What Makes Me Different as a Teacher? Novice Teachers of Emergent Bilinguals Enacting Core Practices

• In Event: 21.054 - "Beyond the Methods Fetish" at 25: Preparing Teachers of Emergent Bilinguals

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. Consequently, there remains a gap in the scholarship on CPs that teachers of EBs should know how to enact. Building upon our prior work using dialogic approaches to engage novice teachers (NTs) of EBs to develop CPs for teaching EBs (Authors, 2018, under review), this paper addresses the following questions: What CPs for teaching EBs emerge from dialogic engagement of teacher educators and NTs? What do these CPs look like enacted in NT practice? What challenges do NTs face to enacting the ambitious practice they envision?

Perspective
Recent scholarship in teacher education has suggested at least two ways to support NTs. One aims to build preservice teachers’ awareness of the various practices that comprise teaching, and to have sustained opportunities to engage in those practices, through a focus on “core”, “high leverage,” or “ambitious” teaching practices (e.g., Ball & Forzani, 2009; Grossman, Hammerness, & McDonald, 2009; Lampert et al., 2013). The other asserts that the most effective learning and development opportunities for teachers engage them in communities of inquiry around questions that are embedded in their own practice (e.g., Authors, 2017; Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001; Hawley & Valli, 1999). Bringing together these two strands in the literature, this project focuses on the teaching practices and development of NTs of EBs.

Methods and Data Sources
Drawing upon three years of collaborative investigation engaging teacher educators and NTs, we use qualitative methods to identify CPs for teaching EBs that emerged from our examination of teacher practice. We draw upon observation, interview, online discussion, and focus group data. The data set includes: 62 NT observations and post-observation interviews (two to four annually of 11 NT participants); 7 additional interviews; 39 online discussion postings, 38 teacher educator (TE) research group meetings; and 16 NT-TE focus groups.

Results
We share the six CPs for teaching EBs (Appendix A), which our group of TEs and NTs identified based upon detailed examination of teacher practice. We share examples of teachers’ enactment of these practices, and some of the challenges teachers experienced in their use of the CPs we identified.

Significance
The identification and use of CPs to teach EBs has been thus far missing in the CP literature. We contribute to the teaching and learning of EBs by sharing the CPs we have identified, as well as examples of their enactment. 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 EBs.

Authors

• Megan Madigan Peercy, University of Maryland - College Park

• Karen Feagin, University of Maryland - College Park

• Tabitha Kidwell, University of Maryland - College Park

• Megan DeStefano, University of Maryland - College Park

• Johanna M. Tigert, University of Massachusetts - Lowell

• Wyatt Hall, University of Maryland - College Park

• Daisy Fredricks, Grand Valley State University

• Jennifer Gisi Himmel, University of Maryland