Professional Development for Teachers of English Learners (ELs)

This chapter focuses on the role of professional development in supporting teacher capacity for instructing English learners (ELs) while placing the reader at the intersection of three significant areas of research as they relate to ELs: culturally responsive teaching, effective PD, and constructivism. These lenses merge to highlight the important role theory coupled with pedagogical practices influence instruction. The research in this chapter provides key findings from the field as well as recommendations for how to utilize constructivism and culturally responsive pedagogy when planning effective PD. This chapter argues that in order for even well-designed reform models of PD to create sustained instructional change, there must be inclusion of deeper conceptual understanding of second language acquisition (SLA) and culturally responsive teaching.

A Decolonizing Study Abroad Program in Mexico for Pre-Service Teachers

Due to the well-documented cultural mismatch between predominantly white teachers and the majority of non-white youth entering U.S. schools, teacher educators have sought multiple avenues to address this problem. This chapter explores one university study abroad program for pre-service teachers of English learners and its efforts to decolonize education by indigenizing the curriculum. The chapter explores the major program set-up, from curricular issues to building relationships with partners in Mexico. The chapter provides multiple insights into the partnership between the Mexico-based language institute, with its focus on social justice, and the doors it opened toward partnership with one indigenous school that embraced the Four Agreements. The pre-service teacher participants were dramatically impacted by that experience in ways that the author argues are enduring and decolonizing.

Emergent Change: A Network Analysis of Elementary Teachers’ Learning About English Learner Instruction

We study how a suburban U.S. district in the early stages of demographic change developed systems of support for teachers of English learners (ELs). Using district- and school-level social network and interview data, we examine elementary teachers’ EL-related professional learning opportunities, and how district and school organizational contexts enabled or constrained these opportunities. We find that the separation of language and content at the district level limited teachers’ learning opportunities, yet school leaders mitigated this separation by implementing structures that fostered norms of shared responsibility and collaborative teaching. Findings highlight the relevance of an organizational perspective for understanding how suburban districts respond to demographic change, and have implications for policymakers and practitioners with respect to creating inclusive environments for ELs.

Professional Development for Teachers of English Learners (ELs)

This chapter focuses on the role of professional development in supporting teacher capacity for instructing English learners (ELs) while placing the reader at the intersection of three significant areas of research as they relate to ELs: culturally responsive teaching, effective PD, and constructivism. These lenses merge to highlight the important role theory coupled with pedagogical practices influence instruction. The research in this chapter provides key findings from the field as well as recommendations for how to utilize constructivism and culturally responsive pedagogy when planning effective PD. This chapter argues that in order for even well-designed reform models of PD to create sustained instructional change, there must be inclusion of deeper conceptual understanding of second language acquisition (SLA) and culturally responsive teaching.

Towards a More Nuance Understanding of White Teachers of English Learners: Increasing Capacity and Capabilities

Predicated on the idea that race, racialization, and racism are major factors that shape language teaching and learning, this paper draws on the second wave White teacher identity studies to argue for a more nuanced understandings on White monolingual teachers’ racial identities by exploring their perspectives on English learners’ (ELs’) learning experiences by asking the following research questions: (1) From the EL teachers’ perspectives, what contribute to EL’s struggles in school? (2) What effects do the EL teachers’ perspective have on ELs’ school experiences? (3) Are there any consistencies or inconsistencies among the participants’ perspectives and what do they mean? The findings report that tensions and contradictions arising from inconsistencies across the participants’ perspectives as well as within each teacher’s perspective reflect co-existence of race evasive and race conscious identities that in turn can serve as an important locus to transform their perspectives toward more equitable pedagogical practices for ELs.

A Comprehensive Study on Service Quality and Satisfaction Level to the English Medium Education System in Bangladesh

This study investigated quality of teachers, teaching technique, students’ quality, their back ground, campus discipline, tuition fees, examination system, curriculum, teacher behaviors, lesson delivery and sequence of content and learning expectations used by teachers of English medium schools and colleges in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This research focused on overall quality of service and satisfaction level of students, guardians and teaches regarding English Medium Education (EME) in Bangladesh. This research brings broader understanding of strategies for teaching English reading and writing to students whose first language is not English. Results reflect analysis of face-to-face interviews with four hundred guardians, students, teachers and administrators of English Medium schools and colleges. The theoretical framework for this study draws from Collier's Conceptual Model, Acquiring a Second Language, explaining the complex interacting factors students experience when acquiring a second language. Emerging from the data are nine effective teaching strategies that teachers of English learners can add to their repertoire.

Job-Embedded Professional Development for Teachers of English Learners: Preventing Literacy Difficulties Through Effective Core Instruction

This mixed methods descriptive study examined the effects of job-embedded professional development (JEPD) in reading on the content knowledge and instructional practice of teachers of English learners (ELs). Four first-grade teachers of ELs at one urban elementary school received JEPD over the course of a year. Results of pre- and posttests of teacher knowledge and classroom observations indicated that teachers’ reading content knowledge increased and that they used more evidence-based practices. JEPD shows promise as an approach that accommodates teachers’ varying levels of knowledge and experience in preparing them to meet the diverse needs of their students.