Article Review #2: ESL and Content Teacher Collaboration

In ‘Collaboration Between ESL and Content Teachers’, Chris Davidson explores the process of collaboration in an elementary school between English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers and content area teachers. He states that there has been research in the past on classroom methodology and linguistic demand on ‘mainstream’ classes, but that much less attention has been paid to “researching the process of co-planning and co-teaching and to supporting the evolution of the partnership between ESL and content teachers” (Davidson, 2006). Davidson draws his research from questionnaire and interview data he collected from an English-language medium school in Asia during their professional development initiatives.

     Davidson begins by referring to the Partnership Teaching model, developed by Jill Bourne and Joanna McPake (1991). Further description of this model is discussed by Angela Creese (University of Birmingham) in her book ‘Teacher Collaboration and Talk in Multilingual Classrooms’. She writes that the Partnership Teaching model is more than ‘co-operative teaching’ in that “it allows for the teachers to develop the curriculum while also developing themselves” (Creese, 2005). Davidson uses the Partnership Model as the base to describe the different partnership projects that are operating in schools internationally, quoting different school programs, including in Canada and Australia.

     Davidson clarifies that there are key assumptions and difficulties that should be overcome about effective classroom collaboration. These are often historical viewpoints that have slowly become adopted into teaching culture. He particularly focuses on one area of collaboration, which is the imbalance of the role of the ESL teacher in curriculum development partnerships. Referring to a course called ‘ESL in the Mainstream’ run in some Australian schools, he writes that “…the course projects an image of ESL expertise as residing in methodology or strategies, rather than in curriculum content” (Davidson, 2006). Davidson quotes the research of Andy Hargreaves (Boston College), who found that there were concerns about “expertise interwoven with issues of ownership and control, with personality clashes and resistance to advice common” (Hargreaves, 2001).  

     The model that Davidson proposes as a result of his research describes an integrated approach to collaboration between ESL and content area teachers. It presumes there are at least two curricula, which are an ESL description of language development stages linked to schooling and age, and the content area curriculum (Davidson, 2006). Although he acknowledges this can be problematic, this model is designed to bridge the gap between content area specialists who might not consider language needs, and ESL teachers who struggle to meet some of the content requirements. He writes that it is important to establish “clear relationships for teachers and the wider school community…(and also) to support and shape such partnerships as they develop” (Davidson, 2006). He then delineates the stages of development in partnership teaching as the following: 1. pseudocompliance/passive resistance; 2. compliance; 3. accommodation; 4. convergence and some co-option; 5. creative co-construction (Davidson, 2006). This focus is to define an emerging framework for describing collaboration.

     Davidson summarizes the article by stating that “partnership between ESL and classroom teachers is neither easy or unproblematic” (Davidson, 2006). There is a lot to be taken into consideration when creating collaborative partnerships. Angela Honigsfeld (Molloy College) and Maria G. Dove (Molloy College) have written quite extensively about the topic. They state the importance of teaching partnerships in English Language Learners (ELLs) becoming both academically and socially successful (Dove & Honigsfeld, 2010). Davidson also focuses on these concerns in creating well-developed and sustainable teaching partnerships.

     Hargreaves criticized the process of teacher collaboration as a “contrived collegiality” and “implementation rather than development-orientated”  (Hargreaves, 2001). In my teaching experience, I have observed that any attempts to establish professional teaching partnerships that are imposed from above (hard-line administrative policies) are very often resented, unsustainable, and unsuccessful. Large workloads, increasing responsibilities and little recompense means that collaboration could be seen, as aforementioned, as another imposition in an already demanding career path. Sustainability is incredibly important, as the article did mention that “the literature suggests…that effective collaboration between teachers is not only rare, but extremely difficult to sustain” (Davidson, 2006).

     Collaboration can be both informal and formal, perhaps starting with informal conversations that create a culture of sharing. This can be anything from sharing emails, school e-boards, blogs, and wikis (Dove & Honigsfeld, 2010). There is also formal collaboration which then provides the structure and support needed to maintain high functioning, strong collaborations once a culture encouraging this has been established. Allowing teachers to see collaboration as a chance for development will assist teachers to reach greater stages of “intuition, fluidity, and knowing-in-action” (Davidson, 2006). In this article, Davidson describes the school he studied as having administration-sponsored professional days for the teachers, in which the ESL and content area teachers developed an agreement on their respective roles and responsibilities which both explored the expertise each teacher could offer and was designed to be flexible and adapted over time (Davidson, 2006). I think this could be a good starting point for implementing collaboration.

Bibliography

Creese, A. (2005). Teacher Collaboration and Talk in Multilingual Classrooms. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Davidson, C. M. (2006). Collaboration Between ESL and Content Teachers: How Do We Know When We Are Doing It Right? International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 454-475.

Dove, M. G., & Honigsfeld, A. (2010). Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners. London: SAGE.

Hargreaves, A. (2001). Changing Teachers, Changing Times: Teachers' Work and Culture in the Postmodern Age. New York: Continuum.