The campfire effect: a preliminary analysis of preservice teachers' beliefs about teaching English language learners after state-mandated endorsement courses.

Olson, Kate ; Jimenez-Silva, Margarita

Abstract. This article focuses on the influence that Arizona's mandated Structured English Immersion endorsement policy has on preservice teachers' beliefs and attitudes toward English language learners. By utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry, our preliminary analysis showed "the campfire effect," which is to say that our undergraduate students overwhelmingly reported that the endorsement courses had a positive result on both their confidence and underlying ideological beliefs about teaching English language learners. The campfire effect, therefore, is an important step in the teacher learning process, particularly with such controversial topics as the education of culturally and linguistically diverse students.

**********

This study builds upon research that examines the implications educational policies have on teaching and learning for culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students. The passage of Proposition 203 in Arizona in 2000 radically changed the instructional practices for English language learners (ELLs) by eliminating the ability to use native language instruction in classrooms and requiring schools to implement Structured English Immersion methods with minimal training or experience in such practices (Wright, 2005). At the same time, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) instituted a Structured English Immersion (SEI) training policy for all teachers, due to a court order mandating the improvement of instructional practices and services provided to ELL students (Flores v. State of Arizona). This policy required that licensed teachers receive an initial 15 hours of SEI training by August 2006 and an additional 45 hours by August 2009; it also mandated that preservice students take two semesters of SEI endorsement curriculum in their university certification program before they student teach. This reform constitutes a significant investment of time and resources by the state government, district, schools, and teachers. The goal of our work is to examine whether the state-mandated SEI endorsement courses have generative effects on changing the beliefs and practices of our preservice teachers for ELL students. For this article, we contend that changing beliefs is an essential first step in improving the instructional environment and educational achievement for this underserved population.

The goal of this state policy was to ensure that ELLs receive the best and most effective instructional practices possible within the constraints of the law in order to improve ELLs' achievement on state standardized measures in English. Despite the fact that we believe that the most effective practice for ELLs is bilingual instruction, this professional development effort is a laudable objective. This effort endeavors to systematically train all teachers in the state to improve the teaching of one of the most underserved and underrepresented student populations (Crawford, 2004).

Structured English Immersion proponents claim that SEI is an effective means of developing language and academic skills for ELLs (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004). However, the preliminary research on the effects of Arizona's state endorsement mandate indicated that a significant number of experienced teachers believed that introductory SEI training has not influenced how they organize their instruction for their ELL students in any appreciable way (Wright & Choi, 2005). The experienced teachers in this study claimed that there was no follow-up on the SEI training in their districts and schools, resulting in the continuation of sink-or-swim methods for their ELL students. This finding reveals that the initial 15 hours of endorsement courses in which experienced teachers took part did not address their basic beliefs and assumptions in relation to ELLs and instruction enough to mobilize them to change their practice. This study is in alignment with Richardson's (1994, 1996) research, which demonstrated that professional development training may have very limited impact on teachers' beliefs and decision-making practices in classrooms, unless teachers are given the opportunity to make sense of the information at a deeper level and are given more classroom support than professional development often allows.

There is a growing need for further examination and analysis of the efficacy of this state policy on changing teachers' beliefs and practices; in particular, of the effectiveness of the endorsement training in which Arizona's preservice teachers are required to participate before they enter the profession full-time. This type of examination is essential since the majority of students who choose to enter the teaching profession are white, middle-class, European American women with little or no experience with diverse student populations (Zeichner, 2003). This reality speaks to the need to examine how preservice teachers' beliefs and attitudes influence their behaviors with ELLs in classrooms and how effective teacher education curriculum is in changing not only reported ideologies of traditional teacher education students, but also their decision-making practices with diverse student populations in classrooms (Cochran-Smith, 1998; Sleeter, 2001; Trent & Artiles, 1998).

Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of students in our undergraduate education program are white females, we still contend that our endorsement courses have the potential to impact preservice teachers' beliefs about, and attitudes toward, ELLs for two reasons: 1) the courses are organized by professors at the university level in a way that allows our preservice students to actively participate in the curriculum, providing them with multiple ways to make meaning of the content; and 2) the courses allow the students to reflect upon their preconceived notions about teaching and learning for diverse student populations while they observe and conduct field work in classrooms.

We found in our analysis of our preservice teacher beliefs what we call "the campfire effect," which is to say that our undergraduate students in education overwhelmingly reported that our SEI endorsement courses had a positive effect on their beliefs about teaching ELLs immediately after completing our courses. Just as campers can feel comforted and secure by participating in the shared experience of sitting around a bonfire together, our preservice teachers felt confident in their teaching abilities and reassured about their new beliefs and knowledge of pedagogy for English language learners by collaborating in the curriculum. In fact, the preservice teachers overwhelmingly reported having a shared, affirmative feeling about the coursework and their newfound beliefs, which we believe is the result of how we organized the program to allow the students to make sense of the curriculum together. The campfire effect, therefore, is an important goal for teacher education classes and, equally, an essential step in the teacher learning process, particularly with such controversial topics as the education of culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Theoretical Framework: Preservice Teacher Learning in the Context of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory

The research in this study is theoretically grounded in cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), which contends that all human development is founded upon social interaction in cultural practices that are mediated by the use of cultural artifacts, tools, and signs (Cole, 1996; Engestrom, 1993, 1999; Vygotsky, 1978). Language is fundamental to this mediated interaction. Language is the preeminent mediating tool in learning and development (Gutierrez, Baquedano-Lopez, & Tejeda, 2000; Ochs & Scheiffelin, 1984) and is the means by which individuals make meaning of material and ideational artifacts in the social milieu (Cole, 1996; Moll, 2000; Ochs, 1992). Thus, it is only through social interaction, whereby language is used to build new knowledge, that teachers and students make meaning of their experiences in and of classrooms.

