Pushing Back Against Push‐In: ESOL Teacher Resistance and the Complexities of Coteaching

Abstract

As U.S. school districts struggle to address persistent achievement gaps between increasing numbers of English language learners (ELLs) and their native‐English‐speaking counterparts, many districts are moving away from segregative models like pull‐out to implement more collaborative approaches such as coteaching, or push‐in. In contrast to pull‐out, coteaching has been lauded for its good intentions of creating an inclusive educational environment by coordinating the expertise of grade‐level teachers and teachers of English to speakers of other languages into single coteaching settings. Using ethnographic and arts‐based approaches to research, this study adopts a critical perspective that challenges this unproblematic presentation of coteaching as a panacea for educating ELLs. Additionally, the study examines the potential for performance‐based focus groups (Boal, 1979) to cultivate dialogue and coalition building among coteachers of ELLs. Data from the study suggest that coteaching is a complex social act influenced by hierarchical relations of power and status in the school setting. Performance‐based focus groups reveal that language, race, and ethnicity also are implicated as important social factors in the coteaching enterprise. In the context of these demographic and instructional trends, this study offers timely insight into the challenges, complexities, and possibilities of coteaching, with clear implications for pedagogy and professional development.

Exploring the Positioning of Teacher Expertise in TESOL‐Related Curriculum Standards

“…Harper et al, 2008;Harper & de Jong, 2009;Moore, 2007). This perception has given rise to the idea that the role of the TESOL specialist teacher is one of support at the periphery of the mainstream curriculum (Arkoudis, 2003;Creese, 2005;McClure & Cahnmann-Taylor, 2010;Pawan & Ortloff, 2011). At this extreme, TESOL is subsumed in the repertoire of generalist skills for differentiated instruction that all teachers must develop (Foley, Sangster, & Anderson, 2013).…”

Like Driving From “the Back Seat”: Teaching English as a Second Language in Commodified Curricular Terrains

“…Although the Common Core and resulting coteaching models have created their own set of logistical, interpersonal, and professional challenges for the teachers charged with their implementation, coteaching has generally been lauded as a dismantling of the Mexican room (Gándara & Orfield, ) or ESL ghetto (Valdés, ). However, in order for professional partnerships to be successful, Bell and Baecher () argued for institutional “cultures of collaboration” (p. 504) in which participants feel valued, possess a sense of belonging, receive administrative support, desire positive outcomes, and share in the ownership and responsibility for English learners' progress (see also McClure & Cahnmann‐Taylor, ). Specifically, they noted a need for communal planning time, meaningful professional development, and compatible teaching styles as factors that support collaborative programs.…”

“I Understand the Struggle”: Leveraging the Lived Experiences of African American Teachers in TESOL

“…ADVANCE was a local manifestation of a larger statewide consciousness of the need to support classroom teachers working to create access, equity, and excellence for English learners. Likewise, in North Carolina and beyond, robust discussions have examined the challenges ESL professionals face in their collaborations with classroom teachers (McClure & Cahnmann-Taylor, 2010), their potential marginalization in K-12 institutions (Bell & Baecher, 2012;George, 2009), and the role of university-based teacher education in developing institutional capacity for serving English language learners (Garcia et al, 2010).…”