Using a Dialogic Approach to Identify Core Practices for Teaching English Language Learners

• In Event: The Possibilities of Public Education: Critical Perspectives on Practice-Based Teacher Education for Language-Minoritized Youth

Abstract

Purpose
One response to the disparity in opportunities and outcomes for U.S. schoolchildren from different cultural, racial, and linguistic backgrounds has been the preparation of teachers to enact “core” instructional practices as a way to provide “ambitious” instruction for all learners (Lampert et al., 2013). Although scholars have recognized the importance of core practices (CPs) for teaching underserved students, including those who are linguistically diverse (Grossman & McDonald, 2008), little work has been conducted to identify and enact CPs for diverse learners (for exceptions, see Authors; Dubetz & Collett, 2016, 2017). Consequently, there remains a gap in the scholarship on CPs related to identifying critically important practices that teachers of English language learners (ELLs) should know how to enact. Building upon prior work in which we illustrate the importance of using dialogic approaches to engage novice teachers (NTs) of ELLs and ELL youth to develop PBTE frameworks (Authors, 2016, 2017, under review), this paper addresses the following question: What core practices for teaching ELLs emerge from dialogic engagement of teacher educators, novice teachers, and ELL youth?
Perspective
Work in PBTE has yet to engage multiple stakeholders in dialogic, collaborative identification of centrally important practices for teaching. Instead, approaches to practice-based work have occurred primarily through more top-down means, including collaboration among university-based teacher educators (TEs; e.g., Troyan, Davin, & Donato, 2013; Windschitl et al., 2012), or through methods such as Delphi panel surveys of experts in a given field (e.g., Fogo, 2014; Kloser, 2014).
In contrast, we draw on recent arguments about the importance of participatory models of engagement for reframing approaches to teacher education, including the view that relevance to practice is a centrally important outcome of education research (e.g., Gutierrez & Penuel, 2014). Zeichner, Payne, and Brayko (2015) have argued that it is necessary to “[recast] who is considered an expert” (p. 1) and, in a disruption of prior university-field hierarchies, to hear a variety of voices in reframing approaches to teacher education.
Methods and Data Sources
Building upon multi-year work engaging TEs, NTs, and ELL youth, we use qualitative methods to identify CPs for teaching ELLs that emerged from our examination of teacher and student experiences. We draw upon observation, interview, and focus group data. The data set includes 70 NT observations and post-observation interviews (two-four per participant, including two preservice NTs and nine early-career NTs); 14 interviews with ELL youth; 25 TE research group meetings; and 14 NT-TE focus groups.
Results
Our collaborative engagement resulted in our proposed CPs for teaching ELLs (Appendix A), which our diverse group of stakeholders identified based upon detailed examination of teacher practice, and teacher and student experiences.
Significance
The identification and use of CPs to teach ELLs has been thus far missing in the CP literature. We contribute to the teaching and learning of ELLs by sharing the CPs we have identified. We believe that this work will provide a guiding framework for teacher education faculty and programs seeking to incorporate a practice-based approach in the equitable instruction of ELLs.

Authors

• Megan Madigan Peercy, University of Maryland - College Park

• Megan DeStefano, University of Maryland - College Park

• Tabitha Kidwell, University of Maryland - College Park

• Johanna M. Tigert, University of Massachusetts - Lowell

• Karen Feagin, University of Maryland - College Park

• Daisy Fredricks, Grand Valley State University