Spanish language, cultural knowledge and teachers' professional development in an english-only environment

Abstract

This paper documents the reflections of action research projects generated by two teachers with different cultural backgrounds and grade levels; one is an English monolingual first grade-reading teacher and the other is a bilingual Spanish-English high school teacher. Teachers' professional development is examined by personal testimonies of their classroom action research projects on the literacy needs of their students. Teacher interviews and reflections illustrate how these teachers become researchers and reflective practitioners in the context of their classrooms. The two case studies demonstrate how language policy in the state of California may influence teacher practice in their choices of the cultural representation of literacy lessons. Through researching their own practice teachers gain deeper perspectives of literacy and how learners construct knowledge through learning to read in English as a second language as emergent readers and academic literacy in the primary language as adolescents.