Moreover, the context and activity in which language mediation occurs is equally important to learning and development (Duranti & Goodwin, 1992; Rogoff, 2003). As Engestrom (1987), Leont'ev (1981), and Vygotsky (1978) assert, the relationship between individuals and the material world happens in situated activities. This means that only through participation and collaboration with others in goal-oriented activities and practices will human social and cognitive development occur (Rogoff, 2003; Wertsch, 1991). In addition, CHAT informs us that the history of a practice as well as the prior experiences and beliefs of each participant influence how cultural practices are co-constructed, as past participation informs how people make sense of their involvement in present activity (Cole, 1996; Moll, 2000). This means that teachers' past experiences provide the foundation for their beliefs about how to organize learning in classroom practice (Richardson, 1994, 1996).

However, as related research on the pedagogical effects of recent educational policies shows, personal histories, beliefs, and experiences are not the only motivating forces that influence how teachers organize their instruction. Such policies as Propositions 227 and 203, mandated district curricula, content standards, and high-stakes testing also have had a significant influence in how the context for learning is organized for ELLs in classroom practice (Asato, Zavala, Olson, Pacheco, & Gutierrez, 2003; Gandara, Rumberger, Maxwell-Jolly, & Callahan, 2003; Gutierrez, Asato, Santos, & Gotanda, 2002; Gutierrez, Baquedano-Lopez, & Asato, 2001). In particular, this research indicates that mandated standardized testing in English has had a significant influence on both teachers' beliefs about and the social organization of content instruction for ELL students. The demand to improve the test scores of ELL students has driven many schools and teachers to place primary importance on basic skills instruction in English without any official training or experience in how to best deliver instruction to students of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Gutierrez et al., 2002).

For these reasons, CHAT is a powerful lens through which to look at learning in the context of preservice teachers' beliefs in relation to their future classroom practice in this study. Not only are our students mandated to take the SEI courses, but also they come to the classes with both a personal history and preconceived notions about ELLs and how best to teach students from diverse backgrounds. We believe that our SEI endorsement coursework will be most effective when multiple mediational tools are utilized and compose the activities and assignments in which the preservice students participate (Rogoff, 1995). Therefore, this social organization of teacher education will afford the preservice students access to a repertoire of tools and signs that will both socialize them to the type of understandings and instruction that we promote for ELLs, and help them reflect upon their preconceptions of diverse students and their capabilities in classroom practice.

Research indicates that the most effective teacher education programs are those that focus their curriculum on culturally relevant pedagogy, in which the students participate in meaningful and reflective activities while they interact and work with students of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Ladson-Billings, 1994; Sleeter, 2001). While the research on the influence of this type of multicultural curriculum on preservice students' beliefs and practices is limited in terms of changing their notions of English language learners (Sleeter, 2001), the teacher education programs that have been most effective are those that center their curriculum on topics that discuss issues with which diverse students contend, as well as best instructional strategies, while giving real-life experiences in urban schools (Haberman, 1995; Zeichner, 1996).

However, there is still a dearth of research that documents how teacher education programs prepare all their preservice students, not just those dedicated or preselected to teaching underserved students, by providing the information and background necessary in educating ELLs. This type of examination on state-mandated curriculum that focuses on ELLs and their social and academic skills and needs and the impact these courses have on teaching and learning for ever-increasing diverse student populations is imperative.

This article discusses the findings of our analysis on the effects of our endorsement curriculum on our preservice students' beliefs and knowledge of ELLs. While we recognize that this study has limitations in terms of examining the students' beliefs without examining their practice in the field (Sleeter, 2001), we believe that this study is an essential first step to improving teacher practice for all students, and it provides us with an important conversation of the significance of mandating all teachers to learn this important curriculum in order to be effective in today's schools.

Methods

Centering on SEI endorsement training for ELLs in a post-Proposition 203, high-stakes context, this investigation focused its analysis on both teachers' beliefs and attitudes toward teaching ELLs to answer the following research questions:

1) How have the SEI endorsement courses and curriculum changed our elementary education preservice teachers' beliefs and attitudes toward instructing ELLs?

2) How do our elementary education preservice teachers perceive their future instruction for ELLs as a result of completing the SEI coursework?

This study focused primarily on answering the first research question, since a preliminary analysis can only be completed on the teachers' beliefs after taking our courses. A follow-up study to observe, interview, and survey our preservice teachers in their student teaching and first-year placement is ongoing and will be the focus of the second part of our research. Thus, for this beginning analysis, we created a survey that measured preservice teachers' beliefs and attitudes toward teaching ELLs after taking the requisite SEI endorsement courses in our undergraduate teacher education program over the sequence of two semesters.

