Inciting Change in Secondary English Language Programs: The Case of Cherry High School (Secondary Education in a Changing World)

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Inciting Change in Secondary English Language Programs

10.1057/9780230101074 - Inciting Change in Secondary English Language Programs, Marilee Coles-Ritchie

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN A CHANGING WORLD

Published by Palgrave Macmillan: The Comprehensive Public High School: Historical Perspectives By Geoffrey Sherington and Craig Campbell (2006) Cyril Norwood and the Ideal of Secondary Education By Gary McCulloch (2007) The Death of the Comprehensive High School?: Historical, Contemporary, and Comparative Perspectives Edited by Barry M. Franklin and Gary McCulloch (2007) The Emergence of Holocaust Education in American Schools By Thomas D. Fallace (2008) The Standardization of American Schooling: Linking Secondary and Higher Education, 1870–1910 By Marc A. VanOverbeke (2008) Education and Social Integration: Comprehensive Schooling in Europe By Susanne Wiborg (2009) Reforming New Zealand Secondary Education: The Picot Report and the Road to Radical Reform By Roger Openshaw (2009) Inciting Change in Secondary English Language Programs: The Case of Cherry High School By Marilee Coles-Ritchie (2009)

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Series editors: Barry M. Franklin and Gary McCulloch

The Case of Cherry High School

MARILEE COLES-RITCHIE

10.1057/9780230101074 - Inciting Change in Secondary English Language Programs, Marilee Coles-Ritchie

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Inciting Change in Secondary English Language Programs

INCITING CHANGE IN SECONDARY ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMS

Copyright © Marilee Coles-Ritchie, 2009. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978–0–230–60610–4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Coles-Ritchie, Marilee. Inciting change in secondary English language programs : the case of Cherry High School / Marilee Coles-Ritchie. p. cm.—(Secondary education in a changing world) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–230–60610–5 1. English language—Study and teaching (Secondary)—Foreign speakers. 2. English language—Study and teaching (Secondary)— Foreign speakers—Research. 3. English language—Study and teaching (Secondary)—Utah. 4. Language arts—Correlation with content subjects. 5. Interdisciplinary approach in education. I. Title. PE1128.A2C658 2009 428.2⬘4—dc22

2009002652

A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: September 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America.

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All rights reserved.

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To all of my students who speak languages other than English. I have learned much from you during the past 20 years. To my dear partner Marc, and our children, Aidan and Emilia.

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List of Tables

ix

Series Editors’ Preface

xi

Acknowledgments

xv

1 Introduction: Can We Blame the Teachers? 2

Community Context: Change Is in the Air

1 17

3 Contradictory Discourse among Teachers, Administration, and the State: “Let’s Have a More Inclusive School Culture, Which Assimilates All Students”

33

4 Teachers’ Discursive Realignment

51

5

Language Ideologies at Cherry High School

83

6

Teachers as Agents of School Change

107

7 Secondary Education and English Learners: We’ve Got Work To Do

129

8

149

Epilogue: Cherry High School Now

Appendix

171

Notes

175

References

179

Index

189

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Contents

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1 2 3 4

Description of Data Cherry High School ESL Program Changes 2000–2003 Teacher Participants in Study, Fall 2000 Cherry High School ELLs Program 2003–2004 to 2008–2009

20 26 27 151

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Tables

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Among the educational issues affecting policy makers, public officials, and citizens in modern, democratic, and industrial societies, none has been more contentious than the role of secondary schooling. In establishing the Secondary Education in a Changing World series with Palgrave Macmillan, our intent is to provide a venue for scholars in different national settings to explore critical and controversial issues surrounding secondary education. We envision our series as a place for the airing and hopeful resolution of these controversial issues. More than a century has elapsed since Emile Durkheim argued the importance of studying secondary education as a unity, rather than in relation to the wide range of subjects and the division of pedagogical labor of which it was composed. Only thus, he insisted, would it be possible to have the ends and aims of secondary education constantly in view. The failure to do so accounted for a great deal of the difficulty with which secondary education was faced. First, it meant that secondary education was “intellectually disorientated,” between “a past which is dying and a future which is still undecided,” and as a result “lacks the vigor and vitality which it once possessed” (Durkheim 1938/1977, p. 8). Second, the institutions of secondary education were not understood adequately in relation to their past, which was “the soil which nourished them and gave them their present meaning, and apart from which they cannot be examined without a great deal of impoverishment and distortion” (p. 10). And third, it was difficult for secondary school teachers, who were responsible for putting policy reforms into practice, to understand the nature of the problems and issues that prompted them. In the early years of the twenty-first century, Durkheim’s strictures still have resonance. The intellectual disorientation of secondary education is more evident than ever as it is caught up in successive waves of policy changes. The connections between the present and the past have become increasingly hard to trace and untangle. Moreover, the distance

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Series Editors’ Preface

Series Editors’ Preface

between policy makers on the one hand and the practitioners on the other has rarely seemed as immense as it is today. The key mission of the current series of books is, in the spirit of Durkheim, to address these underlying dilemmas of secondary education and to play a part in resolving them. Marilee Coles-Ritchie’s study, Inciting Change in Secondary English Language Programs: The Case of Cherry High School, tells the story of an initiative to promote programs for English learners within one school. It examines how the teachers take the lead in this development, how the pupils respond, and how the school as a whole begins to change as a result. Within three years from there being a scarcely developed program for English learners, a new program has been fully developed with a specific bilingual and sheltered course for English learners. This is a remarkable achievement in many ways, not least in the broader context within which Cherry High School is operating. This is one of political hostility and community opposition to programs for English learners following the passage of laws in a number of states to prohibit instruction in any language other than English, and the elimination of bilingualism as a pedagogical goal under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. The state where the school is located, passed an English as the Official Language law in 2000, although the local community of the school has experienced changes in demographics and in perspectives that are beginning to challenge the conventional public discourse. Coles-Ritchie’s account engages with critical theory to demonstrate the inequalities, power, and oppression that are rooted in institutional structures. In addition she draws upon Bakhtin’s theory of the dialectic and Gee’s theory of big “D” discourse to understand how teachers incite change within these difficult to move structures. Through these theories she traces the efforts of the key teachers involved in the ESL program—Brian, Carl, Jan, and Laura—to discover the reasons for their success. While the study focuses on one secondary school in a particular set of circumstances, it suggests lessons for effective change that go well beyond its own neighbourhood, for the United States as a whole, and indeed internationally, and for secondary education in general. Inciting Change in Secondary English Language Programs is the seventh volume to be published in our series. It introduces the key dynamics of an institutional case study of school change to these accounts. In doing so, it highlights the everyday role of school teachers while remaining continually alert to the wider contexts and the underlying dilemmas of secondary education. As we see the trajectory of the series advancing during the next few

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xii

Series Editors’ Preface

xiii

B F  G MC Series Coeditors

Reference Durkheim, E. (1938/1977). The evolution of educational thought: Lectures on the formation and development of secondary education in France. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

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years, we hope to support further work that brings these broad and fundamental concerns of practice and policy to studies of secondary education in a changing world.

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I am grateful to a host of individuals who supported me as I climbed over the various hurdles involved in this work. The guidance, insights, and expertise of my mentors at the University of Utah’s Education, Culture, and Society program Bryan Brayboy, Ed Buendia, Donna Deyhle, and Norma Gonzalez were incredible throughout my course of graduate studies. I am especially grateful to Donna, who not only served as my dissertation chair, but also introduced me to multicultural education while I was an undergraduate student in the 1980s. She has been a wonderful support, and I admire her example of long-term commitment to social justice and issues of Indigenous schooling. Bryan, Ed, and Norma have inspired me through their writing and encouraged me to write more deeply and critically. All four of these mentors have pushed me to think of educational issues in new ways that continue to broaden my perspectives. This book would not have been possible without the intuitive mentorship, guidance, and friendship of Grace Huerta. Our many conversations about social justice issues involving children and young adults who have immigrated to this country have inspired me to act and not just lament. In addition, she has been an amazing example for me of inspired collaboration in grant writing and teaching at the university level. I am blessed to have her as a friend. I am indebted to the four case study teachers at “Cherry High School.” “Brian,” “Carl”, “Jan,” and “Laura” allowed me to spend time in their classrooms and interview them about their classroom practices and the development of the program for English Learners at their school. They also gathered with me for focus group interviews and engaged in thoughtful discussions of questions that arose during the three years of the study and beyond. Each teacher demonstrated an amazing commitment to improving education for English Learners. I was often inspired by their insights and practices that went beyond their requirements as teachers. In addition, I am grateful to the administrators at the school and the teachers’ students.

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Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

During the course of writing this manuscript, I had the pleasure of being a part of a writing group. This group sustained me and pushed me through the sometimes daunting process of writing. Thanks especially to Maria Estrada, who initiated the formation of the group, and also to Mary De La Rosa, Angelina Castagno, and Matt Bradley for their insights, fruitful discussions, and written feedback. I also had feedback from people I admire in the field. After meeting Chris Faltis at an AERA meeting, he graciously offered to support me with my writing projects involving secondary education and English Learners. This offer was followed up by action as he gave me timely, specific, and perceptive feedback on my manuscript. I admire his dedication to the field. Other significant scholars have given me support through this process. Sometimes insights came as we shared ideas through conversation and other times through specific written feedback. They include Lily Wong-Fillmore, Mary Eunice Romero-Little, Sylvia Read, Christine Sims, Doris Warriner, and Joan Parker Webster. Without the support of extended family, I could not have completed this book. They have provided childcare for my two children, and given emotional, financial, and educative support. I give them all my heartfelt thanks. Above all, I am grateful to my wonderfully supportive partner, Marc, who took care of our children, listened to my frustrations, engaged in discussions about education, and encouraged me to continue. Also, to my children, Aidan and Emilia, who continually teach me how to have patience and love without borders. The foundational reason for sharing the ideas in this book stems from the amazing experiences I have had teaching English to many students over the years. My purpose in writing this text is to push us all to open up possibilities for all students, especially students who have been and continue to be marginalized. Images of teaching scenes from my fourth-grade students in the Navajo Nation, from high school students at Douglas High School, and the adult learners in programs for refugees and immigrants in Boston come to mind. I have been shaped by their determination, different ways of looking at the world, and their sheer generosity. I offer a sincere thank you to all of you.

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xvi

Introduction: Can We Blame the Teachers?

My three-hour night course just came to an end after a lively discussion about bilingual education programs. Most of my class included inservice teachers, so they asked a lot of specific questions about how bilingual education could really take place in a secondary school in [this intermountain state] with just under 10% population of language minority students. Like many discussions in my classes, it was spirited, and the students were interested in the topic; however, making the connection from theory to practice was challenging. After erasing the white board, I turned around to see three students with earnest faces waiting for my attention. I asked them if there was a problem with the course. “There is a problem with our school’s ESL program” one said. “It is pathetic . . . students who speak Spanish fluently are placed in beginning Spanish classes designed for Gringos,” quipped another. “I can’t just sit back, I mean ethically, and watch these kids flounder in my classes. I mean they are smart kids, but they don’t understand the language so they end up just sitting there.” The conversation continued with frustrations about the ESL teacher who only passed out worksheets, the counseling system that placed students in classes randomly, and the program that wasn’t really a program but just sent out translators into classes where teachers didn’t adapt methods at all. These teachers saw a vision for their school and wanted to know if I really thought they could make the changes needed. With passion, I said, “Of course you can. You can make it happen. You have the energy and the will and you can make changes.” I believed that, or wanted to believe it, because I too observed student teachers at their school and saw kids at the back of the classroom left to figure out the class material on their own. I heard the principal describe the worry she had about gangs when Latino boys hung out together too much, and I heard teachers say that there wasn’t anything

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Chapter 1

2

Inciting Change

This excerpt from my field notes explains some issues concerning teachers and university faculty in regards to the ESL program at a local high school. The teachers in this excerpt taught at Cherry High School,1 a school experiencing dramatic demographic changes with large increases of immigrant students primarily from Latin America. The impetus for change was ripe. Teachers and university faculty wanted to make long overdue changes in the ESL program.2 In order to make those changes, many events occurred, which will be explained later in this chapter, including a newly hired principal at the high school, an out-of-compliance notice from the Office of Civil Rights, and a grant to fund ESL endorsements for inservice teachers in the local schools. I begin with a discussion on the national discourse surrounding education for ELs.3 Two years before my journey with Cherry High School began, controversy involving the education of ELs increased in California. The citizens of California adopted Proposition 2274 by a landslide. Jaime Escalante, the famed teacher in the popular film Stand and Deliver, with an invitation by the Ron Unz (who was opposed to teaching all languages but English in public schools), joined with the proponents of this initiative to abolish bilingual education. Many in the Latino community called Escalante a vendido, a sellout, as he began his circuit of talks around the state to promote his stand against bilingual education. This “sellout” of a caring, dedicated, bilingual teacher is complex. In fact, Gonzales and Rodriguez (1998) name the story of Jaime Escalante the two tongues of Escalante. They explain that though Escalante does not share their views concerning the necessity of bilingual education, he does share their views concerning the problem of unqualified teachers in California and the lack of attention to the needs of ELs in the schools. When asked why he “lent” his name to the “anti-bilingual initiative, which is perceived by many to be patently anti-pedagogical, not to mention anti-Latino,” he replied that he “supports it as a wake up call to teachers, but has no interest in the politics behind it, or in debating the issue” (Gonzales and Rodriguez, 1998). Like the caring teachers in this study, Jaime Escalante was also influenced by many discourses about language ideologies and the education of minority students. The teacher participants in the grant posed many questions during discussions as I presented issues in university courses, observed classes at the school, led focus group sessions, and conducted individual interviews. Majority of the questions asked how the teachers at Cherry High School

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they could do for these students because the classes were too big and there wasn’t time. So, I had felt what these teachers were expressing and wanted them to do something about it. (field notes, September 18, 2000)

3

(similar to the scenario described in the beginning of the chapter) could create change in the ESL program at their school. After participating in some of the university ESL endorsement courses, they expressed interest in creating a program that supported and enhanced immigrant students’ home languages and “funds of knowledge” as well as helped them acquire academic English. With this impetus I have asked the following research questions: • Teacher discursive realignment: Are teachers’ discourses about ELs different from their Discourses before the university coursework? What are the nature of the Discourses about language and power that they deploy and align themselves with? Are there counter Discourses in and among the participants? • Teachers’ instructional practices for ELs: How and in what ways are the teachers adapting their instructional practices when serving ELs? How are teachers adapting their curriculum? • Structure of the ESL program: To what degree are teachers able to change the existing ESL program? What are the structural elements and/or Discourses that enable and/or constrain the teachers to implement changes in their classrooms and the school’s ESL program? How does the school’s philosophy intermingle with the teacher’s philosophy of serving ELs? Using these questions as guides throughout my research collection and analysis, I share this journey in hopes that the complexities facing teachers, schools, and communities around issues of discourse will be better understood. Through sharing this journey I anticipate that others will learn from this context and go forward to make educational settings more equitable for students of all language backgrounds. I structured the remainder of this chapter in the shape of a funnel, beginning with the larger national discourses and finishing with who I am as a researcher in this project. I begin with the historical overview of national Discourse during the time when the study took place and just preceding it, and move to a description of community Discourse, the ESL program, the participants in the study, and finally, me as the researcher.

Historical Overview: National Discourse Just drop them into an English-only class and they’ll soak it up. They’ll be spouting English in no time. (common place assumption, Santa Ana, 2002, p. 210)

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Introduction: Can We Blame the Teachers?

Inciting Change

It is important to understand the national Discourse surrounding the education of ELs because it influences the community Discourse and the rationale for certain systems of reasoning among the administration and teachers at the school where this study takes place. I use the term national Discourse to refer to statements in public spaces, including all media forms as well conversions within communities that produce and organize meaning around particular subjects. While the participating teachers might argue for a school program for ELs that goes beyond language acquisition and includes native language maintenance/enhancement as well as structural elements to support their funds of knowledge,5 the national/community 6 Discourse surrounding them often contradicts these Discourses. This study focuses on discourses of four teachers and the ESL program in which they teach. It also includes the national/community Discourse and school/district Discourse that surrounds them. National/community Discourses are separated distinct entities but also attached by the backslash (/) to illustrate how the national Discourse influences the community Discourse and vice versa. I define Discourse as language that is used within and through various contexts including social, cultural, textual, political, and historical. Language is a tool not only to communicate information but also to support social activities, social identities, and affiliations within communities and institutions. Discourse in this sense describes the way relationships get mediated by language through the persons that use the texts, words, and signs. I use both the notion of big “D” and small “d” discourses to understand how teachers and the ESL program are impacted by these discourses. Gee (1990) defines a big “D” Discourse: A Discourse is a socially accepted association among ways of using language, of thinking, feeling, believing, valuing, and of acting that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful group or “social network,” or to signal (that one is playing) a socially meaningful “role.” (p. 143)

Discourses then are both socially and historically formed. They are circulated and sustained through and within texts, social practices, images, and institutions in addition to daily interactions between people. Some Discourses are circulated to such a degree that they are rendered “normal” or “natural” while others are rendered “marginal” or even deviant. A small ‘d’ discourse would be the small bits of conversation used in conversation. In addition, I define language ideologies as big D discourses that are circulated in society. These Discourses about language are used in public spaces

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4

5

to such a degree that they become “truth” to some. An example of Discourses related to this study began during the 1990s. My study began in 2000; two years after the people of California adopted Proposition 227 by a landslide. California voters approved Proposition 227 with a 61 percent “yes” vote. This proposition funded primarily by Ron Unz, an entrepreneurial millionaire Californian with no educational credentials, prohibited instruction in any language other than English. Students were placed in a “structured English immersion program not normally intended to exceed one year” (emphasis in original, Crawford, 2001). Then, in 2000, a similar law, Proposition 203, with even more restrictions was passed in Arizona despite “an overwhelming degree of consumer satisfaction with bilingual education among those touched by it directly” (Crawford, 2001). Arizona approved Proposition 203 with 63 percent “yes” vote. Soon a similar measure passed by an even wider margin in Massachusetts, but failed in Colorado. Massachusetts passed “Question 2” with 68 percent of the vote and Amendment 31 in Colorado received 44 percent of the vote. (Crawford, 2003). Although only three states have passed initiatives against bilingual education, together they enroll 43 percent of the nation’s English Learners. To understand how these initiatives passed, even with substantial research that supports bilingual education (Baker and Kanter, 1981; Carlisle, 1994; Collier, 1992; Cummins, 1981; Edelsky, 1982; Hudelson, 1987; Krashen, 1996; Rolstad, Mahoney, and Glass, 2005; Slavin and Cheung, 2005) and when they are consistently rejected by all reputable educational and linguistic organizations,7 it is useful to look at Santa Ana’s (2002) book regarding Discourse on language and the nation entitled Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Public Discourse. Santa Ana describes how the notions of language and nation merge, as witnessed by the metaphors that surfaced during the public Discourse during California’s Proposition 187 and Proposition 227 campaigns. California’s Proposition 187 was a ballot initiative designed to prohibit undocumented workers from using social services, health care, and public education in the state of California. The initiative was passed by voters but later overturned by the federal court as unconstitutional. Through comprehensive research of newspaper articles, Santa Ana explores the major metaphors of Latinos in public discourse in the United States. In the 1990s, the news regularly reported the growing crises of public education in California. As Chavez (1998) reports, “An important watershed moment in the public debate over immigration was the 1994 election in California. On November 8 the voters of California overwhelming passed Proposition 187, which was to, in the words of its supporters, “ ‘Save Our State’ ” by denying ‘illegal aliens health care, education, and other

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Introduction: Can We Blame the Teachers?

6

Inciting Change

Proposition 187 in California demonstrated that a large part of the U.S. population erroneously considered the undocumented immigrants to be responsible for the main problems in the United States. When Californians approved Proposition 187 on November 8, 1994, their vote approved one of the most radical and unfair anti-immigrant laws in recent memory. (p. 64)

Following the lead in California, other politicians in other states as well as presidential candidates tooled up the anti- “illegal alien” rhetoric, but in the process expanded the focus to include legal immigrants. The emphasis included the Discourse of undocumented workers wanting to cross the border not for jobs but for social services. Even though Proposition 187 was later overturned in the courts as being unconstitutional, the Discourse of Latinos as problem had already impacted the nation. Four years later, in 1998, Proposition 227 was brought to the public ballet. Unz, who personally sponsored Proposition 227, capitalized on the fear of the public over education, especially for immigrant8 children. “He claimed that the bilingual programs were at fault for the poor showing of Latino students. [He] incorrectly deduced that bilingual education kept those children from learning English, which led to their failing in grossly under funded schools. Unz’s ill-founded conclusion appealed to the electorate” (Santa Ana, 2002, p. 199). How was Unz able to do this? Most of the initiative was based on “common sense rather than research,” which appealed to the public and was actually touted by Unz. This appeal’s base is structured in the idea that the more students are exposed to English the more they will learn it. This intuitive statement counters the following two facts that are supported by linguistic research: “1) adults and early adolescents learn second languages more quickly than young children and 2) language acquisition is a process altogether distinct from those involved in educational advancement” (Santa Ana, p. 200). So, the voters responded to this initiative with a gut reaction rather than relying on research to which they did not have access. During the debate on Proposition 227, both the proponents of the initiative and proponents of bilingual education used the water metaphor to describe language education. Because the use of water metaphors continues to be prevalent in public discourse across the nation and thus affects the change and practice of the teachers in this study, I share the following examples from Santa Ana’s book to illustrate the point: • A growing number of Orange County school districts are spurning traditional bilingual education in favor of programs that steep

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publicly funded benefits’ ” (Chavez, 1998; Martin, 1995). Jorge Ramos (2002) reported,

7

students in English—setting a statewide precedent in a divisive classroom debate. (April 13, 1997) • Board members said children will not be allowed to simply flounder in English-only classes. (January 16, 1998) • Critics say Unz’ approach remains unproven and would lead to classroom chaos. They say that many students not fluent in English would drown under a “sink or swim” rule and that English-speaking students in mainstream classes would suffer too. (April 3, 1998) (p. 203) Santa Ana (2002) explains how the use of the water metaphor is used to make sense of the socially complex and intangible notion of language. By using this everyday substance that people need to survive and that they can touch, this elusive concept of language becomes more physical. “Language as water establishes semantic associations between the complex and commonly experienced everyday substance, water, and this pivotal feature of human life. With the metaphor, language can now be seen to be a medium to transport, suffuse, absorb, freeze, dispense ideas, thoughts, meanings, and feelings” (emphasis in original, p. 202). Because water is tangible and is something that we use daily, it is easier to identify with the words used to explain water than it is language—something we also use everyday but that they cannot physically touch. This use of water metaphors by both sides of the issue caused confusion in the public’s perception of language education. Immersion was understood to be English-only instruction and required no qualification, while bilingual education was falsely viewed as just another ESL method. Because both methods of teaching were seen as providing the same teaching support, with one method using one language and the other method using two languages, bilingual education’s superiority of teaching all content subject areas and language arts was devalued in the debate (August and Hakuta, 1997; Gonzalez, 2000; Greene, 1998; Hakuta, Butler, and Witt, 2000; Ramírez, Yuen, and Ramey, 1991). Suro (1998) also reports how: Over the years, bilingual education has become an easy target for enemies of the educational bureaucracy, for those opposed in principle to group entitlements . . . Federal funding for bilingual education now falls short of $200 million a year, less than half of what it was a decade ago, even though the number of students with limited ability to learn in English has skyrocketed. (p. 311)

Bilingual education had increasingly lost its appeal in public discourse despite growing longitudinal research that demonstrates its merits.

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Introduction: Can We Blame the Teachers?

Inciting Change

Remarkably, the public did not equate the disparity of educational progress for Latino students to be the result of structural factors such as poor physical locations of schools, fewer materials, inferior arts programs, weaker teaching credentials, or the economic situation of the students’ parents. No metaphors arose to refer to class or structural impediments (other than bilingual programs) to explain why Latino children do not fare well in school. Instead, in public discourse, students language is positioned as a hurdle to jump over before obtaining the education the students need. Santa Ana explains: The obstacle was the language spoken by the children. In contrast to a popularly supposed “normal” (middle-class, monolingual) child, for whom English is a fluid medium that speeds him or her through school, Latino children found their educational path blocked—by their language. . . . they bring a   to school. Their speech is falsely deemed the greatest obstacle that they face on their path toward education. (Santa Ana, 2002, p. 207)

Through most of the reports, speaking the English language was the ultimate goal (and only goal of all students) and was given privilege over all other languages in public discourse. Santa Ana explains how English in public discourse becomes not only the language of power and privilege but also how it is separated from all other languages signifying an artificial normalcy at the expense of other languages. In contemporary U.S. discourse on education, language tends to be a cover term for any kind of speech other than English. This includes all other languages of the world. It also encompasses the speech of English-speaking bilinguals. Language contrasts with another kind of speech which seems to be transparent, inconspicuous, and “unaccented,” the speech of monolingual, middle-class, American English speakers. For Americans, English language is not really a language—it’s just English—namely, that way of talking that is naturally a complete, lucid and fully sufficient medium for all social intercourse in America. (p. 211)

Once again, this example demonstrates the way English is normalized. The English as water metaphor used extensively in public discourse surrounding language education as well as academic discourse has reinforced the widely accepted and oversimplified discourse that children can easily and rapidly acquire language. With this discourse, language acquisition is effortless and can seemingly carry immigrant students along on its current, in the same way, to academic English fluency. This metaphor counters three language development tenants often hidden in public discourse.

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First, language is acquired in interaction with others; it is not passively acquired. Second, social language and academic language skills are developed and refined continually over time by participating in meaningfully activities and social practices. Third, language development is “multiplex and additive, and the deepest basis for this unfolding development is on the cognitive foundations of home language” (Santa Ana, 2002, p. 209). These confusions apparent in the public discourse of language education begin to explain how such a poorly conceived initiative could pass and how this event could send a ripple effect about language education across the nation. In U.S. public discourse, the acquisition of language as a normal development is only such for the English-speaking child, the same process for a child speaking any other language is seen as a barrier on their way to being educated. On the tails of these initiatives, in 2002, the Bush administration proposed and Congress accepted the No Child Left Behind Act, which repealed the Bilingual Education Act and expelled all references to bilingualism as a pedagogical goal. Under this act, Title VII, the Bilingual Education Act changed to become Title III, the English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement Act. This act, which has gained massive public appeal because of its emphasis on accountability through high stakes testing, stresses only the importance of learning English, thus discouraging states and districts from supporting native-language instruction. In recent years, public opinion about bilingual education has become increasingly negative. Those who previously praised bilingual education as a way to educate all children are now aligning themselves with an antibilingual Discourse. According to Crawford (2003), “substantial numbers of Americans, who were once supportive of bilingual education, at least in its transitional forms, have moved into the English-only camp.” Bourdieu’s (1977) description of the “language market” is helpful in understanding the tension teachers of ELs face with the impact of this law. He explains: to give an adequate account of speech, we must constitute in each case, first, the language habitus, the capacity to use the possibilities offered by language and to assess practically the moments to use them, which at a constant level of objective tension, is defined by a greater or lesser degree of tension (corresponding to experience of a language market at a determinate degree of tension). (p. 662)

The tension described above adds to the complexity of teacher action in the school because the language market tells the public that English is the language of commodity. English is the language students need to succeed

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Introduction: Can We Blame the Teachers?

Inciting Change

in the workplace. Often, teachers hear in public discourse that immigrant students need exposure to English at school because they do not have exposure at home. Even though the teachers acknowledge that the development of students’ home language facilitates growth in a second language and promotes positive discourses about their language, they might hesitate to use the home language or to push for more bilingual courses because they are faced with lack of time and pressures of standardized tests. When ELs enter a secondary school, they have four years or less to complete their degree for graduation. Thus, teachers and program developers must decide how to best serve these students in a time frame that is less than what research shows is possible for academic language to develop. Often, teachers and administrators, supported by national Discourse, decide to focus only on English language development, ignoring the social and linguistic resources students bring with them to the classroom. Choices are influenced partially due to the language habitus that English enjoys in a national as well as global market. In the secondary school context of this study, historically Discourse used by ELL teachers emphasized the learning of English over the maintenance and enhancement of home language and culture. The teachers in my study, for the most part, had the ideological and political clarity discussed by Bartolomé and Balderrama (2001): they wanted to spend more time acknowledging and developing home language of their students. Yet they were also faced with a political discourse that fails to recognize the value of multilingual/multicultural students. An example of this discourse is stated here in 2002 by Bush’s Secretary of Education as he defends the No Child Left Behind Act: For the first time ever, federal funding is based upon the child, not merely the program. President Bush’s vision of No Child Left Behind is that every child, regardless of race, ethnicity, income or zip code, has an opportunity to succeed in school, to learn English and take part in the American dream. (Paige, 2002)

The Discourse allows the public to believe that a curriculum based on English-only somehow gives a person the ability to take part in the American Dream. Race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and language vanish from this individual along with the contexts and groups of people with whom they interact. The assumption is that children act as individuals without connection to culture, language, or social structures. Federal funding that was previously earmarked for bilingual education programs in the 1990s is now based upon a child with no background—a blank slate, so to speak, taking us back to a universal conception of the child.

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Public opinion or Discourse reifies English-only policies through organizations such as English for the Children, and legislative bills such as No Child Left Behind, where Discourses about language continue to be spoken until they are rendered as truth. The social elevation of English language over all other languages is accepted widely. This Discourse or language ideology often creates policy, or is used to inform policy or policy maker’s decisions and is often appropriated by teachers of ELs.

Theoretical Framework Most secondary schools are prime examples of the difficulty individuals face when attempting to create change because of the patterns of segregation in content area specialization, bureaucracy, and the difficulty of setting aside the time necessary to engage in the emotions and investment of the school staff (Hargreaves, 1996). While teachers can be important agents of change within the school system, the focus on them as individual agents of change is problematic. Along with Bartolomé and Balderrama (2001), I propose that teachers’ beliefs and attitudes cannot be separated from worldviews that are part of dominant discourses. I agree, as Buendia (2000) argued in his article about power relations, that most teacher education studies frame teachers as psychological/individual or from “a pedagogical discourse that views students along the lines of innate, individualized, cognitive framings (i.e., cognitive and behavior disorders, intellectual talents) that strip away any sense of a social and economic backdrop” (p. 148). In this study I too include the multiple discourses and relations that come into play in the practice and discourse of inservice teachers. Like Buendia, I see the structural elements as critical to understanding the influences that guide teachers’ practices and discourses as they work to influence change in their school’s ESL program. I chose to use three main theoretical lenses to understand the practices, changes, and discourses of these teachers and the “big” Discourses that surround them—critical theory serves as the underlying theoretical lens, which is augmented with micro discourse through Bourdieu’s language capital theory and Bakhtin’s theory of language as dynamic and dialogic—to illustrate how teacher discourse intersects with centripetal forces and centrifugal, stratifying forces. Gee (2005) states that language alone is not enough to define Discourse. Discourse is defined as “ways of acting, interacting, feeling, believing, valuing, and using various sorts of objects, symbols, tools, and technologies—to recognize yourself and others as meaning and meaningful in certain ways. In turn, you produce,

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reproduce, sustain, and transform a given form of life or Discourse” (p. 7). Gee explains how certain utterances that are repeated again and again move from a small “d” discourse to a big “D” Discourse within any social situation including the education sites. Teachers, administrators, and students are often unaware that the discourse they speak is tied to larger Discourse in the nation/community. By employing Bakhtin’s notion of language as dynamic and dialogic, the previous teacher change Discourse in language teacher education literature that frames language as static and determined only by structure is altered. Through a Bakhtinian lens, the durability of language intersects with spaces where language emerges and changes. Bakhtin (1981) explains, “Every utterance participates in the ‘unitary language’ (in its centripetal forces and tendencies) and at the same time partakes of social and historical heteroglossia (the centrifugal, stratifying sources)” (p. 272). Important to this study is that the centripetal nature of language connects with its centrifugal nature. Teacher discourse is understood by looking at its durable nature, or centripetal nature, tied to historical and political structure as well as its dynamism, or centrifugal, wherein opportunities for change open. This language shared by the teachers, or heteroglossic language, is challenging a dominant Discourse. Three of the teachers in this study were described in the field notes at the opening of the chapter. These teacher participants’ observations demonstrated that the ELs at the school were not given adequate or equitable opportunities to succeed in the current school structure. While this group of teachers had a sincere desire to expand the school’s program toward a more effective, culturally affirming model for students, they had to work within instructional practices that had existed for years. To understand the way these individuals can impact change or not, it is necessary to explore the ways individuals work within institutions. To examine the teachers and ESL program at Cherry High School, I chose critical theory as a complementary framework of examining practice, change, and school program structures, because it examines how inequalities, power, and oppression are rooted in basic institutional structures (Apple, 2004; Glass, 2008). These unequal power structures are the result of historical and political contexts created over time and are integral to understanding the present situation. Even though the teachers’ desire for change is sincere and present, structural conditions often impede teachers from making the changes they desire within the school where they serve. While the contributions of critical educational theorists identify schools as cultural zones of contest and sites of domination, Bakhtin adds to critical theory by recognizing the potential varieties of power negotiations

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Bakhtin is not constituted through a unified, monadic relation to the external world; rather, the phenomenon of “self-ness” is constituted through the operation of a dense and conflicting network of discourses, cultural and social practices and institutional structures, which are themselves bound up with the intricate phenomenology of the self-other relation. And since this process is fundamentally historical and not a singular “event,” it is continuous and “mobile.” (p. 124)

Thus, within the teaching context, it is important to observe teachers as they identify not only the “hows” and “whys” of certain discourses created and enacted by the students, but also by themselves. Teachers must deal with competing Discourses that circulate within the school. Moraes explains further, “Despite their location within a particular social class or ethnic group, students and teachers act out constantly against a multiplicity of forces; resistance is not only undertaken by a ‘subordinate’ culture” (p. 124). Adding dialogic to critical pedagogy is a major contribution of Bakhtinian theory for understanding the research site. Extending beyond a modernist view of pluralism where the main issue is to empower the “oppressed,” Bakhtin emphasizes how individuals are mutually influenced by their discourses.

Organization of the Book The book is organized as follows: In chapter 2, I describe the context of the community including how this community follows the national trend of passing an English as the Official Language law. I will describe how this community reacts to immigrants in this community and how this community is both similar and unique in comparison to other mid-size towns across the United States. I will describe the changes in the community landscape, changes in the schools—specifically the secondary school where the study takes place, and I will paint a picture of the four case-study teachers who participated in the study. I begin the chapter describing the specific context of the study including the town/community, the district, and the school. I share unique characteristics of the mid-size Western town and also characteristics that are common across the nation in regards to education for English learners. In chapter 3, I explore the contradictory discourse among the local school and district administration and the teachers who participated in the

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within a school context (Moraes, 1996). Regarding Bakhtin’s idea, Gardiner in Moraes (1996) states:

Inciting Change

grant at the university. While the administration expressed discourses of assimilation and rapid integration, the teachers aligned themselves with discourses of language maintenance—separate, specially designed classes for ELs and acknowledgment of resources ELs bring to the classroom. I use the work of Santa Ana (2002) to explore the use of public discourse within the nation and community surrounding the passing of English-only and its impact on the discourse of teaching ELs in the public school. I also analyze the use of terms (assimilation, inclusion, integration, and mainstream) used by the school/district community in newspapers, school board notes, and interviews. Using critical theory and Bakhtin’s notion of language as contextual and social, I analyze how these ideologies circulate and impact the teachers at the high school and their desire to change the ESL program. Chapter 4 examines the grant participant teachers’ ideological change within the context of school, community, and national discourse. Using critical theory, I review past multicultural literature on teacher change (Cummins, 1991; Nieto, 2008; Otheguy, 1991; Reyes, 1992; Sleeter, 1996; Valenzuela, 1999) that focuses primarily on teacher change as an individual/psychological (Buendia, 2000) endeavor, and describe how this study will examine teacher change within the social, historical, and political contexts in which it occurred. Using personal interviews, focus group interviews, and observation data, I show how teachers’ discourses are shifting, as they participate in university courses, discuss ideas among themselves as a core, and practice new curriculum with students in the ESL program. In chapter 5, I discuss and analyze circulating discourses that encompass the language ideologies in the school. I analyze four prominent language ideologies in the school used by the teachers and administrators: 1) those who have learned a second language claim to understand others who are going through the process of learning a language; 2) language needed for academic subjects is more complex than language needed for social interaction; 3) languages other than English are named a problem or barrier; and 4) languages other than English are foreign. Using Bourdieu’s work on language capital and Bakhtin’s notion of centripetal and centrifugal forces in language, I explore language ideologies; how certain discourses about language circulated in the schools and how some of the teachers disrupt the dominant language discourses so ubiquitous in the school/ community/nation. In chapter 6, I examine the structural changes within the ESL program. Using literature about school change from both critical (Hargreaves and Evans, 1997) and poststructuralist (Popkewitz, 1991) lenses, I discuss the superficial and structural changes at Cherry High School. This chapter

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focuses on the structural changes at the high school and the events or circulating discourses that enabled and/or constrained those changes. In this study, I look at not only individual agency that creates change, but how individuals collectively within school contexts create change. Chapter 7 discusses implications of this study, with an overview of the study focusing on the need for research that explores the relationship teachers have on school changes in regards to ELs. I also begin to theorize about the reasons changes came about at Cherry High School and how the teachers were able and/or constrained when in the process of making changes. In addition, I discuss the implications of the research in the areas of university preparation course work in ESL/Bilingual education, classroom practice, and administration restructuring. Finally, chapter 8 is the Epilogue. In this chapter, I describe the current state of the program based on interviews, e-mail exchanges, and archival data including local newspaper articles, school board notes, community council notes, and test score data. I share interviews from the teachers who initially initiated the changes in the school and the teachers who currently coordinate and teach in the program. They explain how the process has impacted them in their current careers, the current program for ELs, and their recommendations for future changes.

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Community Context: Change Is in the Air

Following the national trend emphasizing English-only for state adoption and school programs, this intermountain state passed an English as the Official Language law in 2000. This initiative relied on public discourse common in other states across the nation. On an Internet site that examined the pros and cons of English-only in this state, these Discourses were stated: 1) one language creates unity; 2) supporting many languages cost the state money; 3) English is necessary for immigrants to advance economically; and 4) not speaking English is un-American (Tripod, n.d.). As a comparison to the national debate, I include Tse’s (2001) data from congressional speeches proposing the official English-only initiatives during a 17-year time period from 1981–1998. The arguments were remarkably similar to those used by people in this intermountain state during the English-only debate. According to Tse, the most prevalent Discourse given in speeches was “English unites the country/Multilingualism is divisive” (my emphasis). This correlates with the data from this state’s debates that states, “One language creates unity.” Other examples from the national debate that were common in this intermountain state’s debate were: immigrants need motivation/it’s for their own good; once immigrants are in America, they should learn English; providing services in non-English languages is costly. Discourses in the school and community also surfaced in the school and community in this study and are represented in these national Discourses surrounding immigrant language issues. Granite County, where the study took place, had a population of 43,000, and was a hub for the surrounding agricultural region and was isolated from other urban areas by 45 miles. At the time of the study, the

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Chapter 2

Inciting Change

intermountain state census data reported 90 percent of the population claimed White ethnicity, 8 percent claimed Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. Also, 14.5 percent of persons in the city spoke a language other than English at home, which was up 30 percent from the last census. The county struggled with the transition from its agrarian roots, to one of industry, commerce, and development. Recent immigrants to the region (predominately Latino/as of Mexican descent) primarily found employment in small factories, and commercial and home construction. The community landscape showed tremendous change. A Mexican market took the place of a discount store just off Center Street in a prime downtown location. Small strip malls contained taquerias (taco stands) and dress shops announcing discounts in both English and Spanish. The local newspaper began publishing a column in Spanish by a local Mexican-American medical doctor. Citizen editorials concerning immigration issues, especially at the time that the English Only initiative was on the ballot, frequently appeared in the local paper. With these changes, the school districts had a steady increase of students speaking languages other than English in the home. While national Discourse largely mirrored Discourse in the local school context, the local context of the study did differ from the national Discourse concerning language issues. The study took place in a state where the predominant religion places a significant role. A large population of LDS (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) missionaries who have served missions internationally also taught in the public schools. To learn the language of the country where they were serving (young men served for two years and young women served for one-and-a-half years), these missionaries were taught to immerse themselves in it. Meaning, they were encouraged to only speak and read in the target language of that country. Sometimes they were assigned companions who were native speakers of the language and the people these companions taught were native speakers. The official manual for LDS missionaries entitled, Preach my Gospel, recommended that missionaries immerse themselves in the language. “Seek to communicate. Seek to find an appropriate balance between studying grammar and the structure of the language and learning through daily activities. There is no substitute for talking with native speakers of the language” (p. 129). In addition, they participated in an intensive nine-week language study program before going to the area where the new language would be spoken (Beasley, B., LDS Mission Training Center teaching coordinator, phone conversation, December 18, 2005). This Discourse of immersion is what they promoted as they began working with English Language Learners in the school because this was what worked for them when they were learning a language.

