ESOL Teachers as Advocates: An Important Role?

Abstract

Due to the fact that English language learners (ELLs) often do not have the same educational opportunities or outcomes as non-ELL students in the United States, the professional standards for initial certification for teaching English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) call on ESOL teachers to advocate for them. Yet little research exists on how ESOL teachers view this role or what advocacy actions they believe are important. In this study of preservice teachers in ESOL teacher education programs, the majority of participants rate the advocacy actions as important to the ESOL teacher role. Advocacy actions in the classroom and school are rated as more important than those outside the school in the community. The study also reveals two factors that are positively associated with beliefs about the importance of advocacy: more time in the teacher education program and having other teaching experience besides ESOL. Based on this research, the author suggests more clearly delineated advocacy actions to better prepare preservice ESOL teachers in teacher education programs for classroom and school-based advocacy and to support in-service ESOL teachers in different levels of advocacy (in the classroom and school or beyond) at different stages in their careers.Due to the disparate access English language learners (ELLs) have to educational opportunities and outcomes in public schools in the United States, we as TESOL professionals need to advocate for these students. However, to date, limited research exists on views of advocacy among teachers of English as a second language (ESL), English to speakers of other languages (ESOL), and English as a foreign language (EFL) 1 and how they advocate.1 From this point forward I use ESOL teacher to refer to all English language teachers regardless of their teaching context.

ESOL teachers’ experiences in their role as advocate: Making the case for transitive advocacy

“…ESOL teachers perform a variety of actions as advocates of their students (Athanases & de Oliveira, ; de Oliveira & Athanases, ; Haneda & Alexander, ; Linville, ). ESOL teachers in our study perceived themselves to have a high degree of advocacy in their work with ELs (Table ), and open‐ended survey responses added specificity to this perception (Table ).…”

“…Linville's () results show the importance placed on the local school as an advocacy setting for ESOL teachers. Actions rated as important or highly important in the local school included talking to colleagues, finding resources for colleagues, supporting administrators, and providing professional development (Linville, ).…”

“…Linville's () results show the importance placed on the local school as an advocacy setting for ESOL teachers. Actions rated as important or highly important in the local school included talking to colleagues, finding resources for colleagues, supporting administrators, and providing professional development (Linville, ). Advocacy actions in the community and beyond included educating policymakers and other community members and taking leadership roles in these arenas about issues related to ELs, yet these were the lowest rated items in Linville's survey data.…”

“…Following Bronfenbrenner's model, our study places the ESOL teacher at the center of multiple contexts (Darling, ) and with a variety of stakeholders (Figure ). Participants in various studies report both within the classroom and beyond the classroom advocacy actions (de Oliveira & Athanases, ; Dubetz & de Jong, ; Haneda & Alexander, ; Linville, ; Suarez & Dominguez, ), and the actions themselves have been categorized as nontransformative or transformative (de Oliveira & Athanases, ).…”

“…Research in ESOL teacher advocacy reveals action at the individual, classroom, and school levels (Dubetz & de Jong, ; Linville, ; Pawan & Craig, ). Results from Linville's () study indicated that a premium is placed on advocacy actions that occur in classrooms and schools rather than those outside the school at the community or policymaker level. This action included using anti‐bias curriculum that supports an inclusive classroom, purposeful development of inclusive classroom environments, and advocating for effective classroom resources (Linville, ).…”