BECOMING TEACHERS OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN TWO MULTICULTURAL COUNTRIES: NARRATIVES FROM PRESERVICE TEACHERS IN THE UNITED STATES AND MALAYSIA

ABSTRACT

 

This study explores the experience of becoming English teachers in two multicultural countries through narratives from preservice teachers in the United States and Malaysia. In general, the United States and Malaysia share similarities in the demographic landscapes whereby both are the multicultural countries whose populations consisted of people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. With regards to English language, it possesses a crucial role in both countries. In the United States, it is the medium of instructions in schools. In Malaysia, it holds a status of the nation second language; compulsory to be learnt in schools from K-12.  This study investigates the experiences of becoming   teachers of the English-Language Learners in the United States and Malaysia where a growing number of student populations come from the diverse linguistic and cultural background while the majority of teacher population is from the mainstreams backgrounds. A narrative inquiry approach guided this study using narratives written by a total of nine preservice teachers including four from the United States and five from Malaysia. Data analysis revealed four major themes: (1) Personal development (2) Developing Relationship (3) Professional Development and (4) Pedagogical Practices. The findings indicate that there are differences in the sense of preparedness between the preservice teachers in the two countries as well as the nature of curricular experiences.

 

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES …………………………………………………………………………………………… vii

LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………………………………………….. viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………………………………… ix

Chapter 1  Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 1

Background and Context …………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

The United States ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Malaysia ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8

Statement of the problem ……………………………………………………………………………………. 12

Statement of purpose and research questions …………………………………………………………. 14

Personal Experiences of Becoming Teacher of English-Language Learners ……………… 14

Rationale of the Study ………………………………………………………………………………………… 18

Significance of the study …………………………………………………………………………………….. 19

Limitation of the Study ………………………………………………………………………………………. 20

Definitions of Key Terms …………………………………………………………………………………… 20

Chapter Summary ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 21

Chapter 2 Literature Review ………………………………………………………………………………………. 23

Comparative Education ………………………………………………………………………………………. 23

Concept of comparison and cross-cultural comparison …………………………………………… 28

Cross-cultural comparison ………………………………………………………………………………….. 28

Multiculturalism ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 32

Multiculturalism in the United States …………………………………………………………………… 35

Multicultural Education in the United States …………………………………………………………. 36

School reform ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 39

Teacher Education in the United States ………………………………………………………………… 43

Preparing good teachers of the English-Language Learners in the United States ……….. 47

