Pre-Program Education Students' and Teacher Educators' Understandings of Teaching and Learning Within a Bilingual Community

Abstract

This qualitative case study explores ways in which three teacher educators and three pre-program education students' understanding developed while working with students in an after-school literacy program within an immigrant community. The theoretical lenses guiding the study were funds of knowledge, translanguaging, and cultural responsive teaching. The results of the study show that teacher educators' understanding of pedagogy was shaped as they theorized about their own teacher preparation. The pre-program students were able to gain invaluable strategies for working with the children within their own community. Their learning included not only understandings about pedagogy, but also about the experiential realities of students' lives, outside of their cultures.