2025 Theses Doctoral

Building Science Teachers’ Empathy and Perspective-Taking through Continuous Professional Development to Improve Support for Multilingual Learners

Berrios, Lurdez

School districts across the United States are experiencing a rapid increase in multilingual learner (ML) enrollments, prompting school leaders to seek effective ways to support teachers in meeting these students’ needs. In-service teachers require comprehensive preparation to instruct MLs effectively.

However, general education teachers, particularly science teachers, often report feeling underprepared to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students and lack the pedagogical knowledge and strategies necessary to support them. One approach to fostering professional growth and instructional transformation is positioning educators as learners through immersive language experiences, where they encounter a language in which they are not yet proficient. Such experiences can heighten empathy for MLs’ linguistic challenges while shaping teachers' perceptions, attitudes, and instructional practices. A lack of empathy can hinder teachers’ ability to understand and address MLs’ unique needs, making it a critical disposition for effectively educating culturally and linguistically diverse students.

This study examines how a language immersion experience influences science teachers’ empathy, reflection, and instructional transformation. Specifically, it explores how immersion fosters greater awareness of MLs’ experiences, promotes instructional shifts, and supports thedevelopment of more inclusive teaching strategies in science classrooms.

Keywords: multilingual learners, empathy, transformational learning, language immersion, professional development