Multiculturalism in Malaysia ………………………………………………………………………………. 50

Multicultural Education in Malaysia …………………………………………………………………….. 52

Teacher Education in Malaysia ……………………………………………………………………………. 56

Preparing good teachers of the English-Language Learners in Malaysia …………………… 60

Chapter 3 Methods & Methodology ……………………………………………………………………………. 66

Research Questions ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 67

Study Contexts ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 67

Recruitment ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 69

Participants ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 69

Data collection ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 71

Research Methods ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 73

Narrative Inquiry ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 74

Narrative ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 75

Narrative Inquiry in research ………………………………………………………………………… 77

Narrative Inquiry and research on teacher education ……………………………………….. 88

Data Analysis ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 94

Discourse analysis ………………………………………………………………………………………. 94

Data analysis for this study ………………………………………………………………………….. 98

Validity Issues …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 99

Ethical Issues…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 102

Chapter Summary ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 103

Chapter 4 Findings ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 104

Theme 1: Personal development ………………………………………………………………………….. 107

Expectations, hopes and fears ……………………………………………………………………………… 107

Preservice teachers in the United States …………………………………………………………. 107

Preservice teachers in Malaysia ……………………………………………………………………. 122

Mirror and Window …………………………………………………………………………………………… 130

Preservice teachers in the United States …………………………………………………………. 130

Preservice teachers in Malaysia ……………………………………………………………………. 139

Theme One Summary………………………………………………………………………………….. 149

Theme 2: Developing relationship ……………………………………………………………………….. 150

Establishing relationship with students …………………………………………………………………. 150

Preservice teachers in the United States …………………………………………………………. 150

Preservice teachers in Malaysia ……………………………………………………………………. 153

Responding to individual needs and differences …………………………………………………….. 155

Preservice teachers in the United States …………………………………………………………. 155

Preservice teachers in Malaysia ……………………………………………………………………. 158

Disciplining ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 160

Preservice teachers in the United States …………………………………………………………. 160

Preservice teachers in Malaysia ……………………………………………………………………. 162

Establishing Relationship with others …………………………………………………………………… 164

The preservice teachers in the United States …………………………………………………… 164

The preservice teachers in Malaysia ……………………………………………………………… 166

Theme Two Summary …………………………………………………………………………………. 168

Theme 3: Professional Development ……………………………………………………………………. 170

Commitment……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 170

Preservice teachers in the United States …………………………………………………………. 170

Preservice teachers in Malaysia ……………………………………………………………………. 172

Teacher knowledge ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 174

Preservice teachers in the United States …………………………………………………………. 174

Preservice teachers in Malaysia ……………………………………………………………………. 178

Theme Three Summary ……………………………………………………………………………….. 181

Theme 4: Pedagogical practices …………………………………………………………………………… 182

Instructional methods …………………………………………………………………………………………. 182

Preservice teacher in the United States ………………………………………………………….. 182

Preservice teachers in Malaysia ……………………………………………………………………. 190

Learning Environment ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 193

Preservice teachers in the United States …………………………………………………………. 193

Preservice teachers in Malaysia ……………………………………………………………………. 199

Theme Four Summary …………………………………………………………………………………. 202

Summary of Findings …………………………………………………………………………………………. 203 Chapter 5 Discussion ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 209

Review of the study ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 209

Addressing the Research Questions ……………………………………………………………………… 210

Research Question 1 …………………………………………………………………………………………… 211

What does it mean to be a good teacher? ………………………………………………………………. 211

Research Question 2 …………………………………………………………………………………………… 218

What does it mean to be a good teacher of the English-Language Learners? ……………… 218

Research Question 3 …………………………………………………………………………………………… 225

What does it mean to be an English Language Learner? …………………………………………. 225

Research Question 4 …………………………………………………………………………………………… 229

What aspects of teacher preparation curriculum prompted personal and professional progression towards multiculturalism for preservice teachers in United States

and Malaysia? …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 229 Temporal dimension in CI 280 ……………………………………………………………………………. 246

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 253

Implications and Recommendations …………………………………………………………………….. 255

Future Research …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 258

References ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 260

Appendix A ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 275

Informed Consent Letter …………………………………………………………………………………….. 275

Appendix B ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 279

Determination of Exemption Letter ……………………………………………………………………… 279

Chapter 1

 

Introduction

This study focuses on the experience of learning to become teachers of the

English-Language Learners in two multicultural countries namely the United States and Malaysia. The purpose of this exploratory study is to understand the preservice teachers’ preparatory experience of learning to become teachers of the English-Language Learners in their respective countries. It is based on the premise that knowledge gained from this study would afford new insights and so inform the English teacher preparation practice in Malaysia. This study employed the qualitative narrative research methodology to illustrate the phenomenon under examination. Participants of this study consisted of nine preservice teachers from both countries; four from the United States and five from Malaysia. All of them are enrolled in the teacher education program offered by the universities in their respective countries.  This study begins with an overview of the background as well as the context that frames the study. It is followed by the problem statement, the statement of purpose and accompanying research questions. This chapter also included researcher’s own background that also helps to frame this study. This chapter concludes with the discussion of the propose rationale and significance of this study as well as the definitions of some of the key terminology used.

The United States and Malaysia share similarities in the demographic landscapes whereby both are the multicultural countries whose populations consisted of people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.  This contributes to the richness of the cultural and linguistic experience of the people in both countries This study is an attempt to explore two fundamental areas in the education setting in both countries namely the multicultural education and teacher education focusing on the preparation of the teachers of the English-Language Learners in order to understand how these two areas intersect and influence the ways teachers of the English-Language Learners are prepared in both countries.   I believe that the in-depth exploration of these two areas will reveal comprehensive information that is useful in understanding the preparatory experiences of the future teachers of the English-Language Learners in the United States and Malaysia. This is crucial as my main aim is to improve the English teacher education in my country

Malaysia.

