Announcing
PhD in Second Language Studies Dissertation Defense
Jennifer Holdway
Mathematics and Multilingual Learners: Transformative Learning Through In-Service Teacher Professional Development
Chair: Kathryn A. Davis
14 October 2016, 2:00–4:00 p.m.
Moore Hall, Room 155A
In response to the increasing linguistic diversity in US schools (National Council of Teachers of English, 2006, 2015), in-service teachers are faced with the significant challenge of addressing both the linguistic and instructional needs of their multilingual learners (MLLs). This study explores the ideological awareness (e.g., Bakhtin, 1981; Ball, 2000; Freedman & Ball, 2004) and transformative learning experiences of K-12 in-service teachers during five offerings of a 15-week, online, asynchronous, professional development (PD) course. This course focused on theories and methodologies to address a simultaneous focus on English language development and academic mathematics content instruction for MLLs (e.g., Halliday, 1978; Schleppegrell, 2007). Informed by transformative learning theory (e.g., Cranton, 1994; Mezirow, 1991, 2000) and analysis guided by Hult’s (2010) theme-based approach, this qualitative study describes how participation and self-reflection in a long-term PD course led to the transformative learning of mathematics teachers’ ideologies while acquiring new strategies to better work with their MLLs. Primary data includes teachers’ personal comments on weekly course prompts through written reflections in two of the main mediums of participation: weekly discussions in a public forum allowing for peer feedback and comments, and summaries submitted directly to the instructor. These total 28 written posts of a minimum of 150 words per teacher-participant (with 58 participants) and 1,624 core posts in all. This study discusses two of the thirteen weekly themes comprising the course—the academic ‘language’ of math (e.g., Bunch, 2013; Cirillo, Richardson Bruna, & Herbel-Eisenmann, 2010; Halliday, 1978), and first language use in the classroom (e.g., Celic & Seltzer, 2011; García, Flores, & Chu, 2011)—and confirms the importance of long-term PD in providing opportunities to confront and negotiate ideologies leading to transformative learning by teacher-participants. It additionally contributes to current research by citing the need and benefit of PD courses addressing theories and methodologies simultaneously focused on English language development and academic mathematics content instruction for MLLs, an area of research only recently being addressed. While centered on the specific subject of mathematics, this study and PD course also serve as a model that can be applied across content areas.