03/11/2025
By Zakkiyya Witherspoon
Candidate: Anna Krajewska
Degree: Doctoral- Leadership in Schooling
Defense Date: Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: Remote Zoom link
Thesis/Dissertation Title: "Co-Teaching Multilingual Learners: Coaching Co-teaching Content Area and Multilingual Learner Teachers”
Dissertation Committee
Dissertation Chair: Michelle Scribner, Ed.D., Clinical Professor, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Dissertation Committee Member: James Nehring, Ed.D., Professor, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Dissertation Committee Member: Christina Whittlesey, Ph.D., Adjunct Faculty, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Dissertation Committee Member: Yanfen Li, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Francis College of Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Abstract
Multilingual learners (MLs) are entitled to an accessible education which supports both their academic content attainment as well as their English language growth. Co-taught classes with two certified educators, one of whom is a multilingual learner teacher (MLT) and the other is a content area teacher (CAT), are an increasingly common service delivery method. Co-teachers, however, are often not provided with training or offered support as they navigate a co-teaching model of instruction, which disproportionately impacts MLs who are a historically underserved group. Using an improvement science lens, this three manuscript dissertation-in-practice attempts to define, diagnose, and address this problem of practice in a local context. Manuscript 1 provides a review of relevant literature and data from a local needs assessment to explore the problem at macro, meso, and micro levels. Manuscript 2 describes the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle that explored the influence of peer coaching cycles on co-teachers ' sense of self-efficacy (TSE), as well as examining how this contributed to their collective teacher beliefs (CTB). Three co-teaching pairs, each consisting of an MLT and a CAT, from an urban high school in New England participated in peer coaching cycles over several weeks. Findings from the quantitative and qualitative data indicated the intervention improved TSE and CTB, notably in instructional strategies and classroom management, as well as improving co-teaching pedagogy knowledge. Manuscript 3 offers several recommendations with action plans for supporting future co-teaching in the school and district with the aim of improving teachers’ sense of efficacy and collective teacher belief.