My decision to focus my lens on two areas arises based on my belief that multicultural education and teacher education are inextricably connected where the discussion on one will be incomplete without including the other. Thus, this study holds a belief that a discussion on English teacher preparation will be imperfect if the topic of multicultural education and teacher education are omitted or absence and this applies to the way I view these issues both in the United States and Malaysia. This belief has become the foundation of my study and it informs the type of literature that I choose to review and the discussion done based on the findings of this study.

As mentioned earlier, my interest in this study is based on the need to understand the preparatory experience of learning to become teachers of English-Language Learners in the United States and Malaysia. In this study, I specifically explore the preservice teachers’ perceptions of characteristics of good teachers and good teachers of the

English-Language Learners in both countries. Moreover, this study explores their perceptions of being the English-Language Learners in the United States and Malaysia. With regards to their preparatory experience, this study reveals the aspects of preparation curriculum that shape the personal and professional development regarding multiculturalism in their teacher education program in two countries. This understanding serves as a platform in suggesting instructional reform in teacher education in Malaysia especially in the aspects of English language teaching and learning and multiculturalism.

Background and Context

The United States

The preparation of the teachers of the English-Language Learners is fundamental as “many current teachers were not adequately prepared to address the cultural and linguistic differences evident in most U.S. classroom” (Rios and van Olphen, 2011,

p.164). Furthermore, while over 40% of the teachers in the United States reported that they have bilingual students in their classrooms , only a mere of  12.5% of those teachers received at least eight hours of professional training regarding language diversity within the three-year period. (National Center for Education Statistics, [NCES],2002 cited in Rios and van Olphen, 2010, p.164). This discrepancy makes English teacher preparation program critical and fundamental. Future teachers of the English-Language Learners in the United States should acquire not only the competency in teaching  the subject content well but also  should possess   “cultural competency skills to avoid misunderstanding, lower expectations, deficit thinking and attitudes dismissing cultural and linguistic capital” (Rios and van Olphen, 2011,p.164).

Another issue in preparing teacher of the English-Language Learners is on their ideologies regarding students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Ideologies according to Shkedi & Nissan (2006) can be perceived as “an organized set of beliefs, attitudes, ideas, opinions, assumptions, and theories supporting particular educational, social and political viewpoint” (as cited in Flores, Sheets & Clark, 2010,

p.74).  Ideologies are used by both individuals and groups to choose and preserve personal attitudes, purposes and goals where they provide “internal, consistent, habitual thinking patterns enabling believe and values to fit tightly together into a total, often unconscious, mental structure” (Shkedi & Nissan , 2006  as cited in in Flores, Sheets & Clark, 2010, p.74). Ideologies do “not require eternal endorsement or sanction” because they “possess a priori authority and are self-validating” (Shkedi & Nissan, 2006,p.689).  Among issue discussed in the teacher education is the ideology of the preservice teachers regarding teaching the English-Language Learners. It is mentioned how the preservice teachers’ presumptions about the students’ characteristics, the nature of curriculum and what determines good teaching are hard to be modified(  Sheets et.al ,2010,p.75) even though some research suggest that they can be changed at a completion of particular coursework (Cochran-Smith 2001;  Sleeter, 2001). Sheets et.al (2010) are not convinced that “extremely personal, deeply embedded ideological positions can be changed through a single diversity course” (p. 75). Work by McDiarmid (1992) and McDiarmid and Price

(1990)  proven this notion where it “reveals that multicultural training programs in America seems either to make little impact on teacher-to-be or, worse, they actually reinforce minority group stereotyping” (Edwards, 2010,p.3).

The second area of concern in preparing future English teachers in the United

States is the teacher’s professional identity.  This is due to the fact that “much of teacher preparation involves the development of a professional identity, centering on the helping candidates develop the sense of self as teacher and refining that identity throughout their career” (Rios and van Olphen, 2011, p.165). This is where the preservice teachers develop the readiness of becoming teachers of the English-Language Learners as one of their professional identities. In order for this to happen, they  need preparations that will assist them in being good teachers  amidst the mass of linguistic and cultural identities of the students from diverse backgrounds in their classrooms. Cummins (2001) highlighted the connection between identity and practice where teachers’ identity is seen as concrete resources for a “continual interaction of identity development and language learning”       (Rios and van Olphen, 2011, p.166). This will give impact on their approach to the curriculum and instruction in their future classrooms. The idea of professional identity is fundamental especially in dealing with identity-related issues in schools in the United States.

