Suniti Sharma

Immigration, Incarceration, and Cultural Exclusion

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Pedagogies of Discomfort: Shifting Preservice Teachers’ Deficit Orientations toward Language and Literacy Resources of Emergent Bilingual Students

Abstract A major challenge in teacher education in the United States is how to address the academic and linguistic needs of the growing numbers of emergent bilingual students. A second challenge is how to prepare predominantly White monolingual preservice teachers with little exposure to speakers of languages other than English to educate culturally and linguistically diverse students. With these two challenges in mind, this study examines how a course on literacy, language, and culture grounded in pedagogies of discomfort shifts preservice teachers’ deficit orientations toward emergent bilingual students’ language and literacy resources. Using Ofelia Garcia’s (2009) definition for emergent bilingualism, this mixed-method study was conducted from 2011 to 2013 with 73 preservice teacher participants enrolled at an urban mid-Atlantic university. Quantitative data consisted of pre and post surveys while qualitative data comprised written responses to open-ended statements, self-analyses, and participant interviews. Findings evidence preservice teachers’ endorsement of monolingualism before coursework; however, pedagogies of discomfort during coursework provoke critical reflection leading to significant shifts in preservice teachers’ dispositions toward teaching language diversity in the classroom with implications for teaching emergent bilingual students.

“Now I Look at All the Kids Differently”: Cracking Teacher Candidates’ Assumptions about School Achievement in Urban Communities

ABSTRACT This mixed-methods study explores the impact of teacher preparation coursework on 141 teacher candidates’ understandings about educational equality, school achievement, and meritocracy. Framed by pedagogies of discomfort, the program included readings, discussions, simulations, films, and direct work with emergent bilingual students. Findings from an analysis of surveys, interviews, and class discussions indicate that the program (1) complicated candidates’ understandings of school achievement and meritocracy in urban, underserved communities and (2) prompted participants to see students and themselves differently. These findings inform new pathways for enhancing candidates’ ability to critically understand school achievement within complex systems of systemic advantage and disadvantage.