Critical Ethnography in a Language Classroom: Learning to Become an Equitable Practitioner

Introduction

Teachers are in a sense researchers in their own classrooms, either informally or formally, which can help to better understand students’ language choices and cultural norms, inform oneself to be a reflective practitioner, and create space for promoting equitable moments of learning. Even when a teacher is not conducting a formal research study, they can engage in culturally responsive instruction (CRI) by identifying students' cultural and linguistic practices and experiences. This awareness can be drawn on, endorsed, and maintained through relevant instruction that recognizes students' strengths and contributes to empowerment and better student achievement (Powell, et al., 2016). The authors of this article maintain that one part of this process is gaining a good understanding of the learners, while another part is better understanding oneself in relation to the teaching space.

This chapter discusses critical praxis in language teaching and advocacy using instructional practices and tools including a critically-oriented mini ethnographic case study as a pedagogical tool for pre- and in-service teachers working with multilingual learners to develop and/or work towards culturally responsive instruction. Pre-service teachers can be those who are completing teacher preparation programs to begin their teaching careers while in-service refers to practicing educators in the field of English or Other Language Education. In the chapter, the term 'teachers' or 'educators'' will be used to refer to both pre- and in-service teachers. These can be teachers of K-12 ELD/immersion programs and post-secondary TESOL, EFL, ELD, and/or EAP classrooms and centers of learning.

The chapter focuses on the area of language teaching and discusses the combined perspectives of an instructor and a student who have participated in a similar assignment. We first introduce the reader to the concept of critically-oriented ethnography and culturally responsive instruction in education as pedagogical tools for teachers. We then discuss conducting research on one’s own teaching context, being a careful observer, and a critical reflective practitioner by using a questionnaire (see Appendix), Interview Guide, and Reflection Template guided by the Culturally Responsive Instruction Observation Protocol (CRIOP) (Powell & Rightmyer, 2011; Powell et. al., 2016).

Next, we discuss the specific skills and steps that teachers should take away from doing the ethnographic case study for their own teaching practice. To support these practitioners to become more culturally responsive educators, fieldwork journals and an Observation Template are discussed with the CRIOP pillars. Although any educator, whether they are a seasoned practitioner or just starting out in the area of language teaching can use one or all of these tools at any point in their career, they can also be used in combination to conduct the mini-ethnographic case study. We then proceed to provide an example of how an ethnographic case study was implemented in the context of a teacher preparation program at the University of Southern California. In this section, Author 1 discusses the process of conducting the mini-ethnography case-study in a secondary immersion classroom and how she was lead to observe and reflect on multilingual and multicultural students through culturally sustaining methods. Specific tools such as course-specific fieldwork journaling and the Interview and CRIOP-based Observation Templates are discussed in relation to becoming a more critically reflective and culturally responsive practitioner. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the suggested approach and additional resources for those interested in further readings.