Poster #179 - Listening to Head Start Teachers with Dual Language Learners

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - School Readiness/Childcare

Integrative Statement

Early childhood education (ECE) in the U.S. is comprised of a significant proportion of dual language learners (DLLs), who are simultaneously developing English and their home language(s) prior to school entry. In Head Start (HS), a federal, comprehensive ECE service for primarily low-income children and their families, approximately 29% of children are DLLs (ECLKC, 2018). While early exposure to high-quality ECE is beneficial for all children, such impact is particularly favorable for DLLs (Puma et al., 2010), who are often considered at-risk academically. Unfortunately, many ECE educators often experience difficulties in working with DLLs and their families due to a lack of training opportunities (Maxwell, Lim, & Early, 2006). Furthermore, we have limited understanding of preschool teachers’ beliefs and knowledge in educating DLLs as well as the supports, challenges, and needs of teachers. To that end, the following research questions (RQs) were examined:

1. What supports, challenges, and needs do teachers identify for educating DLLs?
2. What beliefs and strategies do teachers have for educating DLLs?

Methods
Eight Head Start lead teachers (see Table 1) from seven centers at two Iowa agencies completed an open-ended, semi-structured interview (see Table 2). Three trained coders transcribed and analyzed the transcripts using structured thematic content analysis (Saldaña, 2013). The coders identified themes by categorizing the code units into data with more than 80% agreement.

Results
Presented here are the preliminary findings/themes.
The following themes were identified for RQ 1:
1. Teachers saw communication as a main challenge.
2. Teachers received some program-level supports (e.g., translation).
3. Teachers identified the need of personal support to communicate with families of DLLs.
4. Teachers identified the need of support for educating DLLs, who are not Spanish speakers.

The following themes were identified for RQ 2:
1. Teachers use specific instructional strategies for DLLs (e.g., use of repetition and visual prompts).
2. Teachers also had mixed beliefs on the needs of targeted instruction for DLLs’ language development.
3. There were variations in teacher’s beliefs on the importance of DLLs’ home language development.

Discussion and Implication
Our preliminary results showed that communication with DLLs and their families was a major challenge, and the need of support, such as having a translator, were identified. Although the participants identified needing training and support for all DLLs, it seems as though the support they did receive was primarily for Spanish-speaking DLLs. This finding points to a need for support in the classroom and in the training of Head Start teachers that is not focused on only Spanish.
Teachers have some knowledge about how to instruct DLLs, but they vary in their knowledge and beliefs on the importance of the home language and the needs of targeted instructional approaches for DLLs. When considering research that emphasizes the importance of home language development (e.g., Winsler et al., 2014) and the necessity of targeted instruction for DLLs’ language development (e.g., Castro, Páez, Dickinson, & Frede, 2011), these findings suggest a need for systematic training of preschool teachers.

Authors

• Dahyung Ryu, Iowa State University
  Presenting Author

• Craig Van Pay, Iowa State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ji Young Choi, Iowa State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sohyun Meacham, University of Northern Iowa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Constance Beecher, Iowa State University
  Non-Presenting Author