Skip to main content
eScholarship
Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (2 results)

  • Thesis
  • Peer Reviewed
UC Santa Barbara Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2019)

To better support teachers enacting policy changes, this study investigated the influence professional development (PD) and California state policy have on teachers' views regarding teaching and feeling supported to teach multilingual students. Teacher-participants were enrolled in a two-year PD program designed to provide teachers with cognitive literacy strategies to teach multilingual students. To better understand the connection between teacher attitudes and PD during a change of policy for English learner (EL) education in California, six 7th-12th grade English/language arts teachers across three cohorts and two PD facilitators were purposefully selected. Drawing on the notion of power as product and power in discourse, Critical Discourse Analysis was conducted of data collected: interviews with teacher-participants and PD facilitators, observations of PD meetings, and written documents of state EL policy, including the California English Language Development Standards and the California EL Roadmap. Findings reveal that these teachers do not feel supported by their schools and districts to gain the necessary skills and knowledge needed to align with California EL policy. However, through the help of an outside PD program that emphasizes sociocultural learning, teacher-participants were able to collectively develop their EL-centered practice and pedagogy. As a result, both novice and expert teachers felt more confident in the classroom. These findings hold implications for the important role that PD plays in rebuilding teacher agency, communities of practice, and the need for the State to provide clear recommendations for teacher learning to effectively implement policy changes.

    Cover page: The Importance of Professional Development: A Critical Discourse Analysis Surrounding the Teaching of California’s Multilingual Students
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2020)
    This study reports findings from a multisite cluster randomized controlled trial designed to validate and scale up an existing successful professional development program that uses a cognitive strategies approach to text-based analytical writing. The Pathway to Academic Success Project worked with partner districts affiliated with 4 National Writing Project (NWP) sites in southern California. Informed by a wide body of research on the efficacy of strategy instruction to enhance students’ academic literacy, the intervention aimed to help secondary school students, particularly Latinos and mainstreamed English learners, to develop the academic writing skills called for in the rigorous Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. Two hundred thirty teachers from partner districts affiliated with the NWP sites were stratified by school and grade and then randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. Treatment teachers participated in 46 hrs of training and learned how to apply cognitive strategies by using an on-demand writing assessment to help students understand, interpret, and write analytical essays about nonfiction texts. Multilevel models revealed significant effects on a holistic measure of an on-demand writing assessment (d =.32) as well as on 4 analytic attributes: content (d =.31), structure (d =.29), fluency (d =.27), and conventions (d =.32). Four dimensions of scaling up—spread, reform ownership, depth, and sustainability—are also discussed.
      Cover page: The Pathway to Academic Success: Scaling Up a Text-Based Analytical Writing Intervention for Latinos and English Learners in Secondary School
      Top