Grantee: University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA Project Summary: Addressing a pressing need for equitable disciplinary instruction for bilingual/multilingual students, this project focuses on how novice teachers develop and implement asset-based science and literacy discourse practices and shift beliefs about bilingual/ multilingual students, language use, and language learning over time. Utilizing a design-based implementation research approach, we will track two cohorts of pre-service teachers from the University of Washington’s Elementary Teacher Education Program into their first three years of teaching as they engage in developing asset-based discourse and reasoning in teacher learning communities. In partnership with language, literacy and science coaches and expert K-5 teachers, we will co-design professional learning opportunities centered on asset-based discourse practices in science and literacy. We will center our qualitative and quantitative analyses of novice teacher learning around the tensions teachers encounter as they work on asset-based classroom discourse and how they navigate these tensions to affect their beliefs, pedagogical decision-making and instructional practices. The goals of the project are to: (1) examine and delineate novice teachers’ learning trajectories; (2) articulate tools and practices for asset-based science and literacy discourse in dual and multilingual classrooms; (3) add to the research on teacher learning focused on language, equity and content instruction of students in dual and multilingual elementary science and literacy classrooms; (4) inform researchers’ and practitioners’ design of productive professional development to support this learning; and (5) build capacity for teachers and coaches to lead ongoing improvement work in local classrooms, schools and districts.
Project Lead: Jessica Thompson, Ph.D.
Grant Title: Preparing Teachers to Facilitate Asset-based Science & Literacy Discourse in Dual and Multilingual Elementary Classrooms
https://doi.org/10.37717/220020589
Program Area: Understanding Human Cognition
Grant Type: Teachers as Learners
Year Awarded: 2020
Amount: $2,496,461
Duration: 5 years