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Because of this experience, some of these returned missionaries assumed that everyone would learn languages better by following this same formula. In this situation, they did not understand how different most immigrants’ situations were in contrast to their own. These missionaries confused their language-learning context with that of the children in public schools, which was often quite different. Most children in the local public schools were in the process of developing content or academic subject matter in their own language. Whereas, most LDS missionaries had most often graduated from high school and would only be using their second language for two years. In addition, they were supported financially by their families, the church system, or money they had saved prior to serving the mission (Laura, LDS grant participant, e-mail communication, September 20, 2003). Because the LDS church sends out many missionaries internationally at the ages of 19 for males and 21 for females, a significant number of teachers in the schools spoke Spanish fluently. This can be both a resource and a hindrance depending on how the returned missionaries align their language learning experience. For some missionaries, the experience of living in another country and struggling to understand cultural differences, as well as to acquire a new language, allows for some increased sensitivity and awareness of ELs in the public schools. Some return with relative fluency in the language of their students, and they use it to make connections and explain concepts. On the other hand, similar experiences by other missionaries lead them to think they understand the process of language acquisition just because they have acquired another language even though they do not understand language learning pedagogically (field notes, July 20, 2005). Discourses from both these groups were present in the study site, Cherry High School.

Cherry High School Cherry High School is situated at the center of this mid-size city. It was considered the “city” high school surrounded by two “county” high schools that were part of the county. At the time of the study, Cherry High School served grades 9–12 and had about 1,680 students. It was considered the most diverse high school in the country, although the vast majority of the students were White (79 percent) (NCES, 1997). The diversity demographics were: 1 percent of the students were African American, 1 percent were American Indian, and 10 percent were Hispanic. The student population was predominately middle class, while 32 percent were eligible for free or

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reduced lunch and a small segment of the population drew from the most affluent segment of the county’s population. The teachers in the school were almost exclusively White with the exception of one African American teacher and one Latina teacher. When students gathered socially before and after school in the wide opening hall of the school, they would generally stand with students of their own racial identity. Similar to the maps illustrated in Olsen’s (1997) ethnography Made in America, each group gathered in a similar spot each day. The students who attended classes in the ESL program stood together in one corner of the hallway speaking mainly in Spanish. Table 1

Description of Data

Sources of Data

Time of Data Collection

Types of Data

University Coursework

Fall 2000 and Summer 2001

Personal Interviews

Fall 2001–Fall 2003

• • • • •

• • Focus Group Interviews

Fall 2001–Fall 2002

•

•

Classroom/School Observations

Fall 2002

• •

Archival Research

Fall 1999–Fall 2003

• •

webCT discussions lesson plans reflection papers classroom discussions autobiographical interviews (eight) with grant participant teachers in-depth interviews (three) with four case study teachers interviews (three) with students in the ESL program one-hour focus group discussion with eight teachers/ grant participants four-hour focus group interviews (four) with four grant participants and ESL teachers shadow days (four) with each of four teachers in ESL program assemblies, teacher inservice days, ESL planning meetings local newspaper research for key words school board meeting notes

Source: Author’s Illustration.

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This study focused on gaining an in-depth understanding of the Discourses that circulated within the ESL program at Cherry High School, the four case study teachers’ classrooms—those participating in the grant (more detail about this federal grant to follow)—and interactions with each other and other teachers at the high school, and exploring their relationship to the Discourses circulating in the community/nation. The units of analysis in this study are the Discourses and practices as they converge between the teachers and within the school. The data was collected during the years of 1999–2003 as described in table 1.

ESL Programs at Cherry High School Stories of concern for the ESL program at Cherry High School and the students in that program continued to flood me from student teachers, practicing teachers in the school, and from fellow professors who visited the school as well as my own observations. While waiting for a meeting with the principal, I saw two Latino boys panting heavily in the office of the school, faces red with anger, one wiping blood from his nose. During a clinical experience, a student teacher told me that students in the ESL classroom often sit around and talk for 70 minutes during the study class while the teacher sits at the computer because the students don’t ask for any help and nothing is planned. In a history class, three Latino students who spoke only Spanish sat at the back of the classroom while the teacher gave a lecture in English. They were not provided any translation or extra guidance. I remember sitting with another university professor, Lupe, again and again in our offices discussing the situation in the valley concerning ELs. We are often frustrated and filled with sadness. We feel desire to help make changes but understand the politics of school/university relations are often shaky. During one discussion, we decided to visit with the ESL teacher in the school, make connections and offer our assistance. We met her near her computer at the back of the classroom and she motioned for us to sit on two wooden school chairs next to her. The classroom had bright florescent lights and big windows that were covered with plain white curtains blocking the outside light. Most the walls were blank with the exception of some posters of English language phrases and examples of verb conjugations that curled at the edges showing signs of hanging on the walls for a long time.

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Data Collection

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Inciting Change

Lupe was especially aware of the discriminatory school structure, as a former transition English teacher in Los Angeles, and a Chicana who grew up in East Los Angeles. She was also the only Latina faculty member in both the Secondary Education and Elementary Education departments at the university. Together, Lupe and I decided to develop a relationship with the ESL teacher, Mrs. Blackwell. We wanted to give her an additional support system outside the school. During one of our first meetings, Ms. Blackwell explained that she has taught ESL in the high school for over 15 years. She told us she is the only ESL endorsed teacher in the school and has been for some time, and how different her job is now: But, my, how it has changed. I used to have a few Hispanic students and a few Vietnamese students. They [the administration] just let me do what I wanted. I was completely left on my own. Now I have almost all Hispanic students and everyone coming to me asking me what should be done about “my” students. (field notes, October 10, 1999)

We asked her if she could use some help tutoring students, and she agreed to have us come one hour a day, but suggested we speak with the principal about it for approval. Soon after, we made an appointment to talk with Principal Allen about the ELs in her school and about the possibility of tutoring in the ESL classroom. She greeted us personably in her office and told us how grateful she was to talk to us about the issue of ESL students. This issue had been greatly on her mind, and she worried a lot about these students. They were often in her office for disciplinary reasons. She recounted a story about one ESL student, Pablo: Yesterday, Pablo was in my office for breaking a window at the school. He was suspended for a week. Pablo came to our school about six months ago. When he arrived, he was quiet and cooperative, but he has gotten himself mixed up with the wrong crowd. He doesn’t speak English and struggles in school. We just don’t know what to do to help him. (field notes, October 22, 1999)

After a little more description, Lupe and I realized that this was the same boy we had seen in Ms. Blackwell’s ESL classroom a few weeks before. He worried us because he seemed lost. There were no bilingual classes for him, and his schedule provided classes with only monolingual English teachers who most likely used no accommodation strategies for ELs, since no other

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The desks were arranged in rows, one after another; separate from each other and faced at a blank whiteboard. (field notes, September 10, 2000)

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teachers in the school had a bilingual or ESL endorsement. We both left the meeting gloomy and frustrated, but with a greater commitment to the school and with permission from the principal to spend time in the ESL classroom. After a month or so of getting to know students in Ms. Blackwell’s classroom, we decided that we needed to get other caring teachers and the administration involved if an equitable school environment for ELs was going to be developed. With the stories described above and a better idea of who the students in the school were and what needs they had, we decided to write a grant to help provide financial support for teachers to earn their ESL endorsement. Changes needed to happen not only at the high school, but also at the university. Ironically, the university did not even offer a program for teachers to obtain an ESL endorsement, let alone an endorsement in bilingual education. With this great need, we wrote the federal education grant mentioned in chapter 1 and were awarded money to fund the ESL endorsement coursework for 20 inservice teachers in the valley. At the university, we applied for grants to fund new course development and lobbied for a commitment from all the departments to support an ESL endorsement program. After many discussions, the Secondary Education, Elementary Education, and Modern Language Departments all agreed to help create a 6-course, 18-credit hour, ESL endorsement program. During the spring of 2000, we received notice from the U.S. Department of Education that we were awarded the Bilingual Education: Training for All Teachers Grant to begin in August 2000. The purpose of the $98,463.00 grant award was to: • Increase the Granite County and Cherry Creek districts’ pool of secondary ESL educators by providing full tuition for the endorsement of 30 content area teachers (inservice and preservice) in two cohorts. The endorsement program consisted of 18 credit hours (6 courses) that were also applicable toward the local university’s Master’s Degree in Education; • Support the academic achievement of ELs with an emphasis on the intermountain state core curriculum and English proficiency using specially designed academic instruction in English; • Create an educational outreach component, which brings together students, parents, and a parent/community advisory board, the university’s Department of Family Life, and the university’s Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, teachers, and school district staff; • Support the evaluation of teacher effectiveness and ELL outcomes with standardized test scores, GPAs, retention and graduation rates,

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Community Context: Change Is in the Air

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Inciting Change

Inservice teachers from the high schools in the following content areas were especially invited: health, mathematics, science, social studies, and Spanish for Native Speakers as these were areas where the ELs struggled according the GPA data. Around this same time, Lupe filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) against both school districts in the valley claiming inequitable education practices for English Language Learners or as the government labels these students, Limited English Proficient. After many attempts to collect data for the grant without cooperation from the districts and no plans to begin making changes in the schools, Lupe felt this was the only way to bring this important issue to the forefront of the districts’ administrators. A local paper described the OCR review: [Granite County District] and [Cherry Creek District] are the latest intermountain state districts to come under fire by the U.S. Department of Education for not providing adequate education to students who do not speak English. The agency received complaints on March 7 alleging in general terms that [Granite] and [Cherry Creek] districts discriminate against students who have limited English skills by not providing them services that would allow them to participate meaningfully in school and because such students are over represented in the districts’ special education programs. Representatives of the civil rights office visited the districts in the spring and ordered them to create plans to better educate their non-Englishspeaking students, including training teachers and finding ways to identify and test students. The agency will review the plans at the end of the month, according to the districts. On Thursday, [superintendents from the districts] lobbied an ad hoc committee of public and high education officials to allow their districts to train teachers on how to teach English as a second language, rather than forcing the teachers to attend colleges and universities for ESL endorsements. (Bonneville Journal, September 15, 2000)

Their request was granted and a plan was set forth so that teachers could “get their endorsement in English as a second language in seven months, rather than spending years taking classes from colleges and universities” (Bonneville Journal, September 15, 2000). Therefore, the districts had an added impetus to establish programs for ELs that would meet the requirements set forth by the OCR. Because of the truncated ESL

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extracurricular activities, as well as the use of authentic assessment methods. (Grant report data, September 15, 2000).

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endorsement program set forth by the district and approved by the state, we had difficulty initially convincing teachers to take part in the grant. The initial eight teachers who did participate in the study were unique because they volunteered to take classes at the university to complete their ESL endorsement twice a week for three-hour courses during the school year and for six weeks in the summer Monday to Friday for four hours. On the other hand, the district ESL program required meeting only one time a week for two hours during the academic school year. Minimal work outside the course was required and the participants got a free dinner. Therefore, the teachers who decided to participate in the more rigorous university program already showed a commitment to the issue of immigrant students beyond what was required of them by the district or the OCR. Hence, the teachers committing to the university grant program came with a desire to go beyond the minimal district requirements. The program at Cherry High School has changed dramatically since my observations began (table 2). When the study began, there was no ESL program, the school had only one ESL endorsed teacher, and only three ESL courses—with no distinction of students based on language ability. The ESL teacher explained “students in these classes ranged from newcomers to advanced fluency” (field notes, November 2000). No specific program existed for immigrant students, no counselor was assigned to assist these students with their high school program, and no sheltered or content area courses in students’ native language were available. In the second year of the study, change began to occur. The teachers in the study helped to form a multicultural club. Two of the participants in the study were sponsors of the multicultural club for students. In addition, meetings for parents of ELs were established to inform parents of school procedures and to get feedback from them. Additionally, a center for parents was established in the school where the parents had access to computers and software programs to help them learn English. By the third year of the study, the teachers and administration developed a program for ELs. ELs now had three courses designed specifically for them called sheltered content courses, in history, science, and math. In addition, the administration added two courses conducted solely in Spanish, the predominant native language of the ELs. They also organized the ESL courses in levels with a beginning, intermediate, and advanced class and a multilevel study skills course. To accommodate specific needs of Spanish-speaking ELs, the principal hired a Spanishspeaking counselor. Finally, parents of ELs now had access to a computer room.

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Community Context: Change Is in the Air

Cherry High School ESL Program Changes 2000–2003

School Year

Sheltered Content Courses

Content Area Courses in Heritage Language

ESL Courses

Counselor for ELs

Parental Involvement

ESL/Bilingual Endorsed Teachers

2000–2001

None

None

3 nonleveled courses

None

No specific program

1 total

2001–2002

None

None

3 nonleveled courses

None

6 total

2002–2003

1 U.S. history; 2 earth science; 1 geometry; 1 pre-algebra

1 Spanish for Native Speakers; 1 social studies (rotates) in Spanish

3 leveled courses (beginner, intermediate, advanced)

1 Spanishspeaking counselor

Multicultural center/computer access Regular scheduled meetings/computer access

Source: Author’s Illustration.

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12 total (7 university program; 5 district sponsored)

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Table 2

Community Context: Change Is in the Air

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When I began this study, I asked eight teachers to participate. These teacher participants were chosen because they all participated in the university ESL endorsement program that was funded by the U.S. Federal Bilingual Teacher Education grant, and they all taught at the high school site. As the program took shape in the high school, only four teachers from the original selection were asked to teach in the ESL program. Therefore, I had more interaction with these four teachers than the initial eight. Brief biographical information about the four teachers is presented in table 3 followed by a narrative description and autobiographical material explaining my interest in the study site.

Brian Brian, the youngest teacher participant, had two years teaching experience at the high school when we first met. He described himself as a “young and new teacher who is still experimenting and trying out a lot of stuff. I am not too set in my ways right now, which is probably a good thing in terms Table 3

Teacher Participants in Study, Fall 2000

Participant Teacher

Gender, Ethnicity, Age

Brian

Male, White, late 20s

Carl

Jan Laura

Language

English/ Spanish; bilingual Male, White, English/ mid 40s Spanish; semi-bilingual Female, White, English, early 50s monolingual Female, mixed English/ heritage White/ Spanish; Mexican American, bilingual early 30s

Content Areas

Years Teaching at Start of Study

Spanish/ social studies

2

Math/science

11

Science

28

Spanish/ music

5

Source: Author’s Illustration.

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Teacher Participants in the Study

Inciting Change

of continuing school and developing ESL programs” (interview, May 22, 2001). Brian expressed reasons for entering the teaching profession at the beginning of the program, “I like seeing the look on a person’s face when they understand the concept, when they have been telling you the past two weeks that they don’t get it, that they are not smart enough to get it. I like seeing kids achieve and how it affects them” (interview, May 22, 2001). Brian’s flexibility and willingness to try new ideas served him well in the high school setting. He enjoyed his job and when problems arose he looked for solutions. He was a positive person and very careful in his responses. Brian signed up to take classes at the university because the “tuition was paid for, and I grew up in Southern California around non-English speakers; and I kind of always wanted to work with that group” (interview, May 22, 2001). He also went on a Spanish-speaking mission for the LDS church. He saw this grant as an opportunity to get an ESL endorsement, and apply the courses toward a masters’ degree in Education at the same time. During the time period of the study, he continued to seize opportunities within the school to grow professionally. When attending a schoolwide faculty meeting, the principal asked for volunteers to head a committee. Realizing that no one would volunteer, Brian raised his hand, while teachers around him tried to talk him out of it. Later, I asked him why he offered to head the committee and he said, “It is another opportunity to learn and make connections” (interview, March 21, 2003). In addition to teaching Spanish and social studies, he coached wrestling, assisted the football coach, and advised the Multicultural Club.

Carl When I first met Carl he explained why he was drawn toward teaching as a profession. He explained, “I probably started teaching when I was in high school because I was one of those guys who liked to help all his friends who were struggling. I just enjoyed it” (interview, May 22, 2001). This comment typified Carl’s empathy for the underdog. He commented often about his desire to help struggling students succeed. He decided to coach soccer because he thought it would give him an opportunity to hang out more with his Latino students and give them support outside the classroom even though he was the main caretaker of his two boys. Carl taught math and science at the high school. He worked hard to develop a math curriculum for immigrant students who did not have a lot formal schooling in their home countries. He was very aware of students’ funds of knowledge, as he visited students’ homes and worked with his partner, an anthropologist from the local university, on a study of Latino

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high school students and their parents. He explained that his priorities as a teacher included understanding his students’ lives. “Culturally, if you have no bearing on their lives, you are not going to be as effective. I try to explain things that are meaningful to the kids so it is not a waste of their time. They have to bring something to the class too, but I try to make their time in my class not a waste of time” (interview, May 22, 2001). After spending a significant amount of time in Peru with his partner who was conducting ongoing research there, Carl learned conversational Spanish, which he enjoyed using with his students. He joked often with them in class and they sometimes teased him about his pronunciation or vocabulary. When they did this, he smiled or laughed along with them.

Jan Everything about Jan was fast. She talked fast, moved quickly, and ran marathons. Students knew that teaching began immediately after the bell rang. Students needed to be seated and were expected to start writing their objectives in a notebook right away. Jan often moved through her introductory lessons at a rapid pace and directed the students into groups. Her desire to do things correctly was evident in her classroom. She wrote written language and science objectives on the board daily—a suggestion from one of her ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) in the Content Areas course (Summer, 2001). Her expectations for herself were high; they were also high for her students and colleagues. “I expect all students to come on time and complete their work no matter where they come from” (field notes, May, 2001). Sometimes she had complaints about her colleagues. She would say things like, “A teacher shouldn’t allow her students to come late to class, hang out at their desk rather than seeing who needs help, or just pass out worksheets and veg [relax]” (field notes, November 4, 2002). Jan’s priorities as a teacher were to “teach students to get significant knowledge and to learn how to learn. I am not nearly as concerned as administrators and legislators are about the significance of the content that they have; you obviously will have certain retention as you are exposed to it and use it, my concern is that you educate the individual so they can become a productive citizen in society” (interview, May 16, 2005).

Laura When I first met Laura, her desire to get things right impressed me. She came to class eager, with her notebook opened and assignments completed

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Community Context: Change Is in the Air

Inciting Change

on time or earlier. She asked questions and participated in class with enthusiasm. Her dedication to teaching and her school was evident. She participated in the National Education Association (she has been district vice president and president in the last five years), served as the department head of the Modern Languages Department at the high school, continued taking classes at the university (earned a master’s in Language Teaching as well as her English as a Second Language Endorsement), taught Spanish to adults through the community school at night, wrote grants to get extra resources for her classroom, and took students on educational tours to Spanish-speaking countries almost every summer. As the study began, Laura had five years teaching experience. She explained that she has changed a lot as a teacher since she first began. “I am not the teacher I was five years ago or when I was student teaching. I love preparation. I have to have everything ready to go but I have also become more spontaneous in changing my plans if the kids are not responding to something” (interview, May 6, 2001). Laura enjoyed not only teaching but also learning. She dedicated herself to improving Spanish since high school. This continued as she was called to a Spanish-speaking mission for the LDS church. “I finally really learned Spanish in Argentina. My first Latin companion would sit me down with the alphabet and say, ‘OK how do you say this letter?’ I was humbled in not being able to say the alphabet right. But it was OK and I loved Spanish and I started getting good at it. Later the natives would say, ‘What part of Argentina are you from?’ I got a kick out of that—that was the ultimate compliment for me [especially with blonde hair and blue eyes]” (interview, May 15, 2001). Laura’s growth in Spanish was especially important to her because her dad is Mexican American. “My dad spoke Spanish as a first language. I speak with my Dad in Spanish all the time now but not when we were growing up, because no one understood him” (interview, May 15, 2001).

My Place as Researcher My journey with Cherry High School’s ESL program1 began nine years ago. Through these years of observation, teaching, discussion, and study, I have come to understand more fully the complexities involved in school practice for ELs, teachers, and the development of school programs for students in the process of learning English. This project began from conversations with teachers who were enrolled in university courses through a three-year federal bilingual education Training for All Teachers grant

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issued by the U.S. Department of Education and was awarded to a fellow professor and myself. We were frustrated with the services provided for ELs in the district and wanted to support teachers who also felt this issue needed to be addressed. This grant funded the tuition of inservice teachers for the local university’s ESL Endorsement program. Like all researchers in the educational field, I did not come to this research without previous experiences and lived history. Through carefully examining the ways in which I have been drawn to this setting and these participants, I have placed myself in the multilayered contexts of the research (Fine, 1994; Lather, 1994). I share my identity as a daughter of a European immigrant mother whose heritage language was not English, a teacher of ELs in various contexts, and as a privileged middle-class White female. I have also questioned my own identities and privileged positions in this way, so that I lessen the risk of “othering” the participants and making their voices less legitimate (Villenas, 2000). Immigration is part of my personal history. My mother immigrated to the United States with her parents and older brother and sister when she was five. The relationship I developed with my grandparents’ and my mother both influence the way I have taught and the way I see recent immigrant populations in relation to language and culture. Contrary to my feelings of pride because of the uniqueness of my heritage, my mother grew up feeling embarrassed when her parents spoke Swedish in public. She wanted to hide her sandwiches of fried egg on dark, homemade bread when other students brought out white bread with sliced meat. She wanted to change her name from Solveig to Cindy. Like many immigrants, she felt the push to assimilate as quickly as possible so she would not stand out as being different. She felt ashamed not only of her familial differences, but also of her inability to do well in school initially. Tragically, my mother tells of the shame she felt when she was sent home with her first report card. All marks were “unsatisfactory,” and under additional comments the teacher wrote, “Solveig doesn’t listen to or follow directions.” Of course she could not understand or follow directions very well considering that she spoke Swedish at home and had only been in the United States a few months. Reflecting on my mother’s struggle to fit into a culture different from the one she experienced at home has sensitized me to school structures and practices that limit the success of those whose first language is not English. It has also influenced my decision to teach those whose backgrounds, linguistically and culturally, are different from my own. Early in my career, I taught for a year in a rural school in Kenya and for a year in the Navajo Nation in southeastern Utah. Because of those experiences, I pursued a master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

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Community Context: Change Is in the Air

Inciting Change

I knew I needed more training and education to be able to serve English Learners more effectively. With this additional knowledge, I went on to teach adult refugees and immigrants in Boston, secondary students in a bilingual school in Ecuador, and Mexican American students in a U.S.Mexico border town. Though my mother’s story demonstrates insensitivity from the school system, the students in many of my classes experienced far greater inequalities due to race and social class. This way of viewing the world has developed experientially and has been part of my own meaning-making (Donmoyer, 1990). I am more fully aware of not only the impacts of language on successful schooling, but also on race and class issues. By writing and disclosing this brief biography, I am more aware of the ways that my own history has played into the diverse and complex ways I have interacted with the participants, the ESL program, and the theoretical lens I employed in this research. I also am aware that this history is recursive. Through my years immersing myself in the research and with this community of teachers, I have changed and continue to change. Many questions arose during these discussions with the teachers as I presented issues in university courses, observed classes at the school, led focus group sessions, and conducted individual interviews. The majority of the questions asked how the teachers at Cherry High School (similar to the scenario described in the beginning of the chapter) could create change in the ESL program at their school. They wanted to create a program that supported and enhanced immigrant students’ home languages and funds of knowledge, as well as helped them acquire academic English language.

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Contradictory Discourse among Teachers, Administration, and the State: “Let’s Have a More Inclusive School Culture, Which Assimilates All Students”

Most district administrators used language that embodies assimilation for English Learners. The Discourse, meaning discourses that are socially and historically formed as they are circulated and sustained through and within texts, social practices, images, and institutions in addition to daily interactions between people to become big “D” discourses, in the community also echoed assimilation for ELs.

Inclusive Assimilation To understand this journey involving the school’s ESL program and the teachers participating in the program, it is important to identify the school/ district community discourse. I identified the Discourse and terms used by the school and district administration by researching community documents. I examined the local county newspaper and Cherry Creek District school board meeting notes for key terms such as Hispanic, Latino/a, ESL, and immigrants for the three-year duration of the study and for two years prior to the official start of the study. The words used by administrators in

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Chapter 3

Inciting Change

school board meetings and the local (county) newspaper included the terms assimilation, force, train, segregate, and integrate. These words were part of the Discourse reflected in the community/nation’s ways of valuing and acting/interacting with the immigrant students learning English. The title of this chapter is a quote given by the district’s Alternative Language Director or director for ESL programs, which read, “Let’s have a more inclusive school culture which assimilates all students” (school board notes, January 22, 2002). This administrative quote typifies the contradictory Discourse surrounding immigrant students. At the beginning of the quote, he states that the district wants to have a “more inclusive school culture” and at the end of the quote he states that this culture will “assimilate all students.” In addition to the spoken words, the school also acts in ways that support this Discourse of assimilation. All the posters and welcome signs in the school were written in English, announcements were given only in English, all 70 teachers in the school were White except two who were of mixed White/African American ethnicity and White/Mexican American ethnicity, and the administration was all White. The research literature about schooling and immigration would define inclusive school culture as a school that attended to at least these six indicators summarized by Reagan (2002). The first is that high expectations need to be held for students in the process of acquiring English (see Collier, 1992; Lucas, Henze, and Donato, 1990; Minicucci and Olsen, 1992; Pease-Alvarez, García, and Espinosa, 1991; Tikunoff, Ward, and van Broekhuizen, 1991; and others). Even when in the process of learning a new language, students can be presented with critical thinking material that encourages academic progress. Second, the integration of language development with subject matter development is critical to continue the progress of ELs with heritage English-speaking peers (see Crandall, 1987, 1993, 2000; Echevarria, Vogt, and Short, 2008; Lindholm, 1987; Lucas, Villegas, and Freedson-Gonzalez, 2008; Snow, Met, and Genesee, 1989; Tikunoff, Ward, and van Broekhuizen, 1991). Third, support for content development through the students’ heritage language is needed (see Collier, 1992; Huerta, 2007; Nieto, 2008; Ramírez, Yuen, Ramey, Pasta, and Billings, 1991; Tikunoff, Ward, and van Broekhuizen, 1991). Fourth, comprehensive staff development and training are provided for all faculty and staff, not just the ESL or bilingual education teachers (see Lucas, Henze and Donato, 1990; McKeon and Malarz, 1991; Tikunoff, Ward, and van Broekhuizen, 1991; and others). Fifth, active and meaningful support for school leaders and administrators needs to be in place to sustain the program (see Lindholm, 1987; Lucas, Henze, and Donato, 1990; Tikunoff, Ward, and van Broekhuizen, 1991). Finally, the entire school environment needs to be supportive of the learning of students speaking other languages

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(see Gandara and Fish, 1994; Guthrie, 1985; Lindholm, 1987; Lucas, Henze, and Donato, 1990; Tikunoff, Ward, and van Broekhuizen, 1991; and others). In addition, recent findings by Ancess (2003) would suggest the following: some counselors, community liaisons, and teachers speak the students’ languages and share their cultural backgrounds; counselors inform ELs of postsecondary educational opportunities; counselors should interact across ethnic and social class groupings; and the school actively seek to disrupt social inequality in course offerings. Also the curriculum would include restructuring classes that reflect ELs funds of knowledge and incorporate these resources into the school curriculum (González, Moll, and Amanti, 2005; Moll and Gonzalez, 1997). When the study began, Cherry High School had a small population of ELs, about 8 percent of the school population (Cherry Creek District Data, May 15, 1999). The school had not met any of the above indicators at that time. Limited two-hour training sessions had been possibly included— some training for sheltering instruction—but that was the extent of the school’s investment. Also, the school had only one ESL endorsed teacher, no bilingually endorsed teachers, and two aides who were bilingual (Spanish/English). The school administration and majority of teachers aligned themselves with an assimilationist Discourse. Research studies on schooling and immigration demonstrate, conversely, that assimilation negatively impacts immigrant students (Valenzuela, 1999; Valdés, 1997, 2001). Both Cummins (1984, 1986) and Gibson (1995) claim that assimilation is a non-neutral process and that its application in national discourse negatively impacts ELs. Assimilationist practice actually subtracts from the schooling of ELs, as described by Valenzuela (1999), because it does not reinforce students’ native language and cultural identity. Indeed, the very name “ESL” is subtractive because it is designed to transition students into an English-only curriculum, taking away the opportunity for continued growth in their heritage language, thus resulting in language loss. For the administration, assimilation consists of training the students in English and study skills so they can succeed in the existing school structure. In examining the district board meeting notes and community media sources, no references were found on how Cherry High School would restructure to better reflect a changing school population. On the contrary, the teachers participating in the grant, for the most part, spoke about accommodating differences and changing curriculum to better reflect the students’ lives. This contradictory Discourse follows throughout the journey of change at the school, and in and among the teachers. Inclusion for the district seemed to mean physical inclusion

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Contradictory Discourse

Inciting Change

within a classroom or an additive model where multicultural celebrations were added to the existing school curriculum. Part of my archival search included “Highlights of School Board Meeting Notes” for Cherry Creek District, which were available online. Under a section entitled “Interim Report on District Priority Goals,” the following was reported: Special Education/Alternative Language Program Director [Albert Kirrel] discussed progress made on goal three of the priority goals. Create and nurture a more inclusive “school culture” which assimilates all students and celebrates diversity. He reported that approximately 70 teachers in the district are ESL endorsed and hopefully NUCC will provide ESL training one more time. He acknowledged the Olympic Festivals held so far at Ellis and Wilson Elementary schools. These festivals provide an opportunity for all students to participate and helps to celebrate diversity. (school board meeting notes, January 22, 2001)

One of these Olympic festivals was held in the auditorium with booths from different countries. Each booth had a sampling of food, pictures, artifacts, and traditional clothing from that country. Students were assigned to come from different countries and they had Olympic type event competitions (field notes, January 28, 2002). I asked one of the teachers, Laura, about the Olympic Festival. “I think it was really an add on. It was a school-wide activity but didn’t affect long term curriculum planning” (field notes, January 28, 2002). Even though Olympic festivals on the surface might show celebration of cultures, they can absolve teachers and school administration from restructuring the basic school curriculum that would make schools inclusive of ELs. The festivals are planned and celebrated and then the schools continue with their previous curriculum. Ladson-Billings (1994) refers to this approach as the “Foods and Festivals” approach to multicultural education. She criticizes this approach, as members of certain groups are often reduced from complex beings to simplistic stereotypes, and the core curriculum is not adapted to address the social and historical background of these students. The structural relationship of the schools at Cherry School District separates this “cultural festival” from the day-to-day work of the teachers. The school district did not create a school-wide effort to integrate multicultural education into the curriculum. The time and expertise needed to authentically restructure curriculum to benefit ethnically and linguistically diverse students is not in place. In addition, the circulating Discourse of multicultural education being fulfilled through festivals allows the structure to stay in place. The Discourse of “these festivals provide an opportunity for

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all students to participate and helps to celebrate diversity” provides a cover for the schools to continue the mainstream curriculum in day-to-day teacher practice. Inclusion and integration are terms used simultaneously and loosely by the administrators and teachers in the district. In most of the quotes, newspaper articles, and school board notes, the term integration meant the administration placed ELs into mainstream classes—classes taught in English and primarily structured to meet the needs of middle-class White students whose native language is English. Emphasis for change was placed directly on the ELs rather than on the mainstream native English speakers or the classroom teachers. Miramontes, Nadeau, and Commins (1997) explain that “the poor scholastic achievement and school failure of linguistically diverse students in this country echo the dominant sociopolitical arguments, and shape our responses to school improvement” (p. 25). The structures are in place for the majority to succeed and are not moved for the minority. This prevailing Discourse of assimilation often shapes administrators’ and teachers’ actions in the classroom. They try to “catch up” students to the “standard” set by middle-class White students rather than acknowledging the many resources ELs bring to school learning and using them to bend or expand the existing school structure to advance academic progress.

Assimilation and Segregation In 2001, when I was just starting my official research at the school, the principal was interviewed in a news story concerning segregation of Latino students at the high school. The principal was trying to defend her school’s position as it relates to minority groups being integrated into the school structure. In this report, a parent felt that her son was being segregated in the school, but other issues of ESL school programming also surface in this reporting. The newspaper article was titled, “Locker Segregation Denied”: Responding to a parent’s complaint to [Bonneville Journal1] that her Hispanic son’s locker was in a corner of the school with a large population of Hispanic students, [Principal Allen] said the integration of all students at Cherry High has always been her goal. The integration of the school’s Hispanic population has been a priority for several years at [Cherry High School] and huge efforts have been made to accommodate the language and cultural differences of students. (Bonneville Journal, January 4, 2001)

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Inciting Change

When school officials noticed that students were segregating themselves at the school’s pep rallies, the administration shut down half of the seating, forcing students to sit together. Now, students must sit with other students in their same grade.

The phrase “forcing the students to sit together” conjures a feeling that the students would not sit together by their own choice. Why didn’t they want to sit by each other? What Discourses, practices, and ideologies were circulating in the school to evoke the principal to create a seating chart for assemblies and pep rallies? I talked with one of the participants, Carl, about the seating arrangements created by Ms. Allen as we watched a pep rally together a year later. We stood on the sidelines of the school gymnasium observing the students in the stands. Marilee: I notice that everyone is sitting with the same age group, in their classes. How did that happen? Carl: Oh yes, that was the administration’s attempt to integrate students. They got worried when they saw too many brown faces sitting together. Marilee: Really? So, does it work? Do students get to know each other better when they sit together in assemblies and pep rallies? Carl: Not really. As you can see the Latino students still sit together but in smaller groups within their grade level. But, sadly, many just opt not to come at all now. No [pause] friendships do not happen because they sit next to each other. (field notes, October 10, 2002)

The principal’s intention to group students by seating arrangement as a way to integrate them did not seem to be working. While on the surface they might appear to be mixed, closer observation showed smaller groups of same race or ethnicity sitting together. Not only did they not form friendships because of this physical change, some “opt[ed] not to come at all.” The concept of segregation had a particularly negative connotation in much of the community Discourse within the county. The newspaper article concerning a parent’s accusation of segregation clearly put the principal on the defensive. The article seemed to view segregation as something to avoid at all costs. As a rebuttal to the accusation of locker segregation, it is interesting to note that the principal related a story of self-segregation at

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What the principal referred to as accommodation was described later in the article as forced assimilation. Principal Allen continued to defend her position as an administrator against segregation by relating this experience:

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the pep rallies. Rather than exploring the causes of the segregation on both accounts, 1) school-implemented segregation in the case of the locker assignments or 2) self-segregation in the case of the pep rallies, the principal only explained how she attempted to end it. In addition, nothing was mentioned about the White students segregating themselves apart from the students of color. The focus was on the Brown behavior rather than the White behavior. Beverly Tatum, a psychologist, explains some reasons why students selfsegregate. In her book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (1997), she explains how children of color, particularly Black children, do not usually begin to segregate themselves until they reach puberty. While all adolescents begin to ask questions about their identity such as “Who am I? Who can I be?” it is generally only children of color who ask questions such as “Who am I ethnically? What does it mean to be Black? What does it mean to be Brown?” The answers she gives for these questions of race focuses on how the rest of the world thinks of adolescents of color—in terms of race.2 Racial identity formation in the United States includes Discourse from the dominant White culture, including the discourse that it is better to be White (cf. Deyhle, 1996; Lee, 2005; Soto, 1997). In Tatum’s (1997) studies, this Discourse is reinforced by comments from others. She relates one example of a substitute teacher suggesting to the White students certain prestigious universities to meet their needs and to the Black student in the class a local community college. Other examples include singing hymns in church that proclaimed that we be washed as white as snow, or Disney movies that show Latino, American Indian, and Black characters with White features. Thus, students of the same ethnicity often sit together in the cafeteria, the assemblies, and in the school hallways. Like the principal at Cherry High School, “when [students of color] are sitting together in the cafeteria, collectively embodying an oppositional stance, school administrators want to know . . . what can be done to prevent it” (Tatum, 1997, p. 62). Principal Allen demonstrated this apprehension when immigrant students, especially Latinos, grouped themselves together. What she did not understand, and what Tatum explains so well is that . . . in racially mixed settings, racial grouping is a developmental process in response to an environmental stressor, racism. Joining with one’s peers for support in the face of stress is a positive coping strategy. (p. 62)

Tatum’s theory of racial identity formation explains part of the story at Cherry High School, but her focus does not address the surrounding

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Inciting Change

Five years ago, the English as a Second Language program trained Hispanic students in classes that were largely separate from the rest of the school, and they spent all day together. “To overcome the segregation,” [Allen] said, “the classrooms were broken up. The Hispanic students were sent out into the school with tutors and translators so they could be integrated with the other students.” (Bonneville Journal, January 4, 2001)

In a separate interview with one of the grant participant teachers, Carl expressed similar sentiments. He said: I think it goes back to events that happened prior to me being here. Some colleagues who are not directly involved in the ESL program talk about how it is really scary to have separate groups of kids, that it is just not right. There seems to be a real worry about being sued for having kids in separate classes because they are not being treated equal. The idea [is] that we want everyone involved. We don’t want to have gangs or groups of kids separated that don’t interact with each other [because] that is a dangerous thing at the high school. These are ideas that I hear a lot from other teachers in the hallways and lunchroom. I don’t always challenge them even though I disagree. It really depends on who and what the situation is. But I hear an attitude that a sheltered ESL program might foster a climate where the kids don’t interact. The general assumption is that sheltered programming will lead to separate groups. (interview, March 18, 2001)

Carl brings up a number of points in this quote about circulating discourses/Discourses of groups of ELs, segregation, and the law. The first is the gang Discourse referring to ELs forming separate groups or “gangs” if they are placed in classes together. He explained that some “talk about how it is really scary to have separate groups of kids, that it is not right.” He continued to relate stories of teachers saying “we don’t want to have gangs or groups of kids separated that don’t interact with each other because that is a dangerous thing at the high school.” What is implied, but not stated in the quote, is that the students are marked by color. Obviously there were many White students in the school who formed groups and did not interact with other groups in the school and these groups were not identified as gangs. Second, is the Discourse of the “big brother” or the federal government telling the school that they are not integrating students. He explained, “There seems to be a real worry about being sued for having

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Discourse about segregation that influences the actions of the principal. In this same article, the principal stated another change she had made at the school. Earlier, a sheltered program for ELs existed. She viewed the program as a way to segregate students. The article continues:

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kids in separate classes because they are not being treated equal.” Equality in this quote refers to sameness. The principal is assuming that classes need to be the same to be equal, when in reality the same class treats the students unequally because they do not have access to the content. A more equitable class would more likely be a class conducted in the language of the students so that they could understand the subject’s content, even though it might not look exactly same as a class conducted in English for native speakers. The class that is the same would not be equitable because the students would not be able to understand the content. The ELs were shifted from sheltered classes to mainstream classes so they could be integrated with the other students, but the mainstream classes remained structurally the same. The teachers continued to speak only English in their classroom. They were not instructed to change their curriculum or present material differently. The underlying assumption, however was that if the students were physically placed into the mainstream classes, they were integrated and the school culture was inclusive— that somehow by merely placing ELs in classrooms made the learning equitable (field notes, May 10, 2001). The national/community Discourse in recent years often equates segregation as a negative policy in the schools. Thus, the principal dismissed the “sheltered” program in the school, seen as segregation, in an effort to include the students in the school. The sheltered program, which could have provided specific strategies, scaffolding, and content specific language for ELs while they were in the process of acquiring English, was dismantled. The circulating discourse, including the need to integrate and avoid segregation, had a profound effect on the actions of the principal. The principal aligned herself with an integration Discourse. Therefore, the principal’s decision to “break up” the sheltered classes could explain some of the reasons teachers in the school and student teachers became so frustrated with the school’s ESL program. This segregation Discourse impacted the structure of the school. Without separate classes for ELs, these students flooded into mainstream classes. One of the grant participants, Carl, explained how “kids kept getting funneled into my classroom. I knew I needed to know more about how to meet their needs if I was going to help them” (interview, March 18, 2001). Carl acknowledged that his classroom practices virtually stayed the same, noting that he did not have the expertise needed to work with students learning a new language. He said early on, “The curriculum I have is not really suited for ELs” (interview, March 18, 2001). Other constraints with working with ELs noted by Carl as well as other participants in the study were the number of students in their classes. When asked about the constraints he felt when working with ELs, his first statement was “Numbers, pure numbers” (interview,

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Inciting Change

March 18, 2001). Carl was most likely placed with more ELs because of his ability to communicate conversationally in Spanish (though he acknowledged his lack of academic Spanish) and his expressed desire to improve the school for immigrant students. He said, “The principal is very direct. Some of you have had some training. We are dumping on you” (interview, March 18, 2001). Another example of Cherry High School’s decision to mainstream students came from a preservice student in a social studies classroom. She recounts her observation in an informal meeting with me by saying: I started observing the class where I was going to start teaching and all the students sat in rows, except there were two Mexican students in the back. They were just sitting there with their heads kind of on their desks. After the class ended, I asked the teacher why they were back there. He said that they didn’t interrupt and they didn’t understand English so I could just ignore them. I was really surprised. (field notes, December 2000)

These classroom examples tell us something about the desire to avoid the appearance of segregation. Indeed, segregation is a thorny issue. Nieto (2008) describes how “bilingual education has been characterized by some as tracking because the peers are separated by their peers for instruction. Although the reasons for this separation are legitimate and based on sound research and pedagogy, tracking as a practice flies in the face of equal educational opportunity” (p. 204). When schools segregate students they are in danger of being accused of tracking. Minicucci and Olsen (1992) report that a majority of the 19 high schools they studied segregated immigrant students from mainstream students. Most administrators do not want to be accused of segregation. So, even though placing students in specially designed classes can benefit their academic growth, it can also be inferred as tracking. Indeed, the previous “sheltered program,” according to the ESL teacher, had substantial gaps in the form of curriculum and teacher practice, given that she was the only teacher endorsed in ESL. “I taught the ESL history class and the ESL math class. Now, my background is in social studies, but I don’t have any university background in math” (interview, September 15, 2001). Through the principal’s desire to avoid segregation, the skeleton sheltered program to support ELs was completely dismantled. The new system for supporting ELs involved one ESL class a day and sending translators and tutors to content area classrooms, if there were enough ELs in that classroom (field notes, September 21, 2001). The solution to the issue of education had only two options in the community discourse; either they can assimilate or segregate, and assimilation seemed like the better option of the two.

