Preparation of secondary mainstream teachers to ensure equitable outcomes for English learners

Abstract

Current trends in education, including a rapidly growing student population of English learners (ELs) in the United States requiring equitable education opportunities, have increased the need for all teachers to prepare themselves for culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. Many secondary teachers enter the profession without completing formal teacher preparation programs and often require targeted professional development to overcome deficit beliefs and monolingual ideologies. Cultivating mainstream teachers who hold an asset-based philosophy toward multilingual learners and are well-prepared to effectively employ instructional strategies to teach content and language in their classrooms will help ensure that local program models successfully achieve their educational objectives. Research-based recommendations are provided for policies and practices to ensure secondary mainstream teachers receive high-quality professional development throughout all stages of their careers.