“I Want Them to Feel Safe and to Feel Loved”: Collaborating to Teach Social Studies for Middle Level Emergent Bilingual Students

Abstract

This case study explored how a social studies teacher and a TESOL teacher collaborated to teach an eighth-grade civics and economics course in a diverse classroom with Latinx emergent bilingual students. The researcher employed a theoretical framework of culturally and linguistically relevant citizenship education (CLRCE), which includes five pedagogical principles: pedagogy of community, pedagogy of success, pedagogy of making cross-cultural connections, pedagogy of building a language of social studies, and pedagogy of community-based participatory citizenship. The goals of the study were to identify and understand the perspectives and decision making of the teachers’ pedagogy for Latinx youth. Findings revealed the importance of an effective collaborative relationship and using varied pedagogical strategies to support the growth and success of emergent bilingual students in the middle grades. Implications for this study offer middle level social studies and TESOL teachers ideas and strategies for how to support a beneficial collaborative relationship for emergent bilinguals by enacting curricula and pedagogy that are relevant, engaging, equitable, and supportive of the diverse needs of Latinx youth.

Keywords:

• collaboration
• culturally and linguistically relevant pedagogy
• emergent bilinguals
• Latinx youth
• middle level education
• social studies

Introduction

At a divisive political time when people in the United States are inundated with rhetoric, policies, and actions grounded in xenophobia, racism, and linguistic oppression, educators and scholars have an increased responsibility to interrupt narratives that perpetuate fear and hate toward immigration and immigrant communities. Such calls to action have come from within the field of social studies (e.g., Dabach, Fones, Merchant, & Adekile, 2018; Journell, 2019), middle level education (Hughes & Harrison, 2020), and across the educational research landscape (e.g., Scheurich, 2017).

This study draws attention to teachers who have worked determinedly to help make the schooling lives of immigrant youth more equitable and focused on their cultural, linguistic, and civic needs, assets, and experiences. I designed this case study to examine how a social studies teacher and a Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) teacher enacted middle level social studies education for Latinx emergent bilinguals¹ within the context of an eighth-grade civics and economics course. Through this case study, I explored how the two teachers collaborated, and I sought to identify and understand their perspectives and decision making through a framework of culturally and linguistically relevant citizenship education (CLRCE). The CLRCE framework includes five pedagogical principles: pedagogy of community, pedagogy of success, pedagogy of making cross-cultural connections, pedagogy of building a language of social studies, and pedagogy of community-based participatory citizenship (Jaffee, 2016a). The main research question for the study was:

• How do two middle level teachers conceptualize and implement social studies education for Latinx emergent bilinguals?

Additional supporting questions included:

• How do the teachers collaborate to meet the needs of emergent bilingual students?

• How do the teachers consider students’ cultural, linguistic, and civic experiences in the classroom?

Findings revealed the importance of an effective collaborative relationship between the social studies and TESOL teachers to support the growth and success of emergent bilinguals in the middle grades. The study offers social studies and TESOL teachers ideas and strategies for supporting a beneficial collaborative relationship for emergent bilinguals so they can enact curriculum and pedagogy that is relevant, engaging, equitable, and supportive of the diverse needs of middle school Latinx emergent bilinguals, as recommended by This We Believe (National Middle School Association [NMSA], 2010).

Middle Level Social Studies and Emergent Bilinguals

The primary purpose of social studies is to “help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world” (NCSS, n.d.) through an interdisciplinary study of social sciences and humanities. Recent scholarship has called for greater attention to the needs and experiences of emergent bilinguals in social studies classrooms (e.g., Busey & Russell, 2016; Yoder, Kibler, & van Hover, 2016), particularly focused on content, language, and pedagogy as well as a more “inclusive ideal of citizenship” (Salinas, Rodríguez, & Blevins, 2017, p. 440). Recent trends in the field include integrating English language instruction, connecting with learners’ background knowledge and experiences, developing civic skills, leveraging bilingualism, and collaborating and coteaching.

Integrating English Language Instruction

Social studies scholars have found that integrating explicit English language instruction is important for emergent bilingual students to learn highly contextualized content knowledge (e.g., U.S. history and civics) while acquiring English language skills (Cruz, Nutta, O’Brien, Feyten, & Govoni, 2003). For example, researchers found that explicit vocabulary and concept instruction combined with thematic or conceptual (versus fact-based) social studies content instruction provided “context for promoting students’ using language and understanding of content” (Vaughn et al., 2009, p. 316). Also, implementing structured discussions and graphic organizers supported emergent bilinguals writing and speaking about social studies concepts presented during classroom instruction.

Classroom discussions about culture are critically important for emergent bilinguals as they are in a process of discovering themselves and the world around them while also building English language skills (Secules & Thompson, 2007; Short, 1994, 2002). In addition, designing and implementing effective group work in classes with linguistically diverse middle school youth is an important strategy to support students’ development of conversational and academic English (Bunch, 2006). Group work encourages emergent bilingual students to work together in two or more languages while developing their listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills.

Connecting with Background Knowledge and Experiences

Because curricula and textbooks have been shown to be irrelevant and difficult for many emergent Short (1994, 2002) and Dong (2017) have stressed the importance of connecting with students’ language, culture, experiences, and understandings to make content meaningful for students. For example, Short (1994) contended that relating social studies topics to students’ lives develops their “communicative language skills” (p. 603). Dong (2017) recommended that teachers ask emergent bilinguals to “write about what they know” prior to speaking to encourage conversations (p. 148). Both examples support applying key principles of linguistically responsive teaching (Lucas & Villegas, 2010) to social studies instruction. Similarly, Busey and Russell (2016) found that middle level Latinx students’ desired to learn about current and global issues/events in their social studies classroom. They also discussed the importance of leveraging students’ experiences and perspectives when assessing global competencies, academic knowledge, and linguistic assets.

