Multilingual teachers and teachers of multilinguals : investigating pre-service teachers' multilingual-identity and belief development during teacher education and training

• Main Author: Morea, Nicola
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cambridge 2022
• Subjects: beliefs about multilingualism; Intervention; multilingual identity; multilingualism; Q methodology; teacher education
• DOI: 10.17863/CAM.92531

With increased linguistic diversity in primary and secondary schools in England, it is paramount that initial teacher education and training providers train linguistically responsive teachers, equipping them with the knowledge and awareness of multilingualism necessary to move away from a monolingual and assimilationist paradigm and create opportunities for all students to explore and develop their linguistic repertoire in the classroom. Although this objective has been supported by research and European policy recommendations, we currently do not know how primary and secondary pre-service teachers of different subjects in England develop an awareness of their role as teachers of linguistically diverse students during teacher education and training. In response to this gap, this study adopted a mixed-methods, longitudinal design to investigate the development of pre-service teachers' multilingual identities and their beliefs about multilingualism during initial teacher education and training in England. Participants' multilingual identities and beliefs about multilingualism were explored at different time points using various quantitative and qualitative methods, such as questionnaires, Q-sorts, blogposts and interviews, in order to answer three research questions. Firstly, the study investigated the relationship between the multilingual identities and beliefs about multilingualism of a sample of pre-service teachers at the start of a teacher education and training programme. Secondly, it assessed change in the multilingual identities and beliefs of a sub-group of pre-service teachers after participating in an identity-oriented intervention on the topic of multilingualism. Finally, the study explored individual trajectories of multilingual-identity and belief development experienced by pre-service teachers as they engaged with both their teacher education and with the intervention, in order to understand what factors may contribute to shape pre-service teachers' multilingual identities and beliefs about multilingualism. The research findings provide some indications of a direct link between pre-service teachers' multilingual identity and their personal beliefs about language and multilingualism, but not between multilingual identity and pre-service teachers' professional beliefs about language-related practices at school and classroom level. Furthermore, the research highlights that some pre-service teachers begin teacher education and training with prescriptive views of multilingualism that do not reflect the complex realities of today's classrooms; at the same time, the findings show that pre-service teachers tend to express a monolingual identity despite a varied experience with different languages. Finally, the results indicate that pre-service teachers may experience processes of multilingual-identity and belief change as they negotiate a personal and professional identity in school during their teacher education. In this regard, the research findings provide some indications that identity-oriented interventions aimed at furthering trainee teachers' knowledge and awareness of both their own and their students' multilingualism may encourage pre-service teachers to challenge prescriptive conceptualisations of multilingualism and inclusive teaching and, at the same, to express a stronger multilingual identity.