Voices of Co-Teachers: Exploring Professional Possibilities in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Elementary Classrooms

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: Division K Section 8 Poster Session 1

Abstract

This paper shares preliminary results from the first two years of an ongoing, small scale, professional development and research project that is implementing and investigating co-teaching practices in culturally and linguistically diverse elementary classrooms. Participants comprised co-teaching teams in classrooms where Spanish was the home language of many students, and included one veteran teacher and one master’s intern who had completed student teaching the year before. Results include a preliminary model for productive co-teaching in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. Also shared are co-teaching teams’ definitions for co-teaching, along with their perceptions of co-teaching overall and of specific co-teaching approaches (e.g., one teach, one assist; station teaching; parallel teaching; team teaching, etc.). Implications for research and professional practice are shared.

Authors

• Mary P. Truxaw, University of Connecticut

• Rebecca D. Eckert, University of Connecticut - Storrs