Negotiating Multilingual Identities at School

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Negotiating Multilingual Identities at School

• Rebecca Freeman Field
• University of Pennsylvania
• Caslon Publishing Consulting
• rdfield_at_casloninc.com

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Abstract

• This workshop provides teachers with tools and
  strategies to explore how multilingual students
  identities are negotiated and displayed through
  schooling, with attention to the critical roles
  that educators play in this process.
• After a brief theoretical orientation,
  participants are given a series of guiding
  questions they can use to reflect on the
  implications of their policies, curriculum
  content, materials, organization of classroom
  interaction, assessment practices, and
  extracurricular activities for multilingual
  students social identity construction at school.
  
• Some examples illustrate how the choices that
  educators make can contribute to the
  subordination of particular identities at school.
  
• More importantly, other examples demonstrate how
  the choices educators make can challenge and
  potentially transform possibilities for
  multilingual students identity construction in
  their schools.

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Big Idea

• When you understand how identities are socially
  constructed through discourse in particular
  communities of practice, you can identify
  strategies for action ?
• Support discourse practices that lead to more
  equitable relations among social groups
• Challenge and potentially transform social
  relations that perpetuate inequality

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Objectives

• Participants will
• Use guiding questions to explore how multilingual
  students social identities are negotiated and
  displayed at school, with attention to the
  implications of the choices that they make in
  this process.
• Experience a series of instructional strategies
  they can use to shelter instruction for their
  English language learners (ELLs).

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AGENDA

• BEFORE
• Do now! Quick-write
• DURING
• Mini-lesson Challenging language prejudice
• Guiding questions for reflection and action
  Expert jigsaw w/notemaking guide ? carousel
• AFTER
• Ticket-out-the-door
• What stood out? What did you learn? What can you
  use? What questions do you have?

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DO NOW! Quickwrite(p. 2)

• 1. Quickwrite a short response to the
  following
• How do students learn what it means to be a
  multilingual, multicultural, globally-aware
  student? What roles do educators/schools play
  in this process?
• 2. Exchange papers with your neighbor. Read
  their response and, without talking, write a
  brief response to their response on their paper.
• 3. Give your partner their paper back and read
  their response to your writing. Discuss whatever
  stands out for you.

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Mini-lesson

• Challenging language prejudice
• on the local level

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What is language prejudice?

• Higher status attributed to the prestige
  language, which is used to fulfill higher status
  functions in society
• Lower status attributed to other languages or
  varieties of languages in that society
• This social stratification of languages in
  society can lead to discrimination against
  minority languages and speakers of those
  languages

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What do we see/hear when we look locally?

• What language groups do we find in your context?
• How are those groups represented and evaluated in
  your school environment, language policies,
  language education programs, curricular choices,
  instructional materials, classroom interactional
  routines, assessment practices, extra-curricular
  activities?
• What are the implications of these choicesfor
  members of these language groups, other students
  understanding of those groups, intergroup
  relations?
• What can you do to contribute to the development
  of multilingual, multicultural, globally-aware
  students in your context?

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Competing Discourses
PLURALIST

• ASSIMILATIONIST

Language-as-resource
Language-as-problem
English-plus
English-only
Mother tongue, DL
ESL
Multilingual literacies
Subtractive bilingualism
Additive bilingualism
Conflict and Controversy
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Its much more than language

• Constructing social identities through discourse
• Position
• Role
• Agency
• It would be a mistake to assume thatpositioning
  is necessarily intentional. One lives ones life
  in terms of ones ongoingly produced self,
  whoever might be responsible for its production
  (Davies Harré,1990)
• Social identity? Multi-faceted, dynamic,
  situated, negotiated, negotiable, structured by
  power relations

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Power as symbolic domination
Society
The ways that we use language can reflect and
perpetuate social relations
Institution
Interaction
The ways that we use language can challenge and
potentially transform social relations
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We have choices in the ways that we use language
to position multilingual students.

• The choices we make have important implications
  for our students, schools, and communities.

