ABSTRACT
This chapter provides theory, knowledge, and experiences for preservice teachers that support equitable literacy education in a variety of cultural contexts. It then provides information about the participants, their cultural contexts, and the preparation of the two teachers, Tom Tomas and Sally Oran. Scholars examine the social contexts in which young learners acquire language and literacy skill. Literacy includes developing both linguistic and sociocultural knowledge about language and its uses". Learners with their language and their whole identities become the center of learning. Teachers create climates in which all participants "become linguistic and cultural brokers". Community events include rodeo competitions, traditional dance contests, and listening to the cultural stories told by elders during long winter evenings. Finally, the chapter provides strategies for welcoming every child's language into the classroom, used children's literature from a broad variety of cultural traditions, and taught emergent literacy and narrative styles across cultural contexts.
