Thursday, July 27, 2017

What Should Canada’s Teachers Know?

I recently had a chapter published in a publication by the Canadian Association for Teacher Education (CATE). Every two years, CATE holds a working conference for teacher educators, and this book was the result of the 2015 conference that was held in Toronto.  The book is available as a pdf, and it is free.  You can find the book here:


Here is the title and abstract for my chapter:

Preparing for Linguistic Diversity: Teacher Candidate Reflections on an Elementary Education Course in Additional Language Teaching and Learning

Teacher candidates in Canada encounter a rich range of linguistic diversity in their school experiences. The goal of this qualitative study was to examine, from the point of view of elementary teacher candidates, the extent to which an additional language teaching and learning course prepared them for their encounters with students from linguistically diverse backgrounds. Data were gathered through an online open-ended questionnaire exploring teacher candidates’ perspectives on the most and least beneficial elements of the course, along with what they thought might be missing. Results point to Canadian classrooms being home to a wide diversity of English language learners. Participants also felt that instructional strategies, empathy, confidence, and transferability were some of the benefits of a course in additional language teaching and learning. However, they felt that it lacked enough time with actual students and content related to culture, socioeconomic factors, and immigration status. The findings underscore the necessity of addressing the needs of English language learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds throughout a teacher education program and the importance of having a specialized course in additional language teaching and learning.


Douglas, S. (2016). Preparing for linguistic diversity: Teacher candidate reflections on an elementary education course in additional language teaching and learning. In M. Hirschkorn & J. Mueller (Eds.), What should Canada's teachers know? Teacher capacities: Knowledge, beliefs and skills (pp. 536-568). Ottawa, ON: Canadian Association for Teacher Education. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-36OcipMmoPbTdia2hrN1F5RjQ/view