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Essential Questions

• How are educators at your school positioning
  multilingual students relative to the rest of the
  school and community?
• What are the implications of those choices for
  multilingual students social identity
  construction at school?
• Investigating the representation and evaluation
  of languages and speakers of languages at school.

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Expert jigsaw with notemaking guide

• Step 1 Introduce text read aloud first two
  paragraphs (p.4)
• Step 2 Divide into groups of three to four
  people.
• Each group is assigned a number, either 1, 2, or
  3. Each person in that group reads their
  paragraph (p.5), and uses the notemaking guide
  on p.8 to make notes about their paragraph.
  FOCUS ON MAKING CONNECTIONS!
• Step 3 Write down your purpose on your
  notemaking guide.
• For paragraph 1 How are the languages used by
  your students represented and evaluated
  throughout your school? What are the
  implications of this representation for
  multilingual students social identity
  construction at school?
• For paragraph 2 How are the cultures of the
  students at your school related to the
  curriculum? What are the implications of this
  approach for multilingual students social
  identity construction at school?
• For paragraph 3 How are the linguistic and
  cultural resources of your students integrated
  into the curriculum content/classroom teaching
  and learning? What are the implications of these
  choices for multilingual students social
  identity construction at school?

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Expert jigsaw with notemaking guide (cont.)

• Step 4 Get together with the other two or three
  members of your group that read the same
  paragraph. Share your notes. Appoint a group
  leader that will report a) the purpose of your
  reading, b) what the authors say, and c) the
  connections you make with your context.
• Step 4.5 Get together in a group of at least
  three people and no more than six people that
  includes at least one representative of group 1,
  2, and 3. First the ones, then the twos and then
  the threes report out, first reading aloud their
  purpose, then the important facts, then the
  connections they made.
• Step 5 Read aloud the concluding paragraph. RF
  shares example of how multilingual identities are
  socially constructed at Oyster Bilingual School.

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How are multilingual identities socially
constructed at Oyster Bilingual School?

• An alternative educational discourse that aims to
  position Spanish-speaking students more or less
  equally to English-speaking students.
• This ideological orientation (pluralist/resource)
  is reflected in all of Oysters policies and
  practices.
• Dual language program (50 Spanish/50 English)
  every subject taught in two languages
• Curriculum content reflects histories,
  contributions, perspectives of students at school
  (primarily Latino, African American, and European
  American
• Materials authentic materials in two languages
  in classes and library
• Student-centered, student-directed classroom
  interaction inquiry-based, problem-posing
  approach
• Authentic assessment for linguistically and
  culturally diverse students
• All communication to parents in two languages
• All students gain the ability and the right to
  participate in the school discourse, and all
  students achieve more or less equally.

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Expert jigsaw with notemaking guide (cont.)

• Step 6 Return to your small group and generate
  a one-to-two sentence summary of the article
  where it says summary.
• Step 7 Extension activity ? Continue the
  investigation at your school using the guiding
  questions (on p. 6 or your loose handout).

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Extension Using the guiding questions for
reflection and action

• How can a schools discourse practices position
  multilingual students relative to the mainstream
  students and community?
• Policies and accountability requirements?
• Program structure?
• Curriculum content?
• Materials?
• Classroom interaction?
• Assessment practices?
• Unofficial classroom/school discourse?
• School/community relations ?

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Carousel

• Step 1 In your smaller group, answer the
  following questions about your focal aspect of
  the school discourse system.
• How can YOUR FOCUS position multilingual
  students negatively relative to the mainstream
  students and community?
• How can YOUR FOCUS position multilingual
  students more or less equally to the mainstream
  students and community?
• Write your answers in the form of a T-chart on
  poster paper and post it in the designated part
  of the room. Be specific and be prepared to
  provide details!