Santiago (2017) argued that although Latinx are the largest ethnic group in the United States, their histories remain absent from the U.S. history curriculum. Thus, Latinx histories, counter narratives, and stories of civic and political activism are important to consider when developing critical civic dispositions and skills. Santiago studied the ways in which Mexican American and Mexican students made sense of Latinx contributions to U.S. history in the context of a social studies lesson on Mendez v. Westminster, a 1947 court case that focused on the segregation of Mexican American students in California schools. Santiago’s findings revealed that the students held onto “the narrative of progress and the Brown [v. Board of Education] trope” (p. 68) that reflected a general tendency to couch the Mexican American experience in U.S. history as a “universal people of color story that aligns with the Black experience” (p. 63). Santiago argued for the depiction of Mexican American histories in nuanced and complex ways, for example, by highlighting the differences between the Mendez and Brown cases to reveal the more authentic distinction between Mexican American and Black discrimination in U.S. history.

Yoder and van Hover (2018) described how one middle school teacher in Virginia enacted innovative strategies for teaching emergent bilinguals in a standards-based U.S. History classroom. The teacher connected students with their lived experiences by having them interview family members, engaged in explicit vocabulary instruction using images and film, supported perspective-taking and interpreting slogans, and used reader’s theater to teach social studies.

Secules and Thompson (2007) conducted a self-study in the context of a world geography lesson focused on economic interdependence in which immigrant students were asked to bring artifacts from their country of origin to initiate discussion about various topics dealing with global interconnectedness, cross-cultural learning, and interaction. Through this lesson, students discovered what it means to live in an interconnected world by grappling with issues of product origin, culture, and communication. Findings showed that after this activity immigrant and non-immigrant students “were practicing increased communication and tolerance for one another” (p. 13), an important disposition for developing civic skills in the social studies classroom.

Developing Civic Skills

Dialogue and deliberation within and across cultural, linguistic, and ideological diversity are important competencies for civic education (Parker, 2003). Teachers can promote these competencies by creating a safe, brave, and open community of learners and encouraging critical thinking and cross-cultural discussions in the classroom. Encouraging communication and discussion with culturally and linguistically diverse students about becoming an engaging member of civic society, as seen in Haneda’s (2009) study of a seventh grade “sheltered” social studies classroom for emergent bilinguals, can foster skills for community development in the classroom. Creating a community in the classroom that embraces Latinx students’ funds of knowledge is essential for scholars who embrace culturally and linguistically relevant pedagogy (Haneda, 2009; Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992).

Leveraging Bilingualism

Gibson (2017) reimagined civics in an eighth grade bilingual and bicultural classroom in Mexico. By implementing content and strategies that leveraged students’ bilingualism (e.g., translanguaging pedagogy wherein students make meaning of content in both their first language and English) and biculturalism (e.g., examining notions of citizenship through bicultural identities and drawing on lived experiences) transformed and capitalized on new notions of “injustice, inequality, and social change” (p. 18). Drawing on students’ multifaceted cultural, linguistic, and civic experiences in social studies classrooms has the potential to re-conceptualize notions of citizenship to focus on community-based civic skills, which enables a sense of efficacy leading to societal change regarding issues of deep concern to immigrant (and non-immigrant) communities.

Co-Teaching and Collaborating in Social Studies

Peercy, Ditter, and Destefano (2017) and van Hover, Hicks, and Sayeski (2012) discussed the importance of providing institutional support, structure, and time for fostering effective collaborative relationships between content-area teachers and TESOL or special education teachers in inclusive classrooms. Peercy et al. (2017) conducted a qualitative interpretive inquiry study in which they explored how a TESOL teacher and kindergarten teacher collaborated to support culturally and linguistically diverse students, and they suggested ways to encourage more productive co-teaching environments for teachers. A main finding was the value of routines that encouraged (a) learning from one another related to teachers’ areas of specialization (e.g., language development knowledge and developmental/cognitive needs of young children); (b) having shared teaching goals (e.g., creating a student-centered classroom); (c) coordinating collaboration and having time for planning; (d) using common instructional tools; and (e) defining roles and dividing labor. The study also explored several co-teaching models including one teach, one observe; team teaching; parallel teaching; station teaching; and one teach, one assist (see Cook, McDuffie, Oshita, & Cook, 2011; Scruggs, Mastropieri, & McDuffie, 2007); however, the authors noted that the kindergarten teacher remained in the primary teaching role during the lesson.

Similarly, van Hover et al. (2012) observed the implementation of various co-teaching models in an inclusive social studies classroom. The authors characterized the teachers as “ambitious” collaborators who developed a “positive and productive working relationship … coordinating their pedagogical performance within the classroom” (p. 268). This performance, however, looked different for each teacher. The special educator was more effective at connecting the historical content to students’ lives and experiences, while the social studies teachers was more focused on classroom management and teaching to the test. The teachers complemented each other in the classroom and described their collaboration as a “success story” (p. 283). Through weeklong collaborative workshops, they re-structured their curriculum to meet students’ needs and help them pass the high-stakes test. Key attributes to their success included prior experiences with collaboration, mentoring, and professional development.

Overall, the literature reviewed here highlights efforts to integrate English language instruction and cross-cultural awareness in the social studies and to develop a curriculum that is more culturally and linguistically relevant for Latinx students while preparing them for active and engaged civic life. The literature also offers important insights into various co-teaching models, attributes of successful collaborative relationships, and examples of enacting collaborative curricular design. Missing from the literature, however, are descriptions of how middle level teachers conceptualize and implement social studies curriculum and pedagogy for Latinx emergent bilinguals. Also absent are studies that focus on collaborative social studies environments in culturally and linguistically diverse middle level schools. The present study attempts to augment this thin body of literature by extending the scholarship on teaching, learning, and collaboration in a middle level social studies classroom with emergent bilingual students.