Related to the issue of identity, among prominent issues discussed in the teacher education in the United States is what is known as “demographic imperative”. Central to the issue is the dissimilarity between the teachers and the students in the United States. Research literature  highlights that  teachers and teacher educators in the United States are White, female, middle class and speak English as their native language ( see Banks et.al.,2005; Cochran-Smith,2004; Nieto,2005; Sleeter,2001; Valli,1996a; Villegas & Davis ,2008; Weiner, 2002). This is in contrast with the populations of students who are getting culturally and linguistically diverse each and every day. The questions arise from this phenomenon is how can teacher education prepare these future teachers to teach multicultural English-Language Learners in their future classrooms and how can this be done in a meaningful ways that encourage commitment to the diversity beyond the cliché of educating “all children”?

Educating “all children” is a belief that “all students” should get equal access and opportunity to education without considering what those educational access and opportunity are and who they actually privileged. It is a belief that diversity should not have impact on “all students”. “All students” are assumed to be able to achieve equally if they are provided with teachers who are proficient in their subject matter.  This is known as color-blind ness where teachers fail “to consider their own and their students’ racial background and think carefully about how race can and does emerge in classroom learning opportunities” (Milner, 2010, p.16). It happens when teachers fail or refuse to acknowledge the pervasiveness of race, culture and language in their work as teachers for fear that thing will become complicated. This is another issue that teachers of the English-Language Learners in the United States have to grapple with. The impact of color-blindness in the curriculum and instruction in schools are students  from diverse background will unable to see the relevancy of curriculum to their life as it is constructed using a “ ‘business as usual’ approach” (Milner, 2010,p.16). Most of the times, they are expected to assimilate into the mainstream culture and language which seems to send a powerful message that their cultural background and heritage language are insignificant or worse still are not welcomed in schools. This brings conflict to learners especially in their struggle to maintain their identity and at the same time to excel in school as both do not seem to complement each other. Of course, it’s true that knowing English and learning it well is essential to success in schools. What needs to be challenged here is the assumption that “one must discard one’s identity along the way” (Nieto, 2010, p.271) and teachers play vital roles here to make this possible in multicultural classrooms.

Another important issue in multicultural education in the United States is how multicultural education should go beyond ‘Heroes and Holidays” approach which seems to be too superficial to really have a lasting impact on the students and schools (Banks, 1991; Sleeter, 1991). Thus, scholars like Nieto (2010), believes that multicultural education is pervasive. It should not be treated as an add-on in a form of a set period of a day or a subject area that has to be covered. It should be strong and pervasive enough to permeate everything: “the school climate, physical environment, curriculum, and relationship among teachers, and students and community” (Nieto, 2009, p. 75). Rather than being a margin, multicultural education should be made mainstream, viewed in a comprehensive way that eventually could lead to school reform. A belief that multicultural education can be implemented effectively without fundamental change in schools or a classroom is precarious as it provides an inconsequential status to multicultural education in schools. This is another challenge that future teachers have to face in learning to become teachers in United States.

The issues above provide challenges to teacher educators in preparing the future teachers of the English-Language Learners to face these challenges in their future classrooms. Future teachers need to develop awareness “of the influence of culture and language on learning, the persistence of racism and discriminations in schools and society, and instructional and curricular strategies that encourage learning among a wide variety of students” (Nieto, 2010, p.78). This commitment is necessary in making schools a welcoming place for learning to take place among the English-Language Learners.

Malaysia

Teacher education in Malaysia is centralized where it is put under the responsibility of two government Ministries, namely the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education. The Ministry of Higher Education is responsible in training and preparing the secondary school teachers through the government –funded higher education institution while the Ministry of Education is given the task to train the primary school teachers through the Institute of teacher education.

