Affordances and Challenges of Translanguaging Pedagogy for In-Service Content Area Teachers

Abstract

This chapter explores how two in-service content area teachers responded to translanguaging pedagogy that was briefly introduced in a teacher education course. Qualitative analysis of the online course work, interviews, and researcher journals revealed that each teacher demonstrated a translanguaging “stance” as well as potential in creating “design” and in initiating “shifts” while their understandings and implementation could be more refined. While understanding translanguaging mostly as a strategy helped the teachers develop a translanguaging stance more easily, it did not lead to more critical examination of complex language ideologies that directly affect teaching of multilingual learners. The study has implications for teacher educators who grapple with creating room for translanguaging, an equitable educational practice for multilingual students, in existing curricula.