Supporting Multilingual Learners: A Pilot Survey of Art Teachers

Abstract

Multilingual learners’ (MLs’) access to a rich arts curriculum is often overshadowed by their need to learn English and “core” content. Yet MLs should have equitable access to arts education alongside their monolingual peers. An important avenue for offering this access is teacher preparedness. This study reports on a pilot survey of preK–12 visual arts teachers regarding their beliefs about and practices with MLs in the arts classroom. Survey items from four different scales measuring culturally and linguistically responsive teaching and beliefs were adopted. The responses of 26 teachers illustrated generally positive beliefs, practices, and confidence, but variation among respondents was high. Patterns in the data point to interesting future steps in the work, including the need to examine why teachers who had undergone training on teaching MLs were less confident in their ability to teach this population.

Acknowledgments

We express our sincerest gratitude to the survey respondents, as well as the art and language educators who provided detailed feedback during the survey development process. A special thank-you goes to the Massachusetts Association of Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages (MATSOL) Teacher Educator Special Interest Group, whose members offered helpful suggestions.

Disclosure Statement

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

Notes

1 We use “multilingual learners” to be inclusive of classified English learners (i.e., students who are legally entitled to receive specialized English-language development services), reclassified English learners, and students who may have never been classified as English learners but still use named languages (e.g., Spanish, Tagalog) in addition to English and varieties of English (e.g., Black English).