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Contradictory Discourse

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Another Discourse that emerged from the classroom examples at Cherry High School was the importance the administration placed on integration. The administration assumed that placing ELs in mainstream classes was a better way to develop the English language and content area knowledge. Laura said, “I think [Ms. Allen] thought that the more the kids could hear English and hang out with native English speakers the more they would learn” (interview, March 18, 2001). Discourses from the nation/community underlie this assumption. First, there is an assumption that if students learning a language are exposed to that language they will learn it more quickly. Santa Ana (2002) describes how this assumption is reified in everyday talk such as “Just drop them into an English-only class and they’ll soak it up. They’ll be spouting English in no time” (p. 210). The Discourse of language flowing or being soaked up is common in the public media. In personal one-on-one interviews, I asked the participant teachers about how their priorities for ELs might differ from the administration. The teachers were beginning to comment on how they aligned themselves differently than the administration on some issues. Carl replied: From the powers that be? Central office and so on, well I think they want to empower them to be in the mainstream as quickly and effectively as they can. They want to make sure we expose them to the “normal” curriculum. They want to minimize the idea of an equal but separate program. There is quite a lot of pressure to get the kids out of the sheltered program and I don’t want to push them until they are ready. Again, we want to make sure we are preparing them in the sheltered program so that when they get out they can really succeed in the mainstream. (interview, Spring 2003)

In a separate interview with another participating teacher, Brian, I got a similar response. Brian explained, “They want to mainstream the kids as soon as possible. They really push for integration. Sometimes I think they push too hard” (interview, March 20, 2003). Both Carl and Brian were well aware of what the administration wanted from them, as they taught ELs in their classrooms. They both used the term mainstream to describe the different priorities they had for the ELs in their classrooms. Carl said, “[the administration] wants to empower them to be in the mainstream as quickly and effectively as they can.” And Brian’s comment also concurs with this idea when he explained, “[the administration] want to mainstream the kids as soon as possible.”

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Assimilation and Integration

Inciting Change

Described in the national Discourse literature by Santa Ana (2002), mainstreaming is a water metaphor. According to Santa Ana, this Discourse surrounding public education takes on two roles. The first is the mastering of content through the effort an individual puts into the learning. The second is a different process that doesn’t require personal achievement or effort. He explains, “Through daily school attendance and classroom ritual and routine, these children are inculcated into the social hierarchies and tenets of the nation’s principle socializing institution; in short, they are inculcated into the nation’s hegemony” (p. 193). With this metaphor, students do not act; rather they are carried along in the waters. With time, they blend with and flow seamlessly into the mainstream. Thus, the connection to assimilation and mainstreaming in discourse is apparent. Santa Ana (2002) explains how the term mainstream among educators with differing political views means different things. He demonstrates the contrast in the following example: Fluency in English is a “civil rights matter,” said Ropvert Rossier, a language expert . . . “We do not have any evidence that primary language instruction is leading to learning English so these children can join the mainstream.” (March 29, 1995). (p. 194, emphasis in original)

As the above quote exemplifies, many people who align themselves with national water Discourse claim that acceptance into the mainstream should be the goal of all students and it can only be accomplished by English-only instruction. This goal to the mainstream requires that immigrant students get channeled into the dominant “American” culture as quickly as possible. On the other hand, those favoring pro-bilingual programs have a different view of mainstreaming. For them, Santa Ana explains: Mainstreaming less obviously refers to assimilation. In the Los Angeles Times database, bilingual education advocates are less preoccupied with student conformity to the so-called national culture. Instead they emphasize the better range of academic objectives and college preparation courses. These resources for social advancement, unsurprisingly, are available only in mainstream classes. In the final analysis, however, no public school educator will deny that mainstreaming, as societal indoctrination of immigrant, linguistic minority, and other marginalized children, is part of the mission of public schools. (p. 194)

The first paragraph refers to the issue of equity, while the second paragraph refers to issues of equality for all students. The pressure Carl and

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Brian felt from the administration at Cherry High School to mainstream students as quickly as possible converges with the national Discourse on mainstreaming. It was a cover word for assimilating students into the existing school structure. It also made sense that the administrator over language programs in the district used assimilation as a positive term in his discussion of programs for ELs.

Assimilation and Bilingualism Bilingualism and heritage language enhancement are absent from the language ideologies of the Cherry Hill district administrators, but the participant teachers all favor bilingualism. In this section, I argue that the discourse from the administration that focuses on integration and English-only, rather than promoting bilingualism, is tied to a larger community/national Discourse negating bilingualism and promoting Englishonly. The assumption from much public Discourse is that immersion in English will be the best way for ELs to learn and progress in society. An article in the Cherry Creek Journal, “School Districts Work to Improve English as a Second Language” contains direct quotes from the administration that mirror common language ideologies in the national Discourse. Two years have passed since the Office of Civil Rights, or OCR, received a complaint that [Cherry Creek] and [Granite] County School Districts are not catering to the needs of non-native English speakers. Both districts say they are nearly finished meeting all of the commitments outlined by the OCR since then, and they are a step ahead of No Child Left Behind requirements. (Bonneville Journal, December 8, 2002)

Granite Valley included two school districts, Cherry Creek (the district where the study at the high school was conducted) and Granite. Both were found out of compliance with OCR. In this same article, the reporter interviewed the directors and superintendents from these districts. The information from the article demonstrates the community/district ideologies about language. The quote emphasized how the district privileged English while dismissing the importance of maintaining or enhancing students’ home language. The ESL director from Granite District explained: Good ESL teaching does not require speaking a second language. One of the aspects of quality ESL instruction is teaching in English. Students don’t

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Inciting Change

Her emphasis on teaching English and not teaching in the home language is clear. She states, “Good teaching does not require speaking a second language.” This quote implies that bilingualism is not a significant attribute that would contribute to teaching ELs. She also emphasizes that students “don’t receive instruction in their native language.” The implication is that bilingual education or heritage language instruction would somehow take away from the learning of English. She aligns herself with much public Discourse that advocates teaching in English-only and treats language in teaching as a pedagogical decision divorced from politics. Auerbach (2000) argues, These taken-for-granted beliefs in adult education regarding the inclusion or exclusion of learners’ native languages are as much political choices as pedagogical ones: although they may appear to be informed by apolitical professional considerations, they are grounded in invisible but powerful ideological assumptions which need to be reexamined and problematized. (p. 178)

Because the decision to base programs specifically on an English-only curriculum was tied to wider community/national Discourse, the decision of the district administration was continually reinforced. The superintendent from Cherry Creek District also demonstrated his alignment with Discourse that dismisses the importance of heritage language use within families. He was quoted in this same article saying, Just because a student is learning English in school, when they don’t actively use it, the learning capacity diminishes. The district is encouraging parents of ESL students to contact them if they are interested in learning the language as well. That way, there is more of a possibility that the student will be speaking English at home as well as school. (Bonneville Journal, December 8, 2002)

The superintendent stated, “learning capacity is diminished if English is not used.” He promoted families to not only learn English but also to speak it at home when he says, “That way, there is more of a possibility that the student will be speaking English at home as well as at school.” While one of the indicators of “an inclusive school culture encourages continued native language at school and especially promotes families using their native language in their homes,” the superintendent promoted assimilation

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receive instruction in their native language, which would be bilingual education, not ESL. Rather, they attend classes in English and receive supplemental instruction. (Bonneville Journal, December 8, 2002)

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While many of the chapters in this book [Language Ideologies: Critical Perspectives of the English Only Movement] examine the politics of U.S. language policy and planning on the macro level, the central argument of this chapter is that what happens on a micro level behind closed doors of a classroom is no less politically charged. But because language instruction is often conceived of as a neutral transfer of skills, knowledge, or competencies, the ways in which it is implicated in larger struggles about voice and power are obscured. (p. 177)

Auerbach explains how seemingly neutral comments, as made by the superintendent, are intertwined with politics. His statement promoting English with the students as well as their parents concurred with the national public discourse associated with the English-only initiative when he states, “The district is encouraging parents of ESL students to contact them if they are interested in learning the language as well. That way, there is more of a possibility that the student will be speaking English at home as well as school.” This contradicts studies that demonstrate that the more confident learners are with their home language, the better able they are to learn additional languages. Many claim that the English-only discourse is tied to “forced march assimilation” that attempts to use the public schools to wipe out bilingualism (Crawford, 1992; Deyhle and McCarty, 2007; Moran, 1995; Portes, 1995; Valdés, 1997). Moraes (1996) both adds and complicates this idea of “forced march assimilation” as she acknowledges the notion that the languages students bring to school are often dismissed, but she also explains how the dialogical existence of language will allow individuals to reject assimilation. She explains: The Bakhtinian notion of language embraces the idea that the other cannot be silenced or excluded. Within this assumption, nonstandard speakers, for instance, are not only part of heteroglossic/multiaccentuated language but also contribute to maintaining the dialogical existences of language. This notion rejects monologic forms and opposes monoglossia to heteroglossia. Monoglossic standard language and the way in which it is diffused in schools, for instance, places individuals in hierarchical positions. In other words, the languages that many students bring to the classroom are omitted within the teaching-learning process since the standard/monologic language assumes an evaluation of which languages are appropriate and which

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when he suggested that even at home, parents should speak in English with their children. Though the newspaper article referred to the English language as something neutral, it is indeed political. Auerbach (2000) states her position on English-only use in the classroom:

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Inciting Change

As Bakhtin (1981) explained, language never exists outside of historical forces, but he implied that one majority group could never completely dominate other languages. The historical forces in the study come from the comment made by the district superintendent. He reported, “The district is encouraging parents of ESL students to contact them if they are interested in learning the language as well. That way, there is more of a possibility that the student will be speaking English at home as well as school.” English is the “standard/monologic language” stated by the principal, and other languages “must be marginalized,” as he suggested that even at home the students and parents should use English not their heritage language. Even with this English-only Discourse by the superintendent, the new principal at the high school and this small group of teachers began developing a partial bilingual program in the school to encourage the maintenance and enhancement of at least the Spanish heritage language. Gramsci (1988) explains this action by the teachers as counterhegemony and heterogeneity. In Italy, he chastised the national popular narrative claiming, “the entire ‘educated class,’ with its intellectual activity, is detached from people-nation . . . [because] they have been too attached to an antiquated world, narrow, abstract, too individualistic or caste-like” (pp. 368–369). In Granite County, the public Discourse also is tied to individualistic narrative that views native languages as undesirable and unnecessary. By engaging in counter-hegemony the teachers and principal at the high school began to exercise local power to create a program that coincided with their discursive alignment. Simultaneously, as the news article was published using quotes from the ESL director and superintendent about language use in the home and school, changes had begun at Cherry High School. Changes in the ESL program at Cherry High came about after a new principal was hired. Nils Cannon had a background in sheltered programs for ELs and was bilingual (Spanish/English). The spring before the hire, the district had received the notice from OCR that they were out of compliance for serving ELs. One of the participant teachers, Laura, from the grant program, was on the committee to hire Dr. Nils Cannon. She told me that her first question to all the candidates for the job was, “What will you do to improve the ESL program at our school?” She was very pleased when the board decided to hire a bilingual principal who at least knew something about teaching ELs.

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languages must be marginalized. Because of the existence of heteroglossia, language must be understood as a site of political struggle in which meanings collide and have to be negotiated. (p. 95)

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As the new year began, the newly hired high school administrators gathered teachers who had earned ESL endorsements. They then assigned them to teach sheltered and bilingual education courses for the content areas. The principal and his vice principal, who was also bilingual, only asked the teachers who had earned or were in the process of earning their ESL endorsement through the university grant program to teach these courses. The courses included a bilingual U.S. history course, sheltered U.S. history course, bilingual pre-algebra course, sheltered earth systems course, and Spanish for Native Speakers course. The local group of teachers, with a supportive principal, were able to meet the struggle of significant political differentiation through powerful public discourse and stated by the people who are hierarchally over them in a relevantly calm, noncontentious way (Holland and Lave, 2001). I discuss how these changes developed in the next chapter, which deals with teachers working together as a group among contradictory discourse. In this chapter, I have demonstrated how Discourses and ideologies from the administration, supported by the community/national Discourse that maintains English-only and assimilation practices, impact the school’s ESL program. This assimilationist discourse intersected with the administration’s push to integrate ELs into the mainstream population quickly. The term inclusion as part of the administrators quote in the school board meeting, “Let’s have an inclusive school culture which assimilates all students,” was a cover term for integrating students into the existing school culture. In the next chapter, I will illustrate how the teachers in the grant begin to align themselves with different Discourses about language, English Learners, and their teaching practices.

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Contradictory Discourse

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Teachers’ Discursive Realignment

Here at the high school we now have an esprit de corps. (school/community Discourse and teachers’ discursive realignment)

The opening quote exemplifies the framework of this chapter. The group of teachers who participated in the university ESL endorsement program through the federal grant formed a group that positioned themselves often in opposition to the wider school/community Discourse. As they began to make changes in their teaching practice and challenge the Discourses around the school about ELs, their association grew. Because the teachers had a group, rather than only trying to make changes individually, they were able to rely on each other for support through the change process. This beginning quote demonstrates the forming of a small group within the larger school community and the questions that begin to arise. I arrive at the high school fifteen minutes before our first group meeting of case study teachers is about to begin. I come with a bag of bagels, cream cheese and fruit juice remembering how hungry I was after a day of teaching. In addition, I have a tape-recorder and a paper with typed questions. I know the teachers well because I taught two of the ESL endorsement classes they attended, and I look forward to seeing them again. Though a bit nervous, I am more excited to see what has transpired since our last discussions in class concerning the ESL program at the school. I’m anxious to see changes. (field notes, April 15, 2002)

I began this focus group interview with many questions that I generated from previous teacher research readings and based on my experience at the research site. Would these teachers be able to make changes in the school’s program? How has the administration reacted to their suggestions? How

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Chapter 4

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Inciting Change

From Teacher Beliefs/Attitudes to Teacher Discursive Realignment Within the conversation surrounding school reform, teachers are often referred to as indispensable agents of educational change (Hargreaves and Evans, 1997). Fullan (1991) adds, “Educational change depends on what teachers do and think—it’s as simple and as complex as that” (p. 117). When I first began my research, one of my central assumptions was that while teachers are important agents of change within the school system, the focus on them as individual agents of change was problematic. In reviewing the multicultural teacher education research, I discovered that most research focused on teachers’ attitudes, beliefs, and perspectives (cf. Commins and Miramontes, 1989; Garmon, 2004; Grant Secada, 1990; Prawat, 1992; Rueda and Garcia, 1996; Shannon; 1990, 1995; Sleeter, 2001; Zeichner, 1996; Zeichner and Liston, 1987). These studies describe teachers’ actions and/or attitudes and beliefs in specific contexts but fail to explain these actions within the context of the school structures and to tie them to national/community Discourses that surround them. When teachers who work with ELs are viewed as individuals apart from a wider social context where they live, they are often labeled as problems. Some of these problems assigned to teachers from the literature are: Teachers resist changes in curriculum (Reyes, 1992); they do not interact sympathetically with students who do not speak English (Nieto, 2008, Valenzuela, 1999); they lack cultural awareness (Sleeter, 1996); they do not support maintenance of home language (Otheguy, 1991); they have the power to transform ELs into politically disabled people (Cummins, 1991). With few exceptions, research focusing on teachers in the larger social context and how they act within the social context in a dynamic way does not exist. Among the studies that do exist is Bartolomé and Balderrama’s 2001 study of teachers currently at a school who question meritocratic explanations of the social class, reject assimilationist and deficit views of ELs, question romantic views of the dominant culture, and become culture

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have other teachers in the school responded to these teachers’ ideas and concerns? Do the teachers themselves have time and space to reflect and act on the ideas from the university courses? How are the teachers adapting their instructional practices when serving ELs? How are teachers adapting their curriculum?

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border crossers. They are not changed within the school setting; rather they come with this political and ideological clarity already in place. Also, Oliveira and Athanases (2007) describe beginning teachers advocating for ELs in and beyond the classroom by responding to sociopolitical issues related to race, language, and class. They also confronted inequitable institutional practices and policy. The study claims that the teachers’ efforts were complex and that the teachers may have been predisposed to engaging in this kind of advocacy work. In other words, they came with the political and ideological clarity. An additional study that Buendia (2000) conducted worked to broaden teacher education research to include the complexity and dynamism of preservice teachers’ social field networks and their relationships to their practices. The framework employed examined the dialogic relationship between structure, discourse, and agency among teachers by presenting data from a preservice teacher’s first experience in the classroom. Similarly, Buendia, Gitlin, and Doumbia (2003) conducted another study to examine an immigrant teacher of color and his use of pedagogically relevant curriculum with ELs. What they found was a teacher who taught in a pedagogical borderlands, meaning sometimes he taught with pedagogically relevant curriculum, and other times he used assimilationist curriculum. Though he aligned himself with critical pedagogy, it was not always evident in the classroom because of the outside pressures he felt while teaching at the middle school. Through this example, they discovered that even teachers who subscribe to critical pedagogies do not always enact them, given the immediate contextual structures and discourses of the school/community where they work. Like Bartolomé and Balderrama (2001), Buendia (2000), Buendia and Gitlin, (2003), and Oliveira and Athanases (2007), I propose that teachers’ beliefs and attitudes cannot be separated from the school structures and national/community discourse. Holland and Lave (2001) explain this concept through their definition of the term History in Person, which is the relationship between a person’s self-making and their participation in a contentious local practice. While individuals are social, cultural, and historical beings, these aspects “are always but never only ‘in’ the person, never entirely a matter of autobiography nor, on the other hand, entirely reducible to membership (voluntary or involuntary) in culturally, politically distinctive groups or social categories” (p. 6). In this study, I expand on these research studies by observing, not an individual teacher, but a group of teachers who worked together to make changes in their school within the framework of institutional structure and national/community discourse.

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Inciting Change

One of the first research questions that I asked in this study addresses teacher ideological change. I define teacher ideological change as changes in a teacher’s understanding and knowledge of the world in the face of contradictory evidence and life experiences. So, instead of attaching beliefs or attitudes to individual teachers, I use the concept of teacher discursive realignment as a way of attaching teachers’ discourse and action or practice in the classroom to the wider social, political, and historical context where they live. During the research study, I posed a question, “Are teachers’ discourses about ELs different than they were before the university coursework?” Like all questions, this one demonstrated much complexity. Some of the comments elicited from the teachers did seem to demonstrate, if not a different Discourse, at least a heightened awareness of the dominant discourses circulating in the school concerning ELs. In an initial personal interview with Laura just after the university ESL course work finished, this observation was shared: When I make seating charts I make sure ELs are not on the periphery— that they are securely in the center of the classroom. Or if they are on the outside rows, I stop and really think about the reason they are there. (interview, March 18, 2001)

This quote illustrates how Laura began to recognize how immigrant students are often marginalized both physically, through placement in the periphery of the classroom, and pedagogically, through the construction of curriculum based on discourses of the middle-class White population. In one of the university endorsement courses, we analyzed how minority students are often marginalized physically in the school settings through the placement of ESL classroom facilities, seating charts, and locker assignments. In addition, we studied how the construction of curriculum centers on the middle-class White majority, leaving those outside this cultural group to bridge the curriculum on their own (Igoa 1995; Olsen 1997; Valenzuela 1999). Her ability to reflect on her own classroom practice and alter the way she assigned seats demonstrated a move toward a shift in alignment away from dominant discursive patterns. Another participant in the grant, Anna,1 an English teacher, commented on her previous “apprehension” of developing relationships with

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Seeds of Teacher Discursive Realignment

Teachers’ Discursive Realignment

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I want them to know that I care about them and want to form a personal relationship with them. This has definitely changed since I entered the program. I am much more likely to take time to develop relationships with these students now. (focus group interview, April 15, 2001)

Her honesty about her reluctance to develop relationships mirrors the fear prevalent in community/national discourse. Anna now wants to “form personal relationships” with the ELs in her classes. She admits she is now “much more likely to take time to develop relationships” with them than she did before. In Santa Ana’s (2002) book, he reviews major newspapers in California where he consistently finds immigrants are conceptualized in negative ways. He describes the way contemporary discourse characterizes immigration as dangerous waters through newspaper articles. Some examples include: 1. awash under a brown tide (October 2, 1994) 2. Like waves on a beach, these human flows are literally remaking the face of America. (October, 14, 1993) 3. a sea of brown faces marching through Downtown would only antagonize many voters (October 17, 2004) 4. In April, Gov. Pete Wilson sued the federal government to recover costs associated with illegal immigrants, claiming that they are sapping the state budget, taking jobs from legal residents and swamping hospital emergency rooms. (June 12, 1994) 5. the inexorable flow. (September 22, 1993) (quoted in Santa Ana, pp. 72–23)

These metaphors compare immigration and immigrants with dangerous waters. Water metaphors in these examples are negative connotations of the neutral substance water. While water is often used in positive ways to quench thirst, bring an oasis to the desert, or help plants grow, the metaphors in these public discourse examples conceptualize water in massive quantities that pose danger. The warnings about rising brown tide instill fear in the public. Reaching out to form relationships with “others” who are posing a threat to a comfortable middle-class lifestyle does not come naturally, thus, we can see the dramatic change described by this teacher. A third example of realignment occurred with another English teacher, Sandra, also a participant in the grant but not a teacher in the ESL program. She expressed a higher level of comfort discussing issues of ethnicity

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ELs in her classroom and how that has changed through readings and discussion with other teachers through the university courses:

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Inciting Change

It has changed because I am more aware and I feel a little bit more comfortable talking about the differences than I did before. I also realize that I am not teaching about culture in my [Ethnic Literature Class] when we don’t talk about differences. Sometimes it is really touchy to talk about those things, and I feel uncomfortable. For instance, when we read the Joy Luck Club and I have someone who is a native Chinese speaker, from China who is in the class. . . . I feel like this person is more of an authority than I am. I have always felt awkward before about not wanting to put them on the spot. I feel like now I am not putting them on the spot—I am giving them an opportunity to share their culture with us and to clarify some things that we may misunderstand when we read and so it has changed my attitude about those kinds of things. (focus group interview, April 15, 2001)

Sandra articulated a few changes in discourse that illustrate a shift in her alignment with the dominant discourse about differences to one that encouraged open discussion. First is her admission that she did not feel comfortable “talking about differences” and that she is “more aware” of that reluctance. She realized that “[she] is not teaching about culture in [her Ethnic Literature Class] when [she doesn’t have her class] talk about differences.” She shifted away from a Discourse that looks at difference as divisive and disunifying to a Discourse claiming difference as a part of people’s lives. She is also shifting from a position of sole authority in the class to asking students to share their own knowledge about their culture. She let students “clarify some things that [the others in the class] may misunderstand.” When a teacher facilitates a discussion rather than acting as an authority delivering knowledge, she challenges the traditional classroom hierarchy (Thomkins, 1990). This shift shows Sandra was moving away from a discourse of “fear” of the other, to one of acceptance of difference and actually acknowledged the resources that they brought to the classroom by shifting some of her control to them, by allowing them to share their ideas and background. These three examples demonstrate the seeds of teacher ideological change. Laura, through awareness of the marginalization of immigrant students, thought carefully about where she placed students, and avoided placing them on the periphery. Anna admitted her previous “fear” of interacting with immigrant students and claimed she wanted to form a personal relationship with them. Finally, Sandra acknowledged her shallow presentation of cultures in her ethnic literature class and changed the practice of ignoring the immigrant students to asking them to share their knowledge

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than she did before the course work. To the question, “Do you think [this awareness] has changed since you did the endorsement or did you do those kinds of things before?” She replied,

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and experiences. All three show shifts in Discourse of the dominant practice of schooling for immigrant students tied to assimilationist, English-only practices to practices that respect the language and cultural resources of ELs. During the three years of data collection, I discovered that the teachers involved in the university ESL endorsement program grant were experiencing some personal or individual ideological change, but more strongly than individual internal change, they began noticing how Discourses as a group of teachers were different from the school/community Discourses. For example, in a group interview at the beginning of my study, attended by Sandra and six other teachers who were all enrolled in the university ESL coursework, Sandra, said: I am much more aware of the stereotypes that exist in our school than I was before. The other day in our department meeting a teacher referred to “those Hispanic girls” and I spoke up and said that it wasn’t just Hispanic girls and said there was a reason that some of those behaviors might be happening and why there might be some resistance for the groups to mingle. (focus group interview, April 15, 2001)

Sandra did not expand on the “reasons that some of those behaviors might be happening,” but she did exhibit a heightened awareness of the issue of essentializing and negative racial comments. She felt she could speak up to a conflicting discourse. Part of the reason she was comfortable asserting a differing discourse could have been literature she had read through involvement in the endorsement program or through examples and discussion about these issues in particular classes with other teachers in the school. Another participant in the program from the modern language department described the following: I, like other teachers who went through the [university] endorsement program, have made a huge difference in the overall faculty awareness. Now when somebody says something totally off the wall about one of the ELs, I am not the only one saying, “you know what, that is a horrible comment because of this . . .” I don’t have to say anything most the time because there is somebody else who has already piped up and said, “that is not true, we learned such and such in our ESL classes.” (focus group interview, April 15, 2001)

What this example suggests is that teachers feel more empowered to face racist and essentializing comments when there are other teachers with similar discourses about immigrant populations. She began her comment with, “I, like the other teachers” to emphasize that she is not alone in this

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Teachers’ Discursive Realignment

Inciting Change

pursuit. And concluded with “there is somebody else who has already piped up” to further emphasize the security she feels because she is not alone in her awareness. Part of the empowerment specified by both of the participants stems from their involvement with a group of teachers with similar goals of understanding immigrant populations. Both participants spoke of needing to defend this Discourse with other members of the school community, but rather than feeling isolated by their differing position, they felt strengthened by the other participants in the grant who align themselves to similar discourses. Carl, from the math department, summed up this idea eloquently: Here at the high school we now have an esprit de corps. We have gone beyond trying to figure things out as individuals and now we are a group. In the hallway, we educatively talk about certain issues dealing with ELs. I think the administration understands that and now they can see very easily how the program could be implemented between the eight of us. (interview, March, 2003)

Carl used the term esprit de corps in a positive light to express the comradery he was experiencing as part of a group of educators desiring change in their school. It was a term used to group these teachers with similar Discourses in the midst of many other teachers in the high school with differing Discourses. To understand the way this group has formed in opposition to the dominant school/community, Holland and Lave’s (2001) work in History in Person becomes useful. In the book’s introduction, Holland and Lave employ Bakhtin’s (1981) work to show how practices and discourses are a means through which we build or tear down boundaries between others and ourselves. Heteroglossia shows how we use discourse to defend a position or identify with one discourse or another. Heteroglossia in Bakhtin’s words describes: [all language as] heteroglot from top to bottom: it represents the co-existence of socio-ideological contradictions between the present and the past, between differing epochs of the past, between different socioideological groups in the present, between tendencies, school, circles and so forth all given a bodily form. (p. 291)

Holland and Lave stress “these genres, words, practices are not used by just anyone. Instead, genres are collectively associated with particular persons or groups of people identified in social space and historical time” (p. 16). At Cherry High School, this small group of teachers who all attended courses together at the university and struggled together to meet deadlines,

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write papers, discuss difficult issues after a long day at school, formed a cohesive group that was able to resist, somewhat, the community/national discourse that surrounded language minority students. Four of these teachers taught specially designed courses at the high school. Besides the ESL teacher, these were the only teachers who had classes made up of exclusively ESL students in them. Therefore, they were able to discuss these students with each other. Still, tensions between the teachers existed. The teachers in the group would often comment about their frustrations concerning other teachers in the focus group. Because the group was important to them, they would often comment “off the record.” In the next section, I share sections of the data from observations in the classrooms of each of the four teachers.

Vignettes of Teachers Teaching Specifically Designed Courses for ELs Not all the teachers who participated in the university ESL course work with funding from the grant taught in the high school’s ESL program. Therefore, I decided to focus the study on the four teachers who participated in the university grant and were asked to teach specific classes in the ESL program. I formed a teacher study group with these four teachers, and the ESL teacher who did not participate in the university coursework, as they all had one or more classes composed of only ELs. These teachers are described in chapter 2. The teachers not only realigned themselves with differing Discourses, but there was also evidence of change in practice. Because I did not observe these teachers before the university coursework, I relied on the teachers’ explanations of how they changed the way they taught their classes. In addition, I observed all the teachers teaching their classes at the high school, including the specific classes designed for ELs and classes designed for students not involved in the ESL program. To give a portrait of their classes and their teacher practices, I share data for each teacher from my field notes and from interviews with them about their practices. These data are important as they illustrate how the teachers who teach courses specifically for ELs interact with ELs in their classes. These observations took place during fall 2002 and spring 2003, after the ESL program was organized with specifically designed classes for ELs (more discussion about how those changes came about in chapter 6). It was an exciting year because the teachers could begin to practice what they learned through participation in the university ESL endorsement coursework.

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Inciting Change

In all four classroom examples, the teachers were striving to give their ELL students an opportunity to succeed in content area classrooms. All desired to give support to students in their native language, ensure student participation, as well as expand vocabulary and content area concepts. All commented on wanting to have high expectations for the students and because of this desire, sometimes tensions rose. The following vignettes provide a window into the varying styles of the teachers. I begin with Jan who was asked to teach two sheltered earth systems classes.

Jan I went to Cherry High School to discuss some ideas with Laura and Brian, so I decided to stop by Jan’s classroom to see how she was doing. When I entered the room, the detailed diagrams on the front white board caught my eye. Next to these diagrams, she had written language and content objectives and labeled them with the dates of the past three days. The room had many different displays of experiments. The classroom examples I described demonstrate some changes in Jan’s classroom practice with ELs. She points to changes in explicit teaching by using language and content objectives, allowing and understanding the importance of home language in the classroom so students can comprehend content, and a renewed commitment to high expectations for ELs. Marilee: How is it going? Jan: Hi. I didn’t know you were coming. Look, I’ve got my language and content objectives. (She opened her lesson plan book and showed me her specific language and content objectives.) Marilee: That’s impressive. Jan: I’ve got to show you these experiments my ESL students have been doing. She showed me bottles filled with dyed water demonstrating how dye goes up the capillaries to the tips of the petals and buckets with towels to demonstrate how a towel can work as a conduit. Marilee: How are your English Language Learners doing? Jan: They are doing really well, they really are. Much better than last year. I’ve got two aides to help with translation. The class is big—28 students but I’ve got lots of support. So much better than last year. See, for example, I’ve got one aide who really connected with a student who was struggling. That has made a huge difference. (field notes, September 12, 2002)

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We made an appointment for me to come to school and be her shadow for a day as a way of observing what her day is like from beginning to end. When I came to class the next week, I sat at a long experiment table behind the students. The room was large, double the size of most classrooms in the school. Half of the room had individual student desks, the other half had large science work tables with tall stools. On the white board at the front of the room was a description of what activities would be done for the day. On the left side of the board, Jan wrote the content and language objectives (field notes, September 17, 2002). Jan started the class with energy. She spoke to the students very fast. It was difficult to keep up with what she was saying, even as a native English speaker. Some students shifted around in their seats and looked at one another quizzically. Jan seemed to notice the confusion and wrote on the board. What does it eat? What is its habitat? Describe the animal. Find a good picture.

The students were being prepped to go to the computer lab in a few minutes to complete an assignment on animal features, so she was trying to make sure they all understood their assignment. Before they went, she wanted them to understand two key vocabulary words. Initially she wanted to take the students outside to look at the biotic and abiotic elements of various habitats in small groups, but she had to switch her plan because of rain. After she attempted to explain the terms for two or three minutes in English, she invited the bilingual aide to come up. He explained the terms in Spanish, and interest increased as demonstrated by many more students who raised their hands. She called on them in English, and they clarified their ideas in Spanish with the aide’s help. As she continued on with explanations, the aide stayed at the front of the room. She paused occasionally, and he translated the key parts in Spanish. As the students were gathering up their books and papers to go to the computer lab, I heard one student say to another student, “She speaks too fast.” A month later, I observed the same class. I share a portion of my field notes to illustrate the feel of Jan’s sheltered earth systems class that met during fifth hour at 1:20 pm. There were twenty-eight students. About twenty students were Latinos who spoke Spanish, two students were from

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Inciting Change

The bell rings and about one third of the seats are occupied. Jan: Lunch must have been really good today because there are a whole bunch of you who are tardy. (She kind of laughs as she says this.) Students trickle into the class and after about 2 minutes the majority of the seats are filled. If a student is late, they write their name on a paper that is hanging by the door. Jan: You had a reading assignment, right? Pages 202–214. OK, [Norma] what was the main idea of the reading? S2: I didn’t read. Jan: (Student is on the front row raising her hand wildly. Jan acknowledges her hand.) I know that you read [Carlita], but I’m trying to find out if anyone else read. How about [Jorge]? S: I read but I don’t remember. Oh, yea, yea . . . it was about runoff. Jan: Runoff, good. Jan goes to the board and writes runoff. Jan: What else? S: Erosion? Jan: That’s right. Let’s put that up here on the board as well. (Pause) I can see that some of you didn’t read but we are going to help you out. Another student: What about stream development? Jan: What did you say? Student shakes her head. Jan: Oh, you didn’t? OK, well, we’ll get to it in the groups. Since a lot of you didn’t read we are going to go over this in small groups. Jan begins to name the groups. Basically they get into groups according to their rows. Jan: This first group will go with Sally. You guys are going to do runoff. [John]? You guys are going to do erosion. The whole second row is going to go with [John]. You will work on those back tables ok? Ok, [Lucia], where’s [Lucia]? There you are. [Lucia], you’ll take this row three. Then [Allison] will take most of row four, but I’ll have [Wang] and these two here. The students pick up their notebooks and move to various parts of the room. They move quickly and seem to know what they are required to do. The kids sit at the long tables located in the back of the classroom. Some sit on one side of the table, and others face them on the opposite side. With all groups talking at once, I decide to sit in on Jan’s group discussion.

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Brazil and spoke Portuguese, two students were from Korea, three students were from Nigeria, and one student was from Taiwan.

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She is working with a group of three students: two Asian boys and one Latina girl. I found out later that initially she put the Spanish-speaking girl in a group with Lucia who is the aide that speaks Spanish fluently. This girl said she wanted to be placed in Jan’s group because she didn’t want to fall back on her Spanish. She wanted to try and learn the material in English.3 The three students sit in a semi-circle facing Jan. Jan uses a part of the white board to give the lesson. She begins by drawing a diagram showing rocks with spaces in between them. Jan: Ok, you see how there are spaces between the rocks. So, the water can drain out. It trickles down through here through the layers. She uses contrasting colors of red and blue to show the contrast in the drawing. Jan: Ok, now this is relevant right here in [Cherry Creek]. Do any of you know anyone who lives in the southwest part of town? The students shake their heads. Jan: Ok, so what happens there is the hard rock, the part that is impermeable has less space there, so they always have problems with flooding. In fact, anyone building a new house there will not put in a basement. Let me show you. Jan draws another diagram showing runoff with impermeable rock. Jan: Ok the first thing that you need to understand is the word . (Jan writes this word on the white board.) So, an item is permeable if water can pass through it. Look at this desktop. Is it permeable? The students kind of shrug their shoulders. Jan leaves for a minute and brings a small cup of water and a towel. Jan: Watch this. I’m going to pour the water on the desk. Is it going to go through it or run off? Ss: It’s going to run off. Jan: Right. She pours a little water and it runs off the desk. Jan: What if I poured water on some carpet? S: It would soak through. Jan: Right, so is the desk permeable? Ss: No. Jan: How about the carpet? Ss: Permeable. Jan: That’s right. Good. Look at this fish tank.

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Teachers’ Discursive Realignment

Inciting Change The students are sitting next to a large aquarium. Jan: Can water pour through these rocks? Jan points to the rocks at the bottom of the fish tank. Ss: Yea. Jan: Can it pass through the glass? Ss: No. Jan: That’s right. It’s impermeable. Remember how I talk about cleaning the fish tank. That’s why I have the rocks. A lot of the dirt and junk passes through the rocks and collects at the bottom of the tank. It leaves the dirt in the rocks so the fish can have clean water. But, after some time there is too much junk and it hits the impermeable glass bottom and starts to come back up again. When that happens the water looks really dirty, and we have to clean it. S: Now what permeable? Jan: Ok, what do you think? Another student: Water can pass through. Jan: That’s right. Let’s go on. What does the next highlight in your book say? Right   . So, that’s the direction the water moves depending on when it hits an impermeable surface. We have one more word that we need to learn. . All the students have their science books open to a certain page. She points to the word in a student’s book. Jan: Do you remember this word from the homework? The students all take their notes out of their books. While students are taking notes out, the teacher finds some rocks from the closet. She returns to the group with the rocks. Jan: [Lydia], read that sentence where it talks about aquifer. The student reads the sentence. The people in the group hear her, but she is quiet enough that I can’t hear her. Jan: Ok, I went and got these rocks to show you the difference between permeable and impermeable rocks because not all rocks are impermeable. Let me show you. She puts two rocks on the table that are the size of two medium size adult hands put together. She puts one of the rocks on the desk and places an old towel around the rock. Then, she pours water on the rock. The water runs off the rock and onto the desk. Jan: What did you see there? SS: The water ran off. It didn’t soak in so it’s impermeable. Jan: Ok, now, look at this one. She puts the other rock up on the table and pours water on it. The rock begins to change color and some of the water goes into the rock. A little

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water leaks out the bottom of the rock rather than going over the top like it did with the other rock. Jan: What do you think? S: It’s permeable cause the water is going in. Jan: Right. It’s a porous rock and so some water comes out but you see how it is changing color? That means a lot of the water is soaking in and it’s permeable because not all of the water runs off. What would happen if we put this rock in a big bucket of water? S: It would really change color. Jan: It would, wouldn’t it? So, since this is a permeable rock, it is called the aquifer. Now we get this, but we have to explain it to the rest of the class. How are we going to do this? We’ve got to teach everybody else now. Ss: You can draw that. A student points to the diagram Jan drew on the board. Jan: Sure. Here is my contribution. Jan writes the word . Jan: So, what are we going to do to teach this stuff? We want to help everyone understand this stuff. If I get your ideas, you can improve on what I do. The students pause and look at each other, but no one seems ready to take charge of the discussion. Jan is backing off now but she seems a little uncomfortable with the silence. Jan: How can we show the difference between ground water and run off? S: It doesn’t go into the ground. Jan: What doesn’t go into the ground? The student goes up to the board and draws some mountains and some lines to represent some water running off the mountains. The students are drawing the diagram on the sideboard. This is what they’ll use to teach the information to the rest of the class. As they draw the diagram, Jan continues to ask them questions. With each question, another student adds something to the diagram. Some questions Jan asks: Jan: How can we finish our diagram to show ground water? What kind of rock is there? What stops the water? What do you call that? At this point Jan announces that all the groups will come back to their seats and that each group will present the information from their portion of the chapter. Jan: Who wants to go first? The students are still getting situated in their seats. They are chatting with each other and some are asking their group leader (aide or student aide) questions about what they are supposed to do next.