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School environment

• Negative positioning of ELLs

• Positive positioning of multilingual students

• Languages other than English are invisible or
  negatively evaluated
• Cultural contributions of students other than
  native speakers are invisible, or negatively
  evaluated

• Languages and cultural contributions of students
  and community are visible and audible
• In student work on the walls in the halls and in
  the classroom
• Materials in library
• In content-area instruction
• In school-home-community partnerships

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Curriculum content

• Negative positioning of ELLs

• Positive positioning of multilingual students

• Standardized
• Eurocentric
• Skills-based
• Culture as a lesson or a subject to be taught
  (noun)
• Linguistic and cultural backgrounds of students
  invisible or marginalized

• Multicultural ? includes perspectives, histories,
  contributions of groups in school/community/world
• Culture as an integral part of curriculum, a
  human-rights issue, a social reform movement, a
  multi-faceted framework for action (verb)
• Power relations are focus of study and action
• Cultural funds of knowledge as a basis for
  content area instruction

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Language policy? Program Structure

• Negative positioning of ELLs

• Positive positioning of multilingual students

• No language policy
• No mention of languages that students
  speak/cultural expertise they bring to school
• ESL only type of language education program
  offered for ELLs
• ESL teacher exclusively or largely responsible
  for education of ELLs (mainstream teachers not
  held responsible)
• Rapid transition from ESL program to mainstream
  program encouraged, without giving time needed to
  develop academic English

• Written language policy that is understood and
  supported by all
• Clear language-as-resource orientation
• Additive bilingualism, multilingual literacies
  promoted to the greatest degree possible (mother
  tongue classes/programs for ELLs community/world
  language programs for English speakers)
• Professional development for mainstream teachers
  and administrators so they have knowledge and
  skills to address needs of multilingual students
  in international school.

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Classroom interaction

• Negative positioning of ELLs

• Positive positioning of multilingual students

• Transmission of knowledge Teacher-fronted
• Teacher-dominated
• Lecture format
• IRE routines (initiation-reponse-evaluation)
• L1 invisible
• ELLs marginalized

• Social construction of knowledge
• Student-centered, student-directed
• Cooperative learning, reciprocal teaching
• Inquiry-based, problem-posing
• Variety of interactional routines with students
  using language for wide range of purposes
• L1 used as resource in and goal of learning (e.g.
  preview/view/review dual language books)
• ELLs are actively engaged

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Assessment practices

• Negative positioning of ELLs

• Positive positioning of multilingual students

• Standardized testing? assessment of learning
• Separate from instruction
• English-only
• High-stakes
• Designed for monolingual English speakers ? not
  valid or reliable for ELLs
• Demonstrate what ELLs lack

• Formative assessments complement standardized
  tests? assessment for learning
• Integrated with and inform instruction
• Performance-based, in L1 as appropriate
• Designed for multilingual students
• Demonstrate what students know or can do

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Carousel (cont.)

• Step 2 Travel in groups around the room. Read
  what is written on each poster, and add to it.
  If you have any questions or comments, post them
  with a post-it.
• Step 3 Pulling it all together.
• A schools policies, programs, practices can
  contribute to the reflection and reproduction of
  the subordinate status of ELLs relative to
  mainstream students at school.
• A schools policies, programs, practices can
  challenge and potentially transform multilingual
  students positions and roles at school and in
  the community.
• Step 4 Taking action. What action steps can
  you take to position multilingual students more
  favorably at your school?
•  

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We have choices in the ways that we construct our
educational policies, programs, and practices.

• The choices that we make have important
  implications for our students, schools, and
  communities.

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Revisiting our objectives

• Negotiating multilingual identities at school

• Sheltered instruction strategies for ELLs

• Theoretical orientation Challenging language
  prejudice
• Guiding questions for reflection and action
• Identified ways that American or British schools
  policies, programs, practices can contribute to
  subordination of ELLs
• Identified ways that international schools
  policies, programs, practices can potentially
  transform opportunities for multilingual
  students and society

• Before/During/After (BDA)
• Think-pair-share
• Quick-write
• Mini-lesson
• Expert jigsaw with notemaking guide ? literacy
  scaffold for expository reading
• T-chart ? literacy scaffold for expository
  writing
• Carousel

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Ticket-out-the-door

• What stood out?
• What did you learn?
• What can you use?
• What questions do you have?