To collect the data on our preservice teachers' beliefs, our survey was administered in three different endorsement courses from three different professors in our teacher education program. As a result, we collected 72 completed surveys to make up our data set. We centered our analysis on the cohort of preservice teachers who have taken the two requisite endorsement courses designated by the ADE, because they completed the requisite curriculum for the full SEI endorsement according to state policy.

To administer the survey, each professor was given a set of surveys and asked to invite the students to complete the survey during the last class session of the second endorsement course. Before passing out the survey, each professor told his or her class that the survey was voluntary and that it had no effect on their grade. In addition, the professors informed their class that the purpose of the survey was to see how effective our SEI courses were in helping them with their future practice with ELLs. This way, we hoped that the students would feel free to answer the survey questions honestly and without undue pressure to answer the questions in such a way that would please us.

After we collected the completed surveys, we entered the data into SPSS. For our quantitative analysis, we then ran descriptive statistics on the student demographic information to profile our elementary preservice student population in terms of their gender, age, ethnicity, and previous experience with ELLs. In addition, frequency tables were then used to determine the mean scores on the Likert-scale questions to establish our students' beliefs and confidence about different aspects of our curriculum after taking our courses.

To uncover our students' beliefs and attitudes about teaching ELLs after taking our courses, our data analysis primarily centered on one qualitative question in the survey, which asked the preservice teachers to write about their beliefs and attitudes toward educating ELLs after taking the SEI endorsement courses. Specifically, the qualitative question asked the undergraduate students to reflect upon their learning in two ways. First, the survey asked the students to state whether they believed that the courses helped change their beliefs about educating ELLs. If they agreed with that premise, then they were asked to write how the endorsement courses had helped change their beliefs and attitudes about teaching ELLs.

We first examined their responses to whether they believed that the endorsement courses changed their beliefs and attitudes toward educating ELLs. From these data, we were able to determine the percentage of preservice students who indicated that the courses changed their beliefs. After this analysis, we examined the students' written explanations describing how the courses helped them. To do this, we transcribed the preservice students' responses (n = 60). From each student's answer, we were able to code and categorize the data according to each belief statement within each response following rigorous qualitative methodology using grounded theory (Huberman & Miles, 2002; Yin, 1994). Each statement was coded according to the students' beliefs. These codes were then analyzed according to patterns in the belief statements and then clustered with similar responses to determine their frequency. Once the patterns were established, representative samples of written data were used to illustrate the influence the endorsement courses had on our preservice teachers' beliefs and attitudes about teaching ELLs, and to explain how they perceived their future instruction with this student population.

The Evolution and Organization of Our Curriculum

It is essential to understand the social organization of the curriculum in our endorsement courses in order to have a complete picture of both our program and how it has affected our undergraduate students. For this reason, this section describes the organization and evolution of our coursework in terms of our learning goals to help mediate the new information to our preservice students.

Our curriculum in the SEI endorsement courses has evolved since the ADE charged us with organizing the courses, both to meet the mandated 60 clock hours on certain state-determined topics and to influence our undergraduate students' knowledge and understanding of ELLs and best teaching practices for all students. The ADE decided that the best way to effect change in instruction for ELLs was to focus teacher training primarily on what they deemed as best methods of teaching for this student population (www.ade.state.az.gov). In the authors' opinion, the focus of this required framework is limited in terms of helping the students expand their understanding and beliefs of ELLs, their communities, and their knowledge.

We decided to center these courses on three important learning outcomes without excluding the state's designated topics: 1) the socio-historical and political issues of race, culture, and ethnicity in the United States; 2) the theoretical underpinnings of how students learn, as well as how language is acquired and developed, with a particular emphasis on ELL students and the socio-cultural knowledge and understanding that they bring to schools and classrooms; and 3) the best methods and teaching strategies that allow our undergraduate students to reflect upon their assumptions of best practice and what they observed in schools in relation to what they understand about how ELLs learn and develop. We believed that by focusing our curriculum and instruction on these three important goals, our undergraduate students would learn the requisite teaching strategies, standards, and assessments mandated by the state department of education. In addition, they would have more tools to establish a culturally relevant pedagogy that would help them understand why good practice was necessary for all students to learn and develop. By dedicating more instructional time on the lived cultural and linguistic experiences of, and research on, ELLs, we believed that we would be able to help change the preservice students' ideological assumptions and folk understandings of ELLs as students, of their culture, their language, and their sociopolitical experiences. This, in turn, would positively affect how they organize their future instruction for all students.

Of equal or more importance to planning course syllabi and its objectives is how to organize classroom instruction in a way that is meaningful to the preservice students and allows them opportunities to expand their understanding. For this reason, we coordinated the curriculum by implementing purposeful activities in the classroom that enabled the preservice students both to relate their beliefs and experiences to the new content and to practice what represented best practice for ELL students. In other words, we wanted to practice what we preached. This meant that, as instructors, we too needed to implement our instruction in a way that followed what the research on effective teaching contends: that students learn best through the active participation and use of multiple mediational tools to make sense of the content (Gutierrez, 2000; Rogoff, 1995). To do this, lecture could not be the sole means of imparting the content. Rather, we utilized various learning strategies and leading activities that allowed our preservice students to engage and reflect actively in the material, with ELL students and with each other in multiple ways (Gutierrez, 2001). We believe that this was the best method to change our future teachers' beliefs and understandings of ELLs and best practice.