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Inciting Change Jan: Ok, the group I worked with will go first since they have their diagram up here. [Lydia], I’ll turn the time over to you. Lydia goes up to the diagram. She points to the river. She speaks so quietly that it’s difficult to hear her. After that, Win demonstrates the words permeable and impermeable by showing the two rocks and pouring water on them. Jan: See how the rock changed color when the water soaked in. Class: Yea! Jan: So what is the difference between permeable and impermeable rock? She waits for a few seconds but no one responds. Jan: What is the difference? S: Permeable means water is going through. Jan: Ok, what about impermeable? S: There aren’t holes in the rock. Jan: Ok, that’s great. There are not holes in the rock so it runs off. So, look at the diagram up here. Do you have any questions for the students. Does this all make sense? Class: ! Jan: Ok, you are the teachers so you are going to teach us. What group wants to go next? Lots of students from the student aide’s group raise their hands. Jan calls on them, and they come up to the board. They walk up to the side of the class. Five students stand there, leaning against the chalkboard holding papers. (field notes, September 17, 2002)

Jan demonstrated many teaching practices that we discussed in the university ESL endorsement course entitled ESOL in the Content Areas. This university course was based on the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model to make content comprehensible for English Language Learners (Echevarria et al., 2000). I analyze this section of Jan’s class to show how she was adapting her curriculum to address the needs of ELs based on the university coursework and then discuss the changes Jan identified concerning her teaching of ELs. Here are some of the practices I observed. First, she created content and language objectives that identified what the students should know and be able to do within the lesson. Echevarria, Vogt, and Short (2000, 2008) have suggested that ELs need to have content objectives stated simply, orally, and in writing. Jan explained the content and language objectives, wrote them on the board, and instructed the students to write them in a notebook that they later turned in for

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grading. Jan explained that she did not engage in this practice before the university coursework (field notes, May 15, 2002). Second, she allowed the Spanish-speaking aide to translate for her and allowed students to work on projects in their first language (L1) within groups and with bilingual aides. Echevarria, Vogt, and Short (2000, 2007) suggest that there are “ample opportunities for students to clarify key concepts in their L1 as needed with aide, peer or L1 text” (p. 91). Third, she organized students in small groups to clarify the concepts she presented and the students were assigned to read the night before. Echevarria et al. (2000, 2007) suggest that grouping students can increase interest and increase student involvement. In addition, she was flexible with the grouping, letting the Spanish-speaking student join her group even though she had initially assigned this student to a group led by a Spanish-speaking aide. Fourth, she clarified ideas she wanted the students to learn through hands-on experiments. When students were unclear about the terms permeable and impermeable, Jan presented the rocks and poured water over them. When the students could see the clear example of the concept, they understood it. Fifth, Jan asked open-ended questions to elicit an informal assessment of the students understanding. Students were given opportunities to discuss concepts in their L1 and then present the material in English to the whole class. This gave them opportunities to practice presenting orally in the target language to peers. Jan struggled in two main areas according to the SIOP model. One, she did not elicit much background knowledge from the students. Echevarria et al. (2000, 2007) stress the importance of “tying new information to students’ own background experiences, both personal (including cultural) and academic” (p. 43). Jan did not find out about students’ experiences with the concepts before she began the lesson. She did not use students’ funds of knowledge in a meaningful way. Second, Jan had difficulty slowing down her speech. One student said, “She speaks too fast.” I heard this on numerous occasions from other students as well. I asked Jan how her teaching might have changed before and after the development of the sheltered ESL classes and her participation with the university coursework. I used to teach more lecture-style with experiments. I thought that the students shouldn’t speak in their home language because it would delay English language acquisition. I now feel more comfortable branching out to use aides who can speak Spanish to the Hispanic students, especially during group work. I also understand that I need to share both language

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Inciting Change

When Jan enrolled in the university ESL program, she had many frustrations and misconceptions about English Learners and language acquisition in general. She entered the university grant program out of annoyance with ELs in her classroom rather than entering as a teacher wanting to change practice to better serve this population. Other teachers in the school were surprised by her commitment to the program due to comments she had made about immigrants in the past (field notes, October 10, 2000). Nevertheless, she implemented many of the strategies we discussed in the content area ESOL course, when other teachers whose discourses were more closely aligned with indicators of successful ESL programs (see chapter 3 for list of indicators) did not. Jan changed her practices to allow for heritage language in the classroom from students and aides, lessened her role as an authority in the classroom, and included more hands-on interaction with her students. She said she “feels more comfortable” not only letting aides use Spanish but understands how the use of first language in the classroom helps students understand concepts better. By organizing students in small groups, she was able to interact with just a few students and make connections with them. Her excitement and facial expressions while she taught the lesson using hands-on materials, drawing, and questioning showed she enjoyed her interaction with her students. I wrote in my field notes, “Wow, she is having so much fun!” (field notes, September 17, 2002).

Brian Brian taught a U.S. history class in Spanish called Bilingual U.S. History and a sheltered U.S. history class in English. I observed both classes at the end of September. Before class started, Brian told me a story that indicated some of his teaching practices. He said the following about his Bilingual Social Studies class that just left: This class bombed their first test, and we’ve been doing everything in their dominant language. I gave them a lecture about doing well in this class if they wanted to reach the goals they had written about earlier in their journals. One student said the reason they didn’t do well was because the work was too easy. Well that totally surprised me, but I put them to the test, and I’ve been moving much more quickly. And you know, they are doing better now. (field notes, September 24, 2002)

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and content objectives with the students. I put them on the board everyday and the students copy them in their notebooks. (field notes, May 15, 2002)

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The way Brian described this scene showed his ability to take student feedback and use it with confidence. He used the students’ suggestion to move faster and then admitted that the students were doing better because of the changes he had made as a teacher. Here is a portion of my field notes that typifies the atmosphere and style of his classes. This class had 20 students. Two were from the Congo, two from Taiwan, one from Argentina, one from Brazil, and fourteen from Mexico. The class was titled Sheltered U.S. History and was conducted primarily in English. Brian: How are we today? Some students in the class respond: Good. Brian: Are you cold today? (weather changed quite a bit today so it is unusually rainy and cold) Brian: Open up your notebooks. Students start to get in their backpacks and get notebook. Brian: So do we have any groups where everyone was on time today? Student: Can we change groups? A student walks in late while Brian is marking stars on the posters hanging at the back of the classroom. Each poster has a drawing done by the students that represents the group. It seems that he is using the posters to create group unity and cooperation. Brian (to student walking in late): Too bad, if [Rubio] had been here two minutes ago? Brian: In your notebooks, I want you to write this. “Which group that we talked about yesterday would you like to live with and why?” I want you to explain why. Don’t write, “Quakers because they are nice.” You need to add detail to explain why, how did they live and why do you want to live like that? If you want, you can talk to your group members about the information, but you have to write your own opinion on the paper. You have ten minutes. (Brian starts the timer to let students know that they only have 10 minutes to complete the writing exercise.) The groups have four to five students in each. After the exercise, Brian asks who would like to share what they have written. Student: Quakers, good relationship with the Indians. Brian: Yes. And why? Student: The other groups were friends, but they just took land and the Quakers were different because they would buy land from the Indians. Brian: Right. Where did the Quakers live? Students: In Pennsylvania.

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Inciting Change The class continued in this way. Brian used lots of gestures during his explanations and pointed to things on the board or wrote ideas on the board as he talked. He asked many higher order questions like “Why?” “How come?” Later, he passed out guided notes with blanks left in key parts to help students understand concepts as they had a discussion about early conflicts in US History. Brian points to a map of Florida on the board. “What country do we have here?” He points to the group of islands underneath Florida on the map. Student: Cuba. Brian: Right. Down here there were a lot of pirate ships. They used to transport goods through these islands to Florida. All of this (points to the map) was owned by the Spanish. Students all looked at the board while he explained this. Brian: Often they would take the treasure and bury it in America. There are still stories of pirate treasure in the Americas. Sometimes people will dig in their yards and find remnants from the pirates. These pirates were trying to steal money from Spain so they wouldn’t be too strong. Who controlled Florida at this time? Students: Spain. Brian: Who controlled this area? (points to southern part of US on map) Students: France Brian: Good. Now look at the French-Indian War on your papers. Why did they do the war? Brian shows on the map where people are trying to move. Brian: The problem was the French had colonies where the English were trying to move to. The war lasted 5 years. Student: But you said French-Indian, not French against English. Brian: Right, the English fought against the French and the Indians because the French had good relationships with the Indians. The French had a much better relationship with the Indians than the English because they traded more fairly. Let me explain what happened before George Washington was the first president of America. Student: George Washington was the father of George Bush? (Everyone laughs.) Student (in protest of the laughs): But they have the same name “George.” Brian smiles at this comment and goes on with the explanation. Brian: George was in the French-Indian war. He learned how to fight wars and work with soldiers. Second is how . . . (He pauses.) He points to some students in the class. Brian: I need [Won Chang] and [Edgar], and [Angel] and [Yuen].

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The boys stand at the front of the room, two on one side and two on the other side after Brian motions to them. Each team consisted of one Latino and one Asian boy. As soon as the boys are in front of the class, [Won Chang] starts to pretend to shoot. Brian: So, in Europe they had a lot of wars. This is how they would fight. The soldiers on one side would all line up and start shooting at the other side. Just like [Won Chang] started to do. Does that sound smart? Students: No. Brian: Right, the Indians said that is stupid because they can’t hide. See the Indians would hide behind trees when they would fight. When George Washington fought in the French-Indian war, he learned that the British way of fighting doesn’t work. Pause. Brian: What Washington learned in the French-Indian War he used [as a way] to teach people how to be leaders. He really changed the way the Americans would fight. In fact the colonists fought more like the Indians in the Independence War. Brian motions for the boys in the front to sit down. They smiled—seemed to enjoy being in front of the class. Brian: Thank you. Please sit down. Brian walks around while he teaches and looks at each group. Brian: Any questions? (No response.) Brian: What should we write on our paper? What reasons should we write?. Student: (can’t hear) Brian: Those would be the two specific reasons. Under the effects, we would have wars. In your own words, write something that will help you remember what we talked about. (field notes, April 8, 2002)

Like Jan, Brian demonstrated many examples of teaching in a sheltered content class that were outlined in the ESOL in the Content Areas Sheltered Course. He grouped students, used guided notes to scaffold the material, involved the students through role-play, and spoke clearly and slowly. Brian grouped students together and allowed the students to create the name for their group and a symbol to represent themselves as a group. I asked him about the groups later, and he told me that he purposely grouped some students who were more proficient in English with others who were less proficient. In addition, students from different countries were grouped together so that they could learn from each other. He also passed out “guided notes” at the beginning of the discussion to help scaffold the material for the students and make it comprehensible for them.

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The role-play involved the students and engaged them. Their smiles indicated that they enjoyed the role-play. Finally, Brian’s speech was purposeful. He often paused and asked questions to assess the students’ understanding and make connections with them. He presented history from different perspectives. He made personal connections with the students in this lesson through calling out specific names, using students as examples, and smiling often. I also witnessed other examples of these connections. In between classes, we talked for a few minutes about how things were going with the new classes, but he was rushed. He said, “I’ve got to grab a student.” He called out to the student and told her they needed to set up an early morning meeting to discuss homecoming for the Multicultural Club. He said, “Try to get everyone to come. We’ll meet at 7:15 am, and I’ll try to bring donuts.” On another occasion, right before class started, a girl walked up to Brian and asked if she could have another paper because she lost the first one. After Brian handed her the paper, the girl handed the paper to a friend standing near. Brian immediately walked over to the girl, looked at her and said, “[Cecilia] told me you needed this paper. You weren’t afraid to ask me, were you?” The student nodded her head in the affirmative and smiled. He then said, “You can ask me questions anytime.” She then smiled at him. This is an example of Brian’s desire to help all students feel comfortable in his classes. Brian clearly enjoyed teaching the bilingual U.S. history and sheltered U.S. history class. After I observed one class period, he said, “I’m having a ball!” Brian talked about changes he made at various times. One comment during a focus group meeting was, “I have less empathy toward the ELs in my classes.” I followed up and asked what he meant. “I mean before I more or less felt sorry for the ELs and the school situation for them. Now I know who they are and what they are capable of doing so I know when to be hard on them.” Brian’s practice has changed to demand higher performance from his ELs. He “knows” them, so he can better identify their strengths instead of grouping them and “feeling sorry for them.” In addition, he made changes in his practice by grouping students together more, creating more guided notes during lecture, and lecturing less often (field notes, April 15, 2002).

Laura I observed Laura’s Spanish for Native Speaker class that met second hour at 9:20 in the morning. I noticed right away that the classroom was orderly, the desks lined up in a row, baskets of papers were arranged on the counters

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at the side of the room. Three maps hung on the wall—one of Spain, one of Mexico, and one of South America. Also, many artifacts from different countries hung on the wall from El Salvador, Peru, and many from Mexico. On the side of the metal filing cabinet comic strips were taped. Most were written in Spanish, but some were in English. Other posters that hung on the walls stated various “dichos” written in Spanish. Laura greeted each student in Spanish as they walked into the classroom. When the bell rang, all the students were seated. The students were all native Spanish speakers. Three students were boys and six were girls. The class was conducted almost exclusively in Spanish.4 Laura greets students. Students are facing forward in the first three rows of the classroom. She passes out a paper called, “La Métrica de la Poesía” Listed under the title are 17 sentences from various poems. The task is to count the syllables in each sentence. Laura puts the first one on the board. The students all yell out the number of syllables in the sentence. Each student comes up with a different number. When Laura announces a different number than the students do, two boys are frustrated. They pound their fists on the desks. Male student: Lo estás haciendo como se hace en inglés? (You are doing it how they do it in English?) Laura: No, mira la regla en la carta. [Gloria], lea la regla # ? (No, look at the rule on the paper. [Gloria], read rule # ?) Gloria reads the rule aloud for the class. Ss: OK, entiendo. (Ok, I get it.) Laura: OK, miramos el número 4. (OK, Let’s look at number 4.) S: Doce! (Twelve!) Another s: doce! (Twelve!) Another s: trece! (Thirteen!) Laura: Vamos a contarlos. (Let’s count them.) Laura points to each syllable and counts as they go. Laura: Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez, once, doce, trece. (One, two, three . . . ) Laura: Entoces, trece. (Ok then, thirteen.) Ss: No! The students are involved in the activity and even though they are frustrated at times and challenge what Laura says, most smile when they yell out, “No!”

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Inciting Change Laura: Si. (Yes.) It becomes a game where students try to guess better than the other. Everyone seems to be into this game. Half the class usually guesses right and half wrong so there is a big uproar when Laura counts each syllable for the class aloud, and they find out who is right and who is wrong. Sometimes students try to change their answers mid-way through when they find out they are wrong. It is quiet for a few seconds while the students count up the syllables. At first, Laura is the only one “singing” the syllable, but by the time they get to #6 the girls in the class are counting along with her. One student gets so excited when he gets the number right that he gets out of his seat and jumps up and down, turns a circle and raises his hands in the air while shouting, “Yeh!” I feel lots of energy in this class. They are all into this activity and talkative and loud but when it comes time to count the syllables they listen intently. Some students get frustrated if they think Laura is not counting the syllables right. Laura: Escuchen. [Pablo] por favor, lea la regla. (Pablo, please read this rule.) The student reads a rule that stated the last syllable. Laura is very confident with her counting of the syllables. She sticks with what she thinks is right even though some of the students protest. Students feel extremely comfortable in the class and they have respect for Laura but also enjoy giving her a hard time. Laura goes to the cupboard and gets her microphone. (Laura told me she had an operation on her voice box and so she often needs a microphone to speak to her classes especially if they are large.) Laura: No puedo hablar muy fuerte todo el día. (I can’t speak very loud all day long.) Laura counts a sentence wrong and the students jump on it. She looks at the sentence again and realizes the mistake. Laura: Oh, es verdad. Lo siento. (Oh, it’s true. I’m sorry.) She smiles. The last sentences they do on their own without writing the sentence on the board. Student makes fun of the way Laura is using her hands. She notices this and laughs. She makes the movement with her hands again and makes a joke about credos. The students laugh. Laura asks if I know what you call a verse with a certain number of syllables.

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Me: No se. Puedo conversar en Espaňol pero esta literatura está sobre mi cabeza. (I don’t know. I can converse in Spanish but this literature is over my head.) The students laugh at my response. I imagine the students feel pride as they are tackling advanced literature. It is so fun to see these students engaged in challenging curriculum after observing them in the ESL class that focuses on basic communication skills. The class goes over each sentence and counts the syllables and gives the verse a name. All the students are writing the name down, except one student who is reading a note. Laura: [Carla], por favor, lea donde dice “Rima.” (Carla, please can you read where it says, “Rima?”) Laura asks another student to read examples that are on the handout. Laura explains the examples in more detail. Laura: En la parte de atrás del papel hay algo sobre Gabriela Mistral. (On the back of the paper there is something about Gabriela Mistral.) S: Quién es? (Who is it?) Laura: Ahora, vamos a . . . (Now, we will . . . ) Students take turns reading a few sentences about the author. Laura: Ella fue la primera que ganó el Premio Nobel de literatura. (She was the first Latina to receive the Nobel Prize) Ss open their literature books. The literature books are brand new. The title is: Tesoro Literario: Nivel Avanzado. She refers the students to a poem written by Gabriela Mistral. She points to the picture of the poet in the book. Then they read El Niño Solo. Laura passes out a worksheet with multiple choice questions and short answers. They answer the questions together. After they answer two questions on the worksheet. They look at the questions listed at the end of the poem in the book. Laura: Una parte del poema es negativa, otra parte es positiva. (Part of the poem is negative, part of it is positive.) ¿Qué escuchó? (What did he hear?) ¿Qué hizo? (What did he do?) ¿Salió a ver quién era? (Did he leave to see who it was?) ¿Dónde estaba el bebé? (Where was the baby?) A student answers the question. Laura: Lo dijo bien [Pablo]. (He said it well . . . )

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Inciting Change Pablo laughs. Laura: De qué satisfacción momentanea gozó la poeta? Denme sus opiniones. Hizo mal en entrar? Qué lo impulsó? (What momentary pleasure does the poet bask in? Tell me your opinions. Did he do a bad thing by entering? What made him do it?) Laura asks for ideas to the questions. Most of the students respond to the questions, but three students respond more. Laura passes out another poem by Gabriela Mistral that she has gotten from another book. Laura: Ella escribió muchos poemas divertidos. (She wrote lots of fun poems.) One female student in particular is really into the poem. She is amazed at the main character and asks “Why would she do that?” Laura asks lots of why questions. Students take turns reading the stanzas. Laura: Miren las lineas tres y cuatro. Qué está pidiendo? (Look at lines 3 and 4. What is she asking?) Students start to answer, and she reacts with enthusiasm at their answers. Laura: En sus hojas miren el poema número tres. Qué está pidiendo. (On your papers look at poem 3. What is she asking?) Students look at their questions on the handouts. A student gets up out of his seat. Laura tells him to sit down and he continues to go to the garbage can. He puts the gum in the can. She tells him that he should not get up next time if she tells him to wait. She looks at him very seriously and his face is also serious. He agrees to stay seated with a nod of the head. He seems to respect her. The class answers the questions together. When students have questions about counting the syllables, Laura refers them to the rule sheet that she passes out. Laura: [Carlos] por favor lee el número seis. (Carlos, please read number 6.) Carlos has his head on his desk and after a 5 second wait, he still hasn’t responded. Laura repeats her request: Carlos, lea por favor el número 6. (Carlos, please read number 6.) He looks like he is asleep, but after a pause he reads. Laura looks at the clock and says the bell is about to ring. The students all get up and put their papers in their notebooks that are in bins located on the side shelf of the classroom. (field notes, April 5, 2002)

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Laura worked hard to be able to finally teach a Spanish for Heritage Speakers class. She wrote a paper on the benefits of Spanish for Native Speakers classes in one of her graduate courses in the Modern Languages Department at the university. She gave the paper to Dr. Cannon, the newly hired principal, when he began to restructure the ESL program. She also asked for permission to present the paper to the District School Board’s monthly meeting. Even though she never heard exactly what people thought about these presentations, she was given the class at the beginning of the school year even though the class only had 11 students enrolled. Laura’s example demonstrated how teachers can create changes in high schools despite the structural boundaries that exist. First, Laura applied ideas she learned in her university studies to her school by sharing her paper on the benefits of Native Language classes with her principal to buttress the idea of the class that had never been taught at the school. Second, she constructed her classroom with high expectations for native Spanish speakers even though the students didn’t experience this in most other classes. Third, she created a classroom where Spanish was important and integral by only speaking Spanish in the classroom, hanging up posters and comics in Spanish in the classroom, and using literature from Spanish speakers. In a recent article, “Embers of Hope: In Search of a Meaningful Critical Pedagogy,” Ayers, Michie, and Rome (2004) contend that there is “much to learn about everyday victories, however small, that teachers achieve in the face of inequities and injustice” (p. 123). They go on to explain that “As teacher educators, we refuse to become permanently mired in this ‘relentless scrutiny of failure.’ We refuse, in part, because we see how hard the new teachers in our program are working sometimes in lonely isolation, other times in concert with others to do something different in their classrooms, to affect change in their schools, to create spaces in which kids feel respected and significant and valued” (p. 128). Her persistence to find spaces where she could insert centrifugal forces of language alongside the centripetal gives hope to the possibilities that can occur in schools. When she started teaching, she talked about some of the changes she had added to the curriculum. “First of all I had to really search to find literature in Spanish for Native Speakers. I reviewed lots of different books to find poems that I thought my students could relate to” (field notes, September 10, 2002). Laura demonstrated her commitment to the course also by deciding to spend a month in Guatemala the summer before the class began, so that she could improve her Spanish. She came back from that adventure with books in Spanish to use in the class. She continually involved her students in choosing books to read and pushed them to write papers. These decisions showed her commitment to higher expectations for students. She was also impacted by the curriculum of the

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Inciting Change

English Department in the school. She wanted to align this class with the core standards of English curriculum. “That way,” she explained, “when an English teacher asks them to write a thesis sentence, they know what it means because they have already practiced it in Spanish.” Laura relied on language transfer research. In addition, she was influenced by the structure of good writing already in place in the high school. She felt that she needed to prepare them to succeed in the mainstream classes (Delpit, 1995).

Carl Carl always greeted me enthusiastically when I came unannounced into his classroom. I felt I was welcome, even when I did not set up an appointment ahead of time. His classroom was always scattered with papers. He used two sets of white boards to explain math problems. They were on the north and east walls of the classroom, so the students did not have to turn their desks to see a new set of problems. The desks were sometimes arranged in rows, sometimes in groups of four facing each other, and other times in pairs, side by side. On this day, I observed Carl’s third period class that met at 10:20 in the morning. He had about 25 students in the class with students who immigrated from Mexico, Argentina, El Salvador, Taiwan, Korea, and China. Most of the students were heritage Spanish speakers. In addition, two aides circulated the classroom to assist with math and help translate content in Spanish. This example shows Carl’s desire to connect with the students through humor, speaking Spanish, and working through problems with students individually. He demonstrates his awareness of the language process by speaking clearly, using gestures, and pausing the video often for clarification. Carl speaks clearly and slowly. He looks across the room at all the students as he speaks. Carl: In review, let’s see if we can review what we learned. Carl is interrupted by the announcements, the students do not seem to be listening to the announcements since they are only given in English and there is no scaffolding through gestures or written texts. Carl cheers like a cheerleader as the announcement is made about cheering for the game. He puts his hands up over his head and makes a fist like he is holding pom-poms and he bends his knees and bounces up and down. Lots of the students laugh at this demonstration. Carl looks like he is having fun. He enjoys the students’ response.

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A student gets out of his seat and walks over to a friend. Carl says his name and the student goes back to his seat right away. Teacher walks over to talk to student one on one. The intercom announcement ends. Carl: We are not going to have a quiz today. Today we are going to do lesson five, as usual take out your yellow paper. The notes you have in front of you will help you understand what the video is telling you. On video: Objective: (too fast to write down) African American is the teacher on the video. Carl stops video and circles per—written on the board. What does per mean? It means —for each. Per usually means that there is a division taking place. They are making them into groups. In this case the cent, cent means 100 So that means dividing per 100. Student says something. Couldn’t hear. Carl: And sure enough, that is what the word means. Carl: So percent means for each 100 or for every 100. Carl points to the words on the video as the instructor on the video says the words. Carl pauses the video again to repeat what was explained. Ss laugh when the phone rings and Manuel Huerta sits down to answer it. (Manuel was a retired medical doctor from Mexico who has been hired as a bilingual aide at the school. He is assigned to this Math class and has been here 2 out of the 3 times that I have observed). I think the students laugh because Manuel is a proper and respected gentleman in the community so it struck them when he sat on the carpet to answer the phone call. The video shows boxes as a graphic organizer to illustrate percent. In the boxes are the words: Fraction, decimal and percent Ss all have notes that go over what exactly the video is saying. Carl pauses again to emphasize the points of the video. Carl: We really need percent, so what should we do? Ss talk amongst themselves a little but no real answer is given. Carl turns on the video again. After the video goes for a while explaining how to convert percent to fraction to decimal, Carl stops the video.

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Teachers’ Discursive Realignment

Inciting Change Carl: Ok, let’s practice a few of these. Carl writes on the board. .047 4.7% Carl: All these forms can be used interchangeably. I can use the fraction when it is convenient, the decimal when it’s convenient. 1. 3/25 = .12 = 12% 2. .032 = 32/1000 = 3.2% How do we convert from a fraction into a decimal? Carl: Are you guys ready to practice? Turn to page 19 in your white packet. Lesson 5, p. 19. How are you doing? One aide is in the class as a well as a student from the university who is a math education major and an ESL minor. The clinical student is a young woman with blonde hair who smiles a lot. She doesn’t speak Spanish but is not afraid to help the students by using diagrams, drawings on paper and gestures. Manuel Huerta repeats some of the directions in Spanish and helps individual students as they raise their hands. Teacher and the two aides are now circulating around the room helping students one on one. Ss are sitting in rows. Carl: A ver, no? S: Por que? Students work on the handed out worksheet for the remainder of the 70 minutes. They are mainly concentrating and doing the work they have been assigned, but they work as individuals, if they get stuck, they raise their hands and wait in their seat until the teacher or one of the two aides can come around to help them. (field notes, October 22, 2002)

This classroom example demonstrated Carl’s desire to present math in a comprehensible way to the students. He brought in the video to help students understand the basic concepts of math more effectively but he did not just sit at the desk while the video played; he stood by the video and paused it often. He also created a graphic organizer to help the students follow along with the ideas in the film. When needed, he spoke in Spanish to clarify points and used the two bilingual aides assigned to his classroom to help with individual questions. Unlike Jan and Brian, I never saw language or content objectives on the board of Carl’s classroom. He relied on the structure of the video program to present objectives and his own math examples. His strength in teaching was his connection to the students. During the three years I observed at

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the school, he coached the soccer team and recruited many ELs to play on the team, sponsored the multicultural club, and attended many parent outreach meetings for the parents of ELs. He made an effort to speak to students in Spanish during and after class about their social lives and in class when explaining problems to a student individually. Carl, like Laura, worked hard to get a specific class developed for ELs in the math department. He reviewed and purchased the videos described above and presented them to the administration. He also developed a curriculum especially geared for students without formal schooling in their home country to be used in one of the sheltered math classes. He did this of his own accord without direction or compensation from the department. Although the teachers formed a cohesive group and respected each other, tensions would sometimes surface. Sometimes one teacher would complain that another was too easy on the students and didn’t push to make sure they were on time. At times one teacher complained that another teacher did not do enough to connect with the students. However, these tensions were minimal and the teachers still talk about each other as being a “group” and having an “esprit de corps.” Laura recently wrote, “I have to say that I would consider the [university] grant one of the key reasons [the ESL program changed] because it was through that coursework that [Brian] and I were truly converted to the ideas of how ESL should be changed . . . as well as others—particularly [Jan] and [Carl]” (e-mail response, October 15, 2005). After five years, Laura is still grouping herself with these three other teachers as a small community that has changed together. All of the teachers began teaching these specially designed classes for ELs at the same time. Therefore, they were able to connect with each other in this new process. Huberman (1991) states, “Collegiality is not a fully legitimate end in itself, unless it can be shown to affect, directly or indirectly, the nature or degree of pupil development” (p. 2). The teachers were beginning to see positive changes during the year the classes were implemented. All the teachers talked about the significant shifts in absenteeism that had occurred since Cherry High initiated the sheltered/bilingual program. Jan claimed that her attendance from ELs in the core Earth Systems class went from “50 percent attendance to 90 percent attendance” (field notes, December 13, 2002). Carl reported that while “most ESL students were previously non-participants in mainstream classes, with many absences, there were now virtually no absences and an increased number of students working in the ‘A’ and ‘B’ grade range” (field notes, December 13, 2002). These concrete and positive changes further bolstered the group and their efforts with ELs. They were not just seeing change in isolation but as a group.

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Teachers’ Discursive Realignment

Inciting Change

Because we met in regular focus group meeting, the teachers were able to voice their frustrations, successes, and concerns at a designated time and place. This “space” definitely impacted the teacher to continue with discourses that were sometimes in opposition of the wider school culture (chapter 5 discusses this in more detail). The teachers talked about positive interactions in the hallway where they could share ways they were able to use bilingual aides effectively or involve a certain student in the class who seemed lost previously. When we met for focus group meetings, they shared stories about their classroom practice, other teachers’ comments about ELs, and strategies that worked or didn’t work in their classrooms. Since this was the teachers’ only time to meet as a group, they always had a lot to share with each other. Hargreaves (1994) states: Collaboration and collegiality form significant planks of policies to restructure schools from without and to improve them from within. Much of the burden of educational reform has been placed upon their fragile shoulders. School improvements, curriculum reform, teacher development and leadership development are all seen to some extent as dependent of the building of positive collegial relationships for their success. (p. 187)

Indeed, the restructuring of the ESL program did rely on these teachers willingness to teach the classes dedicated to ELs. The support they gave each other helped them to continue to teach, when it might have been easier to not do it. In this chapter, I have demonstrated how teachers at Cherry High School are changing their teaching practices with ELs in their own classrooms and confronting differing Discourses inside and outside the school. I argue that these changes are not happening at an individual/ psychological level, but they are happening in association with others in the school, with those who align themselves with similar Discourses, and in opposition align themselves in contradiction to those who utter destructive dominant Discourses within the school community. These teachers are able to perpetuate their desire to create changes for ELs because they have formed a “esprit de corps” with other teachers at the same high school. In the next chapter, I explore how teachers claim language ideologies specifically and how these language ideologies impact the changes they make within their classrooms and the schools.

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Language Ideologies at Cherry High School

Well, I lived in a foreign country and picked up the language by immersion. (teacher at Cherry High School [non-grant participant])

The opening quote represents one of the key language ideologies circulating in the school that situated “language by immersion” as the most effective way to learn language, specifically English. I define language ideologies as big “D” Discourses (Gee, 2005) that are circulated in society. This chapter explores the ways language ideologies are used and how they impact the way teachers teach, how they develop the ESL program, and how they situate themselves in relation to other teachers in the school. This quote illustrates the awareness the grant participant teachers had in relation to other teachers in the school and caused me to ask why these teachers invested deeply with ELs when others in the school community did not demonstrate the same kind of investment. The grant project is coming to an end. Like always, I arrange the student desks in a circle in Laura’s classroom where we decided to meet for our monthly meetings. Even though she can’t make this meeting, she has offered up her room. As I arrange the chairs in anticipation of the upcoming discussion, my thoughts focus back to the teachers in this grant who work in the ESL program—their awareness of language and empathy towards the situation in the high school for ELs. What is it about these teachers that encourage them to care? Or, more appropriately, why don’t all teachers care for ELs like these teachers do? (field notes, February 21, 2003)

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Chapter 5

Inciting Change

Two years have passed since the end of the ESL endorsement program at the university for the grant participants. The school had two years to begin to make changes in their program. During this focus group meeting we began discussing the state of the ESL program currently, and the general report was positive. After this initial discussion about the ESL program, I posed the question that had had me perplexed to the teachers in the group. Marilee: What I’m trying to figure out, as part of this research is you teachers who decided to do the University ESL endorsement program seem to have different ideas about how language should be taught and an expanded view of ELs in general . . . Brian, Carl (in unison): Because [the university program] was a more intense, difficult program . . . Marilee: Yea, so the grant participants here already have an understanding of the resources ELs bring to the classroom, they already know what is in place for ELs and what is not working. But why is it that you have these ideas when others teachers in the school differ? What is it about you that is different? Brian: I lived in another country and learned a language. I thought I knew the language pretty well. When I came back, I took university courses in that language and realized it was a little bit tougher and more complicated than I thought. You realize, “Hey, I’m a decent student with educational background and these classes are hard,” So that experience was a big part of it. Carl: And you know I’m not sure if it is just the math department, but I’m one who has a natural empathy for the struggling student. I know in my case and some of the others that we really like that kind of situation and the others are just the opposite in that they only want to work with the advanced kids. I think that is true in a lot of teaching situations; you either feel like facing the challenge or not. I think all of us pretty much have that orientation. Brian: Something we have here is the awareness. I mean the cultural thing, even teachers who have learned another language—predominately it has been in Europe. One teacher I know lived in France. And for them, they say things like, “I lived in a foreign country and picked up the language by immersion. My kids learned the language in the schools there without any extra help.” They leave out the cultural aspects of learning a language such as the socioeconomic status of the family, opportunities for formal schooling and the home environment. I mean, they were there when they were adults with lots of financial security. And for them to say I learned it easily and leave out the cultural aspects and socioeconomic status . . . Well, they are just not aware of our students’ lives.

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The insights of these teachers demonstrate some of the language ideologies that exist in the school. I use an expanded concept of language ideologies to include not only an individual’s ascribed set of views, ideas, or values but also their practices and actions around certain Discourses. As Norma González in her book, I am my language (2001) describes, language ideologies are representations, whether explicit or implicit, that “construe the intersection of language and human beings in a social world” (Woorland in González, 2001). Language within social process is the focus. González further explains this definition in the context of her ethnographic study. “[This theoretical position] goes beyond situating language as an individual construction within the brain of the learner, but predicates language use on historical, social, and political contexts of language learning” (p. xxii). Thus, by using the term language ideologies to understand the teachers teaching in the ESL program and how the ESL program is changing, teachers are not reduced to individual/psychological beings who make decisions in a vacuum but as members of a community with historical, social, and political underpinnings that impact their language use, understanding of language learning as a process, desire to teach language in particular ways, and their decisions in regards to the ESL program. As discourse was described previously, language ideologies in this chapter are in a sense big “D” Discourses that are privileged by many and are tied to hegemonic structural positions. Malesevic (2002), in his critique of how both poststructuralists and structuralists conceptualize ideology, explains the importance of asking questions around certain “discourses,” “meta-narratives,” or “language games.” He explains: . . . by acknowledging the idea that there are no general and omnipresent social actors one can better focus on particularly shaped asymmetrical relations of power. One can now concentrate on the questions of when, why and how interpretations and articulations of social reality by these particularly privileged social agents become hegemonic, shared or trusted by many. (p. 99)

In other words, the teachers who participated in the grant align themselves with some and oppose other language ideologies that have become dominant in public Discourse. I begin to ask questions around these language ideologies, such as what do these language ideologies offer teachers? How are teachers persuaded to adhere to one language ideology over another? Why are some language ideologies trusted over others?

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Carl: Right, and there is a lot of difference within South America if you are middle-upper class you have different opportunities for schooling than if you are the working poor. (focus group interview, February 21, 2003)

Inciting Change

In the previous chapter, I explored how the teachers’ formation of an esprit de corps served as a support in their desire to make changes in the school’s ESL program and specifically in their own classrooms. Their desire as a small community within the school to create change brought them together as a group in opposition to other teachers in the school who they claimed aligned themselves with differing Discourses. In this chapter, I explore the circulating Discourses that encompass the language ideologies in the school. Many times the language ideologies manifested through the discussions support the practices discussed in the previous chapter, but sometimes they diverge. As in the previous chapters, I propose that the language ideologies circulating in the school are tied to a wider community/national Discourse that impacts the formation of the language ideologies at the school. I examine Discourses from a variety of faculty at Cherry High School. Most of the Discourses come from the four main grant participants; Brian, Carl, Laura, and Jan. In addition, I reviewed statements from interviews and focus groups involving other teachers at the high school. Included in these are the teachers who obtained their endorsement through the university ESL program but who do not teach in the ESL program, and the ESL teacher who teaches in the ESL program but did not participate in the university ESL program. These participants refer to comments and language ideologies from other teachers and students in the high school. After reading, rereading, analyzing, and coding these conversations, I chose four prevalent themes that illustrate the circulating language ideologies in play existing at Cherry High School. These language ideologies are described briefly below and in more depth in the rest of the chapter. First, those who learn a second language claimed to understand others who are going through the process of learning a language. All the teachers I interacted with during the study, who had learned another language, referred to that experience in light of their interaction with ELs. Some felt empathy for ELs as they struggled to learn English because of their own struggles learning another language. Others were less empathic and were critical of the need for additional programs because they felt they progressed fluidly with a second language in a country by immersing themselves in the language and without relying on scaffolding. Second, language needed for academic subjects is more complex than language needed for social interaction. Many teachers who participated in the university endorsement program commented on the importance of scaffolding content instruction for beginning and intermediate language learners, while other teachers in the school argued that immersion was the best way for immigrant children to learn English.

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Third, languages other than English were named a problem or barrier. In the school, languages other than English had a lower rank on the level of importance. Languages other than English were often looked at as a problem or a barrier to learning English, the most valued language. Languages other than English were not valued as assets by those who spoke them. Fourth, languages other than English are foreign. Languages other than English were not part of the languages spoken in the United States. All other languages besides English were called foreign languages. These four language ideologies help answer some of the questions posed at the beginning of the research, specifically: What are the teachers’ ideologies about language? Are there counter Discourses in and among the participants? How does the school’s philosophy of language learning and serving ELs intermingle with the teachers’ philosophies? When teachers align themselves with any of these big “D” Discourses or language ideologies, do they subscribe to a set of teacher practices as well? These embodied practices are demonstrated through their actions in the classroom, in conversations with other teachers, and in school meetings.

