Teachers’ work in culturally and linguistically diverse schools

Miller, J. (2011). Teachers’ work in culturally and linguistically diverse schools. Teachers and Teaching, 17(4), 451-466.

Background

With the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of Australian classrooms over the past decade, teachers struggle to balance subject content and the language and literacy needs of their students.

Aims

The study investigated the challenges teachers faced in teaching literacy in a culturally and linguistically diverse school, such as the workload, time constraints, institutional practices and social and cultural practices, all of which tend to be disempowering.

Sample

The participants included five teachers in one Melbourne school of 600 students from greatly diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. These teachers taught in the areas of English as a second language (ESL), Maths, Science, Food and Textiles, and Studies of Society and Environment, and had between one and 25 years of experience.

Method

The data included school literacy and demographics data, two audio-recorded focus group interviews, one set of essays from 30 teachers from the same school studying in a Master of Education programme, and written teacher reflections.

Findings

Three factors that impeded the teachers’ desire to teach were surfaced: unpredictable timetabling, the constant pressure to generate testing data and the impact of the new curriculum and assessment framework. As the timetable and staffing were unstable, the teachers were uncertain what they would be teaching after any holiday. The need to enhance the English proficiency and low literacy of the students resulted in the push for more data being generated; However, the data the teachers had to collect did not necessarily produce the appropriate response needed in relation to language and content teaching. There was also no developmental planning or sequencing of the curriculum which left the teachers feeling disempowered. The new curriculum framework was complex and rigid, and did not meet the students’ needs. There was also a cultural mismatch between teachers’ expectations, preferences and needs, and the occurrences in the classrooms.

Implications

The author highlighted the increasing attrition of the teaching force in Australia. To better understand teachers’ work, she suggested a careful consideration of the conflicting demands versus control in the teachers’ work together with the complex effect of linguistic and cultural diversity. Some strategies proposed are: deploying qualified ESL staff to support these learners in the language bridging programmes, providing time for teachers to create targeted curriculum materials which integrate language and format, offering professional development on language and literacy strategies, developing alternative assessments for weak learners, and using literacy data to frame language curriculum development.

Original article retrieved from Taylor and Francis online.