The following examples of different classroom activities represent the type of instructional strategies we used to mediate the course information to meet our curricular and instructional goals: 1) literature circles that allowed our preservice students to read and discuss contemporary novels on such relevant sociopolitical topics as immigration, poverty, and migrant workers; 2) jigsaw activities that enabled the students to read, discuss, present, and analyze the history and politics of bilingual education; 3) weekly online dialogue journals with the professors, which engaged the students in reflecting upon research articles and classroom observations; and 4) projects that engaged the preservice students in action research of an ELL student, during which they had to get to know the student, gather background information, observe, and assess the ELLs' language and literacy skills. By utilizing multiple ways for the students to mediate the new information through different instructional methods and activities, our preservice teachers were able to connect with and make sense of the readings and ideas presented in the course.

The following vignette exemplifies the approach our instructors used in teaching the required SEI content while both infusing sociopolitical, cultural, and socioeconomic issues specifically related to ELLs and having students engage in dialogue to allow for collaboration and interaction. Furthermore, this vignette illustrates how the instructors organized their classroom activities to afford the students multiple ways to participate and make meaning of the content.

One of the requirements of the Arizona Department of Education is that Structured English Immersion (SEI) classes should cover the legal educational history of ELLs. The following lesson centers on the legal and educational history of ELLs in the United States. The goal of this activity is to allow the students to understand how the education of ELLs connects to other historical events, both in the United States and elsewhere around the world. This topic of study is a controversial issue that has persisted throughout U.S. history, and it is one that is linked to patriotism, nationalism, and discrimination, especially in times of war and recession.

We typically spend two 90-minute class periods learning about the history of bilingual education, using multiple methods of instruction, such as cooperative groups, small-group and whole-class discussions, and student presentations. We also use realia, images, film clips, and websites to bring authenticity to the activity. Students work together to better understand specific time periods in both world and U.S. history by exploring several websites and reading specific articles. This is done to facilitate the students' understanding of the legal, educational, and sociopolitical events that have affected ELLs.

The homework prior to this class session is to explore a link to a PBS program called "School: The Story of American Education" (www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/roots_in_ history/index.html). Preservice teachers are asked to study the segments on bilingual education, including various time lines, interviews, and pictures. In our first class session, students are assigned to groups of four. Each group is then assigned a specific time period in U.S. history, starting with 1700 through the present. Each group then discusses what they learned from the PBS website about their particular era. Each group is given various readings, website articles, books, and images that pertain to their time period. We then engage in a whole-class discussion about the relationships among world events, events in the United States, and educational policies for ELLs.

For example, we discuss how the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s forced Cubans to flee to Florida, an event that impacted the educational systems in numerous school districts. To name one instance, a group of immigrants started their own private schools in Dade County, Florida, which developed and implemented successful bilingual programs. These programs were then replicated by public schools, which led to a renaissance of bilingual education. The students in this particular group are given an article describing the immigration wave from Cuba, directed to a website that documents the educational philosophy of Dade County, and challenged to find pictures or other artifacts from that era.

In session two of this activity, the students reconvene in their groups. Each group is given a large section of butcher paper and asked to write, draw, and describe events from particular eras as they relate to educational policies affecting ELLs. They are to use different colored markers for each of these categories (e.g., green for world history). They are then encouraged to paste pictures, attach realia, use drawings, or add quotes to make that time period "come alive" for their peers. Students are encouraged to be creative. After each group completes their time era, we sequence each group's butcher paper on the wall of the classroom to create a large time line. When this activity is finished, each group then presents their specific time period to the rest of the class.

After presentations and class discussion of each time period, most students are amazed to discover that the debate over how to educate ELLs is not new. They are also exposed to many examples of how language has been linked to patriotism and economics. The final step in this process is to have students predict what the next five years will look like in the education of English language learners. Students are given 20 minutes to reconvene in their small groups and discuss what issues may influence policies regarding ELLs. For example, they discuss how the upcoming U.S. presidential elections may influence educational policy. This activity usually brings to light the many political, economic, and legal issues that affect policy decisions related to ELLs in particular, and immigrants in general.

As evidenced in our vignette, the goal of our SEI coursework is to help make the material and information come alive for the students. Through active participation, collaboration, and interaction with peers and with the instructor, the coursework offers the students multiple opportunities to make sense of the content and reflect upon their practicing ideologies of ELLs. In addition, this organization of instruction both emulates and socializes our preservice teachers in the teaching methodologies that represent best practice for ELLs.

Findings

Preservice Teachers' Campfire Beliefs About Teaching English Learners

The findings of our preliminary study are presented according to the demographic information of our preservice students who completed the two mandated SEI courses (n = 72); the student responses to a Likert scale indicating their beliefs of particular aspects of our coursework that boosted their confidence in teaching ELLs; and, finally, the themes that arose out of the students' written statements about their changed beliefs in instructing ELLs.

