Session Information
31 SES 13 A, Teachers' Beliefs about Multilingualism in Schools
Symposium
Contribution
Theoretical background and aims The aim of this cross cultural study is to analyze the beliefs of in-service teachers concerning the teaching of multilingual learners in the content classroom. In doing so we are especially interested to identify differences between in-service teachers from two different cultural regions: The United States and Germany. There is currently a shared research opportunity and thus problem worth exploring collaboratively across the US and Germany: the under-preparation of content teachers to work with students who enter the schooling system without proficiency in the language of instruction (Lucas, 2011; Becker-Mrotzek et al., 2012). The US and Germany, though different sociopolitical contexts, share the research challenge to further develop a research base for understanding the development of content teachers’ dispositions, skills and practice to work with multilingual learners. Focusing on the teachers’ beliefs as a facet of dispositions, this study is an effort to contribute to the growing body of literature from a cross-cultural perspective that shows the opportunities for expansion to other European contexts. Methodology To capture teachers’ beliefs, the scale for Beliefs about Multilingualism in School (in German see Hammer et al. 2016) was translated into English. It is based on statements about multilingualism in school with a four step response scale from (1) strongly disagree to (4) strongly agree. Exploratory and confirmative factor analyses reveal four subscales: (1.) beliefs about language and identity, (2.) beliefs about academic language, (3.) beliefs about family language, and (4.) beliefs about content teacher’s responsibility. The US sample consists of in-service teachers (n = 60) who participated in online professional learning content. The sample from Germany consists of in-service teachers (n = 65) who work mostly in primary schools. Results Results illustrate that teachers from the US and Germany on average agree (strongly) that a person’s identity is connected to their language and culture. However, we find significant differences in scale mean values between US and German teachers concerning the other dimensions. For instance, understanding language demand in content classrooms (d = 0.84, p < .05), feeling responsible for language teaching (d = 0.50, p < .05), and valuing multilingualism (d = 0.30, p < .05). Conclusions Our results provide evidence of both a quality instrument to measure important aspects of teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism in school and interesting opportunities for US and German teachers and researchers to potentially learn together as well as from one another.
References
Becker-Mrotzek, M., Hentschel, B., Hippmann, K., & Linnemann, M. (2012). Sprachförderung in deutschen Schulen – die Sicht der Lehrerinnen und Lehrer. Ergebnisse einer Umfrage unter Lehrerinnen und Lehrern. Durchgeführt von IPSOS (Hamburg) im Auftrag des Mercator-Instituts für Sprachförderung und Deutsch als Zweitsprache. Universität zu Köln. Hammer, S., Fischer, N., & Koch-Priewe, B. (2016). Überzeugungen von Lehramtsstudierenden zu Mehrsprachigkeit in der Schule. Die deutsche Schule, Beiheft 13, 147-171. Lucas, T. (2011). Teacher preparation for linguistically diverse classrooms: a resource for teacher educators. New York: Routledge.
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