Preparing Monolingual Teacher Candidates for Translanguaging Pedagogy

• In Event: Supporting Children and Families in Early Childhood Education Contexts Through Translingual Practices and Pedagogies

Abstract

Purpose and Framing
U.S. schools sustain a monolingual habitus, ways of being and doing that assume and construct a monolingual society even in multilingual spaces (Benson, 2014; Gogolin, 1997). Regardless of whether linguistic diversity is present, monolingual habitus operates as if there is only one language. It privileges the dominating language and marginalizes others (Kiramba, 2018).
Translanguaging pedagogy can disrupt monolingual habitus in schools. It is grounded in the linguistically fluid ways that multilingual individuals communicate and interact (Bonacina-Pugh et al., 2021; Flores, 2019; García et al., 2017). Rather than conceptualizing language and language learning as bounded and rigid, translanguaging pedagogy posits that everyone has a diverse linguistic repertoire from which they draw as they communicate (Creese & Blackledge, 2015; García, 2009; Lewis et al., 2012). Teachers who enact translanguaging pedagogy intentionally make space for varied languaging practices in their classrooms and incorporate opportunities for students to engage in translanguaging(García, 2009; García et al., 2017).
Research relating to translanguaging pedagogy has focused on multilingual learners (Canagarajah, 2011; García & Kleifgen, 2020; Kirsch, 2020). However, monolingual habitus and linguistic bias operate in monolingual settings as well (Rosa & Flores, 2014). Given the ways that colonial linguistic domination and white supremacy operate in the U.S., it is imperative that monolingual, white students are taught in ways that value and nurture multilingualism (Flores & Rosa, 2015). Translanguaging pedagogy could help to develop monolingual students’ understanding of and appreciation for multilingualism. We must then prepare all teachers to enact translanguaging pedagogy.

Methods
In this study, I considered how to prepare predominantly white, monolingual (English) teacher candidates who largely intend to teach in settings with few, if any, multilingual students to develop a translanguaging pedagogy. I focused on two assignments in an undergraduate children’s literature class. One assignment engaged students with videos of narratives told in Indigenous languages from México and Guatemala. The second assignment had students use a multilingual picture book in a rehearsal of an interactive read-aloud with their peers. I used self-study methodology to critically reflect on my teaching and the teacher candidates’ learning (LaBoskey, 2004). Data included: the plans for the assignments; reflective memos written during the planning, following the lessons, and while interacting with students’ responses; observation notes taken during the lessons; students’ responses to the assignments; and recordings of discussions of the data with two self-study partners. I used inductive analysis (Thomas, 2006) to untangle what we, the students and myself, learned through this process.

Findings
I found that students felt increasingly comfortable interacting with texts in languages other than English. However, they continued to feel hesitant about their ability to incorporate multilingual texts “correctly” in their teaching. Their comfort also increased when I added scaffolds, such as English captioning and pronunciation models. I suggest that it is important to provide monolingual teacher candidates with multiple opportunities over time to engage with multilingualism to support their development of translanguaging pedagogy.

Author

• Suki Jones Mozenter, University of Minnesota - Duluth
  Presenting Author