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework used in this study, culturally and linguistically relevant citizenship education (CLRCE), includes overlapping and intersecting elements of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) (Ladson-Billings, 1994), linguistically responsive teaching (LRT) (Lucas & Villegas, 2010), and notions of active and engaged citizenship (AEC) (CIRCLE and Carnegie Corporation of New York, 2003; Flores & Benmayor, 1997; Ladson-Billings, 2004; Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). A framework for CLRCE emerged from a previous study examining four teachers, and their orientations (i.e., attitudes and beliefs), knowledge, and skills (i.e., ideas and actions) for implementing social studies education focused on Latinx newcomer students’ cultural, linguistic, and civic knowledge(s) and assets (Jaffee, 2016a). Their implemented pedagogy focused on students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds “as a vehicle for learning” (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p. 161) and promoted active and engaged citizenship for Latinx newcomer youth.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP)

CRP draws on students’ culture to sustain their cultural knowledge, skills, and experiences and applies this knowledge to challenge the negative impact of the dominant culture. Ladson-Billings (1994) framework articulates three main tenets of CRP: academic success, cultural competence, and critical consciousness. Alim and Paris (2017) notions of culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSP) extends CRP by seeking to “perpetuate and foster—sustain—linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of schooling for positive social transformation” (p. 1). CSP is strength and asset based, seeking to highlight, support, and strengthen the teaching, learning, and schooling experiences of people from historically marginalized communities. CSP informs the CLRCE framework as it discusses culture and language as assets inextricably linked to students’ identity.

Linguistically Responsive Teaching (LRT)

LRT focuses on the orientations, knowledge, and skills necessary for teaching linguistically diverse students (Lucas & Villegas, 2010). LRT includes seven central tenets: (a) sociolinguistic consciousness, (b) value for linguistic diversity, (c) inclinations to advocate for emergent bilinguals, (d) learning about emergent bilinguals’ language backgrounds, experiences, and proficiencies, (e) identifying the language demands of classroom discourse/tasks, 6) knowing and applying key principles of second language learning, and (f) scaffolding instruction to promote emergent bilinguals’ learning.

Active, Engaged Citizenship (AEC)

AEC is propelled by a civic education curriculum that teaches youth skills, knowledge, and attitudes to be become active participatory citizens in U.S. democratic society (CIRCLE, 2003). Active and engaged citizens participate in civic and political activities that support deliberating on controversial public political issues, partaking in advocacy or community-based projects, discussing current events, and engaging in civic-related topics of concern (Hess, 2009; Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). AEC also draws on notions of Latino cultural citizenship (Flores & Benmayor, 1997), which explores how culture “constructs” understandings and actions of citizenship based on a sense of belonging rather than a formal status of citizenship (Silvestrini, 1997). Drawing on Latinxs’ civic knowledge and skills is a key element in the intersectionality of CRP/CSP, LRT, and AEC and supported the emergence of the CLRCE framework.

Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Citizenship Education (CLRCE)

CLRCE includes five principles: (a) pedagogy of community, (b) pedagogy of success, (c) pedagogy of making cross-cultural connections, (d) pedagogy of building a language of social studies, and (e) pedagogy of community-based, participatory citizenship. Examples of intersecting elements of CRP, LRT, and ACE that created a foundation for the five principles of CLRCE include: promoting academic success; maintaining cultural competence; valuing cultural and linguistic diversity; scaffolding instruction to promote emergent bilingual students’ learning; developing a critical social and linguistic consciousness; and encouraging community development, fostering local and participatory civic action and engagement. I used this framework to guide the research questions, data analysis and interpretation, and presentation of the findings in this study. In this study, three of the five principles of CLRCE emerged, these principles included: pedagogy of community, pedagogy of success, and pedagogy of building a language of social studies (Jaffee, 2016a).

Pedagogy of Community

Pedagogy of community focuses on building a classroom community that engages and supports all students in the classroom. Teachers who embody this pedagogy advocate for their emergent bilingual students, build a culture of trust, foster supportive and positive relationships, and require respect between and among all those involved in the classroom community.

Pedagogy of Success

A pedagogy of success is a strength-based perspective that draws on students’ cultural, linguistic, and civic assets and experiences in order to be successful in the classroom. Ways of operationalizing this success for culturally and linguistically diverse students include exercising students’ voice in various elements of curriculum design and implementation, setting high expectations and goals for students, and building on and from successful experiences in the social studies classroom.

Pedagogy of Building a Language of Social Studies

A pedagogy of building a language of social studies connects students’ current and emerging language skills and knowledge (e.g., first language, bilingualism/multilingualism, English, academic language proficiency). This pedagogy requires teachers to get to know their students and frequently assess their language and content knowledge. Building this language in the social studies classroom includes enacting bilingual practices, using multiple methods to engage with social studies content while building English language skills, and developing literacy skills by identifying the linguistic demands of classroom instruction and implementing various linguistically-focused tasks.

Design and Methods

I constructed a qualitative, instrumental case study (Stake, 1995) to explore how two middle level teachers conceptualized and implemented social studies education for Latinx emergent bilinguals. The case was a “bounded system,” as the study took place in one culturally and linguistically diverse classroom. I examined the case’s “working parts” (Stake, 1995, p, p. 2), looking closely at each focal teacher’s philosophy of teaching, implementation of curricular design and methods, and relationship with students so I could explain how each teacher taught social studies for emergent bilingual youth.

