Staying the course in times of change: Preparing teachers for minority education

This article describes how passage of Proposition 227 (P-227), the popular California initiative re-stricting bilingual education, has influenced teacher preparation to authorize specialized instruc-tion for limited English proficient students. The knowledge base for bilingual cross-cultural language and academic development teacher education is grounded in an additive acculturation model, in contrast to assimilationist philosophy, which underlies policies mandating English im-mersion for language minorities. Federal court rulings upholding P-227 establish a sequential pro-gram to address English language learning as well as content learning and require school districts to provide specialized instruction until language minority students reach academic parity. Legal mandates continue to require teacher education to provide effective teacher preparation programs for schooling linguistically diverse student populations. The response to P-227 by San Diego State University’s College of Education is explored to illustrate the reaffirmation of a commitment to edu-cational equity and ongoing program development to support multicultural teaching. In June 1998, the California electorate approved a ballot initiative to curtail bilingual education in public schools by a vote of 61 % to 39%. Th