Transforming teacher perspectives of culturally and linguistically diverse families through critical reflection

Abstract

Public schools are continuously looking for ways to meet their goal of engaging with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families to increase the academic achievement of students. Teachers’ assumptions and biases towards CLD families are often influenced by their own perspectives and epistemologies. These qualities are often revealed when teachers enroll in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL) coursework. In this qualitative study, teachers from a Midwest urban school district enrolled in a federally funded graduate-level TESOL course sequence that focused on transformative learning projects to help them build capacity in teaching their CLD students. During these courses, teachers were given opportunities to use critical reflection as a means to understand the importance of equitable and inclusive learning spaces for their CLD learners. One objective of this project included increasing family engagement opportunities with their CLD families. This qualitative narrative inquiry study focused on the experiences of six white female teachers that engaged in a home visit process with CLD students’ families. Data was collected through student Identity Surveys to provide teachers with opportunities to gain insight about the learners and their family contexts. The teachers conducted the home visit and then wrote extensive narratives in a Reflection Wheel Journal (RWJ) (Herrera & Murry, 2005) in which they critically reflected on their process and their learning. The researcher collected data from the surveys, journals and semi-structured teacher interviews about the home visit process. The results of this study provide insight into what teachers learned from CLD families and how their previously held perceptions about their students and families changed over time. The study found that when In-Service teachers utilized the lens of Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth (2005, 2013) framework, to understand their assumptions and the new knowledge they learned with the families, their narratives revealed elements of teacher transformation. The themes that emerged from the teachers were recognizing their own biases and discomfort due to prior socialization patterns, while they also affirmed the value of cultural and linguistic capital of their students. Recommendations discussed include actively investigating the Yosso’s notion of Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) of their CLD families, intentionally including critical reflection in teaching practices, developing a school culture that supports CLD families, and incorporating CCW as part of pre-service teacher licensure.