Context and Participants

Bradford Middle School

Bradford Middle School (BMS)² is located in Valletown, a community that had experienced rapid demographic changes due to global conflict and refugee resettlement. Valletown is in a southeastern state in which Latinx people were 9.1% of the total population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017), a 92% increase since 2000 (Constable, 2013). At the time of my study, BMS had a total enrollment of 819 students in grades five through eight. Of this enrollment, 152 students were considered having “limited English proficiency (LEP)”, accounting for 29% of the total student population. Seventy-four percent of students first language was Spanish and were from Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba, and Guatemala, among other Spanish-speaking countries. In the eighth grade, there were 50 LEP students.

Social Studies Class and Students

The focal class for the study was an eighth-grade civics and economics class that had seventeen students, nine females and eight males. Thirteen students were considered LEP, ten of whom were Spanish-speaking students and four of whom were Arabic or Kurdish-speaking students. In this class, the Spanish speakers were originally from Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. The WIDA levels of English language proficiency for these students ranged anywhere from level two (emerging) to six (reaching) (WIDA, 2014). Two of the Spanish-speaking students were identified as newcomers (i.e., recently arrived immigrants and new to Valletown Public Schools), and recently completed the school division newcomer program.

Participant Teachers

I selected two middle school teachers who were committed to and engaged in teaching immigrant students and taught emergent bilinguals in a social studies class dedicated to citizenship education. Ms. Brooks had taught social studies at BMS for four years. She held a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary social sciences and a Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) degree in secondary Social Studies Education. Ms. Brooks grew up outside Valletown and attended a school she described as similar to BMS in terms of students’ socioeconomic status but “very different from the school that I grew up in” in terms of the demographic characteristics of the school and community. While BMS and her hometown were only 30 to 40 minutes apart, she described the racial, linguistic, and ethnic make-up of the schools as vastly different. At the time of the study, all four of Ms. Brooks’ core courses were civics and economics classes. She also taught a reading elective, as part of her course load, that was offered to students reading three grades below grade level. The class I observed was the only class Ms. Brooks had a co-teacher, Ms. Miller. Ms. Brooks mentioned that although she had other classes with special education and emergent bilingual students, because this class had the most emergent bilinguals she was given the opportunity to collaborate with a TESOL teacher.

Ms. Miller had taught TESOL at BMS for just over three months. She double-majored in psychology and music, minored in teaching ESL, and had earned a M.A.T in teaching ESL. Originally from Ohio, Ms. Miller had been living in the Valletown area for more than ten years. Before coming to BMS, Ms. Miller had been a full-time teacher for two years and had taught and volunteered for four years in a variety of K-16 educational settings. The position she held before coming to BMS was as an ESL teacher at a juvenile detention center. She was excited to come to BMS where she would have opportunities to “use my teaching skills more and also to get to know and work with whole families.” In fact, she knew many of the families at BMS from some of her previous work and volunteer experiences. At BMS, Ms. Miller taught in a number of different classroom settings from sixth to eighth grade. In the eighth grade, she worked with a civics class, which was the focal class for this study, and a reading support class.

Although Ms. Miller was not a Latina, she was able to connect linguistically and culturally with her Latinx students. She spoke Spanish and had spent time living, working, and traveling in Latin America (e.g., Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, and Spain). She immersed herself in Latin American culture and explained the importance of learning about her students’ cultural backgrounds: “I think the students need people who are interested in their culture and I learn so much from them all the time. I always want to be learning.” The following anecdote about her experience in Guatemala illustrates the way Ms. Miller connected her cultural learning to her teaching:

I purposefully went to a village [in Guatemala]. A lot of my Guatemalan students came from more small villages and spoke indigenous languages, and so I just really wanted to be able to connect with them … I found that to be really helpful to be able to be like, yeah, ‘I was at this village on the lake.’ What village were you at? Just to be able to understand some of their cultural differences and some of the dynamics between the indigenous and the more urban people in Guatemala.

The perspectives and experiences that Ms. Miller brought to the social studies classroom exemplified a CLRCE teacher, as she philosophically and pedagogically supported the other middle level teachers in serving Latinx emergent bilingual students.

Data Collection and Analysis

The data collection techniques included observing, interviewing, and collecting artifacts to illuminate findings of social studies practice and collaboration for emergent bilingual youth. I chose to use these three methods of data collection to triangulate the types of data collected (Stake, 1995).

Observations were conducted two to three times per week during three units on the government’s role in the economy, personal finance, and career readiness. Observations focused on the implementation of teachers’ pedagogical goals/plans as discussed in interviews and student engagement with the material. I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews 45 to 60 minutes in length with each teacher at the beginning, middle, and end of study, and each interview was audiotaped and transcribed (see Appendix A: Interview Protocol). Artifacts included teacher created materials, school related documents, and photographs. As the researcher, I took the role of complete observer, whereby I rarely “participate[d] in activities at the setting” and viewed the classroom and the teacher’s practices “through a one-way mirror” (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007, p. 91).

Observation field-notes, interview transcripts, and artifacts were coded using deductive and inductive data analysis (Patton, 2002). I used the five principles of CLRCE as a framework, and deductively look for keywords, phrases, behaviors, and/or instructional strategies that exemplified the tenets of CLRCE (see Table 1). Inductively, I analyzed the data using line-by-line coding (Miles & Huberman, 1994), looking for emergent themes and developing categorical codes.

