Co-Teaching in Multilingual Early Childhood Classrooms

• In Event: Critical Perspectives on Multilingual Interactions in Early Childhood Classrooms

Abstract

Co-teaching requires that teachers assume joint responsibility for instruction while providing experiences that cannot be produced by a solo teacher. In bilingual settings, co-teachers can support children’s primary and additional languages by providing a native-language model of both languages. Co-teaching requires that team members have a mutually beneficial relationship to support learning and deepen teaching practice. Building such a relationship, particularly when members of the team come from different cultures, can be difficult.
This study examines teachers’ views of a co-teaching model in a multilingual early childhood program in Hong Kong. All teachers considered their relationship to be instrumental in supporting an inquiry-based emergent curriculum in a multilingual setting. This study considers elements necessary to facilitate a productive co-teaching relationship.

Authors

• Stephanie C. Sanders-Smith, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Mary E. Lyons, Knox College

• Sylvia Yang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Sarah J. McCarthey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign