Ambulating teachers

354 Pages·2013·2.07 MB·English

Ambulating teachers
A case study of bilingual teachers and teacher collaboration

Joke Dewilde

Dissertation submitted for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor

Department of Teacher Education and School Research
Faculty of Educational Sciences

UNIVERSITY OF OSLO

2013
© Joke Dewilde, 2013

Series of dissertations submitted to the
Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo
No. 186

ISSN 1501-8962

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reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission.

Cover: Inger Sandved Anfinsen.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors Mari-Ann Igland, Rita Hvistendahl and
Stephen Dobson; Mari-Ann for her critical engagement, valuable insights, endurance and
Japanese tea, Rita for her useful feedback, encouragement and genuine belief in my study,
and Stephen for sharing his knowledge and giving his support. Thanks to Hedmark University
College for funding my project, and to the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University
of Oslo for giving me the opportunity to follow their doctoral programme. In this connection,
thanks are due to Andreas Lund for his constructive feedback at the mid and end term
reviews.
My sincere thanks go to the two bilingual teachers ‘Maryam’ and ‘Mohammed’ and
their schools for allowing me to take part in their working lives and for patiently answering
all my queries. Without them, this dissertation would never have seen the light.
I would like to express my gratitude to Angela Creese for her supervision during my two
week stay at the University of Birmingham and for opening her house to me. Thanks also to
the members of the MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism and other members of
staff at the University who were so kind to make time to meet me during these weeks.
I am grateful for the support of my colleagues and fellow Ph.D. candidates during the
different phases of my dissertation. Special thanks go to the members of the research
groups Education and Diversity and Language in Education at Hedmark University College
and the University of Oslo respectively, and to the members of the international research
network Diverse Teachers for Diverse Learners. I also acknowledge my friends and former
colleagues in the municipality of Hamar for keeping me updated on school life and always
showing an interest in my work.
Finally, I am ever indebted to my families in Belgium and Norway. I would particularly
like to thank Alf, Marte and Sindre, for their creativity with words, speaking what we at
home call ‘florsk’ (Florwegian), and for reminding me that there is so much more to life than
writing a dissertation.

Hamar, 22 March 2013
Joke Dewilde

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Marianne Skytte has given me permission to reproduce her model on the dimensions of freedom in
individualistic and collectivistic life stances.