Learning Another Language I know what it’s like because I learned a second language. (common Discourse from teachers)

Conflicting Discourses circulated within the school from teachers who spoke languages other than English. Some used a Discourse of empathy— meaning they attempt to identify with immigrant students who are in the process of learning English by stating their own frustrations and challenges with their language learning process. This Discourse of empathy is a social Discourse used to make connections with other teachers and students who are in the process of language learning. Mostly, this Discourse of empathy relies on teachers’ past memories of language learning with a variety of contexts. Some of these Discourses of empathy are illustrated below. I met Brian in his room after school to find out more about who he is as a teacher and what made him want to be a language teacher. I called this an initial autobiographical interview. Brian, as a beginning teacher, was confident, organized, and open to new ideas. We talked about his connection to Latina/o kids in the high school that he attributed his positive

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Inciting Change

My experience and struggle with learning Spanish helps me to relate to the kids. I think more carefully about what phrases I’m using. I’m aware of the language I speak and how it might affect those around me, and I am able to empathize with the students. (interview, March 19, 2001)

In this quote, I want to explore three main ideas. In the first phrase, he said, “my experience and struggle with learning Spanish helps me relate to the kids.” Because he struggled to learn Spanish, he understood when kids struggled. He related his own story of difficulty learning Spanish with students he teaches and makes connections with them. He also understood the time and effort needed in order to learn language. Second, he acknowledged the importance of using phrases appropriately with ELs. This decision to adapt the way he speaks in the classroom with ELs is an embodied practice evident of the Discourse with which he is aligned. In another conversation, Brian told me he is careful not to use colloquial phrases and idioms with ELs as they are difficult for them to understand (field notes, May 15, 2003). He “thinks more carefully about what phrases [he is] using” so that the ELs in his class will be able to understand him. When he said, “I’m aware of the language I speak and how it might affect those around me,” he is acknowledging the heteroglossia of language. Bakhtin explains: . . . there are no neutral words and forms—words and forms that can belong to “no one”; language has been completely taken over, shot through with intentions and accents. For any individual consciousness living in it, language is not an abstract system of normative forms but rather a concrete heteroglot conception of the world. All words have the “taste” of a profession, a genre, a tendency, a party, a particular work, a particular person, a generation, an age group, the day and hour. Each word tastes of the context and contexts in which it has lived its socially charged life; all words and forms are populated by intentions. (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 293)

Therefore, when Brian says that he is “aware of the language I speak and how it might affect those around me,” he is acknowledging what Bakhtin states in the quote “language is not an abstract system of normative forms but rather a concrete heteroglot conception of the world.” Third, Brian acknowledged that he is in fact an active participant in speech diversity and that the language he speaks affects those around him. His speech act did not merely convey information to those who heard it but it affected them in some way; it was “socially charged.” It was stratified by his social experience and the social experience of those who heard it. His study of

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relationships to understanding and speaking Spanish. He related the following experience:

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language made him more aware of his linguistic and discursive resources and how they impacted those around him. In a separate interview, I spoke with Jasmine who went through the ESL endorsement program as an undergraduate and was hired to teach at the high school for one year before she moved out of the state. Jasmine, a first year teacher and what I would term a budding activist, demonstrated passion in all she did. Her desire to make changes in the school and expose injustices that impacted her students in the ESL program surprised me at times, due to the risks involved as a first year teacher. She felt her ability to speak Spanish allowed her to connect more with her ELs. She explains: I feel like I am in more contact to the students I teach because I speak Spanish. I feel like I am connected to the people and not just the numbers or the test results of each student. I feel knowing the language of my students has benefits beyond translation or grammar but social benefits. (interview, May 10, 2001)

When Jasmine related information about “test results of each student” she was referring to the Director of Special Services at the district level who assigned her the job of collecting test results to show progress. The demonstration of ELs’ progress on tests was one of the requirements of the OCR. Jasmine’s point here was that she cared directly for the students and that knowing Spanish gave her more insight to their issues. She understood language as part of a social process not just a cognitive activity. Laura, a Spanish teacher with a Mexican American father, empathized with students through her own language-learning journey, which began in high school and continued as she served a mission for the LDS church in Argentina. I began studying Spanish in high school and I think I dropped out after my 4th year instead of going on to Spanish 5 because I didn’t think I was a good language learner . . . so I just quit. I didn’t take it in college. Then I was called to a Spanish-speaking mission, and I thought I can do that because I could conjugate anything. But I found out quickly I couldn’t speak at all. My first companion from Latin America was a Spanish teacher, so she sat me down and began with the alphabet and said, “Ok now how do you say that letter?” I was humbled in not being able to say the alphabet right. But it was OK and soon I loved to speak Spanish. So I understand the humility students feel when they are learning a new language and unlike most of my students, I had so much more support. (interview, April 27, 2001)

Like Brian, Laura’s experience struggling to learn Spanish and feeling humility when her companion suggested she needed to begin with the

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Language Ideologies at Cherry High School

Inciting Change

alphabet gave her empathy for her students. She also acknowledged the support system she had throughout her language learning experience “unlike most of my students.” She recognized the advantage of having a one-on-one native-speaking tutor, whose profession was teaching Spanish, to help her. Because of the experiences shared by these participants, my own experience in the classroom and many others, my colleagues and I began to discuss the idea of requiring at least some experience with learning a language as a requirement for obtaining an ESL endorsement. This language ideology meant that learning another language was necessary to teach others learning a language. I asked Brian if he thought experience with another language should be a requirement for teaching ELs. He responded: Well, it is definitely beneficial, but I wouldn’t want it to be a requirement because there are some teachers with certain personalities that would do great with ELs, and I wouldn’t want to discourage them because they don’t know another language. (interview, April 22, 2002)

Brian expressed the idea that teachers “with certain personalities would do great with ELs.” Like Brian, I too agree that certain individuals do work better with ELs. But rather than use the term “personalities,” I would expand the notion of “personalities” to explain how some teachers embrace Discourses and practices that serve ELs more equitably. The term personality is problematic because it is apolitical, psychological, in that it divorces teachers from the wider political, social, and historical world where they live (Bartolomé and Balderrama, 2001; Buendia, 2000). In addition, it is easier to place blame on teachers as individuals with difficult personalities rather than examining the political and social Discourses that impact their actions. I do believe that when teachers are aligned with Discourses that support or understand the social, historical, and political situations of ELs, they are better able to connect with them in a classroom setting. Data from the participants demonstrated that learning a language alone does not guarantee the embracing of these Discourses. Laura in a later focus group meeting emphasized that learning a language alone was not enough to guarantee an awareness of language or feel empathy for ELs going through the process. She described conversations with other teachers in the Modern Languages Department: Some teachers don’t understand the concept of what the ELs are going through. They might say well I lived in a foreign country and picked up the language by immersion and my kids entered the school system there and

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Laura is demonstrating her awareness of socioeconomic factors and immigration that impact students’ ability to learn language. This comment demonstrates how she aligns herself to a different Discourse of language learning than does the colleague she mentions. González (2000) describes this notion in her introduction to Language ideologies: Critical perspectives on the official English movement. She describes the language ideology shared by this teacher that coincides with many others in the United States. As Americans, we like to think that we are concerned about the violation of human rights in other parts of the world, but we do not feel the same kind of empathy for children and adults who come to this country seeking opportunity and fairness, and we are often reluctant to grant them the consideration we would wish for ourselves if we were in the same situation. (González, 2000, p, xxxvii)

The key to this explanation comes from the statement “if we were in the same situation.” Some teachers, such as described by Laura previously, did not understand that their situation in another country as a long-term visitor with economic capital is rather different than an immigrant who might be displaced from their country as an economic or political refugee. The teacher who lived abroad for a few years might have had difficulty adjusting to a country with a new language and differing social practices, but she went to that country with cultural capital—an international visitor with economic security (Bourdieu, 1977). Unlike the teacher who had the economic power to choose to live in another country for a few years, many students in the ESL program moved to the United States because of economic or political situations in their home countries. The teacher, as an international visitor, brought with her cultural capital including a diploma, employment, and a form of socializing to the new country, “artifacts” that are highly valued in industrial nations. Many students in the ESL program, on the other hand, did not have access to these artifacts or cultural capital. Brian, at the beginning of the chapter, described a similar situation. Like the example shared by Laura, both teachers experienced learning a language internationally; they had a choice to go and live there temporarily. Their experiences, though both included living in a country with a different language and social practices, did not prepare them to understand the obstacles ELs in the school face. They somehow equated their

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did fine. They tend to ignore the socioeconomic factors and other factors of immigration that play into the success in schools for ELs.

Inciting Change

experiences learning language as universal. This demonstrates a Discourse of language learning that is cognitive and separate from historical, social, and political situations of those who speak it and learn it. This is not surprising, as “linguistic theories have tended to neglect the social-historical conditions underlying the formation of the language” (Bourdieu, 1997, p. 7). Language, therefore, is isolated apart from the speakers who speak it and the world where they live.

Academic Language is More Complex than Social Language I learned a language in 2 years without special programs, why can’t they? (common phrase used by many teachers)

English immersion Discourse at Cherry High School, mirrored by the national/community Discourse, circulated as being the best way to educate immigrant children (cf. Baron, 1990; Crawford, 1991; Cummins, 2000). The English-only debate, explored in the introduction of this book, fortifies this position (cf. Crawford, 1991). Language education research indicates that immersion programs such as English-only or French-only programs in Canada are most effective for learners from dominant language groups whose first language (L1) is valued and supported both at home and in the broader society (Collier, 1995; Cummins, 2000; García, 1994; Genesee, 1987). Therefore, an English-only immersion program in Mexico for Spanish speakers would work well because Spanish is the language supported in the home and community and the school is the main place where students encounter English. In contrast, bilingual education is more effective for language-minority students whose language has less social status, even though English immersion education is favored in public policy debates (Cummins, 1981; Crawford, 1991). The latter part of the research that bilingual education is more effective for ELs whose language does not have social status gets lost in the community/national Discourse about how immigrant children should learn English. Why do some question that heritage language plays a crucial role in education? Most of the grant participants, even the bilingual teacher participants, admitted that they were pro-English immersion rather than pro-bilingual education previous to taking the university coursework (e-mail correspondence, September 23, 2005). After the coursework, they were convinced that some bilingual classes needed to be added to support beginning and intermediate language learners. Because two of the teachers

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were fluent in Spanish, they made the administration aware of their willingness to teach bilingual classes. Therefore, part of the reason the school’s ESL program changed in the way it did was because of the way in which the grant participants and the incoming principal aligned themselves with certain Discourses concerning language ideologies about academic and conversational language and how that translated into developing a model that would fit those goals. In the conversation from the focus group that began this chapter, Brian recalled his realization of the many levels of language learning. He related his experience learning a language in another country but realized when he took university classes that he still had a lot to learn. Brian admitted that he “thought [he] knew [Spanish] pretty well” until he “took university courses in [Spanish] and realized it was a little more difficult and more complicated than [he thought]” (focus group meeting, February 21, 2003). What if Brian had not decided to continue his language education? Would his language ideologies be different if he only relied on the conversational Spanish he learned in Spain? His statement, “I thought I knew the language pretty well,” leads to the thinking that he most likely would have continued with the idea that one can learn a language in another country simply by immersion. Because he tested his language ability in university courses, the previous Discourses he heard conflicted with his lived experience. He no longer could say that immersion alone gave students the academic language needed in formal schooling. He, who considered himself a “decent student with educational background,” came back and “thought [the university classes] were difficult.” Thus, he understands why ELs in high school social studies classes struggle even if they understand conversational English. This example concurs with a point made by Judd (2000) in an article about the preposterousness of supposing a law that required “English-only” to promote the learning of English by immigrants. He illustrates his point by asking questions. “[Many] native English speakers have attempted to learn another language as part of their secondary or university education. How many of them attain fluency? Could they apply and be interviewed for a decent job in which they had to perform in that language? Could they read technical material or write information on forms? Could they take a chemistry class in that language and pass it? The answer is obvious. Most would fail miserably. Merely passing a law does not induce or increase language learning” (Judd, 2000, pp. 164–165). A year later, Brian was asked to respond to a question for the purpose of continuing the university grant funding. The question was: “Have your practices concerning teaching ELs changed due to participation in

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I have learned so much about language acquisition that I didn’t know before, such as, how should content be taught to ELs and how long does it take to develop proficiency in another language. The program really helped me to understand more the challenges that are faced by the ELL population. It affected my whole philosophy of teaching ELs. The major changes being that an ELL is capable of learning English, and they are capable of high expectation in the content areas, but you can’t necessarily expect them to do both at the same time. There has to be different instruction. I really believe in content area instruction now. It just makes sense. It would be very challenging for a student to learn high school chemistry or U.S. history and a second language at the same time. It would be overwhelming. It just makes sense that you have a high drop out rate for these students because we overload them. We expect them to learn things that we don’t expect the rest of our students to do. That is a big part. I really feel that they already have the cards stacked up against them in many ways, and I think expecting them to learn twice as much as everybody else in the same amount of time is just stacking the deck further. I think that is bad education and bad teaching. (grant fiscal report, spring 2002)

The term academic language from the bilingual and ESL literature as Faltis and Wolfe (1999) critically explain it helps us to better understand how language ideologies surface in the literature. “Academic language commonly refers to the specialized language used in learning subjectmatter content in formal schooling contexts” (my emphasis). This meaning is derived from Cummins’ (1981) theoretical distinction between everyday communication or Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and school-based language or Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). Cummins claims students who achieve the ability to complete cognitively demanding tasks without help from contextual clues have CALP. Though Cummins’ distinction between CALP and BICS can help teachers better understand the reason a student might function well in English in social settings but do poorly in subjects such as Science and History, the theory places language in a cognitive arena, separate from social, historical, and political contexts. The notion of CALP has been criticized by a number of scholars for focusing on language apart from its location in social practices (Aukerman, 2007; Edelsky, 2006; Edelsky et al., 1983; Grant, Wong, and Osterling, 2007; Romaine, 1990; Troike,

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the university ESL endorsement program?” (grant fiscal report, spring 2002). Brian’s response builds on his initial understanding of the increased difficulty of understanding academic language. He writes:

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Cummins’s notion of academic language has been criticized on many grounds. The distinction between everyday language and CALP is difficult to sustain in real classroom settings. The concept of CALP is tautological; Students have CALP if they perform well on standardized language and literacy tests. If this is the sole criterion for determining who has and doesn’t have CALP, the concept is meaningless in the context of classrooms and schools, where social interaction and literacy have a profound impact on teaching and learning. (p. 273)

This criticism is useful on many counts. First, it surfaces the hegemony of standardized tests and the push for schools to educate students to meet the demands of the tests. The second is the ways in which language is categorized in academic and social camps, thus further extinguishing the definition of language as social, even in academic language. In other words, academic language is not only specialized language for school, it is also social language within certain academic groups. To better incorporate the reality of the classroom, Faltis and Wolfe propose the definition of “academic language [as a] set of discourse practices within the various content area classes that students need to acquire in order to participate successfully in mainstream schooling” (p. 274). By expanding the definition of academic language to a set of discourse practices that enable students to succeed in school, academic language becomes much more than a register. They suggest that: [Academic language] is a way of thinking, using language, and acting like an insider in the community. Achieving academic discourse is not primarily a cognitive feat, but rather a social one that may be indirectly supported by students’ willingness to construct a new identity as a member of the academic discourse community. (p. 274)

When the definition of academic discourse is expanded to include the social aspect of language learning, students’ success in the language does not focus on the cognitive evaluation of them alone, but the wider learning context. The grant participants all took a university course as part of their ESL endorsement entitled ESOL in the Content Areas. In this course, they studied the difference between Cummins’ (1981) notion of BICS and CALP as well as how to construct a unit in their content area with support for ELs following the Echevarria, Vogt, and Short (2000) Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model entitled Making content

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1984; Wald, 1984; Wiley, 1997). Faltis and Wolfe’s (1999) explanation of these criticisms is helpful. They explain that:

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comprehensible for English language learners. During this course, many of the grant participants at Cherry Creek High were convinced that content area instruction was necessary to support ELs in these content area courses (course evaluations, summer 2001). Carl, the math teacher, who learned conversational Spanish in Peru, describes an experience speaking Spanish in his ESL math class. He said: I am finding I’m capable of communicating and explaining to students individually in Spanish on a one-on-one basis, and they understand me more or less. But of course, I have those tongue-tied moments. Once, after I tried to explain a math concept in Spanish, the [Spanish-speaking] student I was trying to help said, “Try it in English” (much laughter from Carl) I said, “O, bravo, bravo, that is great you are ready for English.” And he said, “My English is better than your Spanish!” And of course he was right. Sometimes it is really difficult for me to explain math concepts in Spanish, which reinforces the difficulty of academic language. (interview, March 18, 2001)

Because Carl struggled to learn Spanish and attempted to use it to explain math problems, he had a constant reminder of the extra level of discourse necessary to be a part of the math community. Brian, too, understood academic language as a specific discourse when he explains that an “ELL is capable of learning English and they are capable of high expectation in the content areas, but you can’t necessarily expect them to do both at the same time. There has to be different instruction” (grant fiscal report, spring 2002). Brian acknowledged the different ways of thinking and being in the content areas that go beyond cognitive ability. His comment that “it just makes sense that you have a high drop out rate for these students because we overload them” (fiscal grant report, spring 2002) confers with Faltis and Wolfe (1999) that “achieving academic discourse is not primarily a cognitive feat, but rather a social one that may be indirectly supported by students’ willingness to construct a new identity as a member of the academic discourse community” (p. 274). As Brian said, “We expect them to learn things that we don’t expect the rest of our students to do.” This language ideology involving academic language ability differed greatly between teachers who were teaching in the ESL program and other teachers in the high school. The issue surfaced in one of our focus group interviews. All of the grant participants, as well as the ESL teacher, had comments about the tension between their language ideologies concerning academic content instruction and those of other teachers in the school.

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ESL teacher: I’m sorry, but I still get teachers saying, “Well they speak English so why can’t they do the academics?” I’ve given that lecture so many times. Carl: I hear you. Laura: Even (pause) I have to say, I’ve had trouble with teachers who get some ESL training but not enough, and they make statements that I wonder . . . (all laugh).

Awareness of language and how it interacts within the content areas is missing in most of the language ideologies of teachers without quality education in ESL and bilingual education. In a separate interview, I asked the grant participants how their language ideologies about teaching ELs differ from those in their academic departments. Each noted aligning themselves to certain Discourses due to lived experience, university education, and their understanding of language and culture. Carl was the first to respond. His response was laced with passion: I don’t think by and large they really understand the role that language plays in their subject. I don’t think they realize how language dominates mathematics. I think that is generally what most people believe if they haven’t had to deal with it. Math is a foreign language. I mean I heard that on a Saturday Night Live routine. Math is a foreign language. We understand the patterns but the language we use to understand the world of organizing and manipulating the world has to begin from a language that is learned. You learn a language based on coming from another language. You know, it depends on making connections and links from the language you grew up with or the language you are learning. So if that isn’t language . . . (recording fades). (field notes, March 18, 2001)

Carl’s first point was that other members of his math department do not “understand the role that language plays in their subject.” While language education certainly adds to a person’s understanding of content area language, Carl seemed to come to the program with this discursive alignment already in place. He refers to the Saturday Night Live routine that included the line “math is a foreign language.” When he heard this, it intersected with his own discourse about math and language, so he remembered it. He also referred to the importance of “making connections

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These teachers realized that they supported academic content instruction but that not all teachers understood why it was important.

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and links to the language you grew up with” in order to make sense of a new concept. This Discourse concurs with research on the applicability of literacy across languages (Peregoy and Boyle, 2005; Crandall, 1993). First language transfer is not the important idea here, it is the notion that students who read and write in their L1 can apply their literacy practices to the L2, and make sense of text once they crack the code. Carl also describes how “the language we use to understand the world of organizing and manipulating the world” is another example of the heteroglossia of language (Bakhtin, 1981). This concept demonstrates that achieving academic Discourse goes beyond cognition to the social sphere, indeed that cognition if fundamentally sociocultural. When Jan began her endorsement at the university, she aligned herself with the sink or swim Discourse so prevalent in national/community Discourse about language learning for immigrant students. She began shifting her alignment after reading literature on content and language learning and engaging in conversations with other teachers of ELs. She added to the conversation by explaining her observance of the complexity of science and language learning: I think science is even worse than some of the other subjects because even with your native English speakers, you are teaching vocabulary within a language. So when a student has a foreign language, that is very, very hard. Because even if the instructor is giving you visuals and trying to explain a concept, there is a whole bunch of explanation that you are not going to get because it is not in your language. (focus group interview, March 21, 2001)

When Jan referred to science being “even worse than some of the other subjects,” she meant that it is extremely complex (informal conversation, March 28, 2001). She explained that even the native English speakers in her classes sometimes have difficultly with new vocabulary and concepts. Added to the complexity are students in her class who do not understand her. She used this example to strengthen the argument for the need of bilingual content courses. Brian, on the other hand, described how other teachers in his department do understand the difficulty between language and content, but they don’t want to change their teaching because of it. He explains: Most history teachers are happy that I’m teaching the sheltered classes because then they don’t have to worry about addressing the needs of ELs in their mainstream classes. Most realize it takes time to learn a language and since history is very language based, they realize the subject matter poses a problem for most ELs. But, they don’t talk about the issue much.

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I don’t know. I think there are some teachers, when we talk about multicultural stuff, there are still some who don’t get why we are making accommodations for them, like we aren’t doing this for anybody else so why are we doing it for them. I think we are starting to get some teachers who maybe recognize something needs to be done for the kids, but they have no clue what it is so if you tell them that that something is being done they think that is great but in terms of them contributing or changing what they actually do in their classroom . . . they just don’t want to. (focus group interview, February 21, 2003)

The resistance to change illustrated by Brian’s comments remain common in teacher’s Discourses about curriculum changes they are asked to make for the benefit of ELs. Stuart Hall (1997) explains the “struggle between those who constantly have to move, change and evolve and those who use various ideologies of nationalism or racism to maintain ‘some system of supremacy . . . against the multicultural drift’ ” (p. 297). Like Hall describes, Brian asserts that the teachers do not want to make changes in their classroom to meet the needs of ELs in their classrooms. They expect the students will and should do all of the changing. According to Brian, many teachers “don’t want to worry about addressing the needs of ELs in their mainstream classes” and “in terms of them contributing or changing what they actually do in their classroom . . . they just don’t want to.” Hall describes this alignment of stagnancy to teachers who want to “maintain some system of supremacy against the multicultural drift” by requiring their students “to move, change and evolve.” This struggle between teachers who are willing to adapt and change and those who are not is apparent through the language ideologies on content area instruction. Laura added in a personal interview: If these students need to understand subject matter and content area concepts to pass a test or earn a diploma, they need to be learning content from day one. But they can only learn content if it is comprehensible. We need more teachers to participate in the developing content area courses for ELs. They can’t continue to say things like, “I don’t know anything about the ESL program, or I don’t really understand language.” They need to begin learning. (interview, May 15, 2001)

Laura acknowledged that a small group of teachers alone cannot meet the academic needs of all the ELs. Though some core classes in the ESL program now had endorsed teachers and specially designed curriculum for ELs, not all the classes were covered. The language ideologies needed to be

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In another interview Brian addresses a similar point:

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explored more with all the teachers at the school. The principal did ask Laura and Brian to present a demonstration of the sheltered and bilingual classes they taught at a school in-service meeting, but the meeting was short and probably not very effective (more about this meeting in chapter 6). In all, most teachers, not in the ESL program, continued to teach their content area classes in the same way.

Languages Other than English are Named a Problem or Barrier They have no language. (common phrase used by many teachers)

A third language ideology circulating in the school was that languages other than English were a problem or barrier. My first observation at the high school, after receiving Institutional Review Board (IRB) permission, was at a meeting called by the vice principal for all faculty and aides involved in the ESL program. One of the grant participants, Laura, informed me of the meeting and asked the vice principal if it would be ok for me to attend. The meeting began with a general question about how the program was progressing. Then it moved into a discussion of who should test and how testing should occur in order to place ELs appropriately. The district had purchased the Idea Proficiency Test (IPT) test in both English and Spanish to better assess literacy in both languages. The aides and ESL teacher wondered which test they should give first depending on the ELL students’ dominant language. Then the ESL aide said, “Unless they have no language.” And the ESL teacher agreed that would be an issue. No one addressed the issue of students not having a language. I thought to myself: “No language? Everybody has a language.” The comment bothered me, and I made a note to talk to the ESL teacher about it later (field notes, September, 2001). When I asked the ESL teacher about it later, she described some students in her classes who were not literate in English or Spanish, meaning they couldn’t read and write in either language. She referred to these students as having “no language.” I answered saying that they still have language; just not formal school language. “Yea, she said, they don’t have a language.” (field notes, October 10, 2001) Implicit in this statement is that they do not have a language that counts in school. In this conversation, I could not convince the ESL teacher that the students did indeed have a language; it just was not a language that was valued by the school or perhaps the students could not read and write in

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English or Spanish. Bourdieu (1991) has analyzed the ability of dominant Discourse to impose its interpretation so that it impacts entire communities. The way the dominant culture understands the world is so effective that it becomes “common sense” or “natural” to all in the community. The Discourse that a language that does not include formal school vocabulary does not exist; that the student does not have a language is evidence of this notion. González (2001) relates similar experiences in her work with women in the borderlands of Tucson, Arizona. She relates that many women report humiliation concerning their Spanish language “often emanating from Spanish-language prescriptivists informing them that the Spanish they speak is substandard.” Anzuldúa (1987) describes this humiliation as “linguistic terrorism.” She laments: Chicanas who grew up speaking Chicano Spanish have internalized the belief that we speak poor Spanish. It is illegitimate, bastard language. And because we internalize how our language has been used against us by the dominant culture, we use our language differences against each other. (p. 58)

Circulating Discourse about the process of language learning also revealed practices about the intolerance, in general, for students who speak languages other than English. During an initial autobiographical interview, an English teacher describes the language ideology of “many teachers and students” concerning ELs at the school. At the beginning of the 2002 school year, a consulting group from the university sent around a survey to all the teachers and students at Cherry High School asking questions about the education of ELs. This English teacher related this experience after distributing the survey: What was interesting to me was, after we got through with this survey, the kids went off about how these people who are here from other countries should speak English or not come here. This was from my freshmen class. I had a young man sitting in the back of the room who was an ELL student and so of course I jumped into the students’ conversation. I said, “Well, wait a minute, let’s look at the logic of what you are saying. When you go to another country for whatever reason, do you automatically know the language?” He said, “Well, no.” And I said, “Well, isn’t that ethnocentric (and I explained what that meant) for you to say that you have to do things my way when you are here? Do you know that they are learning the language? Do you have any idea how long it takes to learn a language?”

As she described this event, her voice got increasingly agitated. Through her voice, I noted that this tension was common in the school. When the

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student said, “students from other countries should speak English or not come here,” he was aligning himself with the Discourse that students speaking languages other than English are not valued and not even welcome by some students and teachers. Although for the most part, those teachers participating in the grant program revealed language ideologies that acknowledged the funds of knowledge ELs brought to the school, there were some diversions. On a number of occasions Jan, the science teacher, referred to students’ first language as a problem or barrier. In referring to the stigmatism some of the ELs feel in her classroom, she describes I think that ELs perceive they need additional help and instead of understanding that they have an unusually difficult burden because of language barriers, they perceive themselves and others in their culture as being not as smart because they need that additional help. And the Caucasian kids, they don’t usually need additional help. They say that they need the grade, they want the answer, and they are going to get it. So they are much more aggressive and they already have their niche in the student body population and in society. They are already where they want to be established in their domain. (interview, May 10, 2001)

Here, Jan described the students as having a difficult burden because of language barriers. Instead of describing the school structure as the barrier, the language is considered a barrier and the students who use the language are considered a barrier to the flow of education as presented. The students are in a sense psychologized “as not being as smart because they need that additional help.” Rather than contextualizing students within a school community, the students’ language is labeled as a barrier. This language metaphor was also identified by Santa Ana (2002). He explains: In the public discourse, the obstacle was the language spoken by these children. In contrast to a popularly supposed “normal” (middle-class, monolingual) child, for whom English is a fluid medium that speeds him or her through school, Latino children found their educational path blocked by their language. (p. 207)

Some examples he shared from California newspapers were: 1. Association for Bilingual Education conference participants . . . wanted to send a form letter to their elected representative. “Without help to bridge the language barrier, these [bilingual] students cannot possibly succeed.” (February 6, 1995) 2. The only path to professional success is fluency in English, and prolonging the transition from Spanish just impedes children, he said. (March 21, 1997)

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We see from these examples that Jan’s use of the metaphor “language as barrier” was not in isolation and is indeed tied to national Discourse surrounding immigrant languages. Similarly, when describing her class composition, she refers to students’ home language as a problem, when she reports information about the students in her classes: I also get 504 mainstream kids and those at risk, but they have nothing to do with language problems like ESL. It is learning problems and things like that, so I am the one with the bulk of those too. (interview, May 10, 2001)

Here again, the structure of the school is putting students “at risk,” but instead of putting the blame on the structure, the ELs are identified as having “language problems” because they speak a language other than English. The following quote explains how metaphors are used only to describe programs rather than the structural factors of working-class parents. Santa Ana (2002) explains: It is remarkable that during the Proposition 227 campaign (in California), the public did not consider the educational disparity of language-minority children to be the result of structural factors (such as inferior school plants or weaker teaching staffs) or the economic straits of their working-class parents. In the 1996–1998 Times corpus, no metaphors referred to class or structural impediments, other than bilingual education programs, to explain why Latino children fare poorly in school. (p. 207)

Language ideologies that identify languages as barriers or problems were common at Cherry High School and not surprisingly in the national/ community Discourses.

Languages Other than English are Foreign Now I claim Spanish as my own language. (Laura)

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3. It was the seemingly insurmountable language barrier; Pavel mouthed only a few halting English phrases. (October 29, 1995) 4. In a landmark 1974 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court held that schools are obliged to help students overcome language barriers to the mainstream curriculum. (April 18, 1997) (p. 208)

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As far as the classroom, I pay more attention to the way I say things like instead of saying in Spanish that they say, I say in Spanish we say to kind of bring it back to us and not make it such a foreign concept for them. (interview, March 18, 2002)

The language ideology that all languages are foreign to the United States except English is prevalent, even by teachers who study language and language learning. Most departments that teach languages other than English name themselves “Foreign Language Departments.” People ask each other if they know a “foreign language.” Laura’s awareness of her previous use of “they” instead of “we” or “I” showed her willingness to claim Spanish as her own. When a teacher claims a language, it is given value. As Gloria Anzuldúa (1987) wrote so eloquently, “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity—I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself ” (p. 59). When Laura says, “we say” when speaking Spanish, she is, similar to Anzuldua, claiming Spanish as her own. She continued to describe the changes she has made: In addition, in Spanish I have gotten a lot better at explaining things like this is one way to say it in Spanish but there are lots of different ways and sometimes Spanish speakers say it in different ways—they want their Spanish to be their Spanish not more of a generic Spanish. So, I try to teach it in more than one way to affirm their culture and their way of speaking as well as note the way they say different phrases. (interview, March 18, 2002).

Laura’s statement that Spanish be “their language” described a change in her language ideologies from one that viewed language in an abstract way separate from the speakers who speak it and their history to claiming language as part of the social context where she lives. She also acknowledged Spanish from different countries as being valid, and though they are stratified within society, she is trying to place value on the Spanish spoken by her students by incorporating their use of phrases and vocabulary within her lessons. The importance of valuing students’ language/s concurs with

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they embraced the Discourse of linguistic pluralism and opposed English-only legislation. Language awareness in modern language classrooms was elevated. So I wondered what Laura, the Spanish teacher, would say when asked what had changed in her classroom since her participation in the university ESL program.

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Zentella’s (1997) study of Puerto Rican multilingual/multidialectal children that children’s linguistic repertoires need not be learned separately and in isolation. She argues that this type of learning environment is especially “critical in a time when English-only, anti-immigrant, and antiaffirmative action sentiments influence, if not dominate, educational policy and practice” (p. 138). In addition, Gallagher-Geurtsen (2007) suggests that White teachers, whose home language is standard English, acknowledge their linguistic privilege. By increasing their awareness of this privilege they may be in a better position to legitimize all the languages or dialects that are a part of a student’s identity through program design or classroom activity. Data from the project suggested a variety of language ideologies circulated in the school. Language ideologies that supported maintenance of students’ home language existed but were limited. A few teachers, who spoke other languages themselves, experienced struggle while learning language and participated in educational experiences that convinced them of the importance of developing a first language, spoke out and disrupted the prevalent centripetal forces of language that dominated the community/ nation and the school. By contesting the language ideologies, these teachers demonstrated the centrifugal Discourses of language at work that allowed for change. While the language ideologies circulating at Cherry High School mirrored the dominant Discourse in society, the teachers were able to insert conflicting Discourse demonstrating the centrifugal part of language discussed by Bakhtin. When these teachers chose to speak, changes happened. They impacted the construction of the ESL program, their own teaching practices, and the general acceptance of certain kinds of Discourses in the school. The next chapter focuses on the changes in the ESL program at the school and explores what enabled and/or constrained the teachers to make those changes.

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Language Ideologies at Cherry High School

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Teachers as Agents of School Change

A high school is like a standing wave like the ripples in a rapids-filled river; the individual parts of the wave change, but the wave itself stays the same. (Carl, grant participant)

Carl’s quote represents the framework of this chapter. The environmental context of this quote is important. The school is situated in the Rocky Mountains where there are many rivers. If you look at a river from a bird’s eye view, you will see many waves in the river formed by large boulders. From this view, it appears as if the waves are standing, as if there is no movement. But if you move closer to the river, you can see that there is much movement. Water is constantly moving around and in between the rock, but generally the rock stands still. In order for the rock to move suddenly, something drastic would have to happen. For example, it would have to be moved physically by someone or by a flood of rushing water or a shift in the ground below. When Carl states “a high school is like a standing wave,” he is acknowledging the structural barriers in the school that make change such as top-down administrative decisions, the organization of departments, standardized tests and class size difficult; at the same time he is acknowledging the changes that are happening when he says that the individual parts of the wave change. This chapter explores how teachers act as agents of school change within a confining school structure. This section of field notes describes the ebb and flow of change within the ESL program at Cherry High School. While teachers and administrators made significant changes in the ESL program due to myriad events, the program was not at any time permanent and was always

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Because I was at the high school to observe a student teacher, I decided to drop by Laura’s classroom to see how things were going. She sat behind her desk busily entering grades into the computer. She said, “I’m so glad you stopped by. They are taking away my Spanish for Native Speakers class.” Surprised, I asked why they would do that when she had received such wonderful reports about the class and seen improvements from the kids in it. “I guess they forgot to add it to the selection of electives for the kids coming in from the middle school, so there are not enough students. We needed a new crop of the ELs from [Mt. Bonneville].” Frustrated and disappointed, we brainstormed together to figure out how we could let students know about this language option. We decided she would call the principal over at the middle school to see what he could do. She didn’t feel very optimistic as all the registration forms had been processed and decisions made by the administration at the high school to let the class go. (field notes, spring 2002)

Laura’s desire and pressure to add the Spanish as a Native Language course to the program appeared to be short lived. Just because she was granted permission at one time to teach the class did not mean that it would continue. She was able to teach the class all three trimesters that year, and the next year the class was divided up so that in the same class period she taught an Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish class for nonheritage speakers of Spanish and the Spanish for Native Speakers class. This arrangement made it difficult to address the needs of the heritage language Spanish speakers. The questions that began this research revolved around the teachers wanting to create school change. In the previous chapters, I have explored how community/school Discourse often contradicts the grant participants’ Discourse surrounding ELs, how teachers’ Discourses and practices have changed through university course work and experience teaching in the ESL program, and how language ideologies are formed and enacted in decisions made in relation to the ESL program. This chapter examines the larger school structure that both enabled and constrained the changes the teachers wanted to create (Apple, 1986; Britzman, 2003; Hargreaves, 1994; Giroux, 1992) and the centripetal and centrifugal forces that were at work during the process of change (Bakhtin, 1981). The centripetal forces were the big “D” Discourses and school structure that allowed the teachers and administration to carry on with a curriculum designed for White middle-class students and the centrifugal forces

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vulnerable to the larger stream of Discourse within the school and nation/ community.

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were teachers and new administration who created new Discourses that pushed for changes in the ESL program for ELs. In an interview, Carl insightfully used this analogy about secondary school change: “a high school is like a standing wave like the ripples in a rapids-filled river; the individual parts of the wave change, but the wave itself stays the same.” We can interpret the rock, that forms the wave in this analogy, as the difficult-to-move structures present in secondary schools in the United States when changes are needed to accommodate linguistically diverse students (Olsen, 1997; Valdès, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999; and others). Hargreaves in his book Changing teachers, changing times (1994) regrets that “changes can be proclaimed in official policy, or written authoritatively on paper. Change can look impressive when represented in the boxes and arrows of administrator’s overheads” (p. 11). But are these changes just superficial? Do they really impact the way students learn and teachers teach? Are changes occurring in the structure to better represent students? Hargreaves gives another explanation of this standing wave analogy: “While in one sense, change is ubiquitous, the social pendulum is always swinging, and there is nothing new under the sun, the juxtaposition of these extensive changes at one historical moment amounts to no more than one more shift of social fashion” (p. 23). Are there changes only in the ripples or the water rushing by while the wave stabilized by the rock remains standing? These questions are at the heart of this research on school change. I structure this chapter around these questions of change that guided my research at Cherry High School during the three year time period. • In what ways has the ESL program at Cherry High School changed? • Were the teachers able to change the previous ESL program? How? • Finally, what were the structural elements or Discourses that enabled and/or constrained the teachers to implement these changes? Chapter 3 of this book focused on teachers’ ideological change. This chapter focuses on the structural changes at the high school and the events or Discourses that enabled those changes. In this study, I looked not only at individual agency that created change, but the context of those changes. Popkewitz (1991) suggests an approach to studying educational change by minimizing the observation of individuals’ psychology and focusing on the importance of history and Discourses within the context. In other words, rather than placing the blame or success on individual teachers and their cognitive ability or attitudes/beliefs, it is important to understand the context where they work, including national/community Discourses.

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Inciting Change

Cherry High School functions within a traditional, top-down administration. Even though the teachers in the study obtained ESL endorsements and demonstrated a desire for change through suggesting ideas for changes within the program via conversations and written proposals, the ultimate decision of how and when the changes would be made came from the principal with permission from the superintendent (field notes, May 10, 2002). This centralized system limited the agency of the teachers within the school, even though some of the Discourses of the administration coincided with the teachers’ Discourses. Romero (1998) points to the difficulty of school reform under this system: The co-optive approaches of restructuring are revealing an incongruity between decentralisation change efforts (deregulation, school-based management, teacher empowerment) and centralized reforms (curriculum control, standard evaluation, increased teacher supervision). (p. 60)

In this study, the centralization of the government regulation of schools both enabled and constrained changes within the structure of the school’s ESL program. The centralization of the Office of Civil Rights, housed within the federal government’s laws and regulations, pushed the school to make changes so that the teachers who desired these changes were given the opportunity by the local administration. Because the district had to adhere to the suggestions made by the Office of Civil Rights they solicited help from teachers who now had ESL credentials. On the other hand, the centralized structure disallowed teachers to create the change on their own. For example, they had to be invited by the administration to make changes, even though some of them had more expertise. Finally, the restructuring or reform in the school was slow to respond to changes due to the hierarchal system of change. I start with the changes that occurred in the structure of the ESL program. It might be useful to look at table 2 provided in chapter 2. The progressive changes made within the ESL program are explained in the following section.

Changes in the Structure of the ESL Program The ESL program course offerings, when the study began in fall 2001, consisted of four ESL courses. Three of the courses were named ESL and the curriculum included grammar exercises, vocabulary lessons, and role-play experiences to practice oral language skills. The courses were

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nonleveled, meaning that students of all language abilities in English enrolled in the class including recent immigrants as well as students who had lived in the United States for many years. The fourth course was a study skills course meant to teach ELs general study skills. In reality, this course was a catch-all for students to finish homework from other classes, but often it was also a time for them to chat with their friends. The teacher did not facilitate a lesson but was present in the class as a resource to answer questions and generally oversee the students (field notes, October 10, 2001). The faculty assigned to teach ELs was limited to one ESL teacher and two teaching assistants aides. The ESL teacher taught the ESL classes and on occasions accompanied students to their other classes to help them take notes. The aides both helped in the ESL classes and were assigned to accompany ELs to particularly difficult classes—the classes where they traditionally did not fare well. According to data gathered the year before the study began, those classes included nearly all of the content area courses (field notes, October 10, 2001). Because my colleague and I applied for the Bilingual Training for All Teachers grant, I had access to school grade data. In 1998–1999, at Cherry High School, secondary students not classified as ESL students had Grade Point Averages (GPAs) of 3.0 out of 4.0; in contrast, students classified as ESL students had GPAs of 1.3 out of 4.0. The following percentages reflect the 1998–1999 content area grade outcomes for ELs enrolled in mainstream classes: • • • •

64 percent of ELs earned a D or below in social studies courses; 58 percent of ELs earned a D or below in mathematics courses; 53 percent of ELs earned a D or below in science courses; 58 percent of ELs earned a D or below in English courses (when early exited); • 41 percent of ELs earned a D or below in noncore content courses. The dropout rates for secondary students correlated to the enrollment growth of ELs. As the ELL population increased at the school, their dropout rate also increased. Dropout percentages for the 1998–1999 academic year reveal that non-ELs experienced a 2 percent dropout rate while ELs experienced a 21 percent dropout rate (Bilingual Training for All Teachers Grant Data, February 20, 2000). Although these dropout rates demonstrate a significant concern for the education of ELs, they can be misleading. The limitations of this drop out data are that these numbers typically underestimate the actual number of dropouts and some kids are pushed out of the school system before they even reach these records. Thus, these

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Teachers as Agents of School Change

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data illustrated an even greater need for restructuring the ESL program at Cherry High School. When the study ended in the spring of 2003, the ESL program had a more elaborate structure. Four ESL courses existed in 2003, and although this was the same number that existed in 2001, these three courses were leveled beginning, intermediate, and advanced. Students were assigned to the courses according to their English IPT (Idea Proficiency Test) and teacher recommendation. All the courses included reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities. The fourth course remained a study skills course where students sometimes had a specific lesson on study techniques, but more often used the time to catch up on homework from other classes. The ESL teacher and one other aide were assigned to this class to lend assistance (field notes, September 15, 2003). The Social Studies Department also made significant changes. In 2001, not one class was designated to support ELs. In 2003, two courses for ELs were developed. Because Brian had an endorsement to teach social studies, had an ESL endorsement, and was also fluent in Spanish, he was able to teach a variety of courses designed for ELs within the department. The first was titled, Bilingual U.S. History. This course was for beginning ELs whose predominant language was Spanish. Brian taught this class entirely in Spanish with texts written in Spanish. By teaching in Spanish with texts written in Spanish for 11th and 12th grade students, Brian was able to maintain the rigor of a secondary history course. He concentrated on the content of the course while making cultural connections to the students who hadn’t taken a course on U.S. history previously. The second course rotated throughout the trimesters to allow ELs to take a variety of social studies courses in a sheltered environment. For example, during the first two trimesters Brian taught sheltered U.S. history, and the last semester he taught sheltered geography. During the next year, he was scheduled to teach sheltered world history. These courses were designed for intermediate to advanced ELL students whose predominant language was Spanish and for all ELs who spoke other languages (field notes, September 15, 2003). In the Science Department, Jan was the only teacher endorsed in ESL. She agreed to teach two sheltered earth systems courses for all ELs needing extra support. She designed the course to make use of cooperative groups so that she could assign bilingual aides (Spanish/English) to supervise and clarify for groups that had beginning ELs. The earth systems class was chosen because it was a required course and usually had high numbers of ELs (field notes, September 15, 2003). The Math Department structured their program similar to the Social Studies Department. Carl, who spoke conversational Spanish, was assigned to teach sheltered algebra for two trimesters initially and then

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We got permission to add a sheltered geometry next year so we’ll have two sheltered classes in the math department. Now geometry is going to be a trickier wicket than algebra is because it is very language intensive. So, it will be a larger challenge, more hands on possibilities in geometry so that part is good, but one of the challenges will be the linguistic focus geometry has. They will need to articulate their proofs and that is going to be trickier. (interview, March 18, 2001)

Carl shared the announcement of this geometry class with enthusiasm. He was pleased with the additional course that added to the growing curriculum for ELs. The Modern Languages Department also contributed to the course offerings for ELs. Laura was assigned to teach a Spanish for Native Speakers class. This class, focusing on developing reading and writing for heritage Spanish speakers, was structured much like English classes for heritage English speakers. In the course, students read and analyzed poetry from Latin America and Spain, read and discussed novels translated into Spanish, and worked on writing in a variety of genres (field notes, September 15, 2003). In addition to these course offerings, a Spanish-speaking counselor was hired to assist Spanish-speaking ELs with schedules and other issues they might be facing. All the counselors were instructed to enter the ELs in the computer first so that they would be sure to get the sheltered and bilingual classes they needed. This needed to be in place at the beginning of the school year to ensure the schedules would work out (field notes, September 15, 2003). A small classroom, located just inside the front doors of the high school building, was designated The Multicultural Center. This center was set aside to house computers for the exclusive use of teachers with ELs and for the parents of ELs in the school. The administration hired a mature bilingual aide (retired medical doctor from Mexico) to assist students in the computer room and also teach adult ESL classes. Teachers with ELs enrolled in the classrooms had access to this room of 20 computers when the well-used computer lab in the library was already scheduled (field notes, October 10, 2003). The number of ESL endorsed teachers rose from the initial one in the fall of 2001 to twelve by the spring of 2003. Seven of those endorsements

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the administration added sheltered geometry the next year. These classes were taught primarily in English but Carl used Spanish often when he needed to clarify a point or help beginning ELs on a one-on-one basis. Carl explained the structure of these courses:

Inciting Change

were obtained from the university ESL endorsement program and five of the endorsements were obtained from the district-sponsored program (field notes, October 10, 2003). The structure of the ESL program underwent significant changes, including additional courses to ensure content area instruction, maintenance of the home language for Spanish-speaking ELs, added trained teachers in ESL, The Multicultural Center, a scheduling system to ensure appropriate courses, and a designated counselor for ELs. Although these changes are significant, the overall structure of the school changed little. Most teachers not involved in the ESL program were unaware that the administration made these changes in the ESL program. According to personal conversations with Laura and Brian, most were surprised when they were told in passing of their new class schedules (field notes, October 10, 2003). Therefore, the school principal and vice principal and these four teachers were involved in making changes, but the administration did not make the effort to include the entire faculty in the change process.

Events that Enabled Change: New Leadership and Federal Reviews In this section I explore the events, Discourses, and teacher action that allowed this ESL program structure to change. I propose that the changes happened not only because the teachers desired the changes but also that certain events happened in the schools that allowed the teachers to insert their sometimes contradictory Discourses about teaching language to help create those changes. Through reviewing, reading, analyzing, and rereading data, two main events within the study of the ESL program at Cherry High School seemed to be catalysts for creating change in the ESL program. One was the need to hire a new principal and second was the OCR review that found the district out of compliance in relation to the education of Language Minority Students. Most of the teachers in the grant finished their ESL endorsement after the summer semester of 2001. That fall of 2001, they were ready to begin making changes to their school’s ESL program (field notes, July 8, 2001). However, the changes were slow. The snail-paced change occurring at the school connects to contradictory school/district Discourse and wider nation/community Discourse (discussed in chapter 3), the conflicting Discourses between grant participant teachers and other teachers and administrators in the school (discussed in chapter 4), and the differing language ideologies circulating in the school (discussed in chapter 5). Even though the participating teachers in the

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grant were changing their ideologies about language, about teaching practices with ELs in their classrooms, and desired to broaden the ESL program, they could not do it without the administration’s support. The school structure was arranged so that the administration decided who taught what classes and what classes should be taught. Historically, the teachers were not part of the process. Therefore, the existing school structure constrained the teachers to make changes when they had the ability and desired to do so. The top-down tradition of administrators making decisions unilaterally demonstrates one example of the unequal power structures in the school as a result of historical and political contexts created over time. This top-down structure of school control is one example of the inherent structure in schools that limit teachers’ ability to make changes. Apple (2004) states, “the deep structure of school life, the basic and organizational framework of commonsense rules that is negotiated, internalized, and ultimately give meaning to our experience in educational experiences” (p. 43) construct barriers for teachers to make significant changes that they are capable of making. In this section, I describe how teachers created change in the ESL program structure. I argue that teachers did not create change individually, in a vacuum, or according to their own will and agency; rather, certain events, Discourses, as well as teacher action, all contributed to changes that occurred at the school. Some of the language ideologies and Discourses that circulated in the high school steadied the school structure (centripetal forces), yet certain spaces were opened in this structure due to events, Discourse, teacher action and practices, rendering centrifugal forces to work for change (Bakhtin, 1981). Teachers did act as social agents of change as demonstrated by the restructuring and development of the ESL program. Indeed, language and the social practices that surround language are simultaneously dynamic and durable. Bakhtin explains this “polysemanticity” as The authentic environment of an utterance, the environment in which it lives and takes shape, is dialogized heteroglossia, anonymous and social as language, but simultaneously concrete, filled with specific content and accented as an individual utterance. (p. 272)

Bakhtin found that the utterance is the event that enables the simultaneity of language, by providing a space in which language emerges and changes, while also retaining a certain stable meaning. The following section describes those spaces where teachers were able to insert their own Discourses and lived experiences as a way to embody change in the program.

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During the 2001–2002 school year, Principal Allen’s cancer worsened. Though she was a dedicated principal, showing up to events and meetings even during chemotherapy treatments, she wasn’t able to make significant changes in the school ESL program. This troubled her greatly because, as she acknowledged numerous times to my colleague and me, changes were needed (field notes, spring 2001). The cancer took her life the spring of that school year. The school community adored this principal. Her kindness, hard-work ethic, and listening ear won the hearts of almost the entire faculty. “Everybody loved [Kate]” (field notes, May 10, 2001). Because of the admiration for Ms. Allen, the next principal had big shoes to fill. The school administration began their search to find a new principal soon after Ms. Allen’s passing. Laura, the Spanish teacher, was invited to sit on the committee to select the next principal because of her position as the president of the Cherry Creek High School Education Association. Laura related this story in a personal interview. I was on the committee to help select the principal—the large committee and also the small committee until I was the only teacher left to help make the decision. I wasn’t there because I was ESL endorsed, I was there because I was the teachers’ president. Nonetheless, when I looked at the candidates, I looked at who had ESL training endorsements, who spoke Spanish or another language that could understand what learning a second language was like. I always [chose to ask] questions about students with minority languages, when it was my turn to ask an interview question. I always chose those questions as my questions, and I rated their answers and listened very closely. I don’t know the impact of my questions, but the last two candidates we selected were probably equal in each of those areas. I said I don’t care which one we get, I know both of them will be excellent in all aspects but especially in language and ESL. (interview, March 18, 2002)

Laura used this event or space to exert her alignment to certain Discourses about ELs and what types of qualifications were necessary in the next principal. She explains that her invitation was not extended “because I was ESL endorsed” but because “I was the teachers’ president.” Laura’s experience illustrates that the administration had not considered a teacher join the committee to question candidates about their knowledge of ELs per se, but they did value a teacher’s voice in the process. Nonetheless, she used this opportunity to insert the Discourses she felt were important to the school, such as the need for “ESL training endorsements,” “speaking

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Spanish or another language,” and “questions about students with minority languages.” Laura used the space open to her as the Teacher Education President, to “utter” Discourses important to her concerning the program for ELs. She used the space to disrupt or change the course of the durable language that existed in the school by asking these questions that might not be asked otherwise, thus bringing attention to issues of ELs and ESL program development to others on the committee, mainly administration. In another interview, she explained, “All the stuff we learned in classes really did add and even change my philosophy for teaching ELs so that impacted the way I conducted those interviews.” It is unclear how much her choice of questions and the responses given by the interviewees impacted the district’s decision to hire Dr. Nils Cannon, but it is evident that she felt her involvement in the process has allowed changes to happen in the ESL program because of the statements she expressed. Not only did the school hire a new principal who was bilingual and had background in sheltered ESL programs, they also hired a new vice principal, Mr. Hank Roberts, also bilingual (Spanish/English). The local paper reported: Members of the [Cherry Creek School District Board of Education] approved, Hank Roberts, a former teacher and coach at [Viewmont] High School, to be the [Cherry Creek High School] assistant principal. The new assistant principal taught Spanish, English as a second language or ESL, and physical education for 18 years. (local paper, July 17, 2002)

Both Mr. Roberts and Dr. Cannon are referred to by the participants in the study as instigators in the changes made in Cherry Creek High School’s ESL program. But Laura equated changes in the ESL program between the second and third year of the study to the hiring of Dr. Cannon. She said: We thought we were going to have to fight to get the sheltered content classes and the content classes in Spanish. We, meaning the nine of us who are in the university ESL endorsement program, and we were prepared to do it. But we didn’t have to because the principal did it for us. The one thing he didn’t really do was consult us at all. He just did it. Luckily, I was very much in agreement with what he did and it was all good. I did give my Spanish for Native Speakers research paper to the administration to see if I could get those classes offered. And they are offering three sections of that class [during the first, second and third trimesters]. I think we will have a lot more influence now because Brian and I are being put in charge of those classes. (interview, May 10, 2002)

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Teachers as Agents of School Change

Inciting Change

Laura’s experience with the top-down style of administration is not new to secondary schools. Hargreaves (1994) states, “Political and administrative devices for bringing about educational change usually ignore, misunderstand or override teachers’ own desire for change” (p. 11). Though Laura was “in agreement” with the decision the principal made in regards to the changes in the ESL program, she also demonstrated some disappointment in the following statement: “The one thing he didn’t really do was consult us at all” (interview, May 10, 2002). Her acknowledgement that his not consulting the faculty was a mistake in administration is revealed in the words “the one thing he didn’t do [but should have].” Other teachers were more discouraged about the principal’s decision to reconstruct the program without input from teachers who cared about the issue deeply. An English teacher, Anna, expressed her discouragement in the process during an initial focus group interview. I felt no influence because [the administration] didn’t come to me. They were designing all these programs and they sent out all these emails to ask about endorsements and I wrote back in capital letters   . But I never got invited to a meeting. I never got invited to a brainstorm session. [Lucy] and I from the English Department have not been consulted, we have not been informed; they have not allowed us to have any influence and it has been very frustrating actually. (focus group interview, April 8, 2002)

I followed up to the group. “Any ideas why . . . ?” Carl responded, I don’t know but I just went in [to their offices] and forced the conversation with the vice-principal and [Nils] but as to what kind of input I had I have no idea. I was not informed or invited . . . but I feel like I am having moderate input. I also gave them an outline describing what a sheltered Algebra class might look like . . . my initial response is, I think they are looking at hiring someone who is bilingual. (focus group interview, April 8, 2002)

It is unclear from this conversation why this English teacher who showed a real desire to be a part of school change was left out of the decision making. Even though Carl also claimed he was “not informed or invited,” he still felt like he was having moderate input. Part of the reason could be his seniority in the school and part could be his long-term interest in expanding programs for minority students. Later in the same conversation it is revealed that he was asked to teach a sheltered algebra class. In addition, Jan, the science teacher, who is not bilingual, was asked to teach

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two sheltered earth systems course. Hargreaves (1994) relates a similar situation that occurred in a school he studies. The school personnel claimed that two groups of teachers existed at the school: the “Ins” and the “Not Ins.” That is, even had the administration allowed particular changes, the spatial/structural relationships of Cherry High School still may not have allowed this. While it is clear that some teachers were more privy to information about changes in the ESL program at Cherry High School than others, no teachers claimed to have the insider track. The principal appeared to make decisions from the top down and then relied on the teachers to construct individual classes. This traditional model of school management is common. Decisions trickle down from the superintendent’s office to the principal to the classroom teachers. Usually communication is unilateral, from the top down. By the time the principals and teachers hear about a decision and the reasons for it, the explanation has been interpreted many times by many people (Bullough, Baughman, and Berliner, 1997; Cochran-Smith and Lytle, 1993). Most teachers felt they needed to be invited in order to participate in the changes. Carl made a point to go and talk with the administration and Laura presented a paper about the benefits of Spanish for Native Speaker’s class, but neither knew if their participation impacted the principal’s decision to add the sheltered and bilingual classes. Brian added: I think [the administration] is leaving the curriculum design up to the teachers who have been asked to teach the classes. I don’t think the administration is trying to get their fingers in that but as far as the bigger program construction, they have done it all themselves. (focus group interview, April 8, 2002)

Again, Brian was guessing whether or not curriculum design would be an individual teacher’s decision or that of the administration. While this topdown decision did not seem to overly affect the teachers asked to participate in the ESL program, his decision-making style did eventually cost him his job. Dr. Cannon was encouraged to resign after the 2003–2004 school year (more about this event will follow). Later, in a follow up memo, Brian explained his impression of the focus group meeting. “I think [the meeting] clearly illustrates the need for more direct communication between faculty and administration regarding the curriculum development and implementation of the ESL program” (written communication, May 2002). Carl added, “I wasn’t asked specifically about ESL program changes, but the administration must have asked other people who know [about sheltered/bilingual programming]. They have

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listened to someone because the changes are coming” (informal conversation, May 10, 2003). Again, the admission that Carl “wasn’t asked specifically about ESL program changes” demonstrated the lack of an organized effort to plan these changes with the school staff and faculty, let alone the teachers, who would be directly impacted by the changes. The mixed responses about whether teachers impacted changes at the high school demonstrated the inequitable access to the administration. Whereas some teachers were asked to participate in the ESL program, others were not. No one seemed to know the reasons some teachers were asked and others not, though ideas circulated suggesting knowing Spanish was an indicator. Carl said, “My initial response is I think they are looking at someone who is bilingual” (focus group interview, April 8, 2002). The general lack of communication about how the program should be structured and who was to be involved surfaced throughout this conversation and many to follow. Still, those teachers who were asked to teach the classes in the ESL program, namely Brian, Carl, Laura, and Jan all felt they had an impact on the changes. Laura responded to the question, “Has your involvement in the ESL endorsement had any impact on the school’s ESL program?” She said: OK. The school ESL program wouldn’t be changing next year if there weren’t ESL endorsed teachers to teach once the changes were made. That is the bottom line for school change. If [Carl] wasn’t there ready to teach math, if [Brian] wasn’t there to teach social studies, if [Jan] wasn’t there to teach a science, and I wasn’t there to teach the Spanish speakers, there wouldn’t be an ESL program next year. So it has made an absolutely huge impact on the education of [ELs]. The teachers went through a rigorous program, which if nothing else was a major accomplishment. These changes won’t just benefit the Spanish-speaking ELs, the sheltered classes will be for all ESL students. (interview, March 18, 2002)

Laura emphasizes, first, the important role the university program had on the changes for the ESL program at the high school because it allowed teachers to become endorsed. Prior to that, the university did not offer an ESL endorsement. Secondly, her comments seem to counter the idea that the administration has had the only impact on school change. She explained that if the teachers were not ready to teach then “there wouldn’t be an ESL program next year.” This point illustrates that teachers as well as administrators had to be available and willing to make changes in the school in order for restructuring to take place. This first event that allowed the teacher to create change in the ESL program was the need to hire a new principal. Because the school worked

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within a top-down structure of decision making, it was key to hire a principal with similar discourses about language education for ELs. Laura understood the structure of the school system and used her power as the Teacher Education President within the process of hiring the principal to insert the importance of hiring a person with an understanding of language minority issues.

School Found Out of Compliance with Office of Civil Rights A second event that opened up spaces for change was the Office of Civil Rights review that found the district out of compliance in reference to language minority students. Carl, responding to the same question I asked Laura earlier “Has your involvement in the ESL endorsement had any impact on the school’s ESL program?” said, “I’m not so sure I did. I think the OCR did. It no doubt put some pressure on.” Carl was the only teacher at the time (Laura and Brian later noted the same in an e-mail correspondence with me) who said, on the record, that the Office of Civil Rights pressed the district to make changes in the high school’s ESL program. But many teachers, both grant participants and other teachers in the high school, mentioned, in informal conversations, that they felt the school wouldn’t make changes so quickly if it weren’t for the Office of Civil Rights review. Many said, “This is off the record” when they made such claims (field notes, May 10, 2002). My own research of the Cherry Creek District school board notes concurs with this claim. In my search of school board meeting notes, I found that the mention of the terms ESL or any programs relating to Language Minority Students began only after the OCR found the district out of compliance, revealing that the district needed an outside push to start making changes for ELs. My search of these school board documents, available on the Web, began with notes from the fall of 1998. The district received notice of the OCR complaint in the spring of 2000; the first mention of ESL, ELs, multicultural, or language programs began in the fall of 2000. In this example, the centralization of power within the structure of schooling on the federal level actually enabled changes within the ESL program on the ground level. Advocates of school reform deem that what defines changes are social and pedagogical commitments in schools (Romero, 1998). For this reason, any change, especially if it is structural in nature, must be examined critically, considering the social and

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pedagogical values during this century. It must consider the values connected with the community (Romero, 1998). In this situation, reform was necessary for a small population of the school. The changes did not necessarily connect with the values of the community or the national Discourse as was discussed in earlier chapters. In this situation, the Office of Civil Rights top-down structure that mandated changes actually supported the reform initiated by a small group of teachers at the high school and the newly hired principal. As stated earlier, Laura said, “The OCR complaint was definitely the biggest reason that change actually happened. The district went with all of our ideas because they needed serious help. Had they not needed that help, all our ideas may have fallen on deaf ears” (e-mail response, October 11, 2005). The top down structure worked in the teachers’ favor when the community/national Discourse did not, on the whole, promote bilingual classes or sheltered instruction. Fullan (1991) discusses the external factors that impact change within educational institutions: Legislation, new policies, and new program initiatives arise from public concerns that the educational system is not doing an adequate job of teaching basic, developing career relevant skills for the economic system, producing effective citizens, meeting the needs of at-risk children—recent immigrants or handicapped children or cultural minorities—and so on. These sources of reform put pressure on local district (sometimes to the point of force) and also provide various incentives for changing in the desired direction. . . . Whether or not implementation occurs will depend on the congruence between the reforms and local needs, and how the changes are introduced and followed through. (p. 79)

In the situation at Cherry High School, the “force” Fullan referred to translated into significant loss of funds for the school if the school did not change according to the guidelines outlined by the OCR. The federal government sometimes is criticized for its policies, as they often do not reflect the local needs of the community. In this case, they proved to be a necessary advocate for the minority population in the community. Because the agency found the school out of compliance, after being reported, the school was “forced” to make changes. This opened up a space for changes. The teachers who were ready to make the changes were able to utilize this event in the restructuring of the program. As Fullan states, “whether or not implementation occurs will depend on the congruence between the reforms and local needs, and how the changes are introduced and followed through.” Even though the OCR dictated that change happened, the way the changes happened relied on the local community of teachers—in this case, teachers who subscribed to the Discourse of bilingual education,

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sheltered academic classes, and the acknowledgment of resources ELs bring to the classroom. Findings at the school demonstrated that indeed changes were occurring with the school’s ESL program. Unlike other studies that focus on teacher change as individual teachers, I observed change occurring within a social context of events, Discourses, language ideologies, and individuals’ interaction amongst and with each other. Change, as described in the opening analogy, is fluid—like water. It moves around the rock and even moves some of the smaller rocks. At times the small rocks move toward the Discourses of heritage language enhancement and additional sheltered classes constructed specifically for ELs, and at times the change shifts the rocks in another direction in the flow of discourses that reflect the wider national/community Discourse that favor English-only instruction and rapid integration for ELs. In the beginning quote, Laura related her frustration concerning the probable loss of the Spanish for Native Speakers class that she developed. This example illustrates what happens when teachers are not an integral part of school changes especially when their alignment with certain Discourses differ from the larger school district Discourses as discussed in chapter 3. I asked her later why she thought the class was left out of the course offerings sent over to the middle school. She said: It is hard to say. My feeling is that not all the administrators really understand the need for a Spanish for Native Speakers course. They get why the content area courses like US History and science classes are needed because they do so poorly in these mainstream classes but they don’t really value the continuation of native languages. (field notes, September 4, 2004)

Laura’s quote reveals that she believed her Spanish for Native Speakers class was not just an oversight but that the class was not a priority for the administration. The administration did not seem to embody the Discourse of continued heritage language for ELs. She says, “They don’t really value the continuation of native languages.” In Restructuring schools for linguistic diversity, Miramontes, Nadeau, and Commins (1997) echo this sentiment that the social and political factors of bilingual education impact decisions made by administrators in program reform. They state: . . . programs for linguistically diverse students become diluted. For example, in many schools children are transitioned as quickly as possible out of native language instruction, not because they can no longer benefit from it, but because the “public” perceives it to be counterproductive or unnecessary. Because social, political, and educational factors are integrally

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Inciting Change

Even though Laura did what she could to add the Spanish for Native Speakers class and fight to keep it as part of the curriculum, she came up against not only a decision by one administrator but the “public” who “perceive[d] it to be counterproductive or unnecessary.” Both the superintendent and the ESL director of the neighboring district expressed in the newspaper that they preferred an English-only curriculum. Later, in conversations with the principal concerning the reasons the class was dropped, she was told that the school could not fund the small number of students in the class. If she was willing to teach an advanced Spanish class for predominately English-speaking students at the same time as her Spanish for Native Speakers class, then the class could continue. That meant she would have to plan two curriculums and divide her time between the two classes but only get credit for teaching one class. To her credit, she decided to do this, but it illustrates how her Discourses conflicted with the school priorities for teaching ELs concerning heritage language instruction. This example of the program retreating from a more expanded program to eliminating or diluting classes is important to examine if we are to understand the significance of the changes at Cherry High School. Even though the ESL program underwent changes during the time period of the study, including adding bilingual content area classes and sheltered classes, adding structure to the ESL classes, assigning a counselor and vice principal to the students in the program, and creating a multicultural center, it also changed in the opposite direction when the Spanish for Native Speakers class1 was dropped. We have to ask, were the changes only superficial or did they really change the way teachers teach and students learn? And was there enough structural change to support the changes made? Much literature focusing on the restructuring of schools for linguistically diverse students claims the necessity of an organizational pattern where all members contribute to the decision-making process (Miramontes et al., 1997; Schlechty, 1991; Warren-Little, 1994; Sagor, 1993). Patterson (1994) argues that core Discourses held by an organization are key to arriving at structural changes rather than “symptomatic” solutions or Band Aids for problems. The typical approach to program planning for ELs is to regulate the decision making to Special Programs personnel and to view the needs of the students as peripheral to the larger school community. As demonstrated, Cherry High School did not have an organizational pattern in place where all members could contribute to the decision-making process. Not only were the “mainstream” teachers left out of the discussion

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intertwined, they must ultimately be understood together in terms of their interactions and interrelationships. (p. 11)

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The traditional role of the leader as the ultimate authority obviously must shift. Leadership remains a critical element within this decision-making model; however, the potential for taking leadership goes far beyond an individual, extending throughout the system, thereby fostering greater participation. (p. 87)

Because the principal did not build consensus at Cherry High School, the program was limited to a peripheral program. Because Laura was not a part of the decision-making process, she did not find out that her class was omitted from the middle school schedule until it was too late. Whether that was an oversight or a decision based on differing Discourse remains unclear as the communication lines seem to be unidirectional. As the study came to a close, I learned that many teachers at the school were very dissatisfied with the performance of the principal, Dr. Cannon. In the spring of 2003, the school personnel all joined together in a meeting with the district administration to voice complaints about the principal. According to six different teachers at the school, the biggest reason the teachers were dissatisfied with Dr. Cannon was his unilateral, top-down approach. Laura explained, “He would get our input and then do whatever he thought was best, even if it was the opposite of what we had counseled him to do” (e-mail response, October 11, 2005). Another English teacher related a similar story, “[Dr. Cannon] was a total authority. He made every decision from the top and did not listen to teacher input” (informal conversation, October 4, 2005). She was very discouraged with the way the principal implemented changes at the school and claimed she was left out of the discussions of ESL program change and not asked to teach in the program even though she wanted to participate. It is important to note that I was surprised to hear of Dr. Cannon’s resignation. Even though I was at the school during the three years Dr. Cannon was the principal, I didn’t realize fully the discontent of the teachers. The four teachers with whom I worked most closely were mainly complementary of the changes Dr. Cannon made at the high school, as they mirrored their own discourse. Although most agreed that they disliked his authoritative style, they were pleased that he made the changes they felt were necessary, especially in regards to ELs. Laura said, “I liked [Nils] as a person and as an administrator [because] he helped us as a department. He knew we appreciated him and he appreciated us” (e-mail

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process, but also the bilingual and ESL teachers who wanted to be a part of the process. Miramontes et al. (1997) assert that for a school to restructure successfully there must be a shared decision-making process built on consensus.

Inciting Change

response, October 11, 2005). Because this study focuses on four teachers teaching directly with the ESL program and their interpretation of changes in the high school, and other teachers’ Discourses about language and ELL issues, I did not talk directly with teachers outside of this group. This limitation certainly influenced the discussion of changes in the high school. In this chapter, I explored what changes occurred in Cherry High School’s ESL program and how the teachers were able to create change within the structures that existed. Even though the changes in the high school’s ESL program did not change the entire school structure—the rock was not riveted from its place in the river—I propose the changes were significant for the ELs. Ayers, Michie, and Rome (2004) write, “If we insist on measuring our work solely by how radically it moves us toward overthrowing our present system of schooling—and write off all more modest efforts as insufficient or unworthy—then we handcuff ourselves” (p. 126). Indeed, the teachers were “agents of change”—not individual agents of change—but instigators of change supported by events in and out of the school. The teachers seized the opportunity to complete their ESL endorsements through the university program, discussed ideas for change with the administration, presented papers to the school board, developed curriculum for sheltered and bilingual classes, and discussed language ideologies and teaching practices with faculty at the school. In addition, they applied what they learned in their coursework at the university in their specially designed courses for ELs. Theses sheltered and bilingual courses available to the students have helped them increase overall GPAs, increased attendance at school, and helped them form friendships. Carl said, “The ESL classes have given my students a safe place in the school. This makes coming to school more enjoyable” (field notes, April 10, 2003). Because the focus was on the teachers, I did not do extensive interviews with the students in the ESL program, but I did conduct two interviews and talked informally with many ELs in the hallways and before and after class. One student, a junior who had been in the school for two years said, “We have so many more options for classes now—I mean I understand them now” (October 10, 2002). A student standing near her said, “The teachers I have now know me and act like they care.” In a formal interview, a student from Somalia stated, “I really like my history class. [Mr. Banks (Brian)] is nice and gives us lots of work. I can ask questions” (May 15, 2003). While these comments were not extensive and were generated from a few students, all the comments I heard were positive when comparing the ESL program from the 2001–2002 year to the 2002– 2003 year when the majority of the bilingual and sheltered classes were constructed.

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Events, Discourses, and practices all impacted the changes at Cherry High. The changes did not fall in line like dominoes but happened sometimes simultaneously and sometimes as a reaction to other events. Some of the significant factors include: 1) the Office of Civil Right serving an outof-compliance notice to the district; 2) university providing an ESL endorsement program; 3) obtaining a federal grant to fund teachers in their pursuit of an ESL endorsement; 4) teachers’ willingness to complete a rigorous program at the university; 5) hiring of a bilingual principal with understanding of ELs; and 6) persistence of teachers to create a program model for students in their high school. All these factors support a definition of change as fluid and ever-changing but not without structure. Returning to the wave analogy, shifts in the river are possible, and through events begun by teachers, university personnel and administrators, significant change did occur at Cherry High School.

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Teachers as Agents of School Change

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Secondary Education and English Learners: We’ve Got Work To Do

Overview of the Study Students who speak a language other than English at home and enter the public schools come from a wide variety of social, historical, and political backgrounds. Research describes the difficulties these students face within a school structure that is designed for White, native English speakers (Cummins, 1989; Genesee, Lindholm-Leary, Sanders, and Christian, 2006; Faltis and Coulter, 2007; Gibson, 1988; Lee, 1996, 2005; Lucas and Grinberg, 2008; Nieto, 2008; Olsen, 1997; Téllez and Waxman, 2006; Valdés, 1996, 1997, 2006; Valenzuela, 1999; Zentella, 1997). Despite advances made during recent years to promote the effective education of ELs, the body of teachers most qualified to accommodate their needs has been unable to match the growth of ELs in schools (Menken and Antunez, 2001). Attention to students in the secondary schools has had even greater deficits. Challenges that impede these efforts include: 1) lack of resources required to develop, implement, and evaluate ESL programs effectively; 2) lack of ESL/bilingual endorsed teachers needed to identify and support the academic achievement and retention of ELs; 3) lack of supportive administration to support the faculty and staff; and 4) the contested nature of language ideologies and Discourse surrounding the teaching of ELs within the United States. In this study, I focused on the need for quality ESL/bilingual endorsed teachers and a supportive administration to construct effective ESL programs in secondary schools. I argue, however, that many national/community Discourses, actions,

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Chapter 7

Inciting Change

and events impacted the implementation of the program for ELs. The example demonstrated that teachers and administration cannot be “trained” and be expected to go directly to their schools and implement changes, indeed their very Discourses that continually circulate might prevent them from making changes in their classrooms in addition to structural relations within schools. The experiences I have documented at Cherry High School reflect the situations of many schools across the nation. Most districts are experiencing a shortage of specially trained teachers to meet the demands of an increasing ELL population. For example, the California Tomorrow Project (Ruiz-de-Velasco and Fix, 2000), a nonprofit organization focused on building a fair and strong multicultural state, estimated that 60 percent of ELs in its three participating Hayward high schools were receiving inappropriate services because of an insufficiently prepared workforce. National data support this example. According to data from Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) (NCES, 1997), only 30 percent of public school teachers serving ELs reported having received any special training for working with this population. Fewer than 3 percent of teachers working with ELs held a degree in ESL or bilingual education. In addition, 27 percent of all schools with bilingual/ESL staff vacancies reported them difficult or impossible to staff. Although this study of Cherry High School mirrors the issues facing many schools across the nation, the context is also unique and impacted by local Discourses. This study shows that even after teachers get their ESL endorsement, structural barriers exist that sometimes impede them from making the changes they feel are important. Secondary schools typically respond to the needs of growing numbers of newcomer ELs by creating special programs. These special programs can be isolating for the students as well as the teachers who work with the students in the programs. To gain access to the mainstream curriculum, ELs are often required to obtain a proficient level of academic English. Studies have shown that this process can take anywhere from 4–12 years (Hakuta, Butler, and Witt, 2000; MacSwan and Pray, 2005; Mahoney, MacSwan, and Thompson, 2005). During this process, the demands placed upon the teachers of English Learners are great, especially when the process of programmatic reform is limited to a small section of the school faculty. Before this study began, the extent of the faculty serving ELs in the high school study site consisted of one designated ESL teacher. Students in the program struggled with a high dropout rate, low grade point averages, and lack of involvement in extracurricular programs. Teachers at the school either ignored the students or tried to help them with limited resources and/or limited educational background in language acquisition

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or multicultural education. Because the ELs were not being served equitably, Lupe Garcia, the university professor who was awarded the federal bilingual grant, reported the district to the Office of Civil Rights. Upon investigation, this organization found the district out of compliance in their efforts to serve ELs. During this time period, a series of events created spaces where the teachers and administration in the high school (who desired to make changes) could restructure the ESL program. I examined four secondary school teachers’ journeys during this period of change. While I argued that teachers could be important agents of change within the school system, I found it necessary to explore their alignment with certain language ideologies. Much of the prevailing national/ community Discourse that includes an English-only Discourse and diminishes the resources immigrant students bring seemed to be at odds with these teachers’ emerging practices. Along with Bartolomé and Balderrama (2001), I proposed that teachers’ beliefs and attitudes could not be separated from the worldviews that are part of dominant Discourses. In the study, I chose to use the teachers’ discursive realignment rather than teachers’ beliefs or attitudes, as the term expanded what teachers do and say, to include not only individual agency, dependent on themselves only, but also their connections to wider social, political, and historical Discourses. Teachers were not as autonomous as previous teacher literature sometimes framed them out to be. Teachers could not make changes in the ESL program according to their own plans. They had to wait for key moments in time to insert their discourses within the prevailing national/community Discourse. I used critical theory to help me understand the structural barriers that sometimes constrained the teachers’ desires for changes, such as top-down administration style, district approval requirements, financial concerns, class size, and lack of understanding from other faculty at the school. Critical theory was useful in understanding the larger institutional structures and oppressive Discourses within the school setting. In addition, I found Bourdieu’s work explaining how language is legitimized through power relations particularly helpful. In the context of Cherry High School, historical Discourse surrounding teachers of English Learners emphasized the learning of English over the home language and culture. The four teachers in the study, for the most part, developed the “ideological and political clarity” discussed by Bartolomé and Balderrama (2001) through the educational experience in the university ESL endorsement program and experiences working with ELs in their classrooms. They wanted to spend more time acknowledging and developing the home language of their students, yet sometimes they were faced with political Discourses that failed to recognize the value of

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Inciting Change

multilingual/multicultural students. As I discussed in chapter 3, national/ community Discourse surrounding English-only laws and bilingual education impacted the Discourse found in the school. The district superintendent, alternative language specialist, and many teachers at the school embodied an assimilationist Discourse that contradicted language ideologies supporting continued native language enhancement. Bourdieu’s description of the language market (1991) is helpful in understanding the tension the teachers of ELs faced with the impact of these Discourses. He explains: to give an adequate account of speech, we must constitute in each case, first, the language habitus, the capacity to use the possibilities offered by language and to assess practically the moments to use them, which, at a constant level of objective tension, is defined by a greater or lesser degree of tension (corresponding to experience of a language market at a determinate degree of tension). (p. 662)

The tension described adds to the complexity of teacher action. While some studies would claim that teachers not responding to minority students’ needs are racist (Kailin, 1999; Marx, 2006; Sleeter, 1992; Walker, Shafer, and Iiams, 2004), I argue that teachers are placed in discursive and structural contexts that make action supporting ELs extremely complex. In this study, even though most teachers acknowledged that the development of a home language facilitates growth in a second language, they also faced time pressures and standardized tests. When ELs enter a secondary school, they have four years or fewer to complete their degree for graduation. Thus, teachers had to know how to best serve these students in a limited amount of time. Often, teachers and administration decide to focus only on English language development, ignoring the cultural resources and heritage language the students bring with them to the classroom. Choices are influenced by the language habitus that English enjoys in a national as well as global market. Bourdieu’s (1977) theory of language habitus and the ways in which it shifts depending on situational context was important to this study. Teachers not only legitimize language capital through their teaching and interactions with other teachers, but they legitimize language by deciding to speak a certain language in the classroom with ELs or by advocating for programs that legitimize a student’s home language. Therefore, Bourdieu helps this study to show how teachers act as agents and participants in the production and reproduction of relations of power and inequality legitimized through language ideologies and accomplished through local social and discursive practices in specific historical sites such as the secondary school where the research takes place. To understand the complex language

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ideologies constructed and restructured through national/community Discourse, I found it useful to employ Bakhtin’s (1981) conception of language. I framed language as dynamic and dialogic in that it is continually impacted by the social context where it resides to understand how teachers’ decisions in the classroom are impacted by others. Bakhtin explains, “Every utterance participates in the ‘unitary language’ (in its centripetal forces and tendencies) and at the same time partakes of social and historical heteroglossia (the centrifugal, stratifying sources)” (p. 272). Consequently, teachers were not individuals deciding to make changes in a vacuum. They made changes within the context of the social and political Discourses where they lived. Therefore, both community and national Discourse impacted the community where the study took place. The complex interplay of change at Cherry High School through language ideologies, teacher discourse and practices, and school reform helps us to better acknowledge the levels of analysis needed to truly understand the whys and hows of teachers making changes in secondary schools. Difficult to move structures can both enable change, in the case of the federal Office of Civil Rights notice to the school district insisting the district make changes, and constrain changes in the case of the top-down administration in high schools and their physical formation. Even though some of the structures appear to be static and externally imposed, they were also enacted and reinforced by the teachers. For example, some teachers accepted a passive role in the creation of the ESL program when the principal did not accept their offers of assistance and teaching. Others accepted the rationale under funding when it came to organizing more bilingual classes even when they had enough students to fill classes. In addition, language discourses that circulate in and throughout the school, community, and nation impacted decisions teachers made in the classroom when teaching and developing curriculum. They all discussed the need to prepare students for standardized tests and foremost develop their English so they could enter mainstream classes. Regardless of the dominant circulating community/ national Discourse, it is evident that teacher practice can be impacted by quality teacher education programs if teachers have support from administration and other faculty with whom they work as well as time to discuss the issues that they encounter as demonstrated by the close group formed in the high school by the teachers working in the ESL program.

Discussion The underlying question in this research project was “Were teachers in the high school able to restructure the school’s ESL program to better address 10.1057/9780230101074 - Inciting Change in Secondary English Language Programs, Marilee Coles-Ritchie

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the needs of ELs?” Through analysis of the teachers’ practices, Discourse, and action in and around the school as well as examining the structure of the ESL program, we saw that the ESL program did indeed change. In this discussion, I first analyze how the structure of the ESL program changed according to indicators of positive school practice for ELs outlined in chapter 3 and supported by much literature (Ancess, 2003; Collier, 1992; Crandall, 1987; Faltis and Coulter, 2007; González, Moll, and Amanti, 2005; Lindholm, 1987; Lucas, Henze, and Donato, 1990; McKeon and Malarz, 1991; Minicucci and Olsen, 1992; Moll and Gonzáles, 1997; Nieto, 2008; Pease-Alvarez, Garcia, and Espinosa, 1991; Rolstad, Mahoney, and Glass, 2005; Snow, Met, and Genesee, 1989; Tikunoff, Ward, and van Broekhuizen, 1991). Second, I theorize the ways teachers’ were able to make changes and the ways they were constrained. At the time the study ended, the school was showing progress toward a more equitable educational environment for ELs. I discuss the most important indicators and evaluate how teachers reorganized the ESL program to meet these indicators.

