Recontextualization in Multilingual Science Teacher Professional Learning

Abstract

Examining the contextual nature of teacher professional learning is important for teachers of multilingual learners. Drawing on interview, classroom observation, and informal communication data for two focal dual language elementary science teachers, this qualitative comparative case study examines the situated nature of multilingual science teacher learning and practice processes: (1) What are the intersecting contexts that shape teachers' science learning-practice in multilingual classrooms? (2) In what ways do these contextual dimensions intersect to create opportunities and tensions in teacher learning-practice? Data come from a multiyear, multisite project that examines teacher learning and student discourse in science, language, and literacy instruction in dual language and multilingual classrooms. Drawing on the concept of “teacher learning-practice,” findings show how teachers engaged the contextual challenges of the pandemic, online teaching, and existing programmatic, school, and district structures, as a part of their own teacher learning, through a process of recontextualization. Findings show how the teachers' contexts served as catalysts and moderators in recontextualization, and that generalized district-based professional development was not meeting the needs of the teachers nor their multilingual students. This study provides empirical evidence for context as a key constituent of teacher learning-practice, showing how teacher learning cannot exist outside of teachers' instructional practice nor the contexts with(in) which teachers teach. This study adds to the literature calling for teacher professional learning opportunities to be localized to their teaching and learning contexts versus a “one-size-fits-all” approach that is typically used when planning and implementing professional development by illuminating the experiences of elementary science teachers working with multilingual students. This paper is part of the special issue on Teacher Learning and Practice within Organizational Contexts.