Tackling Translanguaging in Professional Learning Communities: Teacher Language Background as a Shared Professional Resource

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 2:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Cultural Resilience and Bilingual Literacies: Supporting Multilingual Learners (Table 2)

Abstract

This paper considers the gap in research that examines translanguanguging as a shared endeavor among educators within the context of teacher language background. Looking to Critical Discourse Analysis, the authors interrogate opportunities to co-construct understandings of translanguaging pedagogies within a linguistically diverse professional learning community. As findings illuminated collaboration across language backgrounds to resolve questions about translation, co-construct language ideologies, and deepen understanding of translanguaging design, this study shows how language background became a shared resource for teachers working to design translanguaging activities and interpret students’ translingual output. Furthermore, this study sheds light on how, through co-construction of knowledge across language backgrounds, all teachers might grow in their understanding of translanguaging and better support multilingual students’ literacies and reading development.

Authors

• Samuel David, University of Minnesota

• Laurie Elisabet Hahn Ganser, University of Minnesota

• Amanda Swearingen, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire