Making Visible Awareness in Practice: Literacy Educators in Diverse Classrooms

Teacher‐educators who are aware of differences that present themselves in diverse student populations must increasingly work to help teachers to connect with students in ways that allow them to improve literacy outcomes. Despite its potential for helping to address the needs of diverse students, awareness of culture and language often tends to be touted primarily as an expectation for teachers who work in K‐12 schools and classrooms. It is less visible as a requirement for teacher‐educators, despite the ever‐increasing need for them to have the skills and expertise to guide teachers who work with culturally and linguistically diverse students (CLDs) in underperforming schools. This study was therefore developed to show the ways in which teacher‐educators demonstrated awareness of language and culture while supporting the instructional literacy practices of in‐service teachers and the literacy learning of CLDs. More specifically, the purpose of this study was to identify the elements of critical multilingual and critical multicultural awareness displayed by three literacy educators, who were supporting students’ writing practices in diverse K‐12 literacy classrooms within a research‐practice partnership, over a period of one academic year. Findings show that the educators reflected awareness in their support for CLDs’ literacies as they experienced transitions, confronted deficit views, capitalised on verbal, visual and written scaffolds with students and teachers, and fostered authenticity. The study presents implications for literacy educators who wish to reflect awareness when responding to CLDs\u27 literacies in schools