Teachers’ Beliefs Toward Learners’ Heritage Languages Inside Schools in a Multilingual Setting

• In Event: Teachers' Beliefs and Ideologies in Bilingual Education Settings

Abstract

I will discuss results from a mixed-method study of K-2nd grade mainstream teachers in a district with one of the largest concentrations of multilingual learners in the U.S., where most teachers are multilingual and hold ESOL endorsement. Through an explanatory sequential design with two phases (quantitative, using a survey, followed by a qualitative approach, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews), the study captured teachers' beliefs regarding learners' HL inside classrooms. Results indicated the inadequacy of a monoglossic language ideology (Flores & Schissel, 2014), when teachers used exclusively English during "academic time" enacting an autonomous view of literacy (Street, 2000). Teachers also did not plan instruction for students classified as ESOL and enacted a hierarchy among minority languages, pervasively excluding Haitian students.

Author

• Ivian Destro Boruchowski, Florida International University