High Expectations The first indicator for an effective programming recommends that high expectations be held for all ELs. Even though I was not able to see ELs in all their courses at the high school, I did observe the core content area classes taught by Brian, Carl, Jan, and Laura after their university course work. According to the teachers, each strove to expect more from the ELs than they had before. Brian said that once he got to know the students, he knew how much they could do, and he pushed them harder than he felt comfortable doing before. Jan also pushed her ELs to accomplish the same objectives as her mainstream classes but with a supportive environment. Laura followed the core from standard English classes for her Spanish for Native Speakers class including thesis development, writing with support from other sources, and critical questioning of texts. Students were not given free time during the classes but were working on content the entire period.

Language and Content Development Integrated The second indicator suggests that language development be integrated with content area development. With the implementation of the sheltered courses in social studies, mathematics, and science, the students were

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better able to access important subject matter material in these specially designed courses as discussed in chapter 4. One of the important ideas about language education pedagogy adopted by all four of the teachers was the need to integrate language and content. Before the changes in the ESL program, many ELs were excluded from learning grade level content material while they were in the process of learning English, because the school did not have a sheltered program in place. Because the intensive study began after the new sheltered program began, it is difficult to know to what degree this was pervasive.

Content Development in Heritage Language The third indicator suggests support for content development through the students’ heritage language. For the ELs who spoke Spanish as their first language, classes were developed including the Spanish for Native Speakers class and the bilingual U.S. history class. In addition, the ESL math teacher spoke conversational Spanish to aid students when needed, and bilingual aides were assigned to the science and math classes to aid with translation. For students who did not speak Spanish as their first language, less support was available. The only bilingual aides I encountered were Spanish/ English. Though the school was far from developing a full bilingual program, at least the core classes had translators for Spanish-speaking students who were the majority of the ELL population. In addition, Ancess (2003) suggests that the school actively seeks to disrupt social inequality in course offerings. Cherry High School still needs to develop a systematic way to ensure ELs have access to all courses in the school and that they are given the opportunity for college preparatory courses.

Ongoing, Authentic Assessment The fourth indicator suggests ongoing assessment practices that are integrated with instruction and based on the students’ cultural backgrounds. Assessment practices at the school were primarily based on scores from standardized tests, including the Idea Proficiency Test (IPT) and the state’s Performance Assessment System for Students. I observed test taking that was not always advantageous to the students, such as students taking tests in a room where class activities were also taking place, or being interrupted while questions were asked for the oral portion. No portfolios were in place to demonstrate the students’ integrated, ongoing growth in the language, although there were plans to begin that process.

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Indicator five recommends that comprehensive staff development and training be provided for all faculty and staff. The school did not provide comprehensive training for all faculty and staff. Only 12 of 70 teachers were ESL endorsed at the time the study ended, none had a specific bilingual education endorsement. The only training the whole faculty received was a two-hour after-school training session and a presentation by Brian and Laura addressing sheltering content in mainstream classes as part of a teacher workday. A significant explanation that the four teachers in the study held such different Discourses about language and teaching ELs was their university training. Both Laura and Brian said that they would have been much more pro-English immersion if it were not for the classes at the university where they read research supportive of bilingual education programs. The other teachers in the school did not participate in programs or training specifically for supporting ELs. Therefore, they did not have access to this type of literature. It is not clear exactly why more teachers did not participate in the more rigorous university program, however, it could be factors such as time, including in-class hours, time to complete assignments, and a commitment to attend summer courses.

Support from School Leaders and Administration Indicator six suggests that there be an active and meaningful support system from school leaders and administration. Even though the local administrators supported the basic tenets of the sheltered and bilingual courses for ELs, some aspects were ignored. The teachers did not have full support to make all the changes they felt were important. As illustrated in chapter 3, the Discourses from the administration were tied to assimilationist and national/community Discourse. This Discourse, related to language issues for immigrant students, impacted their decisions in regards to the ESL program at the school, namely the push to integrate ELs into the mainstream classes as quickly as possible and to stress English in all classes even to the point of recommending parents speak English at home rather than their home language. Evidence from school board meeting notes, the newspaper, and informal conversations demonstrated a lack of awareness from the administration that the Discourse they employed did not support ELs’ valuable resources and language. On the other hand, the principal at Cherry High School did support teachers who aligned themselves with his ideas of sheltered classes for ELs. As Brian explained, “The reasons why [Dr. (Nils) Cannon] resigned were confusing. I think it ultimately comes

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down to the fact that he didn’t have some of the interpersonal skills necessary to lead our sometimes adversarial, often opinionated faculty. I think [Nils] had great ideas, and really did care about the welfare of the students” (e-mail communication, October 13, 2005). It seemed that he only got support from a handful of teachers, though, due to his authoritarian style and lack of communication skills.

School Environment is Supportive of ELs The principal’s lack of leadership skills in regards to full faculty involvement leads to indicator seven. It suggests that the entire school environment be supportive of ELs in the their language learning process. The administration at Cherry High School had much to do to convince the entire school to support ELs. Evidence from chapters 3, 4, and 5 demonstrate that many teachers in the school were not supportive of the education of ELs. Many of their comments demonstrated lack of understanding of the time needed to learn a language, ignorance of the funds of knowledge ELs bring to the classroom, as well as racist and essentializing comments. Some comments indicated that they were supportive of the partial bilingual and sheltered program only because it absolved them from needing to make changes in their own teaching practice and curriculum. Language ideologies from the nation/community impacted many of the Discourses circulating in the school. Because the entire faculty was not required to participate in meaningful education about issues of language learning, many of those Discourses remained constant at the school.

Restructure Classes to Highlight ELs Funds of Knowledge Recent findings (Guajardo and Guajardo, 2008; González, Moll, and Amanti, 2005; Moll and González, 1997) also include restructuring classes to highlight the unique resources ELs bring to the classroom. In order to implement a curriculum based on students’ unique resources, teachers need to understand the students’ funds of knowledge through home visits, surveys and discussions with the students. After the funds of knowledge are identified, teachers need to design their curriculums based on these resources. The administration would need to authentically acknowledge the resources linguistically and racially diverse students bring to the school by specifically inviting them as guest speakers, listening to their desires for their children in open settings, and helping them to maintain their heritage language through bilingual courses and school literature in their

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Some Teachers, Counselors, Community Liaisons, and Aides Should Speak the Students’ Languages and Share Their Cultural Backgrounds Three of the five teachers who taught directly in the ESL program at Cherry High School spoke Spanish. One counselor, two community liaisons, the assistant principal, and the principal also spoke Spanish when I began observing at the school. In addition, at least five other mainstream teachers in the school spoke Spanish. Regrettably, by the time the study ended in 2004, the Spanish-speaking principal resigned due to pressure from teachers in the school. Also, the need for school staff to share the students’ cultural backgrounds was not met. One teacher was from mixed Mexican American/ White ethnicity and grew up speaking English exclusively. None of the other teachers shared the students’ backgrounds as immigrants, although two of the aides who worked with the teachers did share their backgrounds. I did not hear of any specific plans to reverse this demography.

Information about Postsecondary Educational Opportunities for ELs Available All the students enrolled in the ESL program were assigned to the one counselor who spoke Spanish. Because the majority of the ELs were heritage Spanish speakers, he was able to assist them with issues related to course work and instructor choice. For those who spoke languages other than Spanish, less help was provided in their heritage language. For those heritage Spanish speakers, this counselor was able to explain many important issues related to graduation that could have been missed. Even so, this counselor did not share their immigrant background that might have helped him to understand some of the issues they faced when selecting courses and planning their schedules for graduation. Because he did not have a bilingual/ESL endorsement, he also lacked some of the basic understanding of the language learning process. At the same time, there were efforts from an anthropologist at the local university to conduct parent meetings for parents of ELs at the high school as a way to develop more communication between the school and the home. At one of these meetings, the multicultural director for the

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home heritage. The dominant discourses that circulate within the school spaces that only value English and assimilation would need to be realigned to include support for heritage language and social practices.

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university, a Latino, came to the school and presented options for various scholarships and lists of courses needed to apply to the local university for admission. These meetings were often attended by the principal and conducted in both English and Spanish. In addition, the grant principal investigator, Lupe, a Latina, talked with parents and students at the meeting. I am unaware as to how the information was disseminated to the students whose parents did not attend the meetings. Most of the participant teachers felt more structure was needed for these meetings.

Interaction across Linguistic, Ethnic, and Social Class Groupings The school did not have a specific program in place to facilitate interaction across linguistic, ethnic, and social class groupings. The only effort I observed was the first principal’s forced seating arrangement during assemblies that didn’t promote much, if any, interaction and might have alienated students even more. These indicators and suggestions are useful to analyze the program as it stood when the study ended. They helped to establish areas where significant changes were made and where they were still lacking. The teachers in the study claimed that changes were made for the better according to these indicators. The program changes allowed for a much more conducive community for students’ learning. They all agreed that more work needed to be done to meet all of these indicators, although the school does show a definite shift for the better, which I addressed in chapter 6. The complex question of how the change came about is important to explore. Were teachers able to create change in the school? How? What structures enabled and/or constrained those changes? I start with three major events that opened up spaces, allowing the teachers to make changes in the school and follow up with the major constraint for changes.

Major Events that Allowed for Change Office of Civil Rights Three of the four teachers in the study agreed that the number one event that allowed for changes in the school was the notice to the school district from the Office of Civil Rights that found the school was out of compliance in regards to ELs at the school. They said the following,

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“The OCR highlighted the need to make changes, and [Dr. Cannon] was committed to making them. The OCR review may have helped light a fire under him, but I believe he was instrumental in implementing the changes here.” Another said, “I’m not so sure I [helped make changes]. I think the OCR did.” And finally, “The OCR complaint was definitely the biggest reason that change actually happened. The district went with all of our ideas because they needed serious help. Had they not needed that help, all our ideas may have fallen on deaf ears.” All three of these quotes indicate the enormous impact of the outside governmental organization in pushing the district to make changes more quickly than they might otherwise have. Though the teachers needed to be willing and endorsed to take on the challenge, they were not able to make the changes until this organization required them to do so.

Bilingual Principal and Vice Principal The second event that allowed changes to happen was based on the decision to hire a principal and vice principal who understood what was needed to organize an ESL sheltered program. Interestingly, it was the teachers who lobbied for the bilingual U.S. history and Spanish for Native Speakers classes that were taught exclusively in Spanish. But the principal created a structure that allowed the teachers to then voice their opinions about the specific classes. His top-down style did help bring about the changes more rapidly, but with time, he might have paid for that, as he was forced to resign.

University Coursework and Funding The third significant event allowing for change was the university grant that funded the endorsements of the teachers in the high school. The university did not have an ESL/bilingual endorsement program until the grant was awarded. Since the first year of the grant funded the coursework for twenty inservice teachers, the university had the guarantee of the classes being filled. Without the grant, it is possible that the local university would not have pursued adding the endorsement so quickly. Therefore, the teachers would have not have participated in the program. All four of the teachers who taught in the ESL program at the high school when the study ended admitted that they would not have perused an ESL endorsement at that time if it weren’t for the grant funding their endorsement. They added things like, “The school program wouldn’t be changing next year if there weren’t ESL endorsed teachers to teach once the changes were

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made. That is the bottom line for school change.” Another said, “It wasn’t the most convenient time in my life to go back to school, but I was so frustrated with what was happening in ESL. And with the funds I thought it is now or never.” Finally, a third teacher said, “I wanted to go back to school to get my masters’ degree and I thought this is an opportunity to have some of it paid for and in an area that I have interest.” Therefore, the grant funds got the teachers into the program and the content of the ESL courses helped them shift their alignment with some of the dominant Discourses. Both Brian and Laura claimed that the reason they are probilingual education is due to the education they received through university classes. Brian writes, “As I discussed this with [Laura], we believe that our current attitudes are based on the education we have received. Without having participated in [the university’s] program, we probably would put more emphasis on immersion for our ELL students” (October 13, 2005). Laura wrote, “I have to say that I would consider the [university grant] one of the major key areas for change at the high school because it was through [the grant] that [Brian] and I were truly converted to the ideas of how ESL should be changed as well as others—particularly [Carl] and [Jan]” (October 11, 2005).

Collaborative Teacher Group Finally, the creation of the voluntary teacher group that evolved during the course work at the university and after the OCR complaint made a significant impact on school change. As teachers were going through the coursework at the university, they began to make connections with each other in their pursuit to create changes at the high school. These connections bolstered them when they encountered contradictory Discourses at the school concerning ELs. Initially, eight teachers formed that group. As the teachers were asked to teach in the newly formed ESL program, the initial group of eight teachers reduced to four teachers. As part of the ongoing grant research, this group was given a stipend to meet during the school year about every six weeks to discuss the progress of the program and the successes and struggles they encountered. These meetings furthered their bond as they shared stories and conversations involving ESL issues at the school. Hargreaves discusses the importance of voluntary rather than contrived groups and suggests certain attributes of successful groups. One is that they are voluntary. The value of the work “arises not from administrative constraint or compulsion but from their perceived value among teachers that derive from experience, inclination, or noncoercive persuasion that working together is both enjoyable and productive” (p. 192). At Cherry High School,

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all the teachers in the focus group meetings volunteered to come because they were all invested in the success of the ESL program at the school. According to all the teachers, the key to the success of the program at Cherry High School was their involvement in the university ESL program that was funded by the Federal Bilingual Education Grant. These funds not only supported all teachers to attend the courses but also aided in the development of multicultural parent groups meetings and focus group meetings for the teachers. Universities need to reach out to local schools to build partnerships not only through ESL/bilingual education coursework but also by attending classes at the public schools to get a pulse of the school’s population and curriculum, holding focus group meetings to help build collaborative relationships between public school teachers and university faculty, and discussing creative ideas for restructuring with administrators. This exchange of ideas between the universities and local schools can facilitate creative program design to benefit ELs. In addition to action on the part of school administrators and teachers as well as university faculty is the acknowledgment of dominant Discourse. I argue in all of the chapters that prevailing national/community Discourses impacted the discourses and action of the teachers and administrators. The thread that pulls through all the chapters stems from ubiquitous circulating individual discourses based on national/community Discourse that rendered an English-only, assimilationist Discourse for ELs. In chapter 3 those Discourses were manifest through the desire to integrate students into the existing school structure designed for White, native English speakers. These Discourses were demonstrated in interviews, newspaper articles, and school board notes. Chapter 4 focused on the ways the participant teachers’ Discourses were changing and how they continually faced differing discourses in the school. Chapter 5 focused directly on the language ideologies that pushed for an immersion style of language education for ELs, a push for English-only in the classes, and treated languages other than English as foreign. Finally, chapter 6 discusses the structural barriers teachers faced that were based on assimilationist Discourses important for the dominant society.

Implications Because research has shown that English Learners do not fare well in contexts where connections are not made between classroom and social practices, it is crucial for teachers who work with ELs to have “political and ideological clarity” discussed by Bartolomé and Balderrama (2001) as well

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as Discourses about language that highlight the benefits of continued native language instruction and the time and effort needed to understand the social and academic Discourse of content learning. While teachers do not always embrace the academic Discourses of the university coursework, this study has demonstrated that some teachers with particular life experiences and educational experiences do align themselves with new Discourses when given the opportunities through university courses. All four of the primary teacher participants stated at certain times during the three-year study that the reason they promote bilingual education and sheltered education courses was because of the education they received at the university. In this study, teacher education courses did impact the circulating Discourses about English Learners, partially because these teachers taught in a school with increasing numbers of ELs and recognized that these students were not being served equitably even before the coursework began. The courses at the university helped them explore some of the reasons why and some ways to restructure the program so that it would be more equitable.

Importance of Comprehensive University Endorsement Programs Despite the effort of the university education program to offer important educational opportunities for the teachers to disrupt the dominant Discourses about language in regards to bilingual education, essentializing of students, academic content instruction, and making connections with students, evidence from the classroom observations demonstrated that the university program fell short in at least two key areas including framing language as social rather than cognitive (González, 2001) and teaching students grounded in critical pedagogy based on the resources all students bring to the classroom (Cummins, 1989, 2001; Gay, 2000; González, Moll, and Amanti, 2007; Nieto, 2008; Valdés, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999). The first key area is the discussion about how language is framed departing from a cognitive, psychological pursuit to one that is located in a social, historical, and political context. Much of the research on second language acquisition lies within the framework of cognitive psychology (Larsen-Freeman, 2000). Because of this historical research on second language acquisition that does not deal with the social context, not a lot of research exists to assist teachers and teacher educators bridge the gap. Pierce (1995) explains: SLA theorists have not developed a comprehensive theory of social identity that integrates the language learner and the language learning contexts.

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She continues to argue for more theory specifically from a second language acquisition perspective that develops “the conception of the language learner as having a complex social identity that must be understood with reference to larger, and frequently inequitable, social structures, which are reproduced in day to day social interactions” (p. 13). The teachers still talked about language in cognitive ways and did not share with students the ways in which language is social. Laura began to claim Spanish by using “we” instead of “they” when referring to how she says different phrases; however, she did not explore the reasons why she made this change with the students. Part of the reason she did not explore this distinction with the students is because the university course work did not show her how. Because I taught two of the courses, I realize that while I did address this issue through articles and discussion in the courses I taught, I did not make enough connections for the participants to take them from the theoretical concepts to the actual classroom practice. Second, teachers in the study did not explicitly teach from a critical pedagogical stance that would have further bolstered a learning space for the students, helping them navigate the school system and life (McLaren, 1998). While teachers like Brian emphasized how history was written from various perspectives and treated those perspectives as different, not just good or bad, he did not spend time to examine the social justice within those frames. I do not think the university courses spent enough time demonstrating to teachers how this could be done in the classroom. Though the importance of social justice was definitely a key issue in the multicultural course, it wasn’t a thread carried through all the courses needed to obtain an endorsement. Like many university education programs, the university ESL endorsement program offered one course in Multicultural Education and depending on the instructor, the underlying Discourses of multicultural education served as a base for the courses or not. Peercy (2004) describes this issue in her study about teachers who don’t make connections to students’ social contexts in ESL courses, even when the significance of these connections was addressed in at least some of their university courses. She said, “I assert that teacher educators have a responsibility to make more compelling and coherent connections between political/ideological perspectives on teaching, and one’s actual teaching” (p. 237). I, like Peercy, argue for better connections to be made so that the teachers in this study would have had the tools necessary to engage in teaching that truly incorporated the students’ funds of knowledge within

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Furthermore, they have not questioned how relations of power in the social world affect social interaction between second language learners and target language speakers. (p. 12)

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Administration, Teachers, and Office of Civil Rights, all Contribute to School Change Many administrators require more training that helps them know how to facilitate change within a faculty. Even if the top-down structure of the administration cannot be changed radically, efforts can be made to construct a school-wide decision-making structure. First of all, there must be a shift from how a principal traditionally constructs her role from authority to facilitator. Miramontes, Nadeau, Commins (1997) explain: In the shift from the top-down manager to the role of instructional leader in a shared decision-making process, many school principals have begun to fear that they will be reduced to mere facilitators. Much of the thinking about changes in the definition of leadership remains at the level of “power shifts” rather than at the level of collaboration with a focus on students and learning. True leaders in a school become effective through influence rather than control and they must have the confidence to set high expectations and continuously uphold the vision. (p. 87)

At Cherry High School, Dr. Cannon had a vision but he didn’t share the vision with the whole school community. Only a few teachers were privy to the changes he wanted to make and though they generally agreed with him, they didn’t always feel like they were part of the building of the program. Faculty not teaching in the ESL program were even more disconnected to the work of the faculty teaching ELs. Ultimately, the principal’s inability to build consensus and share control cost him his job. Hargreaves (1994) concurs that “The challenge of restructuring in education . . . is a challenge of opening up broad avenues of choice which respect teachers’ professional discretion and enhance their decision-making capacity” (p. 260). This means that principals need to take the time to listen to teachers in a collaborative manner, especially teachers who have the educational and experiential background for working with ELs. Because not all the teachers were involved in the decision making for the school, the program was regulated to only a few key teachers. Even though those teachers taught core content classes structured for ELs, they did not teach all the classes where these students were enrolled. Miramontes,

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the curriculum and addressed the content of the curriculum critically by connecting students to more discussions of social justice they may have encountered. In addition, I found that the structural relations within the schools also needed more flexibility in order to facilitate the curriculum that includes social justice curricula.

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Nadeau, and Commins (1997) claim that “when teachers are decision makers, as part of a learning community, they are all equally responsible for decisions regarding the instructional program for linguistically diverse students” (p. 68). This means that all teachers need to have extensive training regarding language acquisition, multicultural education, and students’ complex social backgrounds. Professional development programs, both preservice and inservice, must provide ongoing opportunities for individuals to refine their “intellectual skill” and not just their skills as “technicians.” This means opportunities must be provided to collaborate, to investigate, and to reflect on practice. (p. 70)

I would add that the teachers need to engage in inservice opportunities that highlight the resources students bring to the class and understand language, even academic language, as part of a complex social process. When teachers do engage in course work at the university or through inservice meetings, it is important that they have the time and space to process the ideas that are presented. Part of the reason the teachers in this study were able to shift their teaching Discourses about language learning was because they had time to process the material in focus group meetings, through informal conversations, and interviews. Through participation in this process, a few of the teachers formed a group, or as Carl named it, an esprit de corps. He said that, “We have gone beyond trying to figure things out as individuals and now we are a group. In the hallway, we educatively talk about certain issues dealing with ELs.” The importance of the voluntary group to work through issues with the programmatic changes in the ESL program and to confront differing Discourses from other faculty and staff members proved to be an essential support. Finally, while I agree that understanding the local climate and needs of the community is essential when restructuring schools, the local majority will often make decisions based on their needs rather than the needs of the minority. Because of this tendency, the federal Office of Civil Rights played a major role in supporting changes within the school’s ESL program. With the backing of Title VII, the right of all students to receive language services if they are limited in their English, individuals can call upon school districts to make changes where needed.

The Impact of National/Community Discourse I argue that the prevailing national/community Discourses served as one of the most significant influences on the structure of the school’s ESL

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Insofar as discourse is power, contemporary U.S. public discourse on minority communities is oppressive. Nonetheless, metaphor has a saving grace. The socially divisive metaphors, which are common currency today, are by no means natural. Nor are they the only way to conceptualize Latinos and their political issues. Alternatives can be developed. Renegade metaphors can be constructed and disseminated to replace ones that produce intolerant attitudes. A well-articulated, insubordinate political posture can be formulated which is both faithful to the principles of social justice and appealing to the wider electorate. (p. 11)

The Discourse discussed by Santa Ana filters through national media until it becomes the Discourse of local communities. While this national/ community discourse is no doubt powerful, I do believe that using alternative discourse can shift it. Bakhtin’s notion of language is fruitful here. Spaces can be opened within the conversations in the hallways of the school that disrupt the centripetal forces of language rendering assimilationist, derogatory limitations for ELs. Through the new metaphors suggested by Santa Ana, the centrifugal forces of language can create new language ideologies for the betterment of ELs in the school. I concur with Hall (1993) when he said: Radical change is the ultimate goal, but if the available options are reformist acts or political paralysis the choice seems clear. Incremental change should be valued as the means to a goal; the global begins in our backyard but obviously does not end there. (p. 166)

The teachers in this study have employed some of those Discourses and more attempts by all involved in the construction of school programs, including university professors, administrators, school faculty and staff, as well as students and parents, can be employed to continue to push at the standing wave of school reform within secondary education.

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program and the language ideologies circulating within the school. The data collected during the three-year period continually pointed to Discourse that framed ELs in limiting spaces through English-only policies, assimilationist Discourses, and Discourse that failed to highlight the students’ resources. As Santa Ana (2002) explains so eloquently:

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Epilogue: Cherry High School Now

Eight years have passed since I began the study at Cherry High School, exploring the ESL program and teachers who wanted to transform it. Since that time, I have moved from Granite County to Fairbanks, Alaska. I have kept in touch with the teachers occasionally by e-mail and phone during this time period. Interestingly, all the four participant teachers have moved into positions that are not part of the high school’s ESL program. Five years later, I wanted to connect with the teachers again so I could understand how the teachers and the school’s ESL program were evolving. To what degree were teachers able to change and continue to change the ESL program? What were the structural elements that enabled or constrained the teachers as they continued this process of developing the school’s ESL program? Finally, how have Discourses, teacher actions, and events impacted changes to the ESL program long term? Many studies investigating programs for English Learners in K-12 educational settings are short term (Gutiérrez et al., 2002). I wanted to understand how the changes made in the school and the ESL program at Cherry High School in 2003–2004 might be impacting the school, teachers, and most importantly the ELs during the 2008–2009 school year. I also wanted to know what had been changed in the program, by whom, and for what reason. In addition, I wanted to understand how the teachers’ experience of working in a collaborative group, such as the one teachers formed as part of the study from 2000–2004, has impacted their careers and discursive alignment today. To get a sense of the program, I interviewed all four of the teachers from the original study, the current ESL teacher, and the new coordinator for the ESL program at the high school. I also examined archival data

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Chapter 8

Inciting Change

from the local newspaper, school board notes, the Cherry High School student newspaper, standardized test scores, and the district’s public documents. I have organized the data in the following way: 1) description of Cherry High School and the ESL program 2008–2009; 2) biographical updates and perspectives of four participant teachers, the ESL coordinator, the ESL teacher, and two ESL aides; 3) discussion and analysis of program and teachers based on the data; and 4) recommendations in addition to those made in chapter 7.

Cherry High School Context Cherry High School’s population of English Learners has grown steadily since the study ended in 2003–2004. At that time, 6.5 percent of the students were classified as ELs. Now 12 percent are classified as ELs. Students in the program mainly come from the Spanish-speaking countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. Recently, more immigrants have come from Burma, Vietnam, and Korea. There are now over 187 students classified as ELs compared to 103 in 2003–2004. Eighty of those students are being served in the ESL program. The percentage of self-identified Hispanic students was 8 percent in 2003 and rose to 19 percent of the school’s population in 2008. Asian students rose from 2 percent of the population to 4.5 percent of the school’s population in 2008. White students made up 85 percent of the population in 2003–2004 and now make up 75 percent of the population. The student population that identifies as ethnic minority is 27 percent. These changes have created a different school—one that claims the identity of most diverse high school in the northern part of this state. The ESL program has changed during the past few years as well. Table 4 demonstrates the changes in class offerings for ELs in 2003–2004 and in 2008–2009. During the past six years, the program serving ELs has expanded sheltered course offerings. The school now offers three social studies courses: geography, U.S. Government and U.S. history. Previously, U.S. history was offered in Spanish. The current ESL coordinator explained that it is not offered because only one the beginning students who are usually placed in the course is a Spanish speaker. The beginning student population comes from too many language groups to warrant offering this course in a heritage language. The teacher who teaches these courses holds an ESL endorsement and Social Study certification.

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Cherry High School ELLs Program 2003–2004 to 2008–2009

School Year

Sheltered Content Courses

Content Area Courses in Heritage Language

ELL Courses

Counselor for ELs

Parental Involvement

ESL/Bilingual Endorsed Teachers

2002–2003

1 U.S. history; 2 earth science; 1 geometry; 1 pre-algebra

1 Spanish for Native Speakers course; 1 social studies (rotates) in Spanish

3 leveled courses (beginning, intermediate, advanced)

1 Spanishspeaking counselor

Regular scheduled meetings/ computer access

2008–2009

U.S. history; U.S. Government.; geography; algebra I; geometry; earth systems; biology; sheltered English

Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish; Spanish for Native Speakers

4 leveled courses (beginning, emergent, intermediate, advanced); Study skills

1 Spanishspeaking counselor

ESL classes am and pm; multicultural room with computer access

12 total (7 university program; 5 district sponsored program) 19 total (7 university program; 12 district sponsored program)

Source: Author’s Illustration.

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Table 4

Inciting Change

The math department offered both algebra I and geometry as sheltered courses. Since Carl (see the description of Carl below) left, the coordinator was having a very difficult time staffing these classes by a teacher who has an ESL endorsement and also is certified to teach math. The science department had the same problem. The ESL teacher, who has an ESL endorsement but is not certified in science, teaches a sheltered earth systems course. Although Jan is certified to teach earth system and is ESL endorsed, the scheduling for the sheltered course did not coincide. The ESL coordinator, who is ESL endorsed and speaks Spanish, teaches biology but he is not certified in science. The Modern Languages Department oversees the ESL program and core language classes. The ESL course offerings have been expanded to include an emergent course as well as the beginning, intermediate, and advanced course. Also, a study skills course is offered to support students in their core content courses. In addition, two courses for ELs were offered in Spanish: Advanced Placement Spanish that allows students to earn college credit and Spanish for Native Speakers that focuses on developing reading and writing in ELs heritage language. The English Department offers one course for those students who complete the advanced ESL course. It is a transitional English course, or sheltered English, which combines the standards of 9th and 10th grade mainstream English courses but is taught using sheltered instruction by an English and ESL certified teacher. The support staff and faculty for the school’s ESL program has changed dramatically. More teachers hold ESL endorsements though the increase has come primarily from the district program. While this program is beneficial in providing some strategies and background information about ELs, it does not seem to provide the depth of theory and understanding that a university accredited program provides. For example, the program brochure states: The credits given (18 semester hours) are state approved in-service credits,  university credits, therefore are not transferable to any university. Credits may, however, be used towards lane changes within each participating district according to their policies and negotiated agreements. (district ESL program brochure, 2007)

One of the reasons that participants do not earn university credit is that the expectations and rigor of the program are not equivalent to most university ESL programs. All of the teachers I interviewed claimed the district program does not do enough to support and train teachers to be able to teach ESL or sheltered content courses. Granted, the teachers I interviewed

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all participated in a university ESL endorsement, most in conjunction with a graduate degree. To understand how the teachers’ experience of working in a collaborative group to make changes in the ESL program at Cherry High School has impacted their careers and discursive alignment today, I visited with them through phone conversations and e-mail exchanges due to the distance. Below, I share updates of the four teacher participants: Brian, Carl, Jan, and Laura. In addition, I share biographical information and perspectives of the 2008–2009 ESL program coordinator, the ESL teacher, and two Latino aides who work in the ESL program.

Brian Brian finished his M.Ed. with an emphasis in English as a second language and his administrator’s license three years ago. He now has a position as a principal at an elementary school a few miles from Cherry High School. When I began searching for a current e-mail for him, I was led to the elementary school’s Web site. His principal’s welcome message was written in both English and Spanish—a further example of the importance he places on bilingualism. After we began our conversation, I learned that he is hoping the district will create a two-way immersion elementary school. Because he is the only elementary school principal in the district who holds an ESL endorsement, he is often asked about ESL programmatic issues. The district would support a dual immersion school but only if there is community support for it. Brian would like such a school to be housed where he is a principal but he has received some surprising resistance. He said, “Many of the parents still view Spanish as a gutter language.” They do not support creating a dual-language program. Some parents said they might be interested if it were in French, which made Brian chuckle. He just can’t understand why parents would not want their children to learn the second most common language in the United States—a language that is a benefit on most job applications. With two years under his belt as principal of Edison Elementary School, Brian has received extremely positive feedback. When living in the area, I heard numerous compliments from parents about the positive atmosphere at the school and the personal connection Brian had made with them. The district administrators also complimented him for his diplomacy and innovative ideas. His school, Edison Elementary School, is made up of primarily White students (82 percent) with Latino students (11 percent) being the next biggest ethnic group. When I spoke with him, he told me his

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Epilogue: Cherry High School Now

Inciting Change

school had the lowest number of ELs in the district. Ironically, he has the best qualifications for serving Spanish-speaking ELs as a fluent Spanish speaker with an ESL endorsement, background as the coordinator of the ESL program at the high school, and experience as a former language teacher. He has been creative in his approach to serve ELs in his school by striving to keep the students in the classroom as much as possible. He does this by placing them in a mainstream class with an ESL endorsed teacher or a teacher who has had some training in Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol. Also, he sends an aide to the classroom to assist teachers with beginning ELs. Following recent research on ESL programming, his last resort is to pull the child out of the classroom. Though he is successful in his administrator’s role, he talked about missing the interaction with students. As an ESL teacher and Multicultural Club advisor, he connected with students at the high school in meaningful ways. Most of his interaction at the elementary school is with teachers, which doesn’t give him the same type of satisfaction, although he said that he enjoys his celebrity status with the young children at Edison Elementary. Even though he no longer teaches at Cherry High School, he has kept in touch with his colleagues and the Special Services director at the district who oversees education for ELs. He complimented his predecessor, Benjamin, for his diligent work with the ESL program. He said that he felt Benjamin thinks a lot about the program and how he can work to make it better. ELs can now enroll in sheltered content courses in all of the required courses, a far cry from the program that was in place when the group who wanted to make changes first formed. He was encouraged by the reports he heard of higher graduation rates, 97 percent attendance rates, and higher grades in mainstream classes. Another story he shared with me was that the first Latina student was named one of 12 valedictorians for Cherry High School in 2008.

Carl I talked with Carl over the phone at school just after the bell rang. As I was talking with him, four Latino girls were studying for an upcoming math test in his classroom. I remember that there were almost always students in his classroom after hours. He always made his room comfortable for them. It was easy to talk openly with him as it was when I conducted the study years earlier. After discussing politics for quite awhile, we talked about his current situation and role as an advocate of the Latino community.

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Two years ago, Carl took a new position as a teacher of English and math at a Charter School, serving secondary school students. The school, located in the same town as Cherry High School, emphasizes science, math, and engineering and early college education. Students can take some college credit courses easily, as the high school campus is adjacent to the university campus. Carl described the reason he decided to move to this new school in an e-mail: I left [Cherry High School] because of the opportunity to be on the ground floor of an alternative, small-school program in Granite County. To a degree, I was recruited by the original principal because of “good things” he’d heard and because of my flexible skill set—including my Spanishspeaking ability. Our charter aims directly to make the college-prep curriculum (particularly in STEM [science, technology, engineering, math] subjects) more accessible to underserved populations (minorities and women) and to increase the retention rate amongst our college-bound graduates in their (hopefully technical) majors of first choice. There was an outreach to the Latino community to make sure they had an alternative to the big high school. I taught in small schools in California in the 80’s and knew the integrative power of small school communities and was eager to see such an alternative succeed in Granite County. I was willing to risk some serious career change (loss of tenure, income uncertainty, etc. to help make it happen). In retrospect, I probably trusted in the leadership a bit too much, but our charter  beginning to be fulfilled as we are increasingly enrolling minority, 1st generation-college, and female students. (e-mail correspondence, December 12, 2008)

Carl enjoyed his role as an advocate for the Latino students at the school. He explained that there were about 20 Latino students at the charter high school that enrolled 157 students total. Of those, seven were classified as ESL. He said, “I’m the ‘go-to’ person for the Latino students here. Some of the students who transfer to our school come from [Cherry High School] so I knew them there. Also, I guess kids just kind of learn through the grape vine that I am receptive to them.” Carl said that he is often a mediator for parents who don’t speak English and they are thrilled when they can speak to him in Spanish at the parent teacher conferences. As a local community member, who was no longer a teacher at Cherry High School, he had some interesting insights about Cherry High School’s ESL program. Some of the students who left Cherry High School transferred to this smaller charter school. He told me that kids from Cherry High say, “It’s too crazy at Cherry. No one does anything.” He interpreted that to mean that the classes were sometimes lacking structure and so the students didn’t work as hard as they should. He felt like the program has

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Epilogue: Cherry High School Now

Inciting Change

had “ebb and flow” where sometimes it was working well and other times it was lacking. He attributed some of its success to the dedication of two Latino aides, Dr. Enrique Mendez and Mercedes Jensen. Both have worked at the school off and on since 2002. Discussing the sheltered math classes in particular, he said that the female teacher who replaced him had some difficulty. Though the kids thought she was doing well, some of the faculty didn’t. He lamented, “It’s a hard line when you want to be an advocate. Fellow colleagues don’t get it.” He explained that he sometimes was criticized for the way he advocated for the Latino kids. The other teachers thought he was being too easy on them.

Jan Jan stayed teaching in the ESL program at Cherry High School the longest. She was also the most experienced of all the teachers. As we talked, she laughed and said that she was old enough to be the mother of most of the new teachers. Sometimes she explained that many teachers lack the experience and don’t have the “guts” to push for high expectations from the students. She teaches many of the required science classes at Cherry High School, but this year she is not teaching the sheltered ESL courses. In our interview she explained, “[The current ESL coordinator] took it away from me.” When I asked why, she said that she didn’t know for sure but thought it was because, in his opinion, she was too hard on the Latino kids. Her response was that the kids need the push to do better. She said, “I have high expectations. I think there is a generational difference on how to approach this problem. I raised teenagers and that outside of the classroom experience is really needed.” She still has many students in her classes who were once classified as ELs and have been mainstreamed into her science classes. She feels some of them may have been mainstreamed too early because they have difficulty with comprehension. Other problems in the program include the change in the administration. Like other teachers I interviewed, she felt the previous principal and vice principal understood the curriculum needed for ELs and had the vision to structure courses within the school. She also mentioned the lack of continuity with the program stating, “We don’t stick with anything. I don’t know what they’re doing now.” As mentioned previously, Jan also thought that many of the teachers who received their endorsement through the district program did not get the in-depth education she received while attending the university program.

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Despite these concerns with the program, she has decided not to say much now. She told me that she felt like she should just stay out of trouble with the administration, buckle down, and teach her classes. Jan continues to be a dedicated teacher working with students one-on-one after school, setting up hands-on experiments, and taking her students on field trips to do water testing and observations.

Laura Laura currently teaches intermediate and advanced Spanish classes and AP Spanish at the high school. She continues to be a respected and involved member of the school and district community. For the last four years she served two two-year terms as chair and vice chair on the community council, which is a legislative mandate that consists of administration, teachers, parents, and PTA. Mostly, they are in charge of how to spend trust-land money and to give advice and suggestions for school improvement. She was instrumental in suggesting that the trust-land money go toward supporting the school’s growing ELs populations. The community council notes read: With much of the Cherry High’s School Land Trust Funds, the school has hired ESL/ELL aides. These aides work to provide tutorial assistance and interventions in ESL, Sheltered, and general education English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and CTE classrooms. The [Cherry High School] Improvement Plan focuses on student improvement for all students and assumes special emphasis for our English Learners. [Cherry High School] enjoys a rapidly growing ELL population and the school is using its School Land Trust Funds to improve learning for these at-risk students. (community council notes, April 15, 2008)

This participation in school-wide organization shows how Laura and other teachers consistently advocate for ELs outside of their own classroom. During the past eight years, she has contributed to the wider educational community by serving in leadership roles in the Cherry District Education Association (CEA) and this intermountain state’s Education Association (UEA). She has also presented at conferences, served as the Modern Languages Department head, completed her Masters in Second Language Teaching (MSLT), taught university ESL endorsement courses, taught continuing education adult course in Spanish, and applied for and received grants for classroom materials. Her students often comment on

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Epilogue: Cherry High School Now

Inciting Change

her dedication and passion for the Spanish language and her desire to support them to use it in real life situations. In fact, in the spring of 2008, she received the Teacher of the Year award for Cherry High School. Three years ago, Laura decided not to teach the Spanish for Native Speakers course at Cherry High School. I was surprised when I first learned this through an e-mail as she worked so tirelessly to get the course in the school initially. She said, “I hope you don’t think bad of me, but I decided not to teach the Spanish for Native Speakers course.” Many factors contributed to the reasons she made the decision. One was that due to budget constraints, two courses were combined into one time slot. That meant she taught the Advanced Placement Spanish course and the Spanish for Native Speakers course at the same time. These courses have different goals and student needs, so she was constantly split between them both. Therefore, the course was very draining physically and emotionally. At the same time, she was dealing with health issues and felt that she needed to pull back a bit on extra commitments. She was pleased that the department was able to hire another Spanish teacher who had the background and skills to teach the Spanish for Native Speakers course as she believes that the course is extremely important for supporting ELs as they develop their reading and writing skills.

