Comparing perceptions between dual language teachers and traditional public school teachers

2012-03-09As the number of English language learners in our nation’s classrooms has increased, the interest regarding how to effectively support their needs both academically and socially has been ignited. Dual language schools and programs have increased in recent years as a way to support their needs. Researchers in the field of language acquisition have proposed various strategies teachers in both dual language school and traditional public schools can use to most effectively help English language learners. One such researcher is Jim Cummins (2000), who founded transformative pedagogy. The research question used to guide this study compared the perceptions of teachers in a dual language school and a traditional public school in utilizing key aspects of transformative pedagogy such as (1) identity affirmation and (2) the promotion of higher order thinking skills. ❧ Through a combination of teacher interviews, teacher observations, and test data analyses, the findings of this study offer insight into the strategies traditional public school teachers and dual language teachers are currently integrating in classrooms both in practice and perception. Collectively, the dual language teachers perceived themselves as using key aspects of transformative pedagogy to a larger degree than the traditional public school teachers