The purpose of this study was to explore prekindergarten teachers’ perceptions of their self- efficacy (i.e., their attitudes, beliefs, and confidence) aboutthe instructional practices they use to facilitate the oral language and literacy development of DLLs. In addition, the study explored the contextual factors that may influence their self-efficacy beliefs and guide their instruction. In this chapter, the research design, participant selection and recruitment, data collection, and data analysis processes are described.
Research Design
The research questions for this study lent themselves to the use of qualitative research methods that would include face-to-face interviews with the study participants. Qualitative researchers employ subjective understandings and a relationship with the participants to investigate the participants’ understanding of their own experiences (Creswell & Poth, 2017). Qualitative research is an appropriate choice when the researcher wants to explore participants’ responses to how and what questions and responses to situations that occur in the real-life context (Arskey & Knight, 2009; Burkard, Knox, & Hill, 2012). In this study, the researcher provided an opportunity for prekindergarten teachers to describe their teaching practices with DLLs and to share their perceptions about their efforts to develop oral language with DLLs in their classrooms and their own sense of self-efficacy in that work. Through the use of semi- structured interviews, the student researcher sought an understanding of teachers’ perceptions of their own self-efficacy related to their instructional practices with DLLs. The study’s design was guided by the following research questions:
1. How do early childhood teachers describe their self-efficacy (i.e., knowledge and skills) relative to implementing oral language and literacy instruction with DLLs?
2. What strategies do early childhood teachers report using to support DLLs’ oral language and early literacy development?
3. What contextual factors (e.g., child and setting characteristics) do early childhood teachers report as influencing their practices for promoting DLLs’ oral language and literacy development?
Role of the Researcher
Prior to beginning the doctoral program, the researcher had 20 years’ experience as an
educator in various teaching roles, including the instruction of a wide range of diverse children. She taught prekindergarten through third-grade in general and special education settings in a diverse school district in a northeastern state. Over many years of teaching, she had many personal experiences with DLLs and their families as well as with the teachers who worked with DLLs. She first worked with DLLs in the classroom and later with teachers as an itinerant teacher. Her teaching experience influenced the study’s focus.
While working as an itinerant teacher, the researcher noticed that prekindergarten teachers frequently expressed challenges related to teaching DLLs. These challenges predominantly occurred in the areas of literacy and oral language. The researcher noticed that some
prekindergarten teachers were not knowledgeable about second language acquisition, and if they were, they did not know how to apply that knowledge to their instructional and assessment practices. This lack of knowledge frequently led to teacher frustration and misunderstanding of the DLLs’ literacy and oral language abilities. Teachers often expressed uncertainty about whether their instructional practices benefited the DLL child. Teachers often seemed overwhelmed and sought additional guidance regarding the instruction of their students who
were DLLs.
From the researcher’s observations in prekindergarten classrooms, it appeared that
prekindergarten teachers were not adapting their lessons to support DLLs, while expecting the same outcomes for them as they were for their monolingual students. These teachers seemed less confident about their skills when working with DLLs. Due to these experiences, the researcher began to wonder what knowledge and skills prekindergarten teachers had when planning and instructing for DLLs, and what role their sense of self-efficacy had on their practices when teaching literacy and oral language.
During many of her graduate courses, the researcher also noticed a consistent pattern in the literature pertaining to instruction of DLLs. The researcher found that many of the studies discussed in her graduate courses focused on DLLs’ academic outcomes not meeting
expectations and the promising practices prekindergarten teachers could employ. Few studies, however, focused on prekindergarten teachers’ perspectives about these two areas. Therefore, the researcher became interested in exploring instruction of DLLs from the perspective of prekindergarten teachers, and particularly the teachers’ beliefs and sense of confidence when instructing DLLs.
Instrumentation
For this study, the researcher sought a purposive sample of prekindergarten teachers who taught DLL students. A purposive sample was appropriate, given the nature of the research questions and the choice of qualitative research methods. Moreover, a small sample size was appropriate because the study lent itself to a more detailed analysis of how prekindergarten teachers make sense of their personal instructional practices with DLLs (O’Reilly & Parker, 2013). Once the researcher received approval from the university institutional review board to conduct the study, the researcher began recruiting participants. Initial recruitment began in the
summer of 2018 and continued until the fall semester of 2018. The researcher then sought permission to recruit prekindergarten teachers from one urban school district in a northeastern state serving over 1,500 students with diverse backgrounds. To gain permission to recruit teachers, the researcher contacted the district’s office of research activity. The researcher answered all questions about the study from the coordinator of the district’s office of research activity. The coordinator then granted permission for the researcher to begin recruiting
prekindergarten teachers from 15 schools in the district. Twelve of the 15 schools had both Head Start and prekindergarten programs. Five of the 15 schools had more than two classes that were Head Start or prekindergarten. Head Start is a federally funded program where eligible families must meet 100% of federal poverty guidelines for their child to participate. Students who are homeless or in foster care are automatically eligible for the program. Head Start offers a full day program for children 4 years of age, and half day programs for children who are 3 years of age. The prekindergarten program is state and locally funded. Families must meet 185% of federal poverty guidelines. It offers full-day programs for children who are 4 years of age. The researcher obtained the contact information of the prekindergarten teachers from the school website.