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CONTENT
1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 9
Background ....................................................................................................................................... 10
Aims and research question .............................................................................................................. 13
A qualitative case study design ......................................................................................................... 15
Earlier studies .................................................................................................................................... 17
Norway as a multilingual society and language educational policies ............................................... 31
This study .......................................................................................................................................... 35
Note on terminology ......................................................................................................................... 37
PART I THEORY AND METHODOLOGY.......................................................................................... 39
2 A dialogical approach to interaction in bilingual education ..................................................... 41
Dialogism as a meta-theoretical framework ..................................................................................... 41
Language as situated utterances ...................................................................................................... 43
The heteroglossic nature of language ............................................................................................... 47
A dynamic approach to bilingualism and bilingual education .......................................................... 49
3 Producing and preparing the material .................................................................................... 59
Producing the material ..................................................................................................................... 59
Preparing the material ...................................................................................................................... 77
4 Analysing the material ........................................................................................................... 83
Analysing fieldnotes .......................................................................................................................... 83
Analysing audio recorded conversations .......................................................................................... 86
Writing up the cases – combining fieldnotes and audio recordings ................................................. 95
Trustworthiness ................................................................................................................................ 98
PART II MOHAMMED’S CASE ..................................................................................................... 103
5 Mohammed at Ullstad .......................................................................................................... 105
Mohammed as bilingual teacher .................................................................................................... 105
The school ....................................................................................................................................... 105
Management, teachers and pupils ................................................................................................. 107
Mohammed’s colleagues and pupils .............................................................................................. 109
6 Support teaching .................................................................................................................. 113
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 113
Teaming up with Mette .................................................................................................................. 118
Teaming up with Linn ...................................................................................................................... 133
Discussion ........................................................................................................................................ 152
7 Looking after emergent bilingual pupils ................................................................................. 161
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 161
Teaming up with Sverre .................................................................................................................. 162
The emergent bilingual pupils......................................................................................................... 164
Presence and organisation .............................................................................................................. 165
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Routines .......................................................................................................................................... 168
Joint reflection on the pupils’ understanding of science ................................................................ 172
Discussion ........................................................................................................................................ 179
8 Mediating between parents and teachers ............................................................................. 187
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 187
Planning the meeting ...................................................................................................................... 189
Participants and meeting structure ................................................................................................ 191
Roles assigned to Mohammed by parents and school ................................................................... 193
Balancing Abdirazik’s complaints .................................................................................................... 194
Toning down Najma’s worries ........................................................................................................ 202
Interpreting Linn’s item on the agenda .......................................................................................... 211
Discussion ........................................................................................................................................ 217
PART III MARYAM’S CASE .......................................................................................................... 223
9 Maryam at Bergåsen ............................................................................................................. 225
Maryam as bilingual teacher ........................................................................................................... 225
The school ....................................................................................................................................... 226
Management, teachers and pupils ................................................................................................. 227
Maryam’s colleagues and pupils ..................................................................................................... 228
10 Connecting bilingual teaching to mainstream teaching .......................................................... 231
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 231
Period 1 ‒ with Rania in a corner in common room 3 .................................................................... 234
Period 2 ‒ with Ahlam and Taher in a corner in grade 2 ................................................................ 238
Period 3 ‒ with Nadia in a group room connected to grade 1 ....................................................... 252
Discussion ........................................................................................................................................ 257
11 Negotiating different opinions on bilingual teaching .............................................................. 265
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 265
Opinions on bilingual teaching expressed in informal conversations ............................................ 267
Opinions on bilingual teaching in formal meeting .......................................................................... 274
After the meeting ............................................................................................................................ 287
Discussion ........................................................................................................................................ 290
12 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 299
Applying a dialogical approach ....................................................................................................... 299
Methodological contributions ........................................................................................................ 301
Empirical contributions ................................................................................................................... 302
Questions for future research ......................................................................................................... 308
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................. 311
BOOKLET WITH APPENDICES...................................................................................................... 327

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Selected staff at Ullstad .......................................................................................... 109
Figure 2: Selected pupils at Ullstad ........................................................................................ 110
Figure 3: Teachers’ placing in team room 8 ........................................................................... 113
Figure 4: Overview collaboration basic Norwegian lesson, 15.04.2009 ................................ 134
Figure 5: Skytte’s model of dimensions of freedom in child upbringing ............................... 212
Figure 6: Selected staff at Bergåsen ....................................................................................... 229
Figure 7: Selected pupils at Bergåsen .................................................................................... 230
Figure 8: Words of the week .................................................................................................. 255
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Variation case selection .............................................................................................. 17
Table 2: General overview material ......................................................................................... 63
Table 3: Example translation and transcription process .......................................................... 81
Table 4: Example overview raw material for story .................................................................. 98
Table 5: Example period plan for Mohammed made by Linn ................................................ 116
Table 6: Overview phases and teacher activity, science lesson 28.04.2009 ......................... 121
Table 7: Overview phases and teacher activity, basic Norwegian lesson 15.04.2009........... 141
Table 8: Overview phases and teacher activity, science lesson 05.05.2009 ......................... 163
Table 9: Time schedule week 19 emergent bilingual pupils grade 10 ................................... 165
Table 10: Overview parents in parent-teacher meeting, 18.03.2009 .................................... 191
Table 11: Structure parent-teacher meeting, 18.03.2009 ..................................................... 192
Table 12: Maryam’s teaching schedule school year 2009−2010 ........................................... 232
Table 13: Weekly plan for grade 3, week 1, 2010 .................................................................. 235
Table 14: Organisation and teaching of the first period, Tuesday 05.01.10.......................... 236
Table 15: Weekly plan for grade 2, week 1, 2010 .................................................................. 239
Table 16: Organisation and teaching of Ahlam and Taher, Tuesday 05.01.10 ...................... 241
Table 17: Weekly plan 1 for grade 1, week 1, 2010 ............................................................... 253
Table 18: Organisation and teaching of Nadia, Tuesday 05.01.10 ........................................ 254
Table 19: Conversational events concerning different opinions on bilingual teaching ......... 266

