Empowering Pre-Service Educators To Build Multilingual Spaces Through Family Engagement
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Family engagement practices can contribute towards closing the achievement gap between culturally and linguistically diverse minorities and nonminority children (Jeynes, 2005). Through a U.S. Department of Education grant, four in-service, and four pre-service teachers participated in a Summer Institute Program in an urban Title I School in Alabama. This study explored pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy of family engagement practices and their implementation of family engagement practices. An explanatory mixed methods design involved collecting pre-/post-survey data and explaining the results with observations (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018). The quantitative and qualitative findings were part of a larger study that included in-service teachers. Findings of this study suggested that pre-service teachers felt more comfortable working with families of Emergent Multilingual students after receiving professional development, reflective coaching, and implementing family engagement practices, including FACT Time and Family Nights.