This paper presents findings from an international study that sought to adapt a US-based proven-successful professional development tool for UK teachers in linguistically diverse classrooms. The research contributes much needed understanding of the nuances of teachers' practice for multilingual learners in majority language classrooms, and the framing of related professional development.
The US and the UK share the persisting challenge of teachers' under-preparedness to teach multilingual learners. Moreover, in the UK, this is compounded by the under-attainment of some groups of multilinguals, limited funding, and the perception that teachers do not need discipline-specific training to teach them. Therefore, professional development for UK teachers must be cost effective and upskill the workforce for linguistically diverse classrooms.
US researchers have developed a tested rubric, The Enduring Principles of Learning (EPL), that drives professional development and teacher coaching to improve teaching of and educational outcomes for multilingual learners (Teemant, 2014). This pedagogy, consisting of seven principles of practice, draws on critical socio-cultural practices through which the teacher frames classroom activity as intentionally dialogic (Teemant & Sherman, 2022) and liberationist (Freire, 1970)
In the current mixed methods study, UK researchers sought to examine if and how this approach might translate to English schools. Reporting the teacher-focussed element of the study, this paper details an intervention with four teachers in three linguistically diverse primary schools; 2 classes 5-6 year olds, 2 classes 8-9 year olds. The EPL rubric was used as a classroom observation and coaching tool: pre-intervention, and for a sequence of five observations with follow-up coaching over six months. Participants were interviewed before and after the intervention. Control teacher participants (n=4) teaching business-as-usual were observed pre- and post-intervention. A related pupil-focussed study measured language and literacy gains.
Classroom observation scores, supplemented by systematic field notes, generated data for comparing teachers' enactment of each principle across lessons and between teachers. Field notes were analysed deductively using codes derived from terminology in the rubric, to unpack the practices related to the scores. Interviews were analysed inductively using Thematic Analysis.
Findings indicate the potential for the EPL to shift teachers' practice towards more dialogic approaches, and towards an asset-based mindset that celebrates multilingualism. However, analysis also reveals that teachers' responses to professional development, and their agency to effect changes, differ. Cross-national implications for the design of culturally responsive professional development for teachers in linguistically diverse classrooms are considered.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (M. Ramos Bergman, Trans.). Penguin Random House.
Teemant, A. (2014). A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Instructional Coaching for Teachers of Diverse Learners. Urban Education, 49(5), 574-604.
Teemant, A., & Sherman, B. J. (2022). Coaching content teachers toward pedagogical equity for multilingual students. The European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL, 11(2), 169-187
