Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners and STEAM

Multilingual students, multidialectal students, and students learning English as an additional language constitute a substantial and growing demographic in the United States. But these groups of students tend to receive unequal access to and inadequate instruction in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM), with their cultural and linguistic assets going largely unacknowledged and underutilized. The need for more information about quality STEAM education for culturally and linguistically diverse students is pressing. This book seeks to address this need, with chapters from asset-oriented researchers and practitioners whose work offers promising teaching and learning approaches in the STEAM subjects in K-16 education settings. Authors share innovative ways in which classroom teachers integrate disciplinary reading, writing, discussion, and language development with content knowledge development in STEAM subjects. Also shared are approaches for integrating indigenous epistemologies, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and students’ linguistic resources and life experiences into classroom teaching. The value of quality STEAM education for all students is an equity issue, a civics issue, and an economic issue. Our technologically-driven, scientifically-oriented, innovative society should be led by diverse people with diverse ways of approaching and being in the world. This book aims to make quality STEAM education a reality for all students, taking into account the many perspectives, bodies of knowledge, and skills they bring from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, with the ultimate goal of strengthening the fields that will drive our society towards the future. There are three primary audiences for this book: teachers (both in-service and pre-service teachers), teacher educators (both pre-service preparation and professional learning); and applied researchers. Whatever their current or evolving role, readers are encouraged to use this book and the inquiry questions provided at the end of each chapter as a launching point for their own important work in achieving equity in STEAM education.