Table 1 Principles of the CLRCE Framework for Latinx Newcomer Students

Principles of Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Citizenship Education	Conceptualized and Implemented Pedagogical Attitudes, Beliefs, Ideas, and Actions of Teaching Social Studies for Latinx Newcomer Students
Pedagogy of Community	Advocating for newcomer youth cultivated by teacher caring Building confianza (mutual trust) Fostering supportive and positive teacher-student and student-student relationships Requiring respeto (respect)
Pedagogy of Success	Expanding on students’ assets Exercising student voice Setting clear, high expectations and goals Building on multiple, frequent successful experiences
Pedagogy of Making Cross-Cultural Connections	Emphasizing communication for all newcomers Connecting content to human experiences and students’ prior knowledge Working in groups Incorporating multiple perspectives in constructing historical content knowledge
Pedagogy of Building a Language of Social Studies	Using bilingual practices Acquiring English using multiple texts, content, and vocabulary Identifying linguistic demands of classroom tasks Developing literacy skills
Pedagogy of Community-based, Participatory Citizenship	Identifying and belonging as essential elements Channeling civic and political motivations by understanding local and community-based issues Building on civic knowledge and skills for democratic participation Promoting and enacting civic engagement in various forms

The ideas and definitions in the table are adapted from Jaffee (2016a).

Limitations

A limitation of this study is the small sample size. Due to the qualitative nature of the study, I do not intend to generalize its findings, as the study is bounded in a particular context and settings (Marshall & Rossman, 2011). I offer examples and implications, however, that might be considered in other contexts, communities, and schools with culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Discussion of Findings

The observations, interviews, and artifacts yielded rich insights into the ways two middle level teachers conceptualized and implemented social studies education for Latinx emergent bilinguals. Collaboration was a dominant theme that emerged, and here I discuss key insights about collaboration from the perspectives of Ms. Brooks, the social studies teacher, and Ms. Miller, the TESOL teacher. This collaboration allowed the teachers to implement three elements of the CLRCE framework: pedagogy of community, pedagogy of success, and pedagogy of building a language of social studies. I share my observations of these elements and then provide insights that may help other teachers implement CLRCE in middle level classrooms.

Teacher Perspectives on Collaboration

The ways in which collaboration was discussed and implemented by the social studies teacher (Ms. Brooks) and the TESOL teacher (Ms. Miller) varied greatly. They differed in their emphases on content versus pedagogy, their connections to students’ interests and experiences, and their conceptions of success. Much of this variance can be attributed to current and past collaborative experiences (e.g., subject matter, grade level, students), familiarity with co-teaching models, and teacher personalities/positionalities on collaboration (see also, e.g., Cook et al., 2011; Peercy et al., 2017; Scruggs et al., 2007; van Hover et al., 2012).

The Social Studies Teacher’s Perspective on Collaboration

At the outset, Ms. Brooks explained that her team of eighth grade teachers was the “ELL team,” meaning that most of the ELL students were scheduled to be in classes with her team of teachers. When asked if the teams were working well she responded, “as far as thinking about things that can be done, as far as writing or reading for these students, it is helpful to be on the same team, have the same teachers.” In addition to participating in the eighth grade “ELL team,” Ms. Brooks also met consistently with a team of two other eighth grade civics and economics teachers to plan instruction and assessments for their students.

The collaboration in these spaces focused on social studies content, methods, and assessments. Ms. Brooks explained that the collaborative work with the civics team focused on such questions as: Are we on pacing? What sort of assessment are we using? How do we know it’s successful? She then discussed the nature of their collaboration:

In general, we’re really good about working with each other and we’re really good about finding activities that we all like. We all contribute … we just divided up who’s going to make the lessons and activities for this, who’s going to make the lessons and activities for this. You would make a three- or four-day lesson plan and all the activities for it, but then you wouldn’t have to make another lesson plan for two weeks.

She added that during civics team meetings the discussion focused primarily on dividing up the work of lesson design and assessment, so social studies teachers could have some time off from daily lesson planning. Furthermore, teachers benefited from working together to “find activities that we all like” for their eighth-grade standards-based curriculum. Ms. Brooks’ responses seemed to suggest that she based her notion of success on how students performed on the unit and course assessments.

In addition to the spaces for collaboration with the eighth-grade civics team and the ELL team, Ms. Brooks also shared how she collaborated directly with Ms. Miller during classroom instructional time. She discussed a specific instance when Ms. Miller was able to focus on the emergent bilingual students in the class and their individual needs, while she continued with content delivery and working with other groups. She explained:

Things like if we are doing a reading individually, or if we are having table talk about whatever subject we’re covering that day, it is great for her to be able to draw what select students we think need that guidance and support from her. That’s been helpful, too.

This example shows the enactment of the co-teaching model, one teach/one assist, in which one teacher assumes the instructional lead while the other teacher assists by providing additional support and monitoring of individual students (van Hover et al., 2012).

Ms. Brooks trusted and relied on Ms. Miller’s expertise working with emergent bilinguals and particularly appreciated the knowledge Ms. Miller had about what specific students needed to be successful in the civics and economics class. Ms. Brooks further described their collaboration:

[We] meet on Monday mornings to talk about the week, and what subjects we’re going to cover, and how we’re going to do things in the class for the week. It’s so helpful. I don’t feel like I’m worn as thin … With Ms. Miller, it’s helpful to get two sets of adults, two sets of people who can explain things differently or [on] easier terms.

Overall, Ms. Brooks conceptualized collaborating with Ms. Miller as supporting learning and enactment of strategies to enhance teaching social studies for emergent bilinguals, considering ways to support emergent bilinguals learning of civics content in the classroom that she had to cover in a short amount of time, and helping to facilitate the management and differentiation of instruction for students with varying needs and abilities.

Ms. Brooks trusted Ms. Miller’s input and expertise regarding her knowledge of emergent bilinguals’ linguistic backgrounds and skills, and she relied on Ms. Miller to help her consider how to teach the state mandated content in accessible ways to emergent bilinguals. However, Ms. Miller’s perspectives and experiences on collaboration varied greatly from those of Ms. Brooks.

