aera (iPosterSessions - an aMuze! Interactive system)

Introduction

I focus on an unanticipated finding that emerged in a self-study (my 2020 doctoral dissertation) on how I mentored three English as a New Language (ENL) teachers in Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP).
I discovered that the mentoring conversations were encumbered by what I had understood as new teacher challenges, but I was unsure of what to make of it.
It is a significant finding that prompts a response to the AERA 2022 call question: “How should we ask old questions in new ways?”
My questions:
- How can we advance the goal of an equitable education for multilingual learners (MLLs) via CRP if we do not acknowledge the barriers or obstacles that teachers face?
- And upon recognizing those challenges, what can teacher mentors do with them?

Purpose:

In this self-study, I examine the realities of ENL teachers who are trying to enact CRP in challenging school and classroom environments, and the role I played in supporting them to unpack and cope with their oppressive realities.

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Literature & Theoretical Framework

MENTORING. Teacher mentors play a pivotal role in helping induct novice educators into the teaching profession (Crutcher & Naseem, 2016; Hobson, Ashby, Malderez, & Tomlinson, 2009).
Further, mentors who are affiliated with universities may serve as an important link between teacher preparation coursework and classroom contexts, helping teachers connect theory to practice (Zeichner, 2010).
Mentors who are close to the classroom can help teachers cope with school-specific challenges in a supportive, non-evaluative role (Artigliere & Baecher, 2016).
Adopting a non-evaluative role is essential, as teachers may feel uncomfortable discussing school-based challenges with supervisors in fear it will be used against them.
Thus, mentors are in a unique position to give social and psychological support that supervisors may be unable to attend to, creating time and space in conversations for teachers to express and grapple with school context challenges.
CRP-FOCUSED MENTORING. Teacher mentors can adopt a CRP framework for use as a mentoring tool, such as the Culturally Responsive Instruction Observation Protocol (CRIOP) (Powell, Cantrell, Correll & Malo-Juvera, 2014) and attend to teachers' social-emotional needs which often get set aside.
CRP-focused mentoring is a promising practice that may enable teachers to build confidence in their skills, try out responsive practices, and integrate them into their developing pedagogies (Abt-Perkins, Hauschildt & Dale, 2000; Cooper, 2013; Zozakiewicz, 2010).
I adopted responsible mentoring (Abt-Perkins et al., 2000; Jacobs, 2006; Zozakiewicz, 2010) to support teachers with enacting culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) in their classrooms (Gay, 2000/2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995/2009)
I understood responsible mentoring as my ethical duty to “help…teachers become critical thinkers about the cultural and social contexts in which they work, so they can take steps toward developing equitable and inclusive—culturally responsible—practices for their particular students” (Zozakiewicz, 2010, pp. 140-141).
I understood CRP as a sociopolitical act where the teacher commits to a critical orientation toward teaching MLLs that is culturally and linguistically responsive (Lucas & Villegas, 2013; Villegas & Lucas, 2002), and takes action toward implementing inclusive, affirming pedagogical practices that validate students’ cultures and experiences, include engagement with social justice issues, and prepare students for academic excellence (Gay, 2000/2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995/2009).

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Methods

DISSERTATION: I employed self-study (Hamilton & Pinnegar, 2013, 2015; LaBoskey, 2004) to explore my efforts to mentor novice ENL teachers in CRP.
In doing so, I discovered that considerable time and energy was spent on examining school context challenges, which prompted me to explore my role further.
I committed myself to examining my professional practices to come-to-understand them and work toward improvement (Hamilton & Pinnegar, 2013, 2015).
I honed in on my mentoring actions to make sense of my practice, question it, and determine next steps (Hamilton & Pinnegar, 2013, 2015), and I sought feedback from critical friends to refine codes and interpretations (Hamilton & Pinnegar, 2015; LaBoskey, 2004).
Data collection (3 months in Spring 2019)/sources included six teacher observation rounds (pre-observation lesson feedback, observation notes and CRP-framework checklist, post-observation conversation audio-recorded and transcribed) and two semi-structured interviews per participant (audio-recorded and transcribed).
I used multiple inductive coding rounds and the constant comparative method (Miles, Huberman & Saldana 2014) to describe my mentoring moves and teachers’ contextual challenges.
I further explored teachers’ challenges and my actions through writing analytic memos while engaging in a final coding round on Dedoose (SocioCultural Research Consultants LLC, 2018).
FOR THIS PAPER: I also created data displays (see Tables 1-4) to verify alignment between the data (audio-recorded, transcribed mentoring conversation excerpts), coding, and interpretations.
Research Questions.  I addressed the following research questions:

