Vulnerability, Agency, and Accompañamiento: Transformation of Teaching Practices Through Computing, Translanguaging, and Research-Practice Partnership (Poster 11)

• In Event: Reconceptualizing Designerly Thinking and Participatory Design With Students, Teachers, Administrators, and Community Members

Abstract

Objectives. The purpose of this research was to better understand the teacher-researcher collaboration process within the framework of a research-practice partnership (Henrick et al., 2017) exploring ways to support emergent bilingual learners learning computer science infused into middle school classrooms (Vogel et al., 2020). Unlike some other contexts in which teachers and researchers might co-design (Penuel et al., 2007), the goal of the project was to support transformation of teaching practices to encompass translanguaging pedagogy and computer science literacies, rather than to produce reusable curriculum units.

Theoretical Framework. The project's theoretical framework for student learning rests on syncretic literacies (Gutiérrez, 2014) and translanguaging pedagogy (García & Li Wei, 2013). Our theoretical frameworks for understanding the teacher-researcher collaboration include Tian and Shepard-Carey's (2020) notion of co-design, co-stance, and co-shifts, and framings of teacher vulnerability and agency in pedagogical change (Lasky, 2005; Zembylas, 2002). We also draw on notions of technology-enabled constructivist pedagogy (Papert, 1993) and critical constructivist pedagogy (Kafai et al., 2020; Vakil, 2018).

Methods and Data sources. Interviews were conducted with 8 project participants, half teachers and half researchers, each of whom had worked with the project for at least two years, and each of whom had participated in design and enactment of computer science units motivated by translanguaging pedagogy. These participants were interviewed not only about their own experiences and participation, but also about their perspectives on group processes and activities in the RPP. Grounded analysis was member-checked with participants.

Results and Significance. The key finding was that, partially through the use of unfamiliar technologies, the project opened up space for teachers (and researchers) to be vulnerable, and this vulnerability allowed new forms of collaboration and agency to emerge. Specific elements of the partnership’s approach -- encouraging teachers to work within pre-existing curricular and pedagogical frameworks, providing ongoing acompañamiento or in-classroom support, and responding to changes over time in teachers’ attitudes -- helped manage teacher vulnerability. This vulnerability also provided an opportunity for teachers to change their relationships to student agency in the classroom and act more as co-learners with their students.

Authors

• Ralph Vacca, New York University

• Christopher Hoadley, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Sara Vogel, City University of New York

• Laura Ascenzi-Moreno, Brooklyn College - CUNY

• Jasmine Y. Ma, New York University