Clashing Roles and Identities of EL Teachers during Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning

Abstract

During Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL) and the closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers of multilingual students were positioned to adopt varied outreach methods to sustain access to education among multilingual families. Prior to ERTL, instruction in schools was socially situated as having greater institutional value relative to service-oriented tasks, yet service-related needs, including health and human services and/or access to technology increased during the physical closure of schools. EL teachers took on more service-related tasks for their MLL families and did so by assuming, negotiating and resisting particular roles; a reflexive and interactional process. Using theories of teacher positioning and language teacher identity, we examined the experiences of EL teachers in the Great Lakes Region of the US. Findings demonstrate that few EL teachers resisted roles within instruction and service during ERTL, a critical dimension of teacher identity transformation and advocacy for MLLs. As we move into recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and into a Remote Teaching and Learning (RTL) period, implications suggest that when EL teachers’ roles and identities are incongruous, resilience can be fostered informing a unique form of agency and teacher leadership; a necessary characteristic for an equity-informed education.