Cultural/linguistic immersion in teacher preparation for emergent bilingual learners: Defining a new space for asset-based pedagogies

This chapter lays out conceptual foundations of an asset-based pedagogical approach to teaching emergent bilingual learners contextualized through decolonizing critiques, and with emphasis on pedagogical language knowledge as a guiding principle to prepare teachers in culturally/linguistic immersion contexts. Today, the challenges of economic globalization, widespread digital interaction, increased human migration, and climate instability call for locally relevant but globally aware problem-solving perspectives. We argue that to revise the monocultural biases permeating North American K-12 classrooms, we need to disrupt and re-imagine the contexts and goals of teacher preparation programs. To move beyond insufficient notions of “teacher competence” delivered through traditional classroom instruction, this effort necessitates the design and delivery of embedded cultural and linguistic experiences that will help fundamentally alter future teaching practice and the wider pedagogical landscape.