Supporting a Novice Teacher’s Integration of Dual Language Bilingual Education Goals Through Instructional Coaching

• In Event: Dual and Multi-Languages: How Teachers, Parents and Communities Can Build Bridges

Abstract

Our study draws upon sociocultural learning theory to examine the content and process of a coaching partnership between an experienced bilingual coach and a novice DLBE teacher. Analyzing five coaching episodes, our findings offer a window into how a DLBE coach integrates the four DLBE goals (bilingualism/biliteracy, high academic achievement, sociocultural competence, and critical consciousness) as she guides a new teacher to reflect on her current practice and ways to elevate her Latinx Emergent Bilingual (EB) students’ voices and written production in Spanish. Our findings indicate that when DLBE coaching focuses on both DLBE content and constructivist processes, such as student work analysis, co-planning, and questioning, new teachers can learn and enact powerful equity-oriented DLBE instruction.

Authors

• Sandra Natalia Gutiérrez, University of Maryland

• Astrid Sierra, Metropolitan State University of Denver