Special Education Teacher Educators’ Focus on Emergent Multilingual Learners in Preservice Literacy Courses

Many special education teachers (SETs) report feeling unprepared to meet the language and literacy needs of emergent multilingual learners (EMLs). As such, it is important to consider the role of teacher educators, whose knowledge is related to their teacher candidates’ knowledge. Therefore, we have conducted a survey study investigating SET educators’ knowledge, experiences, and confidence regarding EMLs; their perceptions of the value of preparing SET candidates to support EMLs’ language and literacy development; the extent to which they incorporate EML content into literacy coursework; and the ways in which EML content is related to several factors, including teacher educators’ knowledge. Our study revealed that preparation programs and accompanying literacy courses often have a limited focus on EMLs. Although this focus is unrelated to respondents’ knowledge, experiences, and perceived value, it is correlated with their confidence and program requirements. We discuss practical implications and areas for future research based on these findings.