I need to extend my appreciation to all those individuals
who, because of their love for children and teaching, made this
publication a reality. Specifically, to the apprentice teachers who
were willing to start a reflective journey into their classrooms and
were willing to voice their insights. Their commitment and effort
were tested more than once. Yet, their persistence and love for
learning made it possible to transcribe their reflections on paper so
that others may be inspired to start a similar journey.
Special thanks to the individuals whose thoughtful teachings and
comments guided the teachers' inquiry: Shirley Brown, whose personal
teaching style facilitated learning and understanding of the complex
process of teacher research; Dr. Gladys Valcourt and Rosalie
Rolón-Dow whose keen and critical eyes helped shape the
individual papers included in this volume.
The continuous support from the Edison Cluster office was invaluable.
I am grateful to Dr. Rubén Flores and Hilda Sorell for their
belief in the importance of this work and unrelenting commitment to
improve the quality of teaching and learning for Latino students.
Finally, my gratitude goes to Gwen Miller who typed the final version
of the manuscript in an expert fashion.
B. "What I am trying to get people to do is to think about
what constitutes data. Data sitting in front of you might be
overlooked....
E. But I have my reservations on this....But then if I take as data
the subjective opinion of a colleague, that is really dangerous
because they already may have their own opinion. There is a tendency
of labeling students and labeling family situations. And to tell you
the truth I can take the conversation with a colleague as a point of
information, period; but not as data....
N. Magda, data is information. Data is not necessarily correct
information....
E. AHH! AHH!. There is a linguistic problem. Data for me is fact, as
a journalist I look for facts....
N. Data is only information. Then you have to go back and say does it
mean anything, is it valid for what I am studying....then we come to
the analysis part, what does that mean to us....
T. So, at what time does the information become data?...
R. It is all data...Data is a synonym for information....
This exchange captures the emergence of understanding among a group
of bilingual teachers learning to do classroom research. The
background knowledge that they had was contradicted by the new
knowledge that was presented.
The insight of teachers as researchers was new to these practitioners
and opened their minds to a different way of looking at knowledge as
well as at classroom teaching. Seminar discussions that encouraged
critical interaction immersed the teachers in a process of inquiry
that helped them see classroom practice from their new standpoint as
researchers.
This group of Philadelphia apprentice teachers participated in a
Professional Development Institute to provide them with a theoretical
framework and teaching methodology to foster effective practice in
English as a Second Language (ESL) and Bilingual classrooms. The
teachers wanted to improve as professionals by inquiring and learning
from their own classrooms. This publication represents their
reflective work as part of doing research in bilingual
classrooms.
Teacher research as a tool for professional development is a recent
movement in teacher preparation programs. Its growing importance has
emerged, in part, from the fact that this research process values
inquiry, collaborative work, and teacher voices.
First, teacher research uses inquiry as a vehicle to reflect about
and to improve the teaching and learning processes. Practitioners
engage in the process of critically examining their practice and
classroom reality to transform these in ways that are meaningful to
the practitioners' school context. Thus, inquiry evolves from
teaching and sustains the learning process of teachers.
Second, collaborative work, as a means for professional growth and as
a tool for inquiry, is at the core of teacher research. Learning is a
social activity in that it is supported, in part, by a meaningful
exchange of ideas. Louis, Marks, & Kruse (1996) explain that
sustained professional contact with colleagues can facilitate
intellectual work, improve practice, and strengthen the
practitioners' commitment to work. Indeed, these researchers contend
that the building of community among teachers contributes to
educational change and to the improvement of schools. Therefore, one
can speculate that forums which encourage teachers to think, create
and work together inside and outside their own classrooms hold much
promise for improving the education of linguistically diverse
students.
Lastly, practioners engaging in teacher-based research further
develop their own voices by articulating their understanding of
classroom practice and by identifying necessary changes in the
teaching and learning processes. This type of research is seen as an
effective means of including teachers' voices in the community that
produces knowledge about effective classroom practices. The teacher
as researcher movement is an attempt to hear from teachers and to
support them in the development of their own voices (Harste, 1990, p.
vii).
