Curriculum Inquiry to Strengthen Teacher Preparation for Supporting Multilingual Learners in Rural Settings

Multilingual learners (MLs) represent a substantial, growing segment of the PreK–12 population, including in rural areas. Several forces contribute to the increase of ML students in rural schools (e.g., immigrant labor, refugee crises). As we undergo a major cultural shift from a society that was (misguidedly) viewed as monolingual to one that is now undoubtedly multilingual, many teacher education programs have not sufficiently transformed how they prepare educators for linguistic and cultural diversity. Rural teachers indicate that teacher preparation does not include effective strategies and resources instrumental to meeting the cultural, linguistic, and academic needs of MLs. Moreover, educators may hold deficit views about rural MLs that interfere with recognizing and harnessing linguistic capital and rural cultural wealth. This article reports on a faculty-led curriculum inquiry project at a large college of education in the rural southeast. An appreciative inquiry (AI) framework was used to investigate how courses incorporated ML-specific content and pedagogical knowledge. Through qualitative analysis of AI-guided curricular dialogues and course surveys we categorized the epistemologies, pedagogies, and resources currently used in courses. Findings revealed limited ML-specific content, but many faculty expressed a desire to expand content and deepen their knowledge of ML education. AI practices enable teacher educators to examine how ML content is shaped within and across courses that prepare teachers for rural, multilingual classrooms.