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1 INTRODUCTION
The kernel of this dissertation is a two-case study of bilingual education, bilingual teachers
and teacher collaboration in primary and lower secondary school in Norway. The main
objective of the study is to contribute to a better understanding of educational challenges
and possibilities related to bilingual teachers’ collaboration with other teachers in the
education of emergent bilingual pupils in Norwegian compulsory schools. Hence, the
bilingual teachers Maryam and Mohammed, working at Bergåsen barneskole (a primary
school) and Ullstad ungdomsskole (a lower secondary school) respectively, are at the
centre of my cases.1 Both speak several languages, but Arabic is the main language
Maryam shares with her pupils, and in Mohammed’s case this is Somali.
In the main title of this thesis Maryam and Mohammed are described as ambulating
teachers. This characteristic is chosen for two reasons. In the first place, being on the move
is a vital characteristic of bilingual teachers’ everyday life and working situation. Marko
Valenta (2009) calls them “travelling teachers” (p. 32), stressing the fact that many
bilingual teachers travel between several schools, attending to the teaching needs of a
small number of pupils in each school. This is also true of the two teachers in my study.
Both of them taught at three different schools, but Mohammed only worked at one of his
schools on any given day, whereas Maryam often drove from one school to another during
a break, covering two of her schools in the same day. However, they were not just
travelling between schools. As I will demonstrate in the analyses of my two cases (see
PARTS II and III), Maryam and Mohammed were also ambulating teachers within the
boundaries of the schools were I observed them. This means that they were more often
than other teachers on the move between classrooms, group rooms, and team rooms, and
in a more figurative sense also between a wider range of subjects, grades, languages and
cultures.
The term ambulating teachers also relates to the approach I have chosen in order to
study these two teachers and their collaboration with others. Bilingual teachers live

1 The names of the schools, teachers and pupils have been anonymised, and the names used are
therefore pseudonyms. In Norway, teachers are on a first-name basis with their pupils at all levels of state
education. Czerniawski (2011) explains that the use of words ‘sir’ and ‘miss’ is anathema in Norwegian
culture, and that from a linguist point of view Norwegians do not have a word for ‘sir’ and ‘miss’. So pupils
would never use these words, and parents and teachers would not expect them to do so either. On this basis,
I have also used the teachers’ and head’s first names in this thesis.
“mobile [working] lives” (Büscher, Urry, & Witchger, 2011, p. 2), and this requires a
methodological approach that is able to “move with, and be moved by, the fleeting,
distributed, multiple, non-causal, sensory, emotional and kinaesthetic” (p. 1). I have
developed and used a discursive shadowing technique (see Chapter 3), which has enabled
me to observe my bilingual teachers by moving with them through work days at their main
school, at the same time as I have recorded conversations between them and their
colleagues or pupils, as well as conversations on the move between my informants and
myself.
BACKGROUND
There are many reasons why I chose to carry out research into issues related to the fields
of bilingualism, bilingual education and teacher collaboration. On the one hand, they are
connected to societal changes due to globalisation, which have created particular
educational challenges and greatly increased the need for research based knowledge
about bilingualism and bilingual education in general, and, more specifically, on the status,
qualifications and work of bilingual teachers. On the other hand, my professional as well as
personal background has played a role in my choice.
According to Else Ryen (2009), “Norwegian White Papers, teachers and school
managers all express the importance of having bilingual teachers in the Norwegian school”
(p. 117). Typically, these mention the teachers’ role as conveyors of and models for
identity, and they point to the impact of bilingual teachers as professionals and adults in
the multicultural school. However, bilingual teachers make up only a small percentage of
the total teaching force in Norway, and several researchers have drawn attention to their
low status in the Norwegian educational system (for example Engen & Ryen, 2009;
Hvistendahl, 2009b; Myklebust, 1993; Valenta, 2009).
As I will discuss in greater detail in Chapter 11, the terminology used to describe
teachers with an immigrant background in official documents and research from Norway
may be confusing. Dewilde and Kulbrandstad (in preparation) note that an important
distinction which is seldom made is between teachers with an immigrant background
employed as mainstream teachers on the one hand and as teachers in mother tongue and
bilingual subject teachers on the other. In fact, the term ‘bilingual teachers’ is mainly used
to cover all teachers with an immigrant background, irrespective of their roles, whereas
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