Gaudart (1988) highlighted some of the issues pertaining the preparation of teachers of the English-Language Learners in Malaysia. It is based on the content analysis of documents and interviews with the teacher trainers in teacher training colleges and the universities, the ministry official from the Ministry of Education, the school principals, the language lecturers , the language curriculum officer and teacher educators in local universities in Malaysia. It is mentioned that among prominent concerns about the preparation of the English teachers in Malaysia is on the issue of language proficiency of the preservice teachers themselves where there was unanimous agreement among all people interviewed that the majority of the preservice teachers of the English-Language Learners in Malaysia had low proficiency in English. Some mentioned their concerns about the language ability of the preservice teachers where some of them even had a

lower language than their pupils. They also lamented of how teacher educators had to do a lot of remedial works to improve the proficiency of the English preservice teachers.

Besides, the teacher educators also complained of the time constraint in teaching the preservice teachers where they mentioned about cramming the lessons on language and methodology in a short period of time. Thus, the preservice teachers had no time for further and deeper reading on these two areas. The main reason for this to happen was the overwhelming amount of general educational theories that the preservice teachers had to learn in class where reducing them would enable for more time to be allocated to  learn about the language and the methodology components.

Like teachers in the United States, teachers in Malaysia too grapple with the issue of race and language in its teacher education. As a multicultural country, the people possess multicultural and multilingual heritage, unique to their own custom, tradition and cultural legacy. Here, the teachers in Malaysia are expected to be able to utilize education as a channel to sustain the nation’s cultural heritage and foster unity among the diverse citizens. This is hoped to be achieved through nurturing the sense of pride towards the nation’s diversified culture which eventually nurture patriotism and appreciation of the country’s diversity nature. Nonetheless, the main issue in teacher education in Malaysia is, there is an absence of multicultural element at the teacher education level

(Malakolunthu, Siraj, Rengasamy, 2010)  How does the government expect the teachers to carry out this vision if they are not prepared to do so at the training level?  Though the awareness of multiculturalism is stated in the nation’s education philosophy as well as in its’ teacher education philosophy, it is vaguely translated at the teacher preparation level.

As a result, it lacks serious implementation at teacher training level in Malaysia. Thus far, though there are efforts to add the multicultural-related subjects at the undergraduate or graduate level courses, they “were constructed as additive to education rather than infused into the curriculum and instruction” (Yusof, 2005, p.103).  Research found that there was a deficit in the multicultural practices in the Malaysian schools. Among concerns stated by the teachers in the area of multicultural education were:  (a) teachers did not know or understand what multicultural education was;( b) teachers did not know how to use effective multicultural education practices; (c) teachers were not motivated to learn effective multicultural education practices and ;(d) teachers did not realize their full responsibilities as educators to use effective multicultural education practices. (Yusof , 2005, p.103).

Literature regarding multicultural teacher education in Malaysia distinctly showed that teachers lack clear knowledge, direction and understanding of what multicultural education is all about (Yusof, 2005; Malakolunthu, 2009).In-service teachers seemed to question the relevance of using the multicultural curriculum in their classrooms when they themselves do not know what multicultural education is. This paucity can be pinpointed to many reasons. One of them is the minimum exposure towards multiculturalism in the teacher education programs in Malaysia. Teachers were informed about the multicultural concepts and practices solely based on their own interests or through incentives of their own schools or district administrators.   Cultural diversity was not a clearly defined educational issue when many of these teachers started their teaching professions. This is due the fact that the Malaysian education system does recognize the multicultural aspects of the society as being mentioned in the National

Education Philosophy but failed to implement a fully multicultural education system in its teacher education curriculum.  Again, it is worth highlighting here that the teacher education system in Malaysia is a centralized system whereby a Teacher Education Division at the Ministry of Education Malaysia decides courses or subjects that should be taught to the pre-service teachers throughout Malaysia.  Obviously there was no multicultural education courses offered and the effect is clearly seen now as teachers are ignorant about multicultural education and unable to use it in a multicultural classroom setting.

Another issue highlighted in the study is the misconception of the idea of what multicultural education is in the teacher education in Malaysia.  Teachers reported that they did learn something about the multicultural education at their undergraduate or graduate courses but these courses were only constructed as ‘additive’ to education rather than being infused into the curriculum and instruction (Yusof, 2005). The problem of multicultural education being constructed as additive in teacher education is teachers tend to treat as merely a subject that they have to learn in order to pass the exam or obtain teaching certificates and not something that they have to internalize as crucial attribute to become effective teachers in multicultural classrooms.  As a result, teachers remain less sensitive towards the issue of multiculturalism despite exposure received through the additive subject on multicultural education in their teacher education program. This makes the process of school reform difficult to achieve.    Furthermore, a few teachers also reported that they had completed a course labeled as ‘multicultural education’ which was actually more of an ‘ethnic’ course which did not address the aspect of “multicultural education inclusive of people, policies, programs, processes and practices” (Yusof,

2005,p.104) .Thus, it fails to elucidate the purpose and the meaning of the multicultural education to the teachers to enable them to make it as part of their teaching strategies in multicultural classrooms.

