Capitalizing on Funds of Knowledge: Increasing Teacher Knowledge and Skills to Support English Language Learners

• In Event: Leveraging Partnerships to Improve Outcomes for English Language Learners: Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Effective Out-of-School Time Programs

Abstract

Objectives: This paper will: 1) discuss research evidence on essential teacher knowledge and skills that support ELLs; 2) examine demographic background and perceptions of teachers; 3) report on professional development activities offered as part of the collaborative project; 4) summarize survey results from teachers and community educators for two years; 5) identify key lessons learned.
Conceptual framework: Two theoretical frameworks were used to guide our research: 1) ecological systems approach (Durlak, Mahoney, Bohner, & Parente, 2010); 2) capitalizing on funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992). When schools are viewed as ecological systems where the actors engaged in reciprocal relationships, shifts occur in attitudes, behaviors, knowledge, and skills. Our theory of change assumes that through intentional integration of OST program educators with regular school day program teachers, alignment of the curriculum, engagement of parents, and collaboration across stakeholders, a functioning system allows for students are expected to experience greater benefits. In addition, we perceived the educators to bring with them rich knowledge and skills drawn from their lived experiences in the communities, as well as linguistic and cultural capital that allowed them to connect with and include their students in the curricula.
Data sources and results: Pulling data from interim and end of year evaluation reports on educators in our OST programs, we were able to report on key demographic variables, identify the goals, needs, and experiences of community based educators (n=81) and observe changes over time and compare their results to those of other participants in OST programs (n=400). In addition to descriptive statistics indicating more diversity and selectivity among the project’s educators as compared to comparison OST participants, results suggest that the teachers in our OST project reported feeling more satisfied with the OST program, having more access to training, and feeling more positive about program aspects than teachers at other OST programs. In addition, materials used for professional development sessions were reviewed to identify participant cited components that contributed to their increased knowledge and skills.
Conclusion: Based on our findings, it appeared that intentional design allowed for selective pairing of educators in OST programs with students who have similar demographic backgrounds. This in turn resulted in educators connecting with their students’ language and culture to foster learning in the classroom. We hypothesized that this asset based approach to education allowed teachers to report increased feelings of self-efficacy as compared to their peers in other OST programs.

Authors

• Brian A. Collins, Hunter College - CUNY

• Jennifer F. Samson, Hunter College - CUNY