evaluation. These three themes provide touchstones for teacher educators to consider when incorporating technology in their situated practice while remaining true to their content area and learning theory commitments. This self-study illustrates the ways in which the characteristics of self-study methodology actually facilitate teacher educators’ authentic engagement with TI.

Measuring the Multicultural Dispositions of Preservice Teachers

Claims abound in the research literature regarding multicultural teacher dispositions, including how to foster them in teacher preparation programs. However, measures of multicultural dispositions of teachers that (a) capture the range of conceptually rich constructs and (b) demonstrate strong psychometric properties are not represented in the literature. In this article, we discuss the iterative development and psychometric properties of the Multicultural Teacher Dispositions Scale (MTDS), a survey of 15 items designed to assess three dispositions/factors: Meekness, Social Awareness, and Advocacy. We analyze responses from 372 preservice teachers in three samples and analytic phases, and discuss factor and item analytic results from the final phase. Results demonstrate strong support for Meekness, though moderate support for Social Awareness and Advocacy. We discuss limitations, implications for measure refinement, and eventual use for research and practice improvement.

Home Language and Literacy Practices of Parents at One Spanish-English Two-Way Immersion Charter School

This study looks at how parents in one Spanish-English two-way immersion (TWI) charter school report their participation in various home language and literacy practices. Parent groups, based on a cluster analysis, highlight the heterogeneity of Latino parents at the school while acknowledging the commonalities as well. Four parent groups emerged based not only on primary language, but also ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, and proximity to the school. Chi-square analyses revealed significant differences across parent groups in terms of reported home language and literacy practices. Implications are discussed for educators in TWI programs, who seek to more fully draw on the linguistic resources that their students bring with them to school, especially in supporting the maintenance and development of the Spanish language.

Taking a closer look at Latino parents at one Spanish–English two-way immersion charter school

Scholars who work with Latino/as in the USA have long been calling for a more nuanced understanding of the heterogeneity of the US-based Latino population. Two-way Immersion (TWI) bilingual education programmes are an interesting context in which to examine the Latino parent communities in the USA. Overall, the language enrichment nature of TWI programmes attracts diverse parents from across many different demographic groups, and for a variety of reasons. This study uses an innovative application of cluster analysis to examine the parent population at one TWI Spanish–English elementary school. Survey questions asked were: parents’ income, educational achievement, ethnicity, language spoken at home, religious affiliation, country of origin and residential distance from the school. Our analyses reveal that parents in our sample can be classified into four distinct groups based on the combinations of included characteristics. Our analyses show the emergence of three Latino parent clusters and one Caucasian parent cluster. These analyses show how accounting for the different social dimensions of these parents’ lives simultaneously can provide a more nuanced understanding of the Latino parents at this school.

The Simple School Belonging Scale: Working Toward a Unidimensional Measure of Student Belonging

ABSTRACT Research focused on student belonging has sometimes used available measures in a unidimensional way despite evidence of multidimensionality in these scales. This study introduces a new unidimensional measure of school belonging that is psychometrically robust with preliminary evidence of construct validity that we call the Simple School Belonging Scale (SSBS).