Exploring Academic Spaces for Equitable Practices: Elementary Educator Dispositions Toward African American Language

• In Event: Allowing Culture to Lead in Spaces of Professional Development and Practice

Abstract

Literacy instruction often embeds an appropriateness ideology with respect to dialect use where African American Language (AAL) use is viewed as acceptable only in formal contexts, while Dominant American English is always acceptable. In an effort to reimagine equitable practices for literacy instruction for AAL speakers in elementary classrooms, the research team explored teacher dispositions (n=16) of educators teaching a dialect-shifting reading supplement in a large, metropolitan school district in the mid-Atlantic United States. Teachers in both the intervention and control gave statements aligned with an appropriateness ideology. Within intervention schools, ideologies were clustered by school. Teachers also explained AAL use in terms of community linguistic practices and children’s linguistic development. Researchers discuss implications for future research and professional development.

Authors

• Zachary K. Maher, University of Maryland

• Carolyn Mazzei, University of Maryland

• Ebony Terrell Shockley, University of Maryland

• Tatiana Campbell Thonesavanh, University of Maryland

• Jan Edwards, University of Maryland