The deficit of multicultural element in the teacher education in Malaysia is worth investigated further. This is because teachers need to have the ability to “infuse culturally responsible and responsive pedagogy across the curriculum and throughout the school environment to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all students” (Yusof, 2005, p.107).  As teachers become more sensitive of the multicultural demographic landscape of their classrooms, it will help them to plan instructional strategies that not only help students learn  better but also value and respect the cultural diversity of the students in their classroom.

Statement of the problem

 

English language possesses crucial role in both countries especially in the field of education. In the United States, it is a language of communication and instructions in schools. It is a second language for learners whose first language is not English. In

Malaysia, it holds a status of nation second language; compulsory to be learnt in schools.

Furthermore, it is also perceived as “valuable source for individual dignity, a prerequisite for further learning in many areas of knowledge ,and a key skill needed for many occupations” (Azman, 1999,p. 303). The previous section on background and context indicates that there are significant challenges in becoming teachers of the EnglishLanguage Learners in the United States and Malaysia due to the points of intersection among education, socioeconomic background, identities as well as the linguistic and cultural backgrounds in multicultural settings, unique for each country. Furthermore, in learning to become teachers in multicultural countries, there is also an indication that the multicultural training program during the preparatory level makes little impact on the preservice teachers in both countries (McDiarmid & Price, 1990, Yusof, 2005). These challenges could affect the overall teaching and learning processes where the ill-prepared teachers with regards to the area of linguistic and cultural variation will cause impediments to learning that eventually could curtail formal education and reduce the learners’ chances to excel in school as well as beyond school gates.  Due to this concern, it is felt that this topic worth being explored and studied further.

In the United States, the question revolves around preparing the preservice teachers to meet the academic, social and linguistics needs of the multicultural English-Language Learners. In Malaysia, the fundamental issue is the ability of the preservice teachers to deal with multicultural English-Language Learners in schools without the basic foundational knowledge related to English-Language Learners and multiculturalism. All these issues require good teacher education program that able to assist the preservice teachers to become good teachers amidst the challenges of teaching English to students from diverse background in both countries. This section discusses the concerns that United States and Malaysia have in the area of English as a second language, teacher education and multiculturalism with regards to preparing their future English teachers.

 

 

Statement of purpose and research questions

The purpose of this study is to explore with the nine preservice teachers from the

United States and Malaysia their preparatory experience of becoming teachers of the English-Language Learners. To explore this issue, the following research questions are addressed:

An over-arching question is:

How do preservice teachers make sense of their preparatory experiences learning to become teachers of the English-Language Learners in the United States and Malaysia?

The four research questions are:

1. What does it mean to be a good teacher?
2. What does it mean to be a good teacher to the English-Language Learners?
3. What does it mean to be an English Language Learner?
4. What aspects of teacher preparation curriculum prompted personal and professional progression towards multiculturalism for preservice teachers in United States and Malaysia?

