Preparing elementary education teacher candidates in michigan to teach multilingual learners: insights from curricular alignment and teacher preparation strategies

Abstract

Growing linguistic diversity in U.S. schools and the emergence of new policies and teaching standards have increased the need for all teachers to be prepared to teach multilingual learners in a linguistically responsive manner. In Michigan, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) revised its Standards for the Preparation of Teachers of Lower Elementary (PK-3) Education and Standards for the Preparation of Teachers of Upper Elementary (3-6) Education in 2020 to address this need. The revised standards emphasize preparing all general education teacher candidates to support English learners across content areas while allowing flexibility in curriculum design. This exploratory, descriptive case study examined how Michigan’s undergraduate elementary education teacher preparation programs aligned their programs with the revised state standards and the principles of linguistically responsive teaching theory (Lucas & Villegas, 2011, 2013). I collected survey data from elementary education teacher preparation program leaders and faculty to learn more about the strategies, challenges, and successes that they experienced in preparing teacher candidates to teach multilingual learners since 2020 and the extent that these efforts reflected linguistically responsive teaching practices. In addition, I conducted document analyses of three programs with the highest reported levels of teacher candidate preparedness to meet the needs of English learners. The findings revealed substantial variation in how program leaders integrated multilingual learner preparation into their curricula as well as in the strategies, challenges, and successes that they described. The three programs with the highest reported levels of teacher candidate preparedness to meet the needs of English learners appeared to demonstrate comprehensive integration of all seven tenets of the framework across coursework and field experiences, as reflected in their publicly available materials. Overall, the findings contribute to the literature by highlighting a theoretical framework for teacher preparation leaders to use in self-assessing and strengthening their curricula and by offering practical guidance for aligning programs with state standards to improve the preparation of future teachers to serve English learners at all proficiency levels.