Preservice Teacher Demographics

As Tables 1, 2, and 3 indicate, the preservice student population in our undergraduate teacher education program is representative of most teachers who decide to enter the profession: they are white, female, and under 30 years of age:

With the knowledge that the demographics in Arizona's schools are changing and diversifying more each day, it is important to provide preservice teachers with the necessary training and experiences in their teacher education coursework to help them navigate the challenges of teaching diverse student populations. This is especially true in our education program, since the majority of our preservice students (69.4 percent) reported having no experience teaching or working with ELLs prior to their experiences in our program. The preservice teacher population's lack of knowledge and experience with students of diverse backgrounds and needs may limit the extent to which our endorsement curriculum can change their beliefs and practice.

Likert Scale Results

However, this seems not to be the case in this study. We analyzed the preservice students' responses to their changed beliefs as they related to the different aspects of our curriculum. On the Likert scale survey (based on the following scale: 4 = very; 3 = somewhat; 2 = little; and 1 = not at all), we found that the mean results on all questions were over 3 points. This result indicated that our students left our classes feeling more confident of their knowledge and skills to teach ELLs successfully, as Table 4 shows.

These results signify that our preservice teachers believe that they have acquired the strategies and the knowledge to meet ELLs' social and academic needs, in terms of their sociocultural, linguistic, and educational knowledge and skills. The areas in which our students reported feeling most confident were in the strategies learned to facilitate both language acquisition and content instruction for their ELLs (as illustrated by a mean score of 3.67). With this self-assurance in their new knowledge, there is a greater chance that our preservice teachers will feel capable and ready to implement the different strategies in their instruction in ways that will benefit ELLs' language and learning development in their future practice.

Preservice Teachers' Beliefs

To uncover the students' beliefs after taking our SEI courses, our survey asked the students to answer whether the classes changed their beliefs and attitudes after taking the two classes. The first part of the question was quantitative, inviting the students to respond to whether they believed that the endorsement classes changed their beliefs and attitudes toward teaching ELLs. From these data, we learned that 93 percent of our elementary education students believed that the courses did, in fact, change their beliefs and attitudes toward teaching ELLs. This finding is significant in terms of improving the instructional practices for ELLs, especially since we contend that the first step in changing instruction is changing beliefs and attitudes toward subjects and students who may be different from the mainstream.

The second part of the question asked the students to describe how our courses helped change their beliefs and attitudes. As Table 5 indicates, we analyzed 113 belief statements out of the 60 written responses received from the surveys. From these belief statements, we found that there were 2 types of answers that our students provided. The most prevalent theme related to the knowledge the preservice teachers acquired by participating in the coursework. This theme was then further broken down into three categories: knowledge of teaching, knowledge of strategies, and knowledge of ELLs.

The second most significant theme that arose from the students' statements related to their ideology; in other words, the students wrote statements about how their underlying beliefs and assumptions changed due to their participation in our courses. Likewise, this theme also was broken down into three types of responses: the underlying notions and beliefs of ELLs as learners, the assumptions of teaching ELLs, and their own changed folk knowledge or bias. Table 5 shows the number of occurrences of each type of statement:

Changing Beliefs by Acquiring New Knowledge. As Table 5 shows, the statement that occurred most in the data was of the preservice teachers' newfound knowledge in teaching ELLs. Most responses indicated that they believed that our SEI curriculum helped them understand better how to organize instruction in a way to meet all students' needs, as the following representative quote illustrates: "[The courses] have helped me with learning what I can do to lessen confusion, aid their learning, and acknowledge all that ELLs bring to class."

The confidence that preservice students have in their knowledge is an important and valuable objective to meet in order to begin the process of changing teachers' decision-making processes and behaviors with students with diverse learning skills and needs. Thus, the following statement illustrates the self-assurance our preservice teachers feel after learning our course content: "I didn't realize how important it was to modify lessons for ELLs. I believe it is important to make sure ELLs are learning and that it is not as hard [to do] as everyone thinks."

Making our coursework meaningful and pertinent to preservice students increased our elementary education students' morale when it came to teaching and meeting the diverse needs of students from backgrounds and cultures that may be different from their own. This increased confidence is especially needed with our preservice teacher population, because they have such limited exposure and experience teaching and/or working with diverse student populations.

Another aspect that facilitated our students' confidence in teaching was to provide them with the instructional tools and strategies that would help meet the language and learning needs of all their students. By exposing our students to different methods of teaching throughout the two classes, our students were presented with multiple ways of assisting ELLs that made them more "aware of strategies and lesson plan modifications that can be made in order to benefit ELLs."

Still, the methods taught in our endorsement courses would not be meaningful to our preservice teachers if we did not offer reasons as to why they were necessary for students of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Learning good strategies for teaching is a keystone in most teacher education programs and courses, many of which are similar to those that we espoused. For this reason, we dedicated much of our instructional time to teaching our elementary education students the theoretical underpinnings of language acquisition and learning for ELLs, in the hope of providing a foundation as to why good teaching methods are fundamental for student learning and development. Thus, it did not surprise us when we discovered that many of our preservice students acknowledged that our courses "helped [them] understand students and families that use English as a second language," which allowed our students to think about their future teaching from ELL children's point of view, as the following quote illustrates: "I try to look at teaching and learning from the perspective of someone trying to learn English and the difficulties they may encounter with different facets of the language."

Thus, this knowledge enables preservice teachers to make meaning and to ground their understanding of why the methods used and strategies taught are so important for ELLs' academic and social success in schools.

