Dissertation

National /community discourse, language ideologies and teacher change: Programming for English language learners at Cherry High School

Coles-Ritchie, Marilee

2006

Overview

Students who speak a language other than English at home and enter the US public schools come from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. Research describes the difficulties these students face within a school structure that is designed for European American native English speakers. Within the conversation surrounding school reform, teachers are often referred to as indispensable agents of educational change. Teachers are important agents of change within the school system, but the focus on them as individual agents of change is problematic. Most teacher education research focuses on teachers' attitudes, beliefs and perspectives; the studies described illustrate teachers' actions in specific contexts but fail to explain these actions within the context of the school structures and national/community discourse. This dissertation involved case study research of four teachers from one high school who entered a university English as a Second Language (ESL) endorsement program through a federal grant. This research documents and analyzes their experiences over a 3-year period. While all four teachers expressed concern over the ineffective and inequitable ESL program at their high school, changes to better address the needs of English Language Learners did not occur individually; rather, change occurred collectively through the formation of a teacher group and through developing counter discourse to a dominant national/community discourse. The research reveals how larger national and community discourses impacted decisions made by the teachers and administration and how teachers were both enabled and constrained in their efforts to change the existing program.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Bilingual education / Linguistics / Multicultural Education / Teacher education
• ISBN: 9780542636295, 0542636298