In her article, published in the March 2011 journal of Race, Ethnicity and Education, Dr. Lasisi Ajayi, a professor at San Diego State University, uses the ethnic background of her state, California, to present a strong argument for the importance of ESL teachers relating their ethnic and social backgrounds to instructional practices.
California, as a whole, is one of the most diverse states in America. But, instead of concentrating on her San Diego base, Ajayi traveled two hours north to Los Angeles, where she found 57 English as Second Language (ESL) teachers from inner-city junior high schools who were willing to answer her questionnaire, sit down for an interview and share their own perspectives in writing with regard to how their personal histories were reflected in their teaching pedagogical practices.
Ajayi presents useful data to note the increase of ethnic minority students, as well as teachers, in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and then uses her data findings to pose two questions:
· How do teacher educators and researchers engage in the development of teacher education programs and curricula that incorporate exploration of teachers’ personal backgrounds and attitudes?
The author’s states her purpose as determining the ways that ESL teachers interpret their ethnic and social backgrounds to mediate their pedagogical roles. She guides her study using two more questions:
· How do the teachers’ ethnic and social backgrounds relate to their instructional decision-making in teaching ESL?
· How do their views mediate their understanding of their roles as teachers and their interpretations of the institutional and policy climate of their schools?
After the introduction, Ajayi moves on to presenting her theoretical framework on teachers’ backgrounds and practices using the poststructuralist theory, while looking at the rejection of human beings having a coherent identity, a person’s link to society, the relationship among thinking, teaching and knowledge, and the classroom as a social and political site.
Her literature review concludes with the suggestion that ESL teachers’ backgrounds are a crucial source of knowledge and experience from which they construct their practice (p. 257) and that there is more to learn from investigating how ESL teachers reconcile their personal backgrounds and perspectives with teaching ESL (p. 257).
Ajayi proceeds to the demographic data of the student population of LAUSD. Having no personal relationship with the students, this data is useful in presenting the broad picture of the student makeup. According to the school system website, in 2008, there were over 746,000 students in the district, of which 72% were Hispanic, 12% African-American, 9% White and 6% Asian. On the other hand, the teachers’ demographics showed that 47.8% of teachers were White, 27.9% Hispanic, 12.8% African-American and 8.4% Asian. (p. 257). Other notable data includes 25% of K-12 public school students being ESL and representing more than 100 languages.
The researcher bolstered her findings in other ways. Each teacher was required to write a statement commenting on their views on California’s language-learning policy, school policy, ESL programs and curriculum as well as standardized tests. This was based on the Ajayi’s belief that teachers’ views were a social construction, a belief previously introduced by Wenger (2005, 153)
Each teacher was also interviewed for a 20-30 minute period to explain their views about teaching ESL and the effectiveness of using English-only within the program, which was one of the four programs used in California (others being Basic Bilingual, Dual-Language and Structured English.) other questions looked at the effectiveness of their teacher education program and how they used their own background in their classrooms.
Her schools were randomly selected from two of the seven mini-districts in Los Angeles because over 20% of the students in the schools were classified as ESL learners. The teachers were recommended by the schools’ ESL or bilingual coordinator. There was an 81.42% response rate to the initial survey and the teachers represented approximately 37% of the ESL junior high teachers.
The quantitative data was analyzed using the SPSS PC+ statistical software with the probability level of p<.05 set for all tests of statistical significance.
To analyze the qualitative data, the author applied the framework of critical reflexivity, which is the practice of having teachers examine their presuppositions about their roles and responsibilities based on their personal views of teaching (p. 262).
In short, the findings of the researcher were varied. She found that Hispanic teachers were most likely to employ their personal views and experiences in their roles as teachers. African-American teachers understood the importance of using their personal histories and generally felt that their social structure had an influence on their view of the ESL program. White teachers also noted the importance of using personal backgrounds, but felt more inclined to have to make a conscious effort to build relationships with students.
Conceptually, this can be a useful study. Although it centers on teachers in one city, the findings deal with relationships between teachers and ESL students and address the ethnic differences by presenting the findings of Hispanic, African-American and White teachers. These findings may transfer to other geographic locations in the United States. However, it may have been more useful to find teachers in other diverse cities. New York, Phoenix, El Paso, Washington D.C. and Miami come to mind. Certainly, time and money would be necessary to advance the study.
I am impressed with the methodology used by Ajayi. She covered many bases as part of her mixed-methods study. Getting an 81% response rate showed dedication and care to the selection process used for her initial survey. She also employed other methods for data gathering, such as written perspectives and interviews. It may have added richness to the study to have subjects bring in historical artifacts for their interview, but Ajayi’s findings are relevant and thorough as is.
This study serves as a good starting point for what I am aiming to accomplish with my pilot study on ESL teachers. First, Ajayi gives the methodology which presents many ideas on how to tackle this topic for my pilot study. In fact, the author notes her own pilot study in her validation of instrument section, recalling her interviews with eight ESL teachers in four junior high schools in Los Angeles. This could serve as a model for my pilot study, although I anticipate more difficulty finding ESL teachers in this region, so my pilot study might have to work with four teachers in two schools.
A second helpful feature comes in the author’s section on further research. She feels the needs of this to be in the specific approaches that teachers use to teach ESL – a collection of data about classroom practices, as well as student responses to these approaches. From these findings, Ajayi theorizes that qualitative differences in instructional effectiveness and ESL student learning can be realized.
Finally, although this study cannot be used for the pilot study, it does provide references for almost 50 other sources which can enhance my further research on this topic.
References
Ajayi, L. (2011). How ESL teachers relate their ethnic and social backgrounds in practice, Race,
Ethnicity and Education, 14, 2, 253-275.
Los Angeles Unified School District (2008). Los Angeles Unified School District Student
Demographics. www.lausd.k12.ca.us.html.
Wenger, E. (2005). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge.
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