Constructing teacher identity in teacher collaboration: What does it mean to be a teacher of culturally and linguistically diverse English learners?

Abstract

Research calls for practice-based inquiry where language teachers conduct exploratory action research to transform their pedagogical practices to impact student achievement. This study builds on the research in practitioner inquiry, teacher collaboration, and teacher identity to investigate how a seventh-grade English Language Arts (ELA) teacher (Heather) constructed her identity as she collaborated with an ESL teacher (Amanda) to plan for and teach ESL students in a collaboratively taught ELA classroom. Our qualitative inquiry included data gathered from two collaborative cycles with three semi-structured interviews, two collaborative planning sessions, fieldnotes of the collaborative teaching sessions, and two reflective journals authored by the ELA teacher. The findings illustrate that Heather constructed her teacher identity as a novice teacher with surface-level understandings of ESL students and a limited knowledge about how to plan for the ESL students in her classroom. Collaboration did not disrupt her deficit student perspectives nor did this partnership pave the way for Heather’s renewed understandings about how to teach ESL students in the ELA classroom. Collaboration, instead, provided Heather access to Amanda, whom Heather positioned as an experienced content teacher who could make the content accessible to ESL students.