Teacher Beliefs and the Context of Reception: Rural, Immigrant English Learner Students and Families

• In Event: 75.027 - "Post-Truth" Discourses in Rural Educational Contexts: English Learner Students, Families, and Teachers

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the ways in which rural teachers of immigrant English learners create a context of reception for those students and their families. Stepick and Stepick (2009) argue that contexts of reception can be positive, negative, or neutral. In the current “post truth” context, we argue that a context of reception cannot be neutral for rural immigrant students and families, because beliefs are couched in broader, “post truth” narratives. This paper aims to unravel teacher beliefs and the multiple layers that affect their work with EL students.

Theory
Two theories undergird this paper. First, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological social systems theory (1994) describes the multiple layers that affect the development of an individual. In this work, the EL student is affected by teachers’ various views of ELs as immigrant language learners. Hamman (2017) interprets teachers beliefs as ‘ideological flows’ that mediate the multiple social systems surrounding the EL. Pettit notes that “the experiences ELs will have in school are partly dependent on the beliefs of the teachers they encounter [and …] to become academically successful, teachers must hold positive beliefs and high expectations for them” (p. 124). Second, Stepick and Stepick (2009) consider a context of reception as “how the established residents of the host society perceive and categorize newcomers affects migrants' sense of belonging” (p. 1). Teachers build a positive or negative reception for ELs based on their beliefs, experiences, and broader social policies and views.

Methods
This qualitative study collected data from 17 rural teachers of EL students. The teachers applied to and participated in an 18-month teacher-leader professional development (PD) program. Data derive from an initial teacher survey, online teacher discussion posts from the first online course in the project, audio recorded transcripts from three commuity of practice (focus group) meetings, and teacher self-created poems, “Where I'm From” (Christensen, 1998), which were used to elicit teacher ideologies of self and the rural community. Data were open and axial coded for themes following an iterative process (Creswell, 2013), first with individual teachers and subsequently across teachers. Themes were collapsed into broader categories or motifs and compared across all participants.

Findings
Data from this study show how contexts (of reception) are complex spaces that entail multiple layers of ideology. Teachers from this study aimed to support the social and emotional well being of students, which they believed would support learning. However, they failed to examine language policies and practices as factors that contributed to a positive context of reception. Moreover, teacher beliefs competed with discourses from the school district and the broader rural community.

Signficance
This study contributes to a new and exciting body of research by scholars of rural EL students and teachers. Rural EL teacher beliefs will contribute to future and ongoing studies of rural EL students, families and the contextual factors that affect EL student learning in the U.S.

Author

• Maria R. Coady, University of Florida