Lisa As a district employee of 22 years, Lisa has seen many ideas about teaching ELs come and go. She has taught ESL for all of the 22 years, first as a roaming teacher in elementary, middle, and high school. The past 14 years she has been exclusively at Cherry High School. This year she has five preps, Beginning ESL, Emergent ESL, Intermediate ESL, Advanced ESL, and Sheltered Earth Systems. For the most part, she is left on her own to teach, which suits her fine. She said, “I think that is one of the things I like about teaching ESL, people leave you alone.” However, she explained how being left alone can be isolating for the ELs. She told me that teachers who are not part of the ESL program do not look at ELs as part of their responsibility. A teacher said to her recently, “Your kids are making a lot of noise in the hallway.” When Lisa looked out her door she saw that they were not her students, they were Latinos. She said, “Other teachers make a lot of assumptions.” She felt she was given the role of caretaker for all students whose home language was not English. Lisa discussed many joys and challenges of being an ESL teacher. Joys included learning about other cultures, seeing kids who want to be in

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school and appreciate learning, and watching kids progress. Challenges included watching students deal with difficult life situations. Many students have single moms who work double shifts, some students have lived in refugee camps their whole lives and then were plopped in a U.S. city without support, others are asked to drop out of school to help with child care or other work at home. She felt the challenges many of her students faced at home detracted from their ability to do well at school. When asked about what was working or not working for ELs at the school, she had a few ideas such as more integration of the students in the school. She felt they could benefit from an after school club that would plan things together, better communication lines between families and schools, and encouragement to join other clubs and sports. That has not always been easy, because ELs have been marginalized in the school in many ways. She said, “White kids run the school.” But, as a veteran teacher, Lisa seemed to pull back from the inner workings of the school. When I asked her about programmatic decisions, she said, “Oh, I leave that up to Benjamin.” Some of Lisa’s instructional practices that have changed over the years include more process writing, hands-on activities, ongoing and multiple ways of assessing including a portfolio, and slowing down the process so that students feel comfortable. Her students have told her that they feel safe in her class because they can bond with friends and participate in activities easily. She interpreted that to mean that they get to work at their instructional level in English, unlike some mainstream course where there is little scaffolding or accommodations for language learners.

Benjamin I first met Benjamin in an ESL endorsement course I was teaching at the university in Granite County. Unlike most of the students, he came to the course entitled ESOL in the Content Areas with a wealth of knowledge and perspectives on language learning and bilingual education issues. He was a newly hired Spanish teacher at Cherry High School and even as a beginning teacher desired to continue his education toward a M.Ed. in secondary education. At that time he expressed a desire to continue to develop the ESL program that was started by the faculty cohort of Laura, Brian, Carl, and Jan. He shared many frustrations of other teachers at the school who were not part of this cohort because many of these teachers used deficit Discourse to describe ELs at the school.

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Epilogue: Cherry High School Now

Inciting Change

All the teachers who were part of the original esprit de corps told me if I wanted to know the status of the ESL program, I needed to interview Benjamin. They all said, “Benjamin would know that” and “Benjamin is really heading the program now.” With that encouragement, I set up a phone interview with Benjamin just as school ended in the late fall. Benjamin started the conversation out of breath and began to tell me about what a “long strange” day he had. When I pushed for more information he told me how he had to break up a fight between two Latino girls, one of whom was enrolled in the ESL program. He was frustrated about the situation. When I asked why he was called to “break up” the fight, I learned that he finished his M.Ed. in secondary education and was now working on an administrator’s license. As part of the program he was doing his administrator’s internship at Cherry High School. So, in addition to his role as ESL coordinator, he was also called in as a disciplinarian to fulfill his internship assignment. He decided to pursue the administrator’s license because he could “earn a bit more money.” Based on his experience, I asked him if he would like a position as a principal in a high school. He responded with a chuck, “Well that’s what I envisioned initially, but now an elementary school sounds really good.” He elaborated: It isn’t that it is hard to deal with the students and parents. It is the other teachers. Other teachers are getting on my nerves. Some teachers think that they know everything and if you don’t agree with their opinion even on topics that they haven’t researched they think you’re wrong and there is little that can be done to change their minds. For example, I keep hearing as the ESL coordinator from teachers the comment, “I don’t want an ESL endorsement, don’t ask me to do anything with ESL.” That really bothers me more than the other.

I asked, “Why is that?” My first thought is always, aren’t you here for the kids to help all these kids not just for the “good kids,” but to help all of these kids. I guess some of them have had negative experiences due to lack of training. They have been thrown into an ESL situation. But I think more has to be with stereotypes. They see some of these kids that they have in their classes that are Latino and they automatically assume that all of my ESL kids are similar to those kids. My ESL kids are the most respectful. It takes them a few years to learn to be disrespectful.

Talking to Benjamin reminded me of many of the conversations that I had with the esprit de corps teachers. They often described similar kinds of

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situations where teachers didn’t take the time to understand the immigrant students they worked with. Benjamin also addressed the importance of more administrative support. He said that he had more support from the previous principal and vice principal who also happened to be bilingual in Spanish and English. He said that the current administration has tried but they don’t really have an understanding of the process of language learning for immigrant students. At the time of the interview, no administrators or administrative assistants spoke Spanish or understood how to mediate needs of the ELs in the school. Often, Benjamin was pulled from his classes to the front office to translate or explain situations involving ELs. Not only did the high school administrators lack experience with ELs, but the district employee assigned to programs for ELs also had little background in language learning acquisition at the secondary level. Benjamin discussed three main goals he wanted to achieve as the coordinator of the ESL program: 1) improve assessment and placement of English Learners; 2) create more continuity with teachers serving ELs in the program; and 3) create more spaces for ELs to integrate with dominant English speakers. To meet the goal of creating more systematic assessment, the school implemented portfolio assessment that included ongoing assessments based on classroom instruction, writing samples, and the Quick Informal Assessment (QIA). The test makers describe QIA as . . . an informal, comprehensive testing instrument designed to quickly identify a student’s language proficiency level as well as evaluate language growth over time. Multiple ways to assess language development insure that the process is more comprehensive and not based on a single measure. The QIA offers a means of observing and evaluating language development in an informal way. (Ballard and Tighe, online)

While Benjamin was not completely satisfied with the test, he felt it gave teachers the opportunity to show student growth throughout the year beyond the Idea Proficiency Test (IPT). The IPT is given twice a year and is much more time consuming. Because of teacher turnover within the program, Benjamin felt there needed to be more continuity for the students. He told me he hoped the administration would hire a math teacher and science teacher who hold certifications in the said subjects and are ESL endorsed. Though Jan holds a certificate to teach the earth systems core science class and holds an ESL endorsement, she is not endorsed to teach biology, which is another need for the school. No other teachers have expressed an interest in obtaining the endorsement.

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Inciting Change

Two aides have been amazing support for ELs through these past nine years that I have been involved in the school. All of the teachers refer to them with respect for the way they encourage the students to reach high goals. They are also the only school personnel who are not White or do not appear White (Laura is of mixed Mexican/White heritage but she is blonde with blue eyes). Though I was not able to interview them for this chapter, I felt it was important to include a biography of them and what they have contributed to the school and ELs in particular. Dr. Enrique Mendez, a pediatrician and professor of medicine at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico for 23 years, was born and raised in Mexico. In 1993, Dr. Mendez left Mexico for Granite County, this area, to join family. After arriving in Granite County, he began his work with Latino immigrants, helping them to learn English, but in many cases developing their Spanish reading and writing skills as well. He has volunteered at a number of organizations to further his efforts to help improve literacy of Latino immigrants including teaching classes for adults in the mornings and evenings. He also worked at Cherry High School as an aide for high school students in content classes of science and math. In an e-mail he explained his view of the program: The ESL program at [Cherry High School] is a success. ESL teachers work very hard to teach students English and the curriculum. There is an ESL program coordinator that works hard talking with students, calling and visiting parents at home, and meets periodically to inform parents and to instruct them on how they can help with homework. ELs also have a program that includes a teacher’s aid after school to help them in the Technology Mulitcultural Center. It is available four nights a week and Saturday mornings. (e-mail correspondence, December 14, 2008)

He was also pleased to report that “English Language Students graduation rates have increased to between 85 percent and 90 percent for the last three years.” Some of the challenges at the school he described are with students from rural Mexico who have only three or four years of formal schooling and enter the high school. He said he is known as the person who tells the students that they need to “work double” to be able to make it in this competitive culture. I referred to Dr. Mendez earlier in my description of Carl’s class in chapter 4. Mercedes Jensen has worked as an aide for English Learners at Cherry High School off and on for over 10 years. Lisa, the ESL teacher, laughed

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and said, “Sometimes she quits and then we all beg her to come back again.” She is able to reach the students as no other teacher can. Lisa said, “She is harder on the kids than I am. I think she can do it because she is Hispanic and they listen to her like they would an aunt.” For her committed work to the students she was awarded Classified Employee of the Year at an end of the year ceremony in 2008.

Discussion and Analysis Looking back at the school, after being away from the community for two years, I observed that some of the structural elements that constrained teachers 10 years ago were still present. One of the structural elements that constrained the teachers during the past years was the layout of the school. In Beating the Odds, Ancess (2003) discusses how the physical layout of the school she studied, Urban Academy, encouraged communication by all members of the school community. She explains, “Organizational structure can reinforce or undermine a school’s vision, values, and belief system.” At Urban Academy the office is a double-sized classroom where all the desks of all the staff members are nestled next to one another and where students discuss homework with teachers, teachers plan curriculum together, and the principal interacts with students often. In contrast, Cherry High School is arranged like most high schools, with the principal’s office nestled deep inside the front office without easy access. The ESL classroom is situated next to the Modern Language classrooms downstairs at the far end of the school and the office. Teachers’ desks are in their own classrooms. Why does this matter? Ancess explores the connection between the school’s physical structure and the ability to create equitable change within the school. She argues that “organizational features, including school size, collegial collaboration and proximity, the opportunity structure for critical reflection and dialogue, individual and organizational growth and professional development, self-governance and share governance and leadership” (p. 22) can create what she terms “communities of commitment” that is the root of real change. This argument is especially salient at Cherry High School because the Discourse used by teachers in the ESL program is often contrasted with those who do not teach in the program. The interaction between the teachers is limited due to time and space constraints within the school’s structure. Six years ago when I spent time in the school almost weekly, we created teacher focus groups to discuss the needs and goals of the ESL program. Teachers were given a small stipend for their time

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Epilogue: Cherry High School Now

Inciting Change

and I arranged the focus groups and brought food. One teacher lamented, “We don’t have time to talk to each other, even those who teach in the ESL program. When we had the focus groups, we were more aware of what was happening and we could make goals together.” Every teacher and aide at the school noted that most teachers at the school, and even the administrators, do not understand the process of language learning for immigrant students. The participants gave examples about how teachers continually complained about ELs in their classrooms who converse in English yet do poorly on written work or reading comprehension. They also complained about the time and effort it took to restructure their curriculum to include hands-on activities and visuals, which they felt weren’t needed for their English-speaking students. One teacher shared an experience about the principal observing her class to fill out an evaluation. The teacher said, “Since she didn’t know really anything about how to teach language, so she couldn’t really say anything negative about my teaching but she couldn’t give me constructive feedback either.” Most reported that the district administration supported the program verbally but didn’t have concrete suggestions to improve it since they didn’t have background in language learning pedagogy or experience in developing EL programs. Much evidence demonstrated that members of Cherry High School community do not recognize immigrant students as assets, especially Latino students. Through teacher interviews, e-mail exchanges and searches from the local media, I noted several examples of the deficit Discourse, especially in reference to Latinos who are the largest minority group in the school. I heard, “Aren’t we here to teach all kids, not just the ‘good kids.’ ” In this phrase, “good kids” is code for White students, whose home language is English. “Well, the Hispanic culture doesn’t really support education.” Meaning, it isn’t the school that is to blame for the students’ failure, it is their “culture.” “I think they just want to hang out with their friends and not work. They get lazy.” Students use their agency to decide to continue with school or not. “There is a world of difference between Asians and Hispanics. Asians work hard and Hispanics just want it done for them.” “A lot of [Latinos] don’t want school, they just want to be gang bangers.” “Spanish-speaking students don’t want to learn.” Even the first Latina valedictorian at Cherry High School titled her address, “I was expected to fail.” The speech was reprinted in the local newspaper “after hearing the speech brought many listeners to tears,” and though she describes many challenges and also support she received, the quote the newspaper chose to highlight in big print was, “Because I came from a place I called ‘home’ that was filled with violence, domestic abuse, alcoholism, financial instability, emotional breakdown and so much more . . . I was

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expected to fail” (Bonneville Journal, May 2008). People read the newspaper and saw a lovely Latina girl and a quote about negative social issues rather than a quote about what she did well. She should be commended because she rose above her “culture.” The Discourse about immigrants in the community is not one where students get a sense of being able to succeed and contribute to society in a meaningful way. How can the deficit Discourse surrounding immigrant students be disrupted (Oakes and Rogers, 2006; Valenzuela, 1999)? School reform or transformation occurs through the creation and flow of disruptive knowledge contrasting narrow dominant Discourses. To insert a Discourse that contradicts the dominant Discourse, collective action is crucial. The teachers who initially formed the esprit de corps in efforts to restructure the ESL program were able to do so in part because of collective action. They made some transformative progress but were unable to continue for a variety of reasons. These reasons included the need to earn a greater salary by entering into administrative work, health issues, lack of administrative support for planning time, and the desire of one teacher to be a part of a smaller more collaborative school where co-governance was more prevalent. Therefore, the esprit de corps was dismantled. I wonder if this group were still to be intact, and supported with time and finances from the administration, would have been able to continue to endure challenges, inquire critically, improve, invent, and add to the ESL program to better serve the ELs? Would they have been able to find spaces within the school to insert Discourses of ELs as intellectuals and contributors to society as a whole? Without the collective body to insert Discourse of funds of knowledge and benefits of multilingualism, the deficit Discourse remained steady. When the interaction with the teachers, who aligned themselves with an affirming Discourse of immigrants as assets who bring amazing resources and knowledge to the community, is limited, dominant Discourses prevail. All the teachers explained how wonderful the ELs were when they begin at the school. Benjamin said, “My ESL kids are the most respectful. It takes them a few years to learn to be disrespectful.” Jan expressed, “They are great students at first until they start hanging out with the Hispanic kids who have been here for a few years.” And Lisa said, “I love the ESL kids before they start to learn how to be mouthy and lose interest.” When I asked why they thought students followed this pattern, they all answered with possibilities of difficult home lives, cultural reasons, or lack of formal schooling. The first answer wasn’t that something at the school might be occurring that contributed to this pattern. Gutiérrez (2006) explains, “There has been a long history in educational policy, research, and practice of problematic uses of the construct of culture—of using culture reductively, categorically, and often, to unfortunate ends that further marginalize cultural

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Epilogue: Cherry High School Now

Inciting Change

communities and their members” (p. 43). After exploring the deficit Discourse prevalent at the school and repeated to me by the teachers, I am not surprised that some students showed resistance, acted out, or decided not to come to school at all. So what can be done? Many of the recommendations listed in chapter 7 continue to be important as I revisited the school this past fall. For example, teachers alone cannot be required to make changes, nor should they alone be held accountable for the powerful dominant Discourses prevalent in the nation/community. Teachers should not be framed psychological/ individual that strips away the historical, political, and social backdrop of the community where they live and work. The ESL coordinator was working incredibly hard to create an environment where ELs could succeed, including riding his bike to students’ homes during the school day to encourage them to attend as well as meeting with the community council after school to fight for funds for more aides for ELs. He was eating, drinking, and sleeping the program. He was also exhausted. I could hear it in his voice. I thought, “Here is a caring teacher who strives to understand the students he teaches and puts in many hours past what is required, but he is burning out.” Carrying the torch, on his own, could prove to be too much. Despite all of his efforts, too many students were not doing as well in school, especially when they left the support of the teachers within the ESL program. Lisa explained that administrators often laud a 97 percent graduation rate for ELs at Cherry High School. She explained that this statistic was misleading because it only included students who were currently enrolled in the program, not those who had been mainstreamed. Not surprisingly, because when they left the ESL program, they also left teachers who aligned themselves with Discourses who supported them as contributors to the school community. Therefore, they were not being integrated into the school as viable participants. Cherry High School is an example of the practice of transforming students, but not schools. The contrast of the environment I have observed at Cherry High School compared to successful high schools for English Learners is stark. Cherry High School was not a school where “the school is a cohesive organization, [where] divisions between individuals and their school dissolve, so that the individuals who comprise the school are in fact the school” (Ancess, 2003, p. 58). Most English Learners didn’t have the opportunity to engage in community-based research that was co-constructed by teachers, researchers, and community members, as did Carmen in the high school described by Guajardo and Guajardo (2008). Unlike Carmen, most students at Cherry High School were not given the opportunity to share their life narratives as

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undocumented immigrants and use them respectfully as a way to grow as intellectual, social, political, and cultural assets to the community. They were not in a school that organized students around issues of social justice as described by Oakes and Rogers (2006), so that when they left high school they had a “strong sense of themselves as young intellectuals who belonged in college and who hoped to return to their communities to make a contribution.” They were not immune to tracking inequality and biased high stakes tests as described by Ochoa (2007). Like all children, the ELs at Cherry High School deserve education that values them as much as all the students in the school. How can schools like Cherry High School with a growing EL population of all White teachers and administrators transform their school to allow for meaningful long-term education for all learners? I return to my questions. What were the structural elements that enabled or constrained the teachers as they continue the process of developing the school’s ESL program? The physical structure of the school and the top-down administrative style constrained the teachers from interacting and inserting important Discourses about language, students, and program transformation. They lacked time and proximity to discuss important changes together. Benjamin lamented, “We desperately need more collaboration across the program, more time for ESL teachers to talk with each other about the students and their needs, and more time to share information with mainstream teachers.” To what degree were teachers able to change and continue to change the ESL program? How have Discourses, teacher actions, and events impacted changes to the ESL program long term? The ESL program evolved and changed with the student population and the dedicated teachers who served in the program. As one teacher said, “There are more services now than there ever have been before.” ELs had access to all the required courses of the mainstream curriculum through sheltered courses. The coordinator continues to ask important questions about who should teach the courses and how the students should be assessed. The administration has been supportive of including these courses in the schedule. Despite these instructionally important courses and the dedication of the teachers and aides in the ESL program, the school faculty and administration as a whole did not contribute to transforming the practices, actions, and Discourses in the school to create a viable situation for ELs. The school’s structure stayed basically the same. Gutiérrez et al. (2002) warn about the importance of entire school reform when constructing programs for ELs. While specific instructional practices within classes such as SIOP can support students in the language learning process, those teaching practices alone are not

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Inciting Change

Recommendations So what can be done? Many of the recommendations listed in chapter 7 continued to be important as I revisited the school through the interviews, e-mails, and archival data. One of the biggest factors constraining/ enabling change in the school was the national/community Discourse surrounding the education of ELs grounded in a deficit Discourse prevalent at Cherry High School. This deficit Discourse needs to be disrupted. I believe each school community needs to figure out how to best address the structural and discursive practices that limit the education for English Learners. In Learning to teach for social justice, Darling-Hammond, French, and Garcia-Lopez (2002) share examples of how various educators and schools began to address difficulties and dilemmas of teaching in diverse schools. Illustrations of curricular and pedagogical approaches as well as guides for transforming school into equitable spaces for all can be useful, especially for schools in mid-size cities or rural towns that often have fewer resources from which to draw, as illustrated in the opening excerpt of this book. This project began with two professors who offered to volunteer at the high school. The ESL teacher and principal at the time were willing to accept the service and be open to suggestions. Acknowledging that the school needed to be reformed for the ELs was a big step. Athanases and Oliveira (2008) suggest that “effective acts of advocacy follow a pathway of skillful assessment of a problem or challenge of equitable access, convictions to act, organizational and political literacy to know how to intercede and awareness that it can’t be done alone” (p. 99). The principal and the teachers assessed the program and knew it needed to change. We, as professors at the university, could not have written the grant or been funded for it without the cooperation and advocacy of the school faculty and administrators. The changes would not have been enacted without continued discussion, assertion of Discourse, and the willingness on the teachers’ part to contribute beyond what was expected of them. Now, that process of advocacy needs more support by all involved for it to continue.

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sufficient to provide an equitable environment for learning. In other words, a multicultural assembly once a year is not an adequate way to demonstrate that there is a place for students who speak languages other than English at home. More efforts to value and integrate students into the fabric of the school are crucial.

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In the Appendix, I share a document that might encourage the process of transformation or help to continue it if it has already been started. Drawing on examples of successful school reform, I have created a worksheet that lists indicators of effective school practices for English Learners discussed in the conclusion chapter. This worksheet is not comprehensive or prescriptive; rather it is a practical guide for collaborative groups as they begin this process of effective school reform for English Learners.

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Epilogue: Cherry High School Now

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School Planning Worksheet: Indicators of Effective Programs for English Learners The indicators listed below are supported by research for structuring effective programs for English Learners Indicator

Rate your school from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest)

High expectations:

1

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

All teachers expect ELs to succeed in their classes. Their practices demonstrate critical thinking and application of content. Evidence that supports your rating: Specific ideas for raising the rating: Language and content 1 development integrated: All teachers combine language development with content development. Evidence that supports your rating: Specific ideas for raising the rating:

Continued

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Appendix

Appendix

Indicator

Rate your school from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest)

Content development in heritage language:

1

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

Courses are available at the school to continue development of students’ heritage language. Evidence that supports your rating: Specific ideas for raising the rating: Ongoing, authentic assessment: Assessment practices are integrated with instruction to demonstrate progress of English Learners.

1

Evidence that supports your rating: Specific ideas for raising the rating: Comprehensive staff development for teachers: All teachers need to be involved in ongoing staff development that focuses on both theory and practice for effective practices for English Learners.

1

Evidence that supports your rating: Specific ideas for raising the rating: Support for school leaders and administration: Active and meaningful support system from administration (district and school) for teachers and English Learners.

1

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Evidence that supports your rating:

School environment is 1 supportive of English Learners: All faculty members, administrative assistants, and administrative leaders need to be supportive of English Learners and aware of their needs.

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

Evidence that supports your rating: Specific ideas for raising the rating: Restructure classes to highlight students’ funds of knowledge: Teachers make an effort to know ELs in their classrooms through surveys, home visits, or after-school activities. Administration supports teachers in these activities.

1

Evidence that supports your rating: Specific ideas for raising the rating: Some teachers, counselors, 1 community liaisons, and aides should speak the students’ languages and share their cultural backgrounds: Administration actively recruits and retains teachers who speak students’ languages and share their backgrounds. Evidence that supports your rating: Specific ideas for raising the rating: Continued

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Specific ideas for raising the rating:

Appendix

Indicator

Rate your school from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest)

Information about postsecondary educational opportunities: English Learners have ready access to information about postsecondary opportunities such as scholarships, college applications, and vocational schools.

1

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

Evidence that supports your rating: Specific ideas for raising the rating: Interaction across linguistic, ethnic, and social class groupings: Administration and teachers make a concerted effort to facilitate meaningful interaction for English Learners and other groups in the school.

1

Evidence that supports your rating: Specific ideas for raising the rating: Notes (plans for implementing specific ideas listed):

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1

Introduction: Can We Blame the Teachers?

1. All names of people and places are pseudonyms. 2. I use the term ESL when addressing the program created at the school for English Learners as that is the term the teachers and administrators at the school and district used. 3. I believe all labels given to people are problematic. I choose to use both English Learners (ELs) and English Language Learners (ELLs) interchangeably—labels applied to students who enter the schools proficient in a language other than English because of its prevalence in the language education literature and because it is the term used by the teachers most frequently. The focus of the term is on learning English to succeed in school. Unfortunately, the use of this label ignores a wide range of knowledge and expertise the student brings to school and does not include other necessary fields of study such as science, math, and social studies. 4. Proposition 227 is the referendum passed by the California public in 1998 dictating that children who speak languages other than English in the home undertake a maximum of one school year of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes instead of instruction in their home or primary language. 5. I use the term funds of knowledge from the literature of Luis Moll and Norma González (1994), González, Moll, and Amanti (2005), and McIntyre, Rosebery, and González (2001) defined as “various social and linguistic practices and the historically accumulated bodies of knowledge that are essential to students’ home and communities” (McIntyre, Rosebery, and González, pp. 2–3). These funds of knowledge that all students possess might not be recognized as “school” knowledge when shared from marginalized populations such as English learners. 6. The “/” between national and community signifies the close connection and influence of community and national discourse upon each other. National Discourse draws upon community Discourse and community Discourse upon national Discourse creating a blurred distinction. 7. The American Educational Research Association, Linguistic Society of American, American Association of Applied Linguistics, the editorial board of

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Notes

Notes

the Harvard Education Review, and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) all spoke out against this initiative. 8. I realize that the term “immigrant” is problematic in that a distinction between an “immigrant” and “nonimmigrant” is often blurred. I use it in this book for pragmatic purposes to refer to students who were not born in the United States.

2

Community Context: Change Is in the Air

1. I used the term ESL program because that is how the district and teachers refer to the program for immigrant populations.

3 Contradictory Discourse among Teachers, Administration, and the State: “Let’s Have a More Inclusive School Culture, Which Assimilates All Students” 1. I decided to use a pseudonym for the newspaper as the title of the newspaper would have identified the school and participants. 2. For a more comprehensive explanation of racial identity formation in adolescents, see Tatum’s book (1997) Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? pp. 52–74.

4

Teachers’ Discursive Realignment

1. Anna is not one of the teachers described in the introductory chapter. Though she participated in the grant, she was not asked by the administration to teach in the ESL program. 2. “S” refers to a student in the class. “Ss” refers to more than one student. 3. The text in italics is my thoughts, which occurred as I was observing the class, rather than straight description. 4. All of the conversations were in Spanish. Because of my level of Spanish writing, I often wrote the comments in English so that I could more accurately describe my observations, but some I took down in Spanish directly.

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Notes

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1. In a recent e-mail communication (October 13, 2005), Laura said, “The Spanish for Native Speakers class is going strong—30 students! This year it is mixed with non-native advanced students and native Spanish speakers but next year we will have a true Spanish for Native Speakers class.”

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6 Teachers as Agents of School Change

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absenteeism. See attendance, school academic language, 9, 86, 94, 95, 130 vs. social language, 92–100 administration structure of, 110, 115, 118–21, 125, 145, 167 support from, 136–37, 161 Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish, 108 aides, bilingual, 61, 67, 78, 80, 138 Amendment 31 (Colorado), 5 analogy, standing wave, 109 Ancess, Jacqueline, 35, 135, 163 Anzuldúa, Gloria, 101, 104 Apple, Michael, 115 assemblies, school, 38–39, 139 assessment practices, 135, 161 assimilation, 37–42, 46–47, 132, 136 Discourse of, 33–37 negative impact of, 35 Athanases, Steven, 53, 168 attendance, school, 81, 126, 154, 162, 166 Auerbach, Elsa, 46, 47 Ayers, William, 126 Bakhtin, Mikhail, 11, 12–13, 48, 58, 88, 115, 133, 147 Balderrama, María, 10, 11, 52–53, 131, 143 Bartolomé, Lilia, 10, 11, 52–53, 131, 143 Beating the Odds (Ancess), 163

beliefs and attitudes of teachers, 53 BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills), 94–95 bilingual education, 2, 6, 7, 49, 92–93, 98–100 laws against, 5 public opinion about, 9 as tracking, 42 Bilingual Education: Training for All Teachers grant, 23–24, 30–31, 111 Bilingual Education Act (Title VII), 9 bilingualism, 45–49 Bourdieu, Pierre, 9, 11, 101, 131, 132 Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Public Discourse (Santa Ana), 5, 6–7 Buendia, Edward, 11, 53 California Tomorrow Project, 130 CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency), 94–95 change, school, 145–46 decision-making and, 125 events that allowed for, 114–27, 139–42 lack of organized effort for, 119–20, 124–25 in leadership, 116–21 OCR review and, 122 resistance to, 99–100 school structure and, 108

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Index

change, school—Continued structural barriers to, 131 teachers as agents of, 11, 52, 77, 115, 123–24 Changing teachers, changing times (Hargreaves), 109 Charter School (Granite County), 155 Chavez, Leo, 5 Cherry District Education Association (CEA), 157 Cherry High School, 19–26, 150–53 ESL programs at, 21–26, 48, 110–14 indicators of inclusion at, 35 land-trust money for, 157 language ideologies at, 83–87 physical layout of, 163 support staff for ESL program at, 162–63 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), 18–19, 89 classes adaptation of, 66–68 elimination of, 124 restructuring, 137–38 class impediments to language learning, 8 Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), 94–95 Coles-Ritchie, Marilee, 30–32 collective action, 165 college opportunities, 39, 138–39 Commins, Nancy, 123–24, 125, 145–46 communication, lack of, 120 community council, 157 consensus, 125, 145 content area instruction, 96–100 language development and, 134–35 content area instruction, bilingual, 98–100 content development heritage language and, 135

content objectives, 66–67 counselors, school, 113, 138 counterhegemony, 48 Crawford, James, 9 critical theory, 11, 12–13 cultural festivals, 36–37 Cummins, James, 35, 37, 94–95 Darling-Hammond, Linda, 168 data collection, 20–21 decision-making, 125, 145–46 deficit Discourse, 164–66, 168 demographics of Cherry High School, 19–20 of Granite County, 17–18 Deyhle, Donna, xv, 39, 47 dialogic relationships, 53 difference, acceptance of, 55–56 discipline, ESL students and, 22 Discourse, 4, 11–12, 17. See also national Discourse acknowledgment of, 142 of assimilation, 33–37, 132 deficit, 164–66, 168 of empathy, 87–91 of federal government, 40–41 of funds of knowledge, 165–66 gang, 40 of immersion, 18, 92–93 integration, 41 of language flowing, 43 sink or swim, 98 use of in school board meetings, 33–34 variations among groups, 57 discursive realignment, teacher, 52–53, 54–59 Doumbia, Fodé, 53 Echevarria, Jana, 66, 67, 95 Edison Elementary School, 153–54 educational opportunities, postsecondary, 39, 138–39 Education Association (UEA), 157

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ELs, 175n3 as assets, 164–66 challenges to educating, 129–30 discipline and, 22 expectations of, 77, 134 faculty involvement with, 137 increased numbers of, 129, 150 intolerance for, 101–2 marginalization of, 54 parents of, 25, 138–39, 142, 155 poor academic showing of, 6, 8, 37 postsecondary educational opportunities and, 138–39 relationships with, 54–55, 72, 80–81, 126 restructuring schools for, 123–25 social gatherings of, 20 teacher development and, 136 use of videos with, 80 “Embers of Hope: In Search of a Meaningful Critical Pedagogy” (Ayers, Michie, and Rome), 77 empathy, Discourse of, 87–91 English as language of power, 8 as monoglossic language, 48 as the Official Language laws, 17 English Department, 152 English for the Children, 11 English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement Act (Title III), 9 English Learners. See ELs English-only instruction, 92–93 mainstreaming and, 44 English-only laws, 17, 93, 132 equality in schools, 40–41 vs. equity, 44 Escalante, Jaime, 2 ESL course levels, 25 ESL endorsement, 23 ESL student programs administrative support for, 161

191

changes at Cherry High School, 25–26, 110–14, 150–51 at Cherry High School, 21–26, 48 concern for, 21–22 ESL endorsement and, 120 school board meetings and, 121 ESL teacher programs, university, 136, 140–42, 143–45 vs. district ESL programs, 24–25, 84, 152–53, 156 shortfalls of, 143 ESL teachers shortage of, 130 ESOL course, 68 examples of teaching and, 71–72 ESOL in the Content Areas, 66, 95–96 expectations of ELs, 77, 134 experiments, hands-on, 67 Faltis, Christian, 94, 95, 96 Federal Bilingual Education Grant, 142 federal education grant, 23 federal government, Discourse of, 40–41 focus group meetings, 82, 163–64 “Foods and Festivals” approach, 36–37 French, Jennifer, 168 Fullan, Michael, 52 funding, federal, 7 for bilingual education, 10 funds of knowledge, 4, 144–45, 175n5 Discourse of, 165–66 restructuring classes and, 137–38 Gallagher-Geurtsen, Tricia, 105 gang Discourse, 40 Garcia-Lopez, Silvia, 168 Gee, James, 4, 11–12 Gibson, Margaret, 35 Gitlin, Andrew, 53 Gonzáles, Norma, 85, 101

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Index

Index

Gonzales, Patrisia, 2 Gonzáles, Roseann, 91 grade data, 111, 154 graduation rates, 162, 166 Gramsci, Antonio, 48 Granite County, 17–19 grants, 23, 140 Bilingual Education: Training for All Teachers, 23–24, 30–31, 111 groups, student, 20, 25, 67, 71, 72, 139 groups, teacher, 82, 86, 163–64 Guajardo, Francisco, 166 Guajardo, Miguel, 166 Gutiérrez, Kris, 165, 167 Hall, Lisa, 147 Hall, Stuart, 99 Hargreaves, Andy, 82, 109, 118, 119, 141, 145 heritage languages, 9, 10, 67 benefits of, 143 class instruction in, 46–47 content development and, 135 developing, 131–32, 137–38 English replacing, 48 as undesirable, 48 as unvalued, 101–2 heterogeneity, 48 heteroglossic language, 12, 47–48, 58, 88, 98 “History in Person,” 53 Holland, Dorothy, 53, 58 home languages. See heritage languages Huberman, Michael, 81 Huerta, Grace, xv, 34 I Am My Language (Norma Gonzáles), 85 Idea Proficiency Test (IPT), 100, 112, 135, 161 ideological change, teacher, 54 ideologies, language, 4–5

at Cherry High School, 83–87 concept of, 85 creation of new, 147 tensions between, 96–97 immersion, 7, 18, 45–46, 83, 86 Discourse of, 92–93 immigration, 91 metaphors of, 55 inclusion vs. integration, 37 inclusive assimilation, 33–37 inclusive school culture, 33–37, 46 indicators of, 34–35 integration of students, 43–45, 159 Discourse of, 41 vs. inclusion, 37 interaction across student groupings, 139 intolerance for ELs, 101–2 IPT (Idea Proficiency Test), 100, 112, 135, 161 knowledge, background, 67 knowledge, funds of, 4, 144–45, 175n5 Discourse of, 165–66 restructuring classes and, 137–38 Ladson-Billings, Gloria, 36 land trusts, money from, 157 language as a barrier, 8, 87, 100–3 as cognitive, 143–44 conception of, 133 as dynamic and dialogic theory, 11, 12 effect of, 88–89, 97–100 factors impacting learning of, 91 as foreign, 87, 103–5 metaphors of, 102–3 of power, 8 as social, 143–44, 146 in social context, 104–5 language acquisition, 9, 143

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heritage language and, 47 language capital theory, 11, 132 language development, 8–9 content area instruction and, 134–35 language habitus, 9–10, 132 language ideologies, 4–5 at Cherry High School, 83–87 concept of, 85 creation of new, 147 tensions between, 96–97 Language Ideologies: Critical Perspectives on the Official English Movement (Gonzáles), 91 “language market,” 9–10, 132 Lave, Jean, 53, 58 LDS (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), 18–19, 89 Learning to Teach for Social Justice (Darling-Hammond, French, and Garcia-Lopez), 168 legislation, language, 5–6, 9, 17, 93, 132, 146 No Child Left Behind Act, 9, 10, 11, 45 Proposition 227 (California), 2, 5, 6–7, 9, 103, 175n4 locker assignments, 37, 39 Made in America (Olsen), 20 mainstreaming students, 43–45 Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners (Echevarria, Vogt, and Short), 95–96 Malesevic, Sinisa, 85 marginalization of immigrant students, 54 Math Department, 112–13, 152 metaphors of immigration, 55 of language as barrier, 102–3 of Latinos, 5 water, 6–7, 8, 43, 44, 55, 98

193

Michie, Gregory, 126 micro discourse, 11 Minicucci, Catherine, 42 Miramontes, Ofelia, 37, 123–24, 125, 145–46 Modern Languages Department, 113, 152 monoglossic language, 47–48. See also heteroglossic language Moraes, Marcia, 13, 47–48 Multicultural Center, 113, 162 multicultural clubs, 25, 72 Nadeau, Adel, 37, 123–24, 125, 145–46 national Discourse, 3–11, 146–47. See also Discourse native languages. See heritage languages Nieto, Sonia, 42 No Child Left Behind Act, 9, 10, 11, 45 Oakes, Jeannie, 167 objectives, content, 66–67 observations, classroom, 59–82 Ochoa, Gilda, 167 OCR (Office of Civil Rights), 24–25, 45, 48, 110, 121–23, 131, 139–40, 146 Oliviera, Luciana de, 53, 168 Olsen, Laurie, 20, 42 Olympic Festival, 36–37 organizational pattern, 124–25 parents of ELs, 25, 138–39, 142, 155 participants, teacher, 27–30, 153–58 observations of, 59–82 Patterson, Jerry, 124 Peercy, Megan, 144 pep rallies, 38–39, 139 Performance Assessment System for Students, 135

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Index

physical structure of schools, 163, 167 Pierce, Bonny, 143–44 political choices, heritage language instruction and, 46–47 political discourse, 10 Popkewitz, Thomas, 109 power negotiations within schools, 12–13 Preach My Gospel (LDS Mission Training Center), 18 principals, 145 bilingual, 117–21, 140 resignation of, 125–26, 136–37 search for new, 116–17 Proposition 187 (California), 5–6 Proposition 203 (Arizona), 5 Proposition 227 (California), 2, 5, 6–7, 9, 103, 175n4 Question 2 (Massachusetts), 5 questions, open-ended, 67 Quick Informal Assessment (QIA), 161 racial identity formation, 39–40 racism, 39 Ramos, Jorge, 6 Reagan, Timothy, 34 reform, school. See school reform relationships with ELs, 54–55, 72, 80–81, 126 research. See participants, teacher; study resignation of principal, 125–26, 136–37 Restructuring Schools for Linguistic Diversity (Miramontes, Nadeau, and Commins), 123–24 Rodriguez, Roberto, 2 Rogers, John, 167 role-play, 72 Rome, Amy, 126 Romero, María, 110

Index Santa Ana, Otto, 5, 7, 8, 43, 44, 55, 102–3, 147 SASS (Schools and Staffing Survey), 130 scaffolding, 71, 86 school board meetings, 121 use of Discourse terms in, 33–34 school reform, 131, 167–68 collective action and, 165 schools physical layout of, 163, 167 power negotiations within, 12–13 restructuring of, 123–25 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), 130 Science Department, 112 seating charts, 54, 139 second languages, experience learning, 86, 87–92, 93 as requirement for ESL endorsement, 90 segregation, 37–42 as negative policy in schools, 41–42 school-implemented, 37, 39 self-segregation, 38–39 sheltered content courses, 25, 40–41, 42, 43, 49, 112–13, 150–52 Short, Deborah, 66, 67, 95 sink or swim Discourse, 98 SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) Model, 66, 67, 95–96, 154, 167 social context, language in, 104–5 social gathering of students, 20 social interaction, language acquisition and, 9 social services, 6 Social Studies Department, 112 socioeconomic status, 91 Spanish for Native Speakers, 77–78, 108, 113, 117, 123–24, 134, 158, 177n1 speech, rate of, 67, 71, 78 standing wave analogy, 109

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structural impediments to language learning, 8 students. See ELs study discussion of, 133–39 implications of, 143–47 overview of, 129–33 recommendations from, 168–69 teacher participants in, 27–30, 153–58 support systems, 136–37 Suro, Roberto, 7 Tatum, Beverly, 39 teacher groups, 141–42, 146, 163–64 teachers as agents of change, 11, 52, 107–14, 115, 123–24 beliefs and attitudes of, 53 bilingual, 19, 138 change and, 54, 77 as a cohesive group, 57–59 as decision makers, 145–46 discursive realignment of, 52–53 ESL development and, 136 lack of input from, 118–20 participating in study, 27–30 shortage of, 130 similar discourses among, 57–59 and special courses for ELs, 59–82

195

tests, standardized, 10, 89, 95, 132, 135, 161 IPT, 100, 112, 135, 161 theoretical framework, 11–13 Title III (English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement Act), 9 Title VI, 146 Title VII (Bilingual Education Act), 9 top-down administration, 110, 115, 118–21, 125, 145, 167 tracking, 42 Tse, Lucy, 17 undocumented workers, 6 Unz, Ron, 2, 5, 6 Valenzuela, Angela, 35 videos, use of, 80 Vogt, MaryEllen, 66, 67, 95 water metaphors, 6–7, 8, 43, 44, 55, 98 Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (Tatum), 39 Wolfe, Paula, 94, 95, 96 Zentella, Ana, 105

10.1057/9780230101074 - Inciting Change in Secondary English Language Programs, Marilee Coles-Ritchie

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Index