Purpose of this blog: Reviews of interesting research in English education journals. When possible, I suggest applications to the classroom.
10-second review: Well-meaning teacher-educator attempts to incorporate English language learner (ELL) (bilingual/bicultural) component into her methods course with the aid of a mentor. There were issues of worrying about the ELL portion dominating the course—something with which neither the teacher-educator nor the students who were consulted on the changes were comfortable.
Title: “Navigating Tensions in the Process of Change: An English Educator’s Dilemma Management in the Revision and Implementation of a Diversity infused Methods course.” M Gort and WJ Glenn. Research in the Teaching of English (August 2010), 59-86.
Summary: The authors describe the problems they encountered in trying to provide a significant component for teaching the bilingual/bicultural learners in the English methods course.
Quote: “In the attempt to re-conceptualize the methods course, Wendy faced a moment of disjuncture well before the course began. As she sat at her desk and tried to identify ways to infuse her existing course with ELL-related content, she found herself grappling with how to make room for what she was increasingly realizing was essential to her students as future teachers of bilingual learners—without losing sight of what they need to know as future English/language arts teachers…. Wendy wondered in particular, how she would find the time to include the ELL-oriented information and strategies she wanted her students to acquire, given the one-semester duration of the course, given the fact that this was the only methods course students would take.”
Quote: “…she designed the additional ELL-related content around commonly held misconceptions about bilingual learners … in the generation of essential questions she wanted her students to explore.”
Quote: “During a class session early in the semester, students began to consider two essential questions that guide the ELL-related components of the revised course: who are English [Language] Learners? And what experiences do they bring to the classroom?”
Quote: “The major focus of this shared self-study was to articulate, document, and analyze the challenges and complexities associated with an English educator’s experiences as she, with the support of a (bilingual education) colleague mentor, revised and implemented secondary English methods curricula with explicit attention to the needs of bilingual learners.”
Quote: “This portrait of Wendy’s teaching and thinking contribute knowledge about the complexity of teacher education practice.”
Comment: One purpose for research is to highlight the problems in learning how to do something. In this case it was problems in changing the curriculum in the English methods course in order to include a significant component for teaching English Language Learners. Much can be learned about the process of change from identifying the problems in attempting it. Maybe the next person who tries to change a curriculum will anticipate ahead of time the problems identified by these two researchers. RayS.
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