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Transformations To Serve English Learners: A Call for Innovative
Partnerships in Educator Preparation
Dr. Joan Lachance
Education reform for 21
st
century learning and the current era of standards-based
instruction are profound catalysts for increased momentum and realignment of what is
considered
the norm
with regard to diversity, multicultural education, and English learners
(ELs). Now, more than ever, institutions of higher education (IHEs) are faced with
understanding the profound and multifaceted relationships between education programs
accreditation criteria and the critical concepts of culturally responsive pedagogy with language
learning (Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Education Programs [CACREP],
2014; Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation [CAEP], 2013). This strategic
balance between theory and application within preservice educator coursework includes the
fundamental understanding of how to address local, state, and national needs for hard-to-staff
schools and shortage fields, including English language learning. Likewise, IHEs as providers,
must address educator candidates’ development of critical concepts and pedagogy resulting in
the elimination of academic barriers, as well as meeting the ever-changing demands of 21
st
century P-12 classrooms (CAEP, 2013; CACREP, 2014; Crethar, 2010; Gay, 2010;
Schellenberg & Grothaus, 2011). The swift and ever-changing demands of the P-12
demographic ultimately require innovative thinking to continuously reflect upon programs and
the demonstrative specifics related to authentic preparation for the tasks at hand. Once educators
are in the field, they must meet the needs of the diversity within the United States P-12
population, designing and delivering educational services in diverse schools (National Center
for Education Statistics [NCES], 2004, 2010, 2014).
Ultimately, the demands of educator candidates have swiftly transformed themselves to
encompass strategic considerations concerning the impacts of collaborative cross-cultural
literacies, multilingualism, and the emphasis on academic language development (Lee &
Dallman, 2008). Candidates’ competencies of globally productive student learning and
academic success, cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as systemic change are the framing
guiding principles for teachers’ and school counselors’ roles within professional school
communities (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2012; Arredondo, Tovar-
Blank, & Parham, 2008; National Center for Education Statistics, 2014).
With this in mind, a perpetual pattern of “missing the mark” still exists. Most educators
still feel ill-prepared to work with English learners, in spite of the changing demographics and
well-intended standards for educator preparation (de Jong, E. J., & Harper, C.A., 2005;
Goodwin, 2002). Teachers, once working in school systems that were rather uniform, are now
working with culturally and linguistically diverse students in a multitude of P-12 settings (NCES,
2014). Research also confirms that most teachers are white, female, of European descent, and
with monolingual backgrounds in schooling (Lewis, 2006; Nieto, 2012; Kolano, Dávila,
Lachance, & Coffey, 2014). Consequently, educator preparation programs must continue to think
innovatively, searching for comprehensive answers to meet the demands of the profession.