In 2021, with funding from the U.S. State Department Mission to Türkiye, a group of like-minded educational researchers in the U.S. and Turkey began a multi-year international partnership to rethink the preparation of preservice educators.  The project, which came to be known as Project Diversity and Inclusion Via teacher Education, or Project DIVE, responds to the dire need for specific training for preservice English language teachers (PELTs) teaching in increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse public schools in Türkiye and in the Southeastern U.S. For example in 2022, Izmir, Türkiye served 28,916 school students who speak a language other than Turkish, yet English language teacher education programs (ELTEPs) do not offer courses to train teachers for this new context. Similarly, educators in the Nashville, TN are also serving a growing number of linguistically diverse populations. Indeed, educators in both settings require tools to create effective learning environments for their diverse learners, including many refugees. Research on multilingual and culturally responsive pedagogies echo the need for educators to respect and create space for learners’ languages and cultural identities in the classroom, as well as to utilize students’ full linguistic repertoires to learn English. Yet, preparation programs are still in the process of developing pedagogical practices that aid educators in realizing this vision.  

In Year 1 | (Fall, 2022)

Project DIVE used design-based research methods to design and refine an 12-week ELTEP course for junior PELTs in the College of Education at Dokuz Eylul University in collaboration with Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. We sought to incorporate three design principles: 

1) To utilize PELTs' own histories and experiences as language learners and users in order to inform the design of humanizing instruction. 

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2) To offer multiple opportunities to reflect on the broader social, cultural, and historical factors that shape their views of language learning and teaching. 

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3) To co-envision the design of language instruction that incorporates PELTs' and their future students' broader linguistic repertoires. 

 

The research team designed and implemented a mixed methods needs analysis (surveys and interviews) to identify the areas for growth for teachers and design the content of the course accordingly.By the end of the course, PELTs were able to identify diversity and multilingual learning issues and to envision classroom practices to address these challenges.

 

In Year 2 | (Fall, 2023)

Participating PELTs will record their teaching and join two reflective workshops to critically analyze their teaching practices. To link learning to practice, PELTs will implement Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles and learn to recognize and address the challenges in their classrooms. Throughout these cycles, they will collaborate with Peabody remotely once a week. Two check-in surveys and reflection letters will gauge participants’ response and inform course adjustments. Collaborators in Izmir will employ surveys and interview participating PELTs to explore course impacts.