‘When I see them - I think it’s me:’ multilingual teaching staff’s agency enactment in a linguistically and culturally diverse classroom

ABSTRACT

Purpose

This study aimed to explore why and how the teachers' personal funds of knowledge and identity are connected to their classroom beliefs, knowledge, and practices.

Design/methodology/approach

The study lasted one academic year (October 2021 - July 2022). We used multiple data sources, including semi-structured individual interviews and focused group discussions with the teaching staff, monthly classroom observations, a teacher's reflective journal, and documents. By applying the thematic analysis, we identified the following three themes: (1) Teachers' personal life experience as a basis for their language education policy; (2) Collective agency in enacting language education policy, and (3) Teachers as models of their funds of knowledge and identity.

Findings

We found that the teachers, as a collective, implemented linguistically and culturally responsive teaching on the concrete and symbolic levels. Their personal immigration history was a motivating force for establishing language education policy while working with immigrant children.

Originality/value

The significance of this study is in its provision of insights into the role of the life experience of multilingual, multicultural teaching staff in shaping language education policy. In addition, the study highlights a significant role of teachers as collective agents who model their funds of knowledge and identity and by doing so, empower young children.

KEYWORDS:

• Multicultural teaching staff
• funds of knowledge and identity
• language education policy
• collective agency

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the Oranim Academic College of Education Research Fund, Israel, Municipality of Nof HaGalil, Israel, and The Rashi Foundation, Israel.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We define LCDC as those who come ‘from homes speaking a language other than the socially dominant one and maintaining the cultural heritage of the country of origin or the ethnic minority culture’ (Schwartz et al. 2022, p. 1).

2 Throughout the paper, we will use ‘teachers’ or ‘teaching staff’ as a collective reference. As necessary, we will differentiate between the teacher and the teacher assistants.

3 In all excerpts, we marked in italics words and utterances that were stressed by our participants.

4 Sigd is a holiday celebrated by the Ethiopian Jewish community (Beta Israel). The name ‘Sigd’ is derived from the Hebrew word for prostration, ‘sgida.’ On Sigd, Ethiopian Jews pray to God and plead to return to Zion. (The Knesset website 2023)

5 ‘Between 1979 and 1990, Israel organized several transport operations, bringing Ethiopian Jews to Israel via Sudan. Some 4,000 people are estimated to have died on the trip – largely made by foot – from Ethiopia to the Sudanese camps from where they left to Israel, either on the march itself or in the camps, which had poor sanitation.’ (Times of Israel website. May 29th, 2022)

6 Blum-Kulka and Snow (2004) define language experts as children who have already acquired a higher level of L2 in comparison to their beginner peers with relatively modest L2 knowledge.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mila Schwartz

Mila Schwartz is a professor of language and education and the Head of Research Authority at Oranim Academic College of Education (Israel). Her current research focuses on theorizing the phenomenon of interactions between child language-based agency, teacher's agency, and parents' agency in early language education. She edited seven books, has recently completed an editing of the First Handbook of Early Language Education and recently has published a monography entitled Ecological perspectives in early language education: Parent, teacher, peer, and child agency in interaction.

Orit Dror

Orit Dror is the former Director of the Israeli Institute for Early Childhood Education. Until 2020, she served as the Head of the Early Childhood Department for Oranim College of Education undergraduate students. Orit holds a Ph.D. (Haifa University, 2014), an M.A. (Tel-Aviv University, 2001) in Education, and a bachelor's degree in occupational therapy (Tel-Aviv University, 1995).