Two-Way (TW) Dual Language Teachers' Integration of Literacy Practices and Cultural Resources in Elementary Science

• In Event: Exploring Successful Integration for Equitable Teaching and Learning in Two-Way Bilingual Education (TWBE) Contexts

Abstract

Objective

Novice Two-way (TW) DLBE teachers enter complex classroom contexts with the potential for integrating their own and students’ linguistic, cultural and racial resources as a transformative third space within TWBE (de Jong, Barko Alva & Yilmaz, 2022. Recent research on how teachers might do this integration suggests that their unique trajectories, awareness of power relations and actions can support them in this process and through that develop linguistic ideological clarity (Author, 2023). This study explores the specific integration of Literacy and Science of two Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) novice teachers; Marina and Emily and the potential of this integration for fostering equity and sociocultural competence in the elementary TWDL science classroom.

Framework:
To frame this study, I bring together theories of critical literacies (Janks, 2014) and translanguaging (García, 2009; García & Wei, 2014 , Otheguy et al., 2015; Wei, 2018) as both, theoretical and pedagogical approaches that allow people to make meaning of the world through reading, writing and multimodal meaning making practices. I specifically explored how these DL teachers integrated Literacy practices broadly defined, and through that supported their own and students’ scientific sense-making that highlighted how “texts and practices are never neutral” Vasquez, 2019, p. 300).

Methods/ Data Sources
This work draws on a multiple case study (Stake, 2013) of two BIPOC TWI DL teachers; Emily and Marina who engaged in critical literacy practices and translanguaging in their dual Language science teaching. Data included one or two classroom observations artifacts such as the powerpoint slides, field notes, research memos and one 90 min. interview. The interview was recorded in either English, Spanish or bilingually by the researcher according to the participant’s preference. Data analysis included a thematic analysis, both deductively and inductively (Saldaña, 2021).

Conclusions:
Finding revealed that as teachers integrated their own linguistic and cultural resources, they developed a translanguaging stance that reflected awareness of the role of language, identity and cultural practices in fostering teachers and students’ identities as scientists. Specifically, the inclusion of teachers’ and students’ ways of being and knowing supported them in developing linguistic ideological clarity, that “entails self-reflection, the naming of unjust practices through the deployment of linguistic, cultural, and ethnic identities and agency, and the display of critical consciousness seeking to address inequities.(Author, 2023, p. 1).

Scholarly or scientific significance
While the implementation of equitable teaching TWDL practices requires many moving parts, it is important to note the unique agency of teachers when able to reflect, name and act towards justice for themselves and their students. I conclude that teachers' inclusion of cultural ways of being and knowing allowed for the transpositioning of knowledge (Wei, 2023) and expertise that made possible the flourishing and positioning of all teachers and students, particularly marginalized ones as scientists.

Author

• Patricia E. Venegas-Weber, University of Washington