New Assistant Professor Brings International Background to Teacher Education

University Relations

Tina Howlett

Tina Howlett grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a city considered to be a traditional receiving community for immigrants. Her experiences there helped steer her first toward a career that took her abroad as an international tour director and then to enter the teaching profession.

Howlett is a new assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education and Health Professions. She teaches graduate students pursuing a Master of Education in teaching English to speakers of other languages and undergraduate students in the childhood education program.

"I was always around diversity growing up," she said. "I see the lives of immigrant students through my family's experiences. All four of my grandparents arrived from Italy through Ellis Island, and two of their names are now engraved on the walls. I understand what they had to go through as new residents of the United States."

Her parents were both foreign language teachers, and she speaks Italian, French and Spanish fluently. She came to education both because of her family influence and her experience training staff for the international tour company that employed her.

Howlett earned a bachelor's degree in Italian from the University of Connecticut, a master's degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages from Manhattanville College and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the University of Arkansas.

She worked as ESOL curriculum specialist for the Rogers, Arkansas, Public Schools beginning in 2000, providing district-wide professional development for teachers; taking responsibility for compliance, curriculum and consulting in grades 9-12; and training, coaching and mentoring secondary teachers.

Teachers of students who do not speak English as their first language need to advocate for equity for those students and create classrooms that are culturally responsive, Howlett said. She collects high-quality multicultural literature, especially books that describe historical information about immigrants not usually found in history books.

"I tell my students to be seekers of knowledge for their children in class," Howlett said. "These new teachers may need to transform the school environment to incorporate the histories, texts, values, beliefs and perspectives of people from different cultural backgrounds, so that it's a celebration of the uniqueness of students. Students need to be encouraged to retain their culture while also becoming part of their new community."

Howlett is working with the Arkansas Department on Education on a research project to study the impact of the English language proficiency frameworks on school districts. The project includes surveys of 300 teachers who receiving training last summer on the frameworks, followed by one-on-one interviews.

She is also planning an English as a second language summer camp for children for which U of A students in their M.Ed. TESOL internships will work on developing lessons.