The TESOL Teacher’s Perspective on Collaboration

Ms. Miller offered a critical perspective on collaboration that complements much of what is missing from Ms. Brooks’ conceptions of social studies education for emergent bilinguals (e.g., advocating for emergent bilinguals, focusing on strategies for emergent bilinguals, considering emergent bilinguals’ linguistic needs, and accessing emergent bilinguals’ cultural assets and knowledge). For example, when Ms. Miller discussed collaborating with the civics team, she focused on process rather than content:

Ideally, I would be in on those meetings when they’re actually choosing the activities … [For example,] I asked if we could do more role plays or activities—when we talked about circular flow, then Ms. Brooks took that suggestion that I made, [and] … made one up with circular flow … ideally there would be more of that … I think it works, and I’ve been able to do things—other activities too with vocabulary that I’ve done in the past that have been really helpful. I’ve shared with the other civics teachers too. I don’t know if they’ve used them or not. It’s a way that I try to be helpful to everybody even though I can’t be—because some of the other teachers have ELLs too.

Here, Ms. Miller focused on strategies that met the needs of both emergent bilingual students and other students in the class (e.g., role play and vocabulary activities). It seemed that having this input from Ms. Miller was extremely important for the collaborative relationship of the civics team, and it offered the advocacy necessary to support emergent bilingual students in the school.

Ms. Miller’s goals for her emergent bilingual students in the social studies class reflected a conception of success that varied from Ms. Brook’s conception of success and went beyond doing well on the unit and course assessments. She explained, “For me it’s less of what content I can cram into their heads and more about giving them skills to learn vocabulary and study skills and things like that.” Ms. Miller went on to conceptualize success as building the skills and knowledge necessary to actively participate in class, inquiring about items that interested students, connecting content to prior knowledge and experiences, and feeling successful in the skills and knowledge students acquired. This notion of success did not focus strictly on assessments but, rather, on emergent bilingual students’ needs and interests. Ms. Miller was proud that students were succeeding both academically and socially in the class, and she felt that at this point in the year (April) students had really made strides.

Ms. Miller’s notions of success, however, were nuanced and are important to consider when working with emergent bilingual students. She discussed desiring for students to “take ownership … and responsibility for being engaged in what’s going on.” She supported participation and success by “floating around and trying to encourage [students] to be thinking about what they’re doing, and just taking notes, and then hopefully, they will learn that that’s the way to learn.” She explained her co-teaching role during the class as helping the emergent bilinguals (13 out of the 17 students) feel “academically successful,” “giving them skills,” and taking “responsibility for being engaged.” Ms. Miller’s remarks reflected more of a team teaching approach wherein co-teachers divide “teaching responsibilities equally and leading instructional activities together” (van Hover et al., 2012, p. 262). These notions nicely complemented Ms. Brooks’ content and collaborative goals, as Ms. Miller’s goals facilitated students’ learning of the content in supportive and structured ways.

Further, Ms. Miller wanted her emergent bilingual students to take ownership of their learning and take pride in the excellent progress they were making, with regards to both language and civics content knowledge. When asked how she helped facilitate the unit goals for her students, Ms. Miller explained:

Make sure that they’re on task, that they’re in the right place. They’re listening to what’s going on. Then I’ll often ask if they understand, if [Ms. Brooks is] giving an example, and [if] I think that they probably don’t understand what they—what the words are in the example, I’ll ask them. Try to explain that a little bit more. Then part of walking around too is that a lot of times they don’t want to ask their question in front of the whole class, but they have a really good question about it. Then they see me and they’ll say, “Miss,” and they’ll ask me the question. Then they can answer those. Yeah. That’s what I try to do.

I often observed Ms. Miller seamlessly flow in and out of student groups, listen closely to what Ms. Brooks was saying or doing, and act intentionally to help and encourage students. Ms. Miller often pulled emergent bilingual students out into the hallway to review key concepts that would build the vocabulary necessary to help understand the objectives and content for the unit.

A key attribute to Ms. Miller’s collaborative spirit and philosophy of teaching emergent bilinguals was her advocacy and support for students’ overall well-being, growth, and resilience while in school and in the community. Ms. Miller truly exemplified the kind of teacher needed to support middle level emergent bilingual students. She said it best herself when she explained why she decided to become a TESOL teacher:

I think coming into a new culture and learning a new language makes the kids really vulnerable. I have seen kids be humiliated in front of their peers because of it, and … I want to protect them. I want them to feel safe and to feel loved. I’m happy to do that as a part of my teaching. That’s something that I want to do. That’s a big part of it for me, is seeing that there’s this need and vulnerability and that many teachers aren’t given the training or background, or even like maybe they haven’t ever experienced being in a different culture and learning a new language. They just don’t know what it’s like, so just being an advocate for those kids.

Much of what Ms. Miller said here suggests the necessity for developing and sustaining a collaborative relationship between social studies and TESOL teachers that centers on the needs of emergent bilingual students. For example, when she stated, “many teachers aren’t given the training or background” or “they don’t know what it is like” or “there’s this need and vulnerability,” Ms. Miller recognized that she had a particular lens, positionality, and disposition that was focused on the unique needs of her students. She was not arguing that content teachers do not love and care about their students; rather, she was stating it was her job to help and support the emergent bilingual students above and beyond what perhaps the content teacher might have the time to do in the classroom. She further explained that she takes interrupting stereotypes and prejudices in the classroom very seriously, “I try to jump in whenever I can, whenever there are cultural generalizations or just some kind of shallow understanding of things, to be able to challenge the way the kids think about that kind of thing.” Ms. Miller challenged generalizations about culturally and linguistically diverse groups when they arose, noting it was “part of her role” as a collaborator in the middle level social studies classroom.