Changing Beliefs by Influencing Ideological Assumptions. While acquiring new knowledge and confidence is important in changing beliefs, of equal or more importance is having the preservice students both recognize and change their underlying ideological notions related to ELLs and teaching. The second most prevalent theme we found in the data was that our courses affected how our students perceived their own preconceived bias toward ELLs. In other words, our students' beliefs regarding ELLs and their role in schools changed by participating in our curriculum, as the following statement exemplifies: "Before our SEI classes, I was more of the popular belief that 'this' is America; it should be English only. Or, if you don't like our country's ways, then it is voluntary to be here (I can't believe I felt that way). Now I know that children need to learn no matter what language background, and it's our job as educators to find a way to teach them as well as help them with all the other outside issues they deal with being non-native. I look forward to working with them."

Having our students recognize their bias enabled them to take the first step in looking at diversity as a resource, rather than as a problem that they will have to deal with when they begin their teaching placements. Not only did this change in ideology allow our students to recognize their bias, but it also enabled them to change their notions of who ELLs are as learners: "[ELLs] are not low achievers, but on the contrary, [are] very high achievers, because they will learn another language and be better citizens of the country."

The notion that all students are important and bring value to the classroom is an important concept to have when the goal is to make instructional practices accessible and equitable for all students.

This is true when looking at teachers' beliefs about teaching, especially related to students who are from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Our data showed that many of our preservice students changed their underlying beliefs about teaching ELLs. The following statement demonstrates the type of ideological change in their notions of teaching ELLs that occurred as a result of our courses: "I never realized before how much a teacher will affect the way an ELL learns. My attitude about teaching these students has dramatically improved."

Therefore, teaching ELLs is no longer perceived as a burden to our preservice teachers. Rather, our students indicated how "important [it was] to teach ELLs because everyone is equal." These ideological beliefs will assist our students in meeting the challenge of teaching diverse student populations in the future.

Therefore, the most salient themes that arose out of our analysis of the preservice teachers' written responses were two-fold: 1) the courses helped preservice students feel more confident in their future teaching practice with ELLs by providing them with a toolbox of strategies to use to help meet all students' needs, and that were grounded in theories of language and learning; and 2) the courses helped the preservice students to realize their own ideological biases and assumptions toward ELLs and what it would be like to teach them. These themes speak to the importance of creating courses that allow students to explore their folk knowledge of teaching and learning in ways that provide them with multiple opportunities to experience and expand their understanding of new ideas and notions of students, instruction, and learning.

Discussion

The Importance of the Campfire Effect on Preservice Teacher Learning

As professors in a teacher education program dedicated to training preservice teachers, the results of this study are positive--in fact, they are so good that they boosted our own morale and self-efficacy in these courses. There is not any professor who teaches curriculum and instruction related to issues of diversity who would not like to hear that her courses made such a difference in her students' beliefs. However, the question remains as to whether the SEI endorsement classes make enough of a difference in the real world of standardized tests in English, scripted curriculum, and schools that enforce English-only policies to guide new teachers to improve their practice with ELLs.

The challenges that our preservice students have to face in their future classrooms exceed what our courses were able to offer in terms of managing real-world instruction with real students in real classrooms. Furthermore, we cannot make up for the fact that our preservice teachers are predominantly white females with little experience with ELLs, which inhibits their ability to relate to students with diverse learning and language needs (Taylor & Sobel, 2001). What we can do in our endorsement courses, and what we found to be true in this study, is to give our preservice teachers a sense of security in themselves and in their knowledge when it comes to teaching students who are different from themselves. The affirmative and confident feeling they have in their knowledge and skills immediately after taking our courses (in other words, the "campfire effect") can only aid in the process of changing practice, because it facilitates our students' sense of capability to actualize their instruction in ways that we promoted in our course curriculum. By associating positive feelings, beliefs, and attitudes toward our courses, we hope that the campfire effect will inspire in our students the willingness and desire to implement their newly learned knowledge, strategies, and ideology in their future practice with ELLs.

Therefore, we believe that the first level of learning is student satisfaction with their learning experience, and we contend that changing beliefs is the first step in improving instruction and achievement for ELLs. When students feel good about themselves, their knowledge, and their learning, there is a higher probability that they will change their decision-making processes and practices in their future classrooms. By influencing our preservice students' underlying notions about ELLs, language acquisition, and appropriate instructional strategies, the mandated SEI endorsement courses have the potential to affect their future teaching practices in positive ways for Arizona's growing ELL population. Thus, self-efficacy and confidence should be important parts of teacher education programs, especially in courses in which the goal is to change the mainstream, normative underlying beliefs and attitudes toward issues of diversity.

Implications for State Policies on Teacher Training

The findings of our preliminary study have certain implications and recommendations for educational policy. First, the study results indicate the importance of organizing and implementing the SEI endorsement courses in a way that allows the preservice and inservice teachers to build their confidence in the curriculum. This means that imparting the state-mandated course content is only a first step in the process of improving the instructional practices for ELLs. Of greater importance is how the content is organized and facilitated by the professors or instructors through meaningful activities that help the teachers relate to the new information by reflecting upon their underlying beliefs and assumptions of ELLs, teaching, and learning. This way, the required coursework has the chance to change teachers' thinking and attitudes so that they do not just assume that teaching ELLs is merely a matter of acquiring new strategies that are required on top of all the others. Instead, the goal should be that, at the end of the coursework, the teachers view ELL students as valuable members of their classroom communities, and that the instructional methods advocated in the content are integrative and helpful for all student learning.