Recruitment
The researcher distributed a recruitment flyer to prospective participants through email (Appendix B). In addition, the researcher provided paper copies of the flyer to the instructional specialist working with the 15 schools approved by the district’s institutional review board, and the instructional specialist distributed the flyer to prospective participants. Participants in this study taught in a northeast state in a district where teachers are required to be certified with a full teacher license and to have a master’s degree or master’s equivalency by their 10th year of
can advance to the master’s or equivalent salary before the 10th year. If the teacher does not have the required courses by the 10th year, they cannot advance in their salary. The understanding is that when a teacher has taught for 10 years, she or he will have acquired their master’s or
equivalency. Thirty-one prekindergarten, Head Start teachers were contacted by the researcher. Prekindergarten teachers who were interested in the study contacted the researcher via email. The researcher then sent an online demographic questionnaire (Appendix C) to these prospective participants to ensure diversity among the participants in terms of their race, ethnicity, and years of experience. An invitation letter was sent to each prekindergarten teacher who completed the demographic questionnaire (Appendix D). Seven teachers initially completed the online demographic questionnaire. Of those seven, five teachers followed through with an interview.
Three weeks after the initial recruitment effort, the researcher sent a second email with the recruitment flyer to prospective prekindergarten teachers at the 15 schools. Four additional prekindergarten teachers responded to express interest in the study. All four completed the demographic survey and then followed through with an interview. Thus, the initial recruitment and the follow-up effort yielded a sample of nine participants who completed interviews.
While the researcher conducted the last three interviews of the initial nine participants, she sought additional participants by using a snowball sampling method. She asked the participants if they knew of other prekindergarten teachers who may be interested in the study. Through this approach, she identified three additional prospective participants. She sent the flyer through email to those prospective participants. All three participants responded with their interest, completed the demographic survey, and completed the interview. Through these recruitment efforts, the researcher obtained a total sample of 12 participants for the study. The last three to four teacher interviews yielded similar data as obtained in the initial interviews. Thus, after the 12th interview, the researcher determined that she had reached saturation in terms of the major
issues and concerns identified by teacher participants regarding language and literacy instruction for young DLLs.
Throughout the recruitment phase, the researcher noted that email was the most successful means of communicating with prospective participants. Participants’ responses on the demographic survey also indicated a preference for email communication.
Participant Descriptions
Following the above recruitment efforts, 12 participants, all of whom were female, participated in the interviews. Participant demographics are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1
Participant Demographics
Participant Ethnicitya Years of Teaching Years Teaching DLLs Educationb Spanish Proficiencyc Valarie A >20 11–20 G + 60 Basic Hillary W >20 11–20 G + 60 Basic Christine W 0–5 0–5 G + 30 Basic Wendy W 11–20 6–10 G + 30 Greetings Gail W 6–10 6–10 G + 60 Basic Veronica O 11–20 11–20 G + 60 Greetings Mary O 0–5 0–5 G Greetings Melisa W 11–20 11–20 G + 30 Greetings Barbara W 6–10 6–10 G + 30 Greetings Sandra W 11–20 11–20 G + 30 Basic
Jessica AA 11–20 11–20 4-year Basic
Grace W 20+ 11–20 G Basic
aEthnicity: W = White; A = Asian; H = Hispanic; O = Other
bEducation: G = graduate degree; G + x = graduate degree plus number of additional credits 4- year = 4-year college degree
cSpanish Proficiency: Basic = basic everyday phrases; Greetings = greetings only
Eleven of the participants were prekindergarten teachers currently teaching in a classroom with over 50% DLLs. Although one participant (Sandra) taught special education kindergarten during the school year in which the interview was conducted, she previously taught
prekindergarten for more than 10 years where the student population in her classroom was over 90% DLLs. As illustrated in Table 1, participants were diverse in terms of ethnicity, years of teaching experience, teaching experience. Teaching experience was the number of years the participant had taught. Proficiency in Spanish was limited to using basic Spanish or greetings
with DLLs. In the following paragraphs, a more detailed description of each participant is presented, based on information provided in the demographic survey and the interviews. In order to protect the confidentiality of each participant in the study, a pseudonym was given to each participant.
Valarie is Asian. She has taught for a total of 26 years, 15 of which were in prekindergarten or the Head Start program. She has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. She speaks basic everyday phrases in Spanish, such as Hola (i.e., Hello), ¿Como estas? (i.e., How are you?), and ¿Estas bien? (i.e., Are you okay?). She described learning about DLLs and the practices she used with DLLs through collaboration with her colleagues, such as the English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) teacher and the prekindergarten special education teachers.