Personal Experiences of Becoming Teacher of English-Language Learners

My background as an English teacher in my own multicultural country, Malaysia, exposes me to many struggles in teaching multicultural students in my own classrooms. My first awareness of the issue of multiculturalism was raised when I was a preservice teacher in Malaysia. Being an undergraduate at a very prestigious university in Malaysia  (University of Malaya)  specializing in Teaching of English as a Second Language (B.Ed. TESL), I was confident that I was fully prepared to face all the challenges in the real classrooms. Never did I realize that the challenge that I was going to face required more than the ability to teach and be a good teacher—which were mostly what I learnt from my undergraduate classes . The truth dawn upon me the moment I stepped my feet into the school compound and realized that it was a multicultural all boys missionary school.  Most of the students there were Chinese and Indian students and the staffs too were mostly teachers from diverse backgrounds.  Being a Malay,   female, Muslim and wearing veil (the head cover), I was conscious of my own identity and how different I was from the whole populations of the school community. I found that the issues of race and language were the two main problems that I grappled most during my practicum. The cultural and language differences sometimes caused misunderstanding which eventually contributed to ineffective lessons.  I was unaware at that time that my lack of background knowledge on multiculturalism plus my anxiety as a novice teacher had brought many difficulties for me as I struggled to try to understand the students, the school community that were different from my own cultural and religious background and at the same time wanting to provide an effective teaching and learning experience to the diverse learners who were eager to learn from me.  Now, as a graduate student, and reflecting on my own experience and struggle with the issue of diversity , I come to realize the importance of knowledge in multiculturalism and diversity in the teacher preparation programs as the communities in my country are getting more diverse each and every day. The absence of specific multicultural teacher education curriculum in my own country is the main reason that sparks my interested in this topic and I view my presence here as a doctoral student

as an opportunity to learn about more about this topic as I want to contribute my knowledge in this field for the benefit of the education system in my Malaysia.

The Malaysian education system is a centralized system run by the Ministry of Education Malaysia. The centralized system allows the Ministry to supervise every aspect regarding the education in Malaysia including the curriculum and instruction processes, the co-curriculum activities in schools, the teacher education as well as the teacher placement processes.  My real teaching career started as I was posted at one of the boarding schools in Malaysia. Unlike my experience during my practicum, I perceived my work as less challenging as I was teaching at a good boarding school where the students were consisted of the selected all-Malay students coming from all over Malaysia. At that time, I remembered spending a lot of time writing lesson plans, creating activities for my students and marking their works and I thought that I had done a good job helping them learning English and obtaining excellent grades in the national level examination. However, in 2008, the government of Malaysia decided to accept 30 students from Southern Thailand into the school that I taught. The task of teaching English was given to me and I perceived this as the beginning of the real challenge in my teaching profession. I discovered in my first meeting with them that these students could only converse in their mother tongue (i.e. Thai) and nothing else. Teaching English to these students challenge my teaching skill and ability where I kept trying to recall all the theories and pedagogical techniques that I had been taught during my teaching training years at the university in order to understand their learning problems so that I could help them to learn English better. This is when I realize the importance of a teacher to have the skill and the knowledge as researcher too as these challenges can be a platform for the teachers to evaluate and improve their teaching skills and abilities.

As these students complaint about their difficulties in learning the language, I suspected that their struggles in learning the language are not only due to the lack of English learning exposure that they got in their own country but also due to the different cultural background that they bring with them into my classroom. From here I realized that language and culture are interrelated and do vital play roles in the process of teaching and learning in a multicultural classroom.  This has sparked my own curiosity to go deeper into this problem and has become the starting point of my real interest in the topic of multicultural education.

 

I believe that teachers’ absence of awareness of multiculturalism and the diversity is the main cause of difficulty and misunderstanding in the process of teaching the multicultural students. This is because many presumptions and misconceptions tend to arise due to the teachers’ minimal knowledge in this area.   The perception that diversity brings obstacle to teachers and eventually becomes a potential cause of educational disadvantage is also common in the discussion on the topic of multicultural education, teacher education as well as in discussing the English language teaching and learning process. As  teachers’  self-fulfilling prophecy plays a vital roles in the performance level of the students , I believe that the teachers’ positive conception of their English-Language Learners (ELLs)  is fundamental here in order to   enable teachers to perceive   linguistic diversity not  as something ‘problematic’ but as an ‘advantageous’ in the second language classrooms.

 

Rationale of the Study

Based on my own experience being trained as an English teacher in Malaysia and my recent reading of studies done on teacher education in Malaysia, I believe that teacher education programs in Malaysia still lack clarity as well as in implementations in dealing with the issue of multiculturalism in its education system. This poses significant challenges to teachers who take main responsibility in educating English-Language Learners. This study is my attempt to address the issue by gaining insights from a culturally relevant pedagogy designed to prepare teachers of English-Language Learners at one of the Eastern Universities in the United States, its curriculum and its preservice teachers’ perception and experience of learning to become of multicultural teachers in United States. Among these pieces of information, pre-service teachers’ perceptions and experience of learning to become teachers of the English-Language Learners is then compared to the experience of their counterparts in Malaysia.   The comparison is valuable in understanding the meaning of learning to become teachers in two multicultural countries. I also believe research insights gained from my study will offer new perspectives to the Malaysian policy makers, education administrators and teacher educators; who are interested in the issue of multiculturalism and still in search for better approaches to improve the existing programs that they already have or in the process of planning or developing new multicultural programs for the future teachers. Finding from my research will contribute to improving teacher education and multicultural education in the Malaysia.