Not every middle level social studies teacher has a co-teacher like Ms. Miller to help support their pedagogy for emergent bilinguals. However, for social studies teachers who do have this opportunity, Ms. Miller offered important examples of collaborative strategies that content teachers can employ with TESOL teachers. For example, Ms. Miller offered ideas for what to consider as a co-teacher and suggestions for what content teachers can do to teach emergent bilinguals. She also discussed orientations/dispositions needed to support emergent bilingual students’ social, cultural, linguistic, and civic needs in describing an ideal collaborative scenario:

I mean I’d love to focus on one grade mainly. Then I can … help teachers connect what they’re doing. I’ve done some of that. Right now, I’m in 7^th grade science. They’re doing projects and doing vocabulary. In our language arts class … we have the same vocabulary. We’re working on reading and writing while she’s teaching the content. I love that. I’m actually with the same—most of the same kids in science.

The contextual factors that Ms. Miller would need to foster an ideal collaborative relationship in a middle level setting include working with the same grade and the same emergent bilingual students; the subject matter would be a secondary focus. It seemed that to facilitate an effective collaborative environment, Ms. Miller focused more on the students and the relationship she was building with them; i.e., understanding what they are learning across their classes and subject matter and helping make connections with and for them.

Furthermore, Ms. Miller offered two specific strategies for TESOL teachers to consider when supporting an effective collaborative relationship with a content teacher: (a) “looking at your own personality” and reflecting on how to develop relationships with other teachers and explore who you are as a leader, and (b) introduce/assert yourself as the co-teacher to the class and explain your role to the students. These two consideration are critical when examining how to create an effective collaboration between content and TESOL teachers.

Ms. Miller offered keen insights about collaboration, and she mentioned that she had taken multiple classes on collaboration in graduate school as she prepared to become a TESOL teacher. These classes may have offered Ms. Miller a perspective on co-teaching and collaboration in the middle grades that Ms. Brooks did not necessarily have, and this finding suggests content area teachers may benefit from classes on these topics as well.

When there is a healthy co-teaching relationship, the students ultimately benefit, and in this case study this was clear. Ms. Miller had only been co-teaching in Ms. Brooks’ classroom for four months when I observed, and the emergent bilingual students in the class had made significant strides in understanding content, engaging in/with activities, connecting with peers, and performing on assessments. This truly was a successful collaboration, and so much of this success was the result of Ms. Miller’s actions, care, positionality, and presence.

Enacting Elements of the CLRCE Framework

Teachers in this study conceptualized and implemented social studies for emergent bilingual students by enacting three of the five elements of the CLRCE framework: pedagogy of success, pedagogy of community, and pedagogy of building a language of social studies. These pedagogical principles were evident in the implementation of collaborative strategies in the classroom, discussed when articulating benefits of collaborative relationships in interviews, and operationalized to meet the needs of middle level emergent bilingual students.

Pedagogy of Success

I observed evidence of pedagogy of success after one lesson when Ms. Brooks and Ms. Miller were having a quick post-lesson debrief, something they did after every class. Ms. Brooks mentioned to Ms. Miller that she thought it was very helpful for their students when Ms. Miller wrote the tier-two vocabulary words on the board in the back of the room. Tier-two words help emergent bilinguals to better understand and provide context for social studies content. Ms. Brooks mentioned, “I even think about [vocabulary that might be difficult] ahead of time now” because of what she learned from Ms. Miller about the importance of contextualizing social studies concepts and vocabulary for emergent bilinguals.

I saw Ms. Brooks enact this principle in practice. For example, I noticed that the word “simultaneously” was used in a PowerPoint presentation, and Ms. Brooks had noted in parentheses (“at 1 time”). Ms. Miller seemed pleased that Ms. Brooks had thought about this vocabulary strategy ahead of time and defined the word for the students, noting, “You had already done it!” This example showcased how the teachers leveraged their collaborative relationship to support successful experiences for emergent bilingual students in the classroom. They provided opportunities for students to be successful by “building on multiple, frequent successful experiences” (Jaffee, 2016a, p. 164).

Pedagogy of Community

The collaborative interactions I observed between Ms. Miller and Ms. Brooks supported two key elements of building pedagogy of community: “advocating for newcomer youth cultivated by teacher caring” and fostering supportive relationships (Jaffee, 2016a, p. 162). Collaboration related to instruction and support for emergent bilinguals learning social studies content included: listening to one another, noticing pedagogical strategies that support teaching ELLs, and implementing methods that are helpful for building the TESOL teacher’s content knowledge and the social studies teacher’s understanding of English language acquisition and instruction. As noted above, Ms. Brooks and Ms. Miller met every Monday to discuss plans and details for the week, a collaborative activity that Ms. Brooks stressed as “so helpful” and worthwhile for their students. These actions built an effective collaborative relationship and fostered a supportive, thriving, and positive classroom community.

Pedagogy of Building a Language of Social Studies

Ms. Brooks and Ms. Miller exhibited the CLRCE principle, pedagogy of building a language of social studies, when they implemented strategies to support the linguistic demands, literacy needs, and content knowledge of emergent bilingual students (Jaffee, 2016a). For example, I often saw Ms. Brooks use graphic organizers to help students understand economic concepts (Cruz & Thornton, 2008). One graphic organizer was a flow chart that prompted students to fill in key words and images as a way to scaffold their learning of essential vocabulary/phrases and guide their understanding of “promoting competition in the marketplace.” Ms. Brooks facilitated the completion of the organizer by discussing, questioning, unpacking images/concepts, and interjecting with short film clips to support learning the content.

In one interview, Ms. Brooks reflected on using graphic organizers, as well as other strategies, during her first year working on the “ELL team.” She expressed experiencing a dramatic growth curve.

There are definitely a lot of things I need to be changing and what I should be focusing on with language learners … a lot of visual things … focusing a lot on reading, and a lot on writing, and a lot on words … I find that I am trying to breakdown things into simpler, smaller terms, instead of broad general ideas. Because it is easier for them to comprehend things that way … [and] I can see that test grades have gone up and homework grades have gone up, and a lot of it might have to do with how I am teaching things differently.