Hillary is White. She is a veteran teacher who has taught in the district for 22 years. Her teaching experience has always been in schools where the population of DLLs was 50% or greater. She has a graduate degree plus 60 credits. She described herself as a speaker of only English, but she noted the importance of using different resources, such as translators, to help her communicate with her DLL students and their parents. She explained that she refined her
knowledge and instructional practices with DLLs as she went through the national board
certification process. She credited this process with making her a more reflective teacher as she worked with DLLs.
Christine is White. She has taught for 5 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and her master’s degree in early childhood education. She speaks English and knows American Sign Language. She shared that her first career has allowed her to bring Spanish stakeholders in the county and other Spanish community workers into her classroom to read and discuss their role in the community.
has worked as a full-time and part-time prekindergarten teacher. She holds a master’s degree in early childhood education. Her use of Spanish is limited to just greetings. She shared that her instructional assistant was a valuable resource when she needed to communicate instructional or functional language to her Spanish DLLs.
Gail is White. She has taught for 6 years. She has taught preschool and kindergarten. For the last 2 years, she has taught prekindergarten. She holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. She described herself as a novice teacher. She commented several times through the interview, “This is new for me, and I am the only prekindergarten teacher at my school, so I don’t have a teacher to collaborate with.” Gail knows basic Spanish words that she uses with her DLLs, such as Hola (i.e. Hello), ¿Cómo estás? (i.e., How are you?), Adiós (i.e., Goodbye), and ¿Qué pasa? (i.e., What’s happening?).
Veronica is White. She has taught between 0 and 5 years, in both private and public school, as a prekindergarten teacher. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and organizational communication and has her credentials for early childhood education. This was her first year in a public school. She described the population she taught in her private setting, noting the families were not as diverse as in the public school. Veronica described her use of Spanish with her DLL students as basic and limited to greetings.
Mary classified her race as other because she is of mixed heritage. She has 13 years of teaching experience. She has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in early childhood and special education. She speaks only English, even though her father spoke Punjabi. She
described herself as someone who came from the only English era where being bilingual was not valued. She shared that having her unique background made her more sensitive to DLLs’
language development and learning.
teacher and a prekindergarten teacher. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in early childhood education. She has predominantly worked with DLLs who are Spanish speaking. Like several of the other prekindergarten teachers, she described herself as speaking English only. She did acknowledge that she gets around this challenge by utilizing Google Translator and asking staff who are fluent in Spanish to assist her in communicating with the DLLs in her classroom.
Barbara is White. She has taught for 7 years, all of which was in prekindergarten. She has a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and a master’s degree in bilingual special education. Her communication with DLLs in their home language is limited to greetings. She described how she researches articles and uses dictionaries and the internet to help her
communicate with her DLLs and to facilitate their language in the classroom.
Sandra is White. She has taught for 14 years. For 13 of those years, she taught in a prekindergarten classroom where over 80% of her students were DLLs. She has a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and is dually certified in special education. She recently was reassigned to a kindergarten early childhood special education classroom, where 50% of her students are DLLs. For the interviews, she said she drew on her experience working in
prekindergarten or Head Start classrooms and her new assignment. She described how she used similar strategies to reach some of her current students in special education as she did with DLLs.
Jessica is African American. She has taught for 17 years, and in her current role as
prekindergarten teacher for 3 years. She has taught in prekindergarten and Head Start in other states and districts for 10 years. Before teaching prekindergarten, she was a fifth-grade teacher for 4 years. She has taught at her current school for 7 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in early childhood and elementary education. She is a speaker of English only. When comparing her
teaching experience with prekindergarten or Head Start in her current school to her
prekindergarten or Head Start in the past, she described her instructional practices with past students as very similar, because of similar socioeconomics. She said she utilizes her resources, such as colleagues, district workshops, webinars, and professional conferences, to better support her instructional practices with DLLs.
Grace is White. She has taught for over 30 years in both private and public schools. She has taught in her current role as a prekindergarten teacher for 13 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in early childhood. She knows American Sign Language and has basic knowledge of simple phrases in Spanish. She seeks ways to better support DLLs’ literacy and language through workshops and online resources.
Benefits and Risks to Participants
The researcher explained to each teacher that their participation would contribute to the understanding of teachers’ perception and beliefs about working with DLLs in the area of oral language and literacy. The prekindergarten teachers also had the benefit of reflecting and thinking more deeply about their beliefs, attitudes, and practices with DLLs. Participants received a $20 gift card for participating in the interview, and a literacy and language resource page to support work with DLLs was emailed to each participant. This resource included free websites with resources to support DLLs’ oral language and literacy. A sample resource page for teachers is included in Appendix E.
There was a potential risk that prekindergarten teachers might get frustrated during the interviews as they reflected on the interview questions. This frustration could have resulted in possible negative feelings about teaching DLLs. The researcher, however, did not observe any of the participants expressing negative feelings about working with DLLs. Instead, the
researcher observed enthusiastic participants who were eager to share their experiences teaching DLLs.
There was also a potential risk that the participants could be identified. Therefore,
participants’ names are not reported in this study, nor is other identifying information reported, such as the names of schools or geographic locations. The researcher protected the
confidentiality of the participants’ identities by using numbers and later pseudonyms to identify