Significance of the study

This study aims to explore the experience of the preservice teachers learning to become teachers in multicultural classrooms in United States and Malaysia. My main research focus is to gain insights to improve the teacher education in Malaysia. I believe the results of my study are significant in the field of Comparative and International Education research and improving teacher education in Malaysia.

First of all, this study will benefit the research field concerning comparative and international education (CIED). I view my chance to be a graduate student in Comparative and International Education and Curriculum and Instruction fields here as an advantage as my knowledge in these two fields provides me with the ability to view various educational issues from multiple lenses and able to understand how these issues vary and interact at a local and/or global level. In addition, the complexity of carrying out a comparative study that involves two countries makes this study rare, valuable and useful as not many scholars have to the ability and the chance to carry it out successfully.   Thus, I hope that my dissertation will be able to contribute not only to the field of multiculturalism and teacher education in the United States and Malaysia, but also to the field of comparative and International globally.

Secondly, my personal experience carrying out research on Malaysia makes me aware of the difficulties in obtaining recent research papers written on the issues of multiculturalism and teacher education on Malaysia. This has informed me that not many people are writing about my country and it inspires me to contribute more to the Malaysian research field.   I do hope that my dissertation would be able to fill up this deficit which eventually would lead to the betterment of the education system in

Malaysia.

 

Limitation of the Study

The limitation of the study is the small number of participants from the United States and Malaysia. Only the experiences of the nine participants in this study are present in the findings. Although I have access to a lot of data from other preservice teachers in C I 280 classes, their experiences, beliefs, opinions and points of views were not investigated. Furthermore, this study utilized narratives written by the preservice teachers in both countries as data. Thus, only experiences expressed in the narratives are represented in the findings.

 

Definitions of Key Terms

English Language Learner – Student whose first language is other than English and is in the process of learning English

Preservice teacher– A person who has declared an education major but has not yet completed his/her training to be a teacher

 

 

Multicultural – relating to, or constituting several cultural or ethnic groups within society

(Concise Oxford American Dictionary, 2006, p.582)

Multilingual– in or using several languages (Concise Oxford American Dictionary, 2006, p.582)

Multiculturalism – is a realization that people from different cultures can co-exist peacefully and equitably in one country without having to resolve to a sole national culture. (Betancourt and Zaw, 2003, p.74)

Multicultural Education – purports to incorporate “the idea that all students—regardless of their gender, social class, ethnic, racial, or cultural characteristics – should have an equal opportunity to learn in school” (Banks, 2009, p.3) and that students from diverse background have better chance to success in schools if their cultural and background characteristics are put into consideration during the teaching and learning process.  (Banks, 2009, p.3)

Bumiputera– Literally translated as “son of the soil” in Malaysian context. It is a term widely used to represent the Malays in Malaysia.

 

Chapter Summary

This chapter is consisted of several sections namely statement of the problem, rationale of the study, research questions, significance of the study, limitation of the study and definition of key terms.     This study is navigated by the overarching research question, “How do preservice teachers make sense of their preparatory experiences learning to become teachers of the English-Language Learners in the United States and

Malaysia?”

The second chapter is consisted of the literature review in which the issue of multiculturalism, multicultural education, teacher education and preparing good teachers of the English-Language Learners in the United States and Malaysia are delineated in details. It provides the theoretical framework to examine the data. The third chapter provides descriptions of qualitative methods used for data collection and data analysis. Chapter four is the write up on the findings and chapter five provides discussions on the findings as well as the implications and recommendation for future research.

BECOMING TEACHERS OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN TWO MULTICULTURAL COUNTRIES: NARRATIVES FROM PRESERVICE TEACHERS IN THE UNITED STATES AND MALAYSIA

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