Advancing Secondary Mathematics Co-Teachers’ Culturally Sustaining and Collaborative Teaching Practices to Support Linguistically Diverse Students

Abstract

Research on teacher learning in collaborative partnerships, job-embedded professional learning for teachers, and language diversity in secondary mathematics classrooms is limited (Barwell et al., 2017; Giles & Yazan, 2020). I investigated the impact of job-embedded, or situated, online professional learning on the instructional practices of high school mathematics co-teachers of linguistically diverse students. The professional learning was focused on culturally sustaining pedagogy, which advances cultural, linguistic, and literate pluralism (Paris, 2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy demands that educators uplift their students’ unique cultural identities and actively resist assimilating practices. A single case study approach was used, which included semi-structured interviews, online discussion group meetings, classroom observations, and the evaluation of instructional artifacts, such as handouts. The impact of the professional learning experience was observed through interactions within each co-teaching pair and between co-teaching pairs across online and in person contexts. The participants were secondary mathematics co-teachers with varying years of teaching and professional learning experience around linguistically responsive practices. The participants’ diverse backgrounds and contributions were vital to their collaboration within the professional learning community. The findings suggest the participants’ engagement in an online situated professional learning experience focused on culturally sustaining pedagogy and co-teaching strategies led them to use new co-instructional and co-assessment approaches in their mathematics classrooms. The participants also discussed how the professional learning experience increased their desire to have a common co-planning time with other co-teachers. The collaboration and reflection within the participants’ co-teaching pairs and between co-teaching pairs in the professional learning community guided the implementation of culturally sustaining mathematics instructional practices.