Ms. Brooks built a language of social studies by “using multiple texts, content, and vocabulary” to help her students acquire English and develop “literacy skills.” However, in this classroom Ms. Miller was also able to guide the instruction based on the “linguistic demands of classroom tasks” (Jaffee, 2016a, p. 169). For example, she frequently walked around the room helping students individually to make sure they were on task and understanding the material and wrote vocabulary words on the white board in the back of the room.

During one class I observed, Ms. Miller identified words and wrote their definitions on the board for students to see and use in their notes when listening to Ms. Brooks’ lesson. These words were essential for understanding the context of the social studies content (e.g., she wrote “trust—big business that could control the market” and “prevent—to keep/stop something from happening”). Ms. Miller mentioned that she had seen her emergent bilingual students look up to the board while taking notes or listening to the lesson, which indicated that the strategy was helpful for her students.

Implications and Conclusion

In previous studies conducted with high school social studies teachers for newcomer youth (Jaffee, 2016b), teachers supported both content objectives and the needs of emergent bilingual students (e.g., social, cultural, linguistic, civic); however, in this case study, it was the TESOL teacher who did more to support emergent bilinguals in the social studies classroom and made sure they felt successful. Ms. Brooks appeared to focus on the content she was teaching rather than how she was teaching and who she was teaching. Ms. Miller, however, tended to focus on the students and their needs, interests, and experiences.

As this study shows, social studies teachers and scholars have much to learn from TESOL teachers regarding advocacy, co-teaching strategies, and methods that best support culturally and linguistically sustaining teaching practices for emergent bilingual students. They must, therefore, spend more time listening to, engaging with, and learning from TESOL educators. Furthermore, social studies and TESOL teachers need to carve out space and time for collaboration, and they must possess critical dispositions for engaging in this work. By collaborating to meet the unique needs of all emergent bilinguals in the social studies classroom, teachers might enact all five principles of CLRCE, including the two principles that were not clearly observed in this case study: (a) pedagogy of making cross-cultural connections and (b) pedagogy of community-based, participatory citizenship.

Ms. Miller exemplified ways teachers can advocate for emergent bilingual students and challenge anti-immigrant/immigration social and political rhetoric. She interrupted narratives in the classroom that did not provide depth related to content on cultural, linguistic, and/or racial issues; she led conversations with content area teachers that centered on the pedagogical needs of emergent bilinguals; and she made sure that her students knew what her role was in the classroom and worked diligently to ensure they knew she was there to work alongside them to support their educational and social experiences.

Future research on middle level social studies for emergent bilinguals might include multiple case studies on collaboration in either one school or multiple school contexts/communities, a deeper and more critical focus on citizenship education at the middle level for emergent bilinguals, and interviews with young adolescent emergent bilingual students about their conceptions of and interactions with social studies and citizenship education. Researchers might inquire about emergent bilingual students’ suggestions and/or insights into pedagogical strategies that would best support their cultural, linguistic, social, and civic needs in the classroom. Further, there is a gap in the teacher education literature regarding how best to prepare pre-service social studies and TESOL teachers for effective collaboration and how best to prepare pre-service social studies teachers to teach middle level emergent bilingual students.

While this study highlighted ways to support and enact good teaching, effective collaboration, and dispositions that focus on meeting the fluid and changing needs of emergent bilingual students in middle level social studies classes, there is still much work to be done. This study offers teachers and scholars insight into how to approach teaching and advocating for middle level emergent bilingual students, while also igniting ideas and possibilities for future research on this incredibly important topic.

Notes

¹ For the remainder of the manuscript I use “emergent bilinguals,” a term that emphasizes learning and engaging with two languages as an asset and does not position learning English as primary and the first language as secondary or subtracted (García & Kleifgen, 2010). I use emergent bilinguals to support my position that bilingualism is a strength and students’ linguistic identities are often central to who they are and how they position themselves in the school, the community, and the world.

² All names used are pseudonyms.

Appendix A

Interview Protocol

Teaching and Educational Background

• Tell me a little about yourself and your classroom.

  • What is your name?

  • Where are you from?

  • What class(es) do you teach?

  • How many students do you have? What grade or year are they?

  • What is the demographic make-up of your class (country of origin, native language)?

• Tell me a little bit about your background.

  • Where did you grow-up?

  • Where were you educated? Where did you attend high school, undergraduate school, graduate school?

  • What was your major/minor?

  • How long have you been teaching?

  • How long have you been at this school?

  • Why did you decide to come to this school?

Philosophical Foundations in Social Studies

• What do you think are the goals and purposes of the social studies? Why?

• What do you hope to accomplish in your classroom?

• What do you hope your students will take away from the unit/your class? Why?

Conceptualizing Social Studies for Latinx Newcomers

• How do you conceptualize teaching social studies to Latinx emergent bilinguals?

• Can you describe and/or characterize how Latinx emergent bilinguals are as students, what characteristics- can you think of- do Latinx students’ bring to the classroom?

Implementing Social Studies for Latinx Newcomers

• What have you done, if anything, in your social studies classroom that fosters the academic success of Latinx emergent bilinguals?

• What pedagogical strategies do you implement specifically for Latinx emergent bilinguals? Are these similar or different than what you use with other students?

• [How] do you incorporate your students’ cultural backgrounds in the classroom? Linguistic backgrounds?

  • [How] does this relate, in your opinion, to your goals for the social studies?

• Can you tell me a little bit about any constraints, issues, or problems you have encountered when implementing the social studies curriculum?

• Tell me about this unit - What are your goals? Tell me about your lesson(s) - What do you hope students will get out of these lessons?

Citizenship Education for Latinx Newcomers

• How do you define citizenship?

• [How] do you conceptualize citizenship education for Latinx immigrant youth?