| This paper offers a window into the world of education through a criticalist ethnographic examination of a culture-sharing group that worked with a historically subjugated population in American public schools: English language learners (ELLs). All study participants worked in a pre-Kindergarten-12 midwestern suburban school district that, at the time of the study, served approximately 20,000 students. The 20 individuals selected as interviewees included male and female teachers and male and female paraprofessionals from across grades pre-Kindergarten-12 with experience in transitional bilingual education (TBE), transitional program of instruction (TPI), and dual language (DL) program models, central office administrators, and support personnel who worked with ELL students, families, and educators. The interviewees had worked among 16 of the district's 27 schools. During 40 hours of interviews, observations, and site visits, the educators described how their experiences or the lack thereof with official and unofficial mentoring affected their instruction. Additionally, study participants discussed current high-stakes standardized tests; which they felt were invalid measurement tools of ELL academic achievement. From among the entire interview group, the following 11 themes emerged: the necessity of having a mentor who has had experience working with ELLs, the lack of adequate ELL materials/resources, the high turnover of ELL educators, using data/lack of data to drive instruction/monitor program effectiveness, the importance of building a strong native language foundation, the magnitude of academic language/content vocabulary mastery, differentiating instruction to meet specific needs of students, the need for additional time, collaboration with administrators/general education staff as essential, the call for connections with institutions of higher learning, and the primary role of offering parental support. I reflect on current demographic trends in American public schools, which make the continued failure of educational policymakers and administrators to successfully address the specific needs of ELLs and ELL educators unacceptable. I conclude with future research recommendations. |
