Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

The structure of American public schools has altered within the past 30 years due to receiving extensive number of linguistically diverse students. The fact that culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students often experience academic failure within the U.S. public schools creates a subgroup of students who cannot achieve their educational goals. The purpose of this study is to explore ideal practices in order to enhance teachers' and policy makers' perceptions and awareness on the unique needs of CALD students. The findings of this study reveal the fact that ineffective methods for teaching CALD students and short-term goal-oriented educational policies fall short of meeting the academic needs of CALD students, and this research offers a conceptual framework that could contribute to CALD students' intellectual growth through effective and constructive language learning practices.

English as a Second or Other Language-Focused Leadership to Support English Language Learners: A Case Study

With the growing population of culturally and linguistically diverse students in K-12 schools, explicit English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL)-focused leadership is needed to support culturally responsive teaching practices, as well as provide socially just and equitable educational opportunities for all students. This study focuses on how one school district and its high school have distributed and sustained ESOL-focused leadership (knowledge, skills, dispositions, and practices) to promote inclusive and equitable learning opportunities for ELLs. Findings from this case study provide examples of the presence of ESOL-focused leadership and how it supports ELLs and their teachers. Practical implications for meeting ELLs’ unique needs are shared.

School Counselors’ Leadership Role in Creating a Collaborative School Climate for Linguistically Diverse Students

School systems are increasingly diverse communities, with a broadening diversity of students and staff alike. School counselors play a critical role in creating a welcoming school climate within the school community. As a catalyst for change within the school system, school counselors can create an effective community partnership culture for schools and families that is collaborative and welcoming for all. This article will discuss the importance of creating a collaborative school climate for linguistically diverse students (LDS) in order to promote their overall well-being and school achievement. With this objective in mind, a review of the literature on school counselor’s leadership role within the school community will be discussed, before embarking on an investigation into the effectiveness of counselors as agents of systemic change in facilitating engagement. A discussion of school counselors’ role in creating a welcoming school climate towards LDS within the school and school community could pave the way for a more positive organizational culture. Using a systemic approach, which aims to generate greater understanding and awareness, school counselors have the power to play a critical role in the transformation of the school system, especially for students from diverse backgrounds (Aydin, 2011; McCall-Perez, 2000; Schwallie-Giddis, Anstrom, Sanchez, Sardi, & Granato, 2004).

Beyond The Ordinary: Designing a Mobile-assisted Funds-of-Knowledge-Featured Instructional Framework for English Learners

The design and implementation of hybrid, technology-enhanced learning environments is a sophisticated process, especially when incorporating relevant sociocultural factors to support culturally and linguistically diverse students’ learning. In this paper, I review and provide a description of an iterative design process for a mobile-assisted funds-of knowledge (FoK)-featured instructional framework that aims to facilitate middle-school-aged Latinx English Learners’ (ELs) literacy development in writing. The sociocultural lens of FoK considers ELs’ ordinary experiences as assets in creating inclusivity and engaging flow in learning, which are further enhanced by affordances of mobile-based writing applications. More specifically, this design process was achieved through fieldwork situated in a Latinx community and school district in a rural town in the Midwestern United States. The design process was contextualized into four stages: the precedent stage focusing on the formation of the design idea, the framing stage focusing on the preliminary design outline, the co-evolution stage focusing on the development of the designed product, and the prototype stage focusing on experimenting with the designed product through the ELs’ classroom writing practice. This instructional framework emphasizes the transformation of diverse ELs’ ordinary experiences by guiding them through five sequential learning steps: discovering, connecting, writing, sharing, and preserving culture. Formative and summative evaluation techniques were embedded through different research phases, such as a preliminary instrumental case study, an ethnographic case study, and the ELs’ classroom writing practice. This design case provides an example of socioculturally contextualizing the application of emerging technology to mediate learning for diverse student populations.