English Learner–Focused Teacher Leaders and Instructional Capacity Building

• In Event: Designing for the Next Generation of Teaching Practices With a Networked Improvement Community: A Longitudinal Study of Local Adaptation and Improvement

Abstract

Purpose: As educators continue to grapple with providing English learner (EL) students access to rigorous, grade-level appropriate curriculum and instruction (Bunch, 2013; Lucas, Villegas, & Freedson-Gonzalez, 2008) in subjects such as science (Lee, Quinn, & Valdés, 2013), research-practice partnerships organized as NICs may help advance our understanding of professional development (PD) models that best support teacher and student learning. This paper examines the critical roles English learner-focused teacher leaders played in building secondary science teachers’ instructional capacity in urban schools.

A few studies have shown that instructional coaching focused on instruction of EL students strongly influences mainstream classroom teacher pedagogy (Teemant, 2010), implementation of instructional approaches for EL students (Chien, 2013), and raising teachers’ expectations of EL students (Batt, 2010). Yet, most design studies focus primarily on coaching the implementation of generalized frameworks of instruction, such as the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2013), excluding a deeper examination of the development of content-specific EL instructional practices.

Framework: We draw on two key ideas from teacher leadership research: (1) Teacher leaders are instructional leaders, who guide and support ongoing teacher professional learning for continued instructional improvement (Mangin & Stoelinga, 2008) and improved student learning, and (2) teacher learning and EL instructional change occur in relation to the cultural practices and social networks in districts and schools (Coburn & Russell, 2008).

Methods: This study reports on two years of full day PLC meetings for 6 schools in the network. EL coaches and university teacher educators collaborated with 46 teachers in secondary schools to co-plan, co-teach and co-debrief science lessons. We use a professional learning model similar to lesson study and coded for instances of EL-related talk.

Data Sources: We identified 136 instances of instructional teams explicitly discussing EL students and/or instruction for ELs. Instances ranged in duration from 20 seconds to 20 minutes of talk.

Results: We show how both English learner (EL) and science teacher leaders created more intentional spaces for embedding EL issues both during and in-between job- and classroom-embedded professional development These teacher leaders supported the development of hybrid EL-science practices and instructional tools that addressed both science and academic language learning. Critical to this work was collaboration between EL and science coaches in planning studios and lessons. Deeper attention to ELs was given through the design of tools, intentional situating of studios in EL-heavy contexts, and planning specific teacher learning opportunities around EL considerations. These collaborations also allowed science teachers with EL expertise to emerge as teacher leaders, beginning to lead the EL-focused work. This study holds important implications for supporting mainstream classroom teachers in integrating EL and science instructional practices in rigorous and concrete ways, and contributes to our understanding of how high-leverage practices can be improved through the work of collaborative partnerships.

Significance: This paper adds to the growing body of research on understanding the work of teacher leaders in facilitating instructional change through PLCs, particularly for growing numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse students in mainstream classrooms.

Authors

• Kerry Soo Von Esch, Seattle University

• Anna Wheeler Van Windekens, University of Washington - Seattle

• Jessica J. Thompson, University of Washington

• Jennifer Richards, University of Washington

• Karin Lohwasser, University of Washington