Session Information
31 SES 09 A, Observations of Pedagogical Excellence in Teaching Across Nations (OPETAN): Results from a Four Nation Study
Symposium
Contribution
The USA and the UK are English-speaking countries with long histories of migration and multilingualism. English is the language of education in both, and the gateway to social and economic well-being, meaning that the successful teaching of English language learners (ELLs) is vital for each nation’s economy. Both the US and the UK have increasing school populations of children whose home languages are not English, and a shared need to enhance teachers’ practice to give all children the best chances of academic achievement regardless of their language background (Strand, Malmberg and Hall, 2015; Takanishi, & Le Menestrel, 2017). Furthermore, both countries have a problem with under-preparation of teachers to teach ELLs (Flynn, 2018; López & Santibañez, 2018) and therefore require a better understanding of the ‘instructional space’ between teachers and students in multilingual classrooms (Teemant, 2018). Moreover, the issues experienced in the UK and the US are mirrored in EU countries where teachers need support in teaching their rising numbers of non-native speakers. In this paper we compare observational data, coded using key concepts from The Standards Performance Continuum Plus rubric, of the lessons of four successful teachers (two from each country) working in primary school (age 5 – 11) multilingual classrooms. Applying a socio-cultural approach to data interpretation, analysis throws light on the dialogic approach (Mercer & Howe, 2012) common to their teaching, and on the ways in which this language-oriented pedagogy embodies outstanding practice associated with combined enactment of several elements of the rubric. Moreover, it shows how these practitioners’ linguistically responsive approach to teaching their students incorporated high expectations that raised aspirations and potential academic outcomes (Lucas, 2011). Examination of the nuances of teachers’ practices demonstrates how the instructional space between teachers and their students might be manifested. We demonstrate how the standards’ domains of Language and Literacy Development (LLD), Challenging Activities (CA) and Modelling (M) are actioned productively but differently by practitioners in different contexts, and in this way we share evidence that the observational rubric can encapsulate practice across countries. We also reflect on the ways in which these successful teachers advocated for their ELLs by raising their students’ potential to earn linguistic and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1991), thus addressing the issues of inequity common to students with minority languages both in Europe and globally.
References
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity Press Flynn, N. (2018). ‘Teachers and Polish children: capturing changes in the linguistic field.’ British Journal of Sociology of Education. ISSN 0142-5692 doi: 10.1080/01425692.2018.1481366 López, F., & Santibañez, L. (2018). ‘Teacher preparation for emergent bilingual students: Implications of evidence for policy’. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 26 (36) Lucas, T. (Ed.) (2011). Teaching Preparation for Linguistically Diverse Classrooms: A Resource for Teacher Educators. New York: Routledge Mercer, N. & Howe, C. (2012) ‘Explaining the dialogic processes of teaching and learning: The value and potential of sociocultural theory’. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 1: 12 – 21 Strand, S., Malmberg, L., & Hall, J. (2015). ‘English as an Additional Language (EAL) and Educational achievement in England’. Oxford: University of Oxford, Department of Education Takanishi, R., & Le Menestrel, S. (Eds) (2017). Promoting the Educational Success of Children And Youth Learning English. Washington: National Academies Press Teemant, A. (2018) ‘Reframing the space between: Teachers and learners in context’. Language Teaching Research. DOI.org/10.1177/1362168818777527. 1 – 12
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