Analyzing Changes in Participation Over Time: From Pandemic Silence to Scaffolded Critical, Sustained Interaction

• In Event: Ecological/Sociocultural Approaches to Educative Curriculum Design and Assessment

Abstract

In spite of almost half a century of research on the centrality of interaction in learning (Sinclair & Coulthard, 1975), especially in the development of English as an additional language (van Lier, 1988) secondary school classes for students classified as English Learners are still characterized by a transmission model where teachers dominate action in the class. These pedagogies are based on misconceptions about students, optimal classroom environments, and the role of language activity in student growth (Walqui & Bunch, 2019; Kibler, Valdés, & Walqui, 2021).

This paper challenges current conceptualizations of the nature of productive pedagogy for adolescent English Learners by proposing an ecological/sociocultural theoretical framework displaying an evolving, comprehensive model of open systems, interactions, and changes. At the center of this framework -based on sociocultural (Lantolf, Poehner, & Swain, 2018), complexity, (Larsen-Freeman, 1977; 2017) and ecological theories (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; 1993; van Lier, 2002; 2004; 2011)- the model situates the learner and assumes that to transform the education of English Learners, it will not be enough to change just one aspect but to be mindful of the all interrelationships occurring across the educational macrosystem (society), exosystem (policies, national, state and district programs), mesosystem (district and its programs, teacher and student support), and microsystems (the student, the teacher, peers, curriculum, classroom). (Bronfennbrener, 1973; van Lier, 2000; 2004).

Three goals underlie this paper. The first is conceptual, to build an ambitious theoretical stance focused on the English Learner in the microsystem of the classroom and interactions among teachers and students. In this section, notions of input/output are replaced by understanding and implementation of affordances, as well as by the expectation of variability of student development. The second goal is to propose the design of replacement curricula for 8th grade English Language Arts for English Learners who study alongside native speakers of English. These curricular units designed for a quarter of an academic year and are educative for teachers in how they include pedagogical explanations and choices. Most importantly, they challenge negative assumptions, laying out the rationale for proposing highly interactive practices and relevant, demanding texts. Finally, the paper draws examples from the ethnographic study of an intensive summer academy for middle schoolers, in which the proposed units were implemented and studied.

Data used for the study include classroom transcripts, student artifacts, implementation videos, and teacher and student reflections. The analysis tracks students’ development of conceptual understandings, use of metacognition, and language over the duration of the summer academy, 60 hours.

Results show that all students grow, albeit differentially through invitations to engage in active, critical activity, moving from initial silence to barely audible exchanges, and into substantive interactions that build understanding among groups. Critical in this growth in participation over time were the nature of the materials that addressed consequential themes in highly engaging ways where every student was afforded the opportunity to participate. The research demonstrates that in spite of the silence teachers comment the pandemic has brought to their classrooms, it is possible to reengage students with critical, relevant, curriculum.

Author

• Aida Walqui, WestEd
  Presenting Author