Enabling and Constraining Factors in Teachers' Professional Learning for Multilingual Pedagogy: A U.S.-U.K. Collaborative Study

• In Event: Honoring What They Bring: Preparing Teachers to Center and Sustain Students' Backgrounds, Cultures, and Experiences

Abstract

US elementary teachers commonly teach multilingual learners without special preparation. US and UK teacher educators conducted a collaborative mixed-methods study of teachers’ professional learning to use critical sociocultural teaching practices known to improve multilingual student learning (Author et al., 2014). With the aim of tracking shifts in practice and mindset in the early months of teacher learning, data collection took place in fall 2021 for a three-month period in one district, generating classroom observations (n = 24) and interviews with teachers, coaches, and building and district administrators (n = 32). Using Theory of Practice Architecture (Kemmis et al., 2014) , findings demonstrate how and why exceptional elementary teachers transcend the barriers that may constrain teachers’ and multilingual learners’ potentials.

Authors

• Naomi Flynn, University of Reading
  Presenting Author

• Annela Teemant, Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis
  Presenting Author