1)    What barriers or challenges do novice teachers face in the process of trying to enact culturally responsive pedagogy in their unique school contexts and classrooms?

2)    What moves do I make as a mentor to help teachers unpack and grapple with their contextual barriers or challenges?

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Data Display / Coding

Participants - 3 first-year alternatively certified teachers, 2 in this paper - both teaching at high-needs urban high schools with ELLs/MLLs, 1 Social Studies/ENL (Kara), 1 Biology (Art), both pseudonyms.

I created data displays (see Tables 1-4) to verify alignment between the data (audio-recorded, transcribed mentoring conversation excerpts), coding, and interpretations.

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Findings

Barriers or Obstacles to Implementing Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. I discovered that Kara and Art struggled with the following contextual and personal challenges:

· Identity and positionality, being in the power position

· Self-doubt, “imposter syndrome”

· Not understanding the student’s perspective

· Unsupportive school administration

· Conflicting departmental priorities or demands

· Working within confines of departmental expectations

· Uncooperative co-teacher or lack of collaboration

· Lack of a school support system for MLLs

· Lack of respect for new teacher expertise

Mentoring Moves. I used a variety of mentoring moves to prompt teachers to unpack and grapple with their contextual challenges:

· Validating teacher’s concern

· Validating teacher’s lesson/unit idea or decision

· Giving pedagogical or relationship advice

· Redirecting away from negativity

· Considering school context

· Considering student’s perspective

· Challenging bias/es

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Lessons Learned/Implications

Lessons Learned. Paying attention to Kara and Art’s concerns enabled me to consider the barriers and obstacles that they each faced in attempting to enact CRP in their classrooms.
Mentoring them taught me that teacher mentors need to listen carefully and use knowledge of teachers’ unique identity, school, and classroom contextual challenges to differentiate support for teachers who wish to practice CRP.
Otherwise, we run the risk of shutting teachers’ concerns down and stifling their potential to practice CRP.
Significance and Implications. My study addresses an underexplored aspect of preparing teachers to practice CRP: why novice teachers may struggle to enact it due to school context and identity challenges.
By examining the obstacles that novice teachers face in their school contexts, we can notice and begin to address the barriers that prevent teachers from realizing their potential as culturally responsive educators, keeping the CRP goal intact.
My study illuminates what happens when mentors make space in conversations for teachers to express their concerns, and how mentors can play a supportive role in helping teachers acknowledge and confront identity and contextual obstacles en route to enacting CRP in their classrooms.
My study has implications for teacher education, particularly for teacher supervisors, mentors, and mentee teachers: to effectively mentor teachers in CRP, teacher educators should attend to their mentee teachers’ unique school and classroom contexts while being mindful of teachers’ personal strengths, needs, and challenges.
Further, teachers should be ready to discuss their teaching contexts and obstacles with their mentors, as this context is necessary to help teachers explore before the deep work of planning for, enacting, and reflecting on CRP can occur.
By thinking about CRP and orientations that support CRP as a continuum (Lucas & Villegas, 2013; Villegas & Lucas, 2002), mentors can help teachers pinpoint where their pedagogy falls, and make meaningful steps toward implementing instruction that is increasingly responsive to MLLs.

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REFERENCES

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