Proponents of teacher research assume that the voices of teachers
will reframe the understanding of teaching and learning in meaningful
ways and will contribute to the creation of knowledge about schooling
in particular contexts. The teachers who participated in the
Institute were involved in a teacher research project to encourage
the development of reflective and investigative skills as a strategy
for improving classroom practice.
Inquiry, collaborative work, and the emergence of voice framed the
learning experiences in the Institute. Specifically, teachers read
articles on teacher-based classroom research, learned the process of
research through discussions and interactive activities and conducted
their own semester-long research project. Teacher reflection emerged
from regular focus group discussions which centered on the
investigative process and their role as teachers. Ongoing discussions
allowed participants to share the challenges of conducting classroom
research and to consider the transformative effect on classroom
practice.
This publication represents the development of teacher voices through
classroom inquiry. The papers include discussions about their
individual experiences in reflecting on one educational issue that
they were curious about. In reality, what is included here is not a
finished product. Instead, this work needs to be seen as the
beginning of an inquiry process that will be expanded through ongoing
reflection.
Additionally, the authors acknowledge that their studies are not
meant to be generalized to other students and classroom realities.
Their purpose was to obtain a more in depth understanding of their
particular classrooms and promote learning from their
experiences.
The papers represent a variety of teacher voices. Three teachers work
at the elementary level and three at the middle school level. Some of
the teachers were born in the United States while others were born in
Cuba, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay. One of the teachers wrote
his paper in Spanish to remind us of the importance of the diverse
linguistic background that these teachers work in; the other papers
were written in English. This volume brings together a collection of
teacher-based studies which respond to a dearth of publications
focusing on linguistically diverse students.
Luis Beitler discusses possible reasons for the high absenteeism of
Latino students in his 6th grade class. Writing in Spanish he further
explores the effectiveness of three student-centered activities to
reduce the pattern of attrition in particular students. He
acknowledges that absenteeism is a complex reality with a variety of
factors which require multiple and creative solutions.
Magda Enriquez-Beitler reflects upon parental involvement in her 8th
grade classroom. Specifically, she explores the factors that
influence parents to be involved or not to be involved in her
classroom as well as in school. She also considers some strategies
that could augment the active and meaningful presence of parents in
schools.
Maria E. Gonzalez reports that Puerto Rican students in bilingual
programs have different levels of proficiency in Spanish. She
examines her assumptions about the causes for the different
proficiency levels in light of the reality of middle school students.
Finally, some of the factors that influence the different proficiency
levels of her students are explored in this paper.
Mary Ellen Hernandez-Gilbert contends that the use of dramatic
role-play and/or reenactments may provide the student with the
opportunity to go beyond merely visualizing scenes of his/her
narrative but allow them to vicariously live it. She sought to
observe what changes occurred in her second grade classroom over a
four-week period by introducing dramatic story retellings and paired
role play. Her learnings from using drama as a pre-writing activity
and the steps to further encourage the students' writing development
are described.
Wanda Novales discusses the writing process as a means to develop
independent and skillful writers. After observing her students' lack
of interest and limited writing skills she explored some strategies
that could facilitate the writing process. She describes the changes
in her students' writing performance when she started to implement
the process as a strategy to facilitate the writing of her
students.
Ellen Siscamanis reflects on her experiences with one of her students
in kindergarten who hardly interacted verbally. She describes an
exploration to find out what strategies could motivate this child to
respond verbally to her. Her inquiry produces insightful questions
about the importance of considering the impact of social and
emotional factors in the early grades. Through her paper, one can see
an open jouney into the inquiry process.
References
Harste, J. C. (1990). Foreword. In M. Olson (Ed.), Opening the door
to classroom research. Newark, DE: International Reading
Association.
Louis, K. S., Marks, H. M., and Kruse, S. (1996). Teachers'
professional community in restructuring schools. American Educational
Research Journal, 33(4), 757-798.