Early Career Dual Language Teacher Learning: Generating Knowledge Through and for Science and Language Practice (Poster 2)

• In Event: Attending to the Crevasse Between Equity- and Content-Oriented Goals in Science Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Objectives. The science and language development of multilingual learners (MLLs) is often addressed separately in teacher professional learning despite research that points to the necessity of addressing both science and language together in instruction (Lee & Buxton, 2013; Rosebery & Warren, 2008). Science instruction for MLLs requires attention to the disciplinary language of science, and science concepts and practices (Lee & Buxton, 2013) - a complex pedagogy that “is deeply active, connected, engaging for students, and relevant to their lives outside of school” (Viesca et al., 2019, p. 310). In this study, we examine how elementary dual language (DL) teachers learned to attend to the complexity of language and science instruction by working through problems of practice in a year long professional learning community (PLC).

Perspectives. Taking an inquiry approach (Darling-Hammond et al., 2019) to teacher professional development, this project draws on generativity in teacher learning that arises in professional learning spaces grounded in collective pedagogical problem solving. We argue that when teachers build “understanding by connecting [their] personal and professional knowledge with the knowledge that they gain from their students” (Ball, 2009, p. 47), they begin to envision transformative opportunities for their teaching practice.

Data Sources & Methods. Data come from the second year of a five-year, mixed methods study on teacher learning and asset-based science teaching in DL settings. Data include in-service PLCs, classroom observations, and interviews. Using an iterative coding process and grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2014), we analyzed specific episodes in which teachers grappled with fostering student language development alongside science content learning goals.

Results. The data suggest that: (1) the teachers’ challenges with juggling language and science learning goals were heavily influenced by tensions between their previous training in a shared teacher education program and how the teachers’ current school contexts conceptualized language learning; and (2) in working through their problems of practice together, the teachers’ experiences and representations of practice became resources for the PLC, helping the teachers to generate knowledge of different ways of addressing the complexity of science and language instruction. This generative learning supported teachers’ immediate and future enactments of culturally and linguistically relevant science teaching. Problems of practice included how to integrate language supports into science teaching, translanguaging, and integrating and addressing students’ backgrounds and interests in authentic ways. Teachers had various ways to understand the connection of science and language: learning science as learning a new language, learning science as separate from learning language, and academic science in the target language as linguistic liberation and sustenance for students.

Significance. Our study shows how teachers collaboratively generated theories (Philip, 2019) of language and science teaching for multilingual learners from and for their practice, and the importance of creating professional learning spaces that fosters this type of learning. Our study also adds nuance to work that complexifies the historical relationship between science and language (González-Howard & Suárez, 2021) education, by focusing on how we can support epistemological growth in this area for teachers within PLCs.

Authors

• Cristina M. Betancourt, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Kerry Soo Von Esch, Seattle University
  Presenting Author

• Jessica J. Thompson, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Manka M. Varghese, University of Washington
  Presenting Author