‘But You Are Changing Everything I know!’ Teachers’ Views of Pedagogical Change: A Case Study of a Literacy Intervention with Immigrant-Origin Latinx Students

Abstract

ABSTRACT This qualitative study analyzes how teachers change their pedagogies in response to a reading and writing intervention designed specifically for Biliterate Latine English language learners. Through the analysis of structured interviews this paper examines teachers’ perceptions of and reactions to the intervention. Teachers responded to curricular change in three domains; surface, consensus, and mindful level changes. The level of change in classroom practice, we find, is dependent upon the level of a given teacher’s disposition to new knowledge that informs pedagogical practices. These findings highlight the ways that teachers working with Latinx students experience curricular change. This work is significant because it can help educational leaders understand why some professional development and interventions lead to change and why others don’t and the impact that it can have in bolstering literacy development for linguistically and culturally diverse students. This work provides an inside look as to how teachers experience new literacy interventions.