Kim Song, Ed.D.I am Kim H. Song, Professor at the Department of Educator Preparation, Innovation, and Research in COE of University of Missouri-St. Louis. My scholarly themes unite equity and excellence for pre- and inservice teacher education preparation for the PK-12 diverse student population. My identity as an immigrant, bilingual, single mother, teacher, learner, [Korean] American, and researcher has guided my work drawing a unique scholarly attention. My research aims to help teachers unravel how particular content, discourse, and pedagogical competencies and content registers (Halliday, 1978) resemble the modes of imagination and creativity in which linguistically, racially, and culturally diverse learners' funds of knowledge and their identities have to be developed, discovered, and valued. My scholarly contribution has been to bring the diverse scholarships such as evidence-based teaching, critical race theory and culturally responsive teaching to linguistically responsive teaching. Particularly, I have argued how language has been excluded from the mainstream teacher education field, how language education can address such oversight, and why writers on [culturally] responsive teaching ought to embrace the linguistic diversity as a multidimensional 'topic of choice' in fighting for equity for English learners (ELs), immigrant and refugee families and communities. I carry forward this agenda in the spirit of Lau versus Nichols (1974) and the Civil Rights Act (1964) words that roughly translate to prohibit "the discrimination based on race, skin color, national origins," to the discrimination towards or against different language uses, 'linguicism.'
Applying theories from experiential teaching-by-doing (Dewey, 1916), my main lines of inquiry examine: 1) evidence-based urban teaching and learning; 2) linguistically, racially and culturally responsive content teaching and learning for ELs, and 3) creativity in technology-mediated online teaching for urban and immigrant/refugee children in PK-12 contexts. Meeting the mission of my department—to generate knowledge while preparing educators to critically shape and transform teaching and learning theories and practices—these three lines of research aim to help educators and communities reconsider more equitable and excellent ways to integrate, educate, and work with immigrant and urban children as well as their families whose linguistic and cultural capitals should be studied and valued. My practitioner-oriented research has produced national professional development programs to serve teachers of linguistically diverse learners, University of Missouri Online Course Sharing projects, and the creation of the Missouri Dual Language Network, a network of more than 230 educators. Being able to create learning experiences for university students, answering research questions that contribute to the national scholarship, and serving local schools and communities all at the same time have been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career thus far, and I will continue to grow as an ongoing learner, teacher, and global neighbor.
