Breaking deficit views through a "language as resource" orientation: One teacher’s journey of shifting lenses

Abstract

In this paper, we illuminate the powerful shift in one teacher’s understanding of “language as a problem” to “language as a resource”. Drawing on the concepts of “language as resource” (Ruiz, 1984), “multilingual resources” (French, 2016), and “acts of reciprocity” (Windle et al., 2023), we analyse critical events shaping one teacher’s development of the LAR orientation across a seven-year period from initial teacher education into the early career years of teaching. Our findings show how the LAR orientation can be a productive starting point to help teachers develop an asset-based orientation towards language. We conclude by calling attention to the significant need in teacher education for initiatives and practices that foster “collaborative creations of power” (Cummins, 2000). Given the centrality of multilingual realities in the classroom, supporting a new generation of teachers to leverage language as a resource is essential to engage in responsive teaching in an increasingly diverse and inequitable world.