Quality and Equity with Multilingual Learners: Ecological Research on the Development of Teacher Expertise

• In Event: Ecologically Just Conditions for Secondary Multilingual English Learners: Course Access, Teacher Collaboration, Curriculum, and Instruction

Abstract

Objectives and Theoretical Perspective
US schools are becoming increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse. However, many teachers remain underprepared to offer multilingual learners quality and generative opportunities to learn, especially in secondary schools (Weddle et al, 2022). One consequence of this limitation relates to students who have been bureaucratically classified as Long-term English Learners, students who have been in the English learning category for 6 years or more (Buenrostro & Maxwell-Jolly, 2021) and who constitute the fastest growing segment of linguistically minoritized students. An ecological perspective recognizes that one single factor, for example, good teacher preparation, is not enough to make a significant difference in the lives of teachers, and consequently of their students. Contexts matter, and the coherence that can be fostered across multiple, embedded contexts in which teachers operate is essential to generate quality and equity for students (Bronfenbrenner, 1993; van Lier, 2004).
The current paper examines four years of work comprising the iterative design of an eighth-grade English Language Arts 12-week educative curriculum for students designated as English Learners, with a focus on those categorized as “long term”; the support teachers received to implement it as they replaced their regularly used curriculum; and the impact on teachers’ and students’ learning. The curriculum has as its goal the development of teacher expertise and student voice and autonomy.

Methods and Data Sources
Data drawn from four field trials in two large districts include analytical memos from professional learning sessions, class observations, videos, in-depth interviews with teachers and students, surveys, and student work. Data analysis was guided by an ecological, sociocultural, situated framework that emphasizes the role of context and the complex, interconnected dynamics across open systems in which apprenticeship takes place (van Lier, 2007).

Results
Findings confirm that while change is possible at the level of individual teachers, the ability to sustain and grow is dependent on coherence across: 1) classroom practices and curricula teachers use throughout the day, including competing stances on the development of students at the school, representing the micro-system; 2) the role of district pedagogical guidance or mandates at the meso-system; 3) state and national policies and testing which often times require a focus on the command of English grammar, rather than a focus on language as a tool to act in the world. Noteworthy among findings is the reorientation that teachers and students experienced when they participated in materials emphasizing critical dialogic education (Kibler et al, 2021) and the intellectual and social power of classroom dialogue (Alexander, 2017).

Significance
A focus on single solutions to complex, multi-systemic situations will not lead to the development of teacher expertise that will realize the potential of multilingual learners, all other students, and society. Critically understanding our institutions and the collective responsibility of all to act coherently to obtain quality and equitable systems for minoritized youth, while ambitious, is the only way to significantly move ahead. This study provides a chronological analysis of how constraints can become affordances when they are ecologically addressed.

Authors

• Aida Walqui, WestEd

• Lee Hartman, WestEd

• Mary K. Schmida, WestEd