Second, the state policy needs to look seriously at who the instructors are and what attitudes they have teaching these classes. Since our study only reached 72 preservice teachers in a state that has to educate all preservice and inservice teachers with this curriculum, it is of utmost importance that state departments of education take seriously who they recruit to teach the endorsement courses. The beliefs and background each SEI instructor has toward the content matter will surely influence the way he/she portrays the material, thereby affecting what the preservice and inservice teachers learn as well as their stance toward their new knowledge. Invariably, in our study, the campfire effect that our preservice students felt as a result of our courses was influenced by our own attitudes and biases toward the material as professors of this curriculum. Each one of us has had experience teaching ELLs. This understanding and, more importantly, respect we have for second language learners and their communities carried over into our instructional practices in how we treated and taught this type of sensitive material. Therefore, there was a greater chance that our enthusiasm for this subject matter was infectious, inculcating our students to our way of thinking about issues of diversity in students and instruction.

Therefore, state departments of education need to look at implementing state policy towards issues of diversity as two-fold: 1) imparting the mandatory content and strategies in the endorsement coursework; and 2) changing teachers' beliefs and practices. To do this, departments of education should look at their mandated courses in terms of more than just an opportunity to pile on more information and requirements for teachers to know and use in their classrooms. This process of layering more and more mandates on teachers will only perpetuate teachers' negativism, apathy, or worse, burnout toward changing their routine practice, especially as it relates to teaching a group of students who are different from themselves. Rather, the state policymakers should look at this mandate as a way of changing teachers' underlying beliefs and attitudes toward teaching students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds so that teachers perceive ELLs as a blessing rather than a burden, welcoming the chance to include them into their classroom community and instruction so that they, as well as their mainstream students, can learn from each other.

References

Arizona Department of Education. (www.ade. state.az.gov)

Asato, J., Zavala, M., Olson, K., Pacheco, M., & Gutierrez, K. (2003, May). Nationalizing and institutionalizing reform: The effects of educational policies on teachers and English language learners. Paper presented at the annual conference of Linguistic Minority Research Institute, San Diego, CA.

Cochran-Smith, M. (1998). Teacher development and educational reform. In A. Hargreaves, A. Lieberman, M. Fullan, & D. Hopkins (Eds.), International handbook of educational change (pp. 916-951). London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Cole, M. (1996). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Crawford, J. (2004). Educating English learners: Language diversity in the classroom (5th edition). Los Angeles: Bilingual Education Services.

Duranti, A., & Goodwin, C. (1992). Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2004). Making content comprehensible for English learners (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Engestrom, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit Oy.

Engestrom, Y. (1993). Developmental studies on work as a testbench of activity theory. In S. Chaiklin & J. Lave (Eds.), Understanding practice: Perspectives on activity and context (pp. 64-103). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Engestrom, Y. (1999). Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In Y. Engestrom, R. Miettinen, & R. Punamaki (Eds.), Perspectives on activity theory (pp. 19-38). London, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Flores v. State of Arizona. No. CV 92-596.

Gandara, P., Rumberger, R., Maxwell-Jolly, J., & Callahan, R. (2003). English learners in California schools: Unequal resources, unequal outcomes. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 11(36).

Gutierrez, K. (2000). Teaching and learning in the 21st century. English Education, 32(4), 290-298.

Gutierrez, K. (2001). So what's new in the English language arts: Challenging policies and practices, y que? Language Arts, 78(6), 564-569.

Gutierrez, K., Asato, J., Santos, M., & Gotanda, N. (2002). Backlash pedagogy: Language and culture and the politics of reform. The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 24(4), 335-351.

Gutierrez, K., Baquedano-Lopez, P., & Asato, J. (2001). English for the children: The new literacy of the old world order, language policy and educational reform. Bilingual Research Journal, 24(1&2), 87-112.

Gutierrez, K., Baquedano-Lopez, P., & Tejeda, C. (2000). Rethinking diversity: Hybridity and hybrid language practices in the third space. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 6(4), 286-303.

Haberman, M. (1995). Selecting "star" teachers for children and youth in urban poverty. Phi Delta Kappan, 76(10), 77-81.

Huberman, A. B., & Miles, M. B. (2002). The qualitative researcher's companion. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Leont'ev, A. N. (1981). The problem of activity in psychology. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed.), The concept of activity in Soviet psychology (pp. 31-71). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.

Moll, L. (2000). Inspired by Vygotsky: Ethnographic experiments in education. In C. Lee & P. Smagorinsky (Eds.), Vygotskian perspectives on literacy research: Constructing meaning through collaborative inquiry (pp. 256-268). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Ochs, E. (1992). Indexing gender. In A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (Eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon (pp. 335-358). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Ochs, E., & Scheiffelin, B. B. (1984). Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories. In R. Shweder & R. LeVine (Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on the mind, self, and emotion (pp. 276-320). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Patton, S. (Series producer). (2001). School: The story of American public education. Arlington, VA: Public Broadcasting Service. www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/roots_in_history/index.html

Richardson, V. (1994). Teacher change and the staff development process: A case in reading instruction. New York: Teachers College Press.

Richardson, V. (1996). The role of attitudes and beliefs in learning to teach. In J. Sikula, T. J. Buttery, & E. Guyton (Eds.), The handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 102-119). New York: Macmillian.

Rogoff, B. (1995). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: Participatory appropriation, guided appropriation, and apprenticeship. In J. V. Wertsch, P. Del Rio, & A. Alvarez (Eds.), Sociocultural studies of mind (pp. 139-164). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sleeter, C. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the overwhelming presence of whiteness. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(2), 94-10.

Taylor, S. V., & Sobel, D. M. (2001). Addressing the discontinuity of students' and teachers' diversity: A preliminary study of preservice teachers' beliefs and perceived skills. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17(4), 487-503.

Trent, S. D., & Artiles, A. J. (1998). Multicultural teacher education in special and bilingual education: Exploring multiple measurement strategies to assess teacher learning. Remedial and Special Education, 19(1), 2-6.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wertsch, J.V. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wright, W. (2005). Academic achievement of English language learners in post Proposition 203 Arizona. Tempe, AZ: Language Policy Research Unit, Educational Policy Studies Laboratory, Arizona State University. Retrieved March 29, 2006, from www.asu.edu/educ/eps1/EPRU/documents/EPSL-0509-103-LPRU.pdf

Wright, W., & Choi, D. (2005). Voices from the classroom: A statewide survey of experienced third-grade English language learner teachers on the impact of language and high stakes testing policies in Arizona. Tempe, AZ: Language Policy Research Unit, Educational Policy Studies Laboratory, Arizona State University. Retrieved March 22, 2006, from www.asu. edu/educ/epsl/EPRU/documents/EPSL-0501-101-LPRU.pdf

Yin, R. K. (1994). Case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Zeichner, K. M. (1996). Educating teachers for cultural diversity. In K. Zeichner, S. Melnick, & M. L. Gomez (Eds.), Currents of reform in perservice teacher education (pp. 133-175). New York: Teachers College Press.

Zeichner, K. M. (2003). The adequacies and inadequacies of three current strategies to recruit, prepare, and retain the best teachers for all students. Teachers College Record, 105(3), 490-519.

Kate Olson

Margarita Jimenez-Silva

Arizona State University Table 1 Gender of Preservice Student Population Valid Cumulatiue Frequency Percent Percent Percent Valid Female 66 91.7 91.7 91.7 Male 6 8.3 8.3 100.0 Total 72 100.0 100.0 Table 2 Age of Preservice Student Population Valid Cumulatiue Frequency Percent Percent Percent Valid Under 30 58 80.6 80.6 80.6 30-35 3 4.2 4.2 84.7 36-40 4 5.6 5.6 90.3 41-44 1 1.4 1.4 91.7 45-50 5 6.9 6.9 98.6 51-54 1 1.4 1.4 100.0 Total 72 100.0 100.0 Table 3 Ethnicity of Preservice Student Population Valid Cumulative Frequency Percent Percent Percent Valid Asian 1 1.4 1.4 1.4 Native Hawaiian/ 1 1.4 1.4 2.8 Pacific Islander Hispanic / Latino 13 18.1 18.3 21.1 White 56 77.8 78.9 100.0 Total 71 98.6 100.0 Missing System 1 1.4 Total 72 100.0 Table 4 Preservice Students' Beliefs About Course Curriculum N Minimum Maximum Confident With Content Covered in 69 3.00 4.00 Endorsement Course(s) Confident in Strategies Learned To 69 2.00 4.00 Help ELLs' Language Acquisition Confident in Strategies Learned To 69 2.00 4.00 Help ELLs' Content Learning in English Confident in Teaching ELLS in 69 1.00 4.00 Future Classrooms Satisfied With Understanding How 69 2.00 4.00 Language Is Acquired and Developed for ELLS Satisfied in Understanding the 69 1.00 4.00 Laws and Polices Pertaining to ELLS Confident in Ability To Assess 68 1.00 4.00 ELLS' Language Proficiency and Needs Confident in Organizing Instruc- 68 1.00 4.00 tion To Meet Proficiency Needs of ELLs Confident in Meeting Both the 68 1.50 4.00 Social and Academic Needs of All Your Students Valid N (listwise) 67 Mean Std. Deviation Confident With Content Covered in 3.59 .49 Endorsement Course(s) Confident in Strategies Learned To 3.67 .53 Help ELLs' Language Acquisition Confident in Strategies Learned To 3.67 .53 Help ELLs' Content Learning in English Confident in Teaching ELLS in 3.45 .58 Future Classrooms Satisfied With Understanding How 3.52 .56 Language Is Acquired and Developed for ELLS Satisfied in Understanding the 3.06 .7 Laws and Polices Pertaining to ELLS Confident in Ability To Assess 3.29 .62 ELLS' Language Proficiency and Needs Confident in Organizing Instruc- 3.47 .72 tion To Meet Proficiency Needs of ELLs Confident in Meeting Both the 3.55 .58 Social and Academic Needs of All Your Students Valid N (listwise) Table 5 Code Index of Preservice Teachers' Reported Beliefs and Ideologies Code Sub-codes Frequency Ideology 4 students 15 teaching 11 bias 20 Total=50 Knowledge students 13 teaching 36 strategies 14 Total=63