This article first appeared in TESOL Journal, Volume 3, Number 3, pgs. 445–468. TESOL members can access all issues for free here. To become a member of TESOL, please click here, and to purchase articles, please visit Wiley-Blackwell. © TESOL International Association.

An increasing number of students whose primary language is not English are populating high school classrooms in the United States. These second language learners bring with them a set of special needs for teaching and learning, especially for mainstream content area teachers, who may have little or no specialized training for meeting these needs. Although there is not yet extensive empirical work focused on how mainstream content teachers typically teach English language learners (ELLs) or how they learn to more effectively teach these students in mainstream classrooms, scholars have begun to address the importance of linguistic knowledge for mainstream classroom teachers (Fillmore & Snow, 2000; Harper & de Jong, 2004; Lucas, Villegas, & Freedson-Gonzalez, 2008; Walqui, 2000). These scholars argue, mainly on theoretical grounds, that teachers need to provide rigorous, content-rich academic coursework integrated with language development strategies to meet the instructional needs of ELLs.

This push for mainstream teachers to teach high-level content to all students, including all levels of ELLs, creates a challenging instructional environment. Most mainstream teachers have little professional preparation for teaching content to ELLs, let alone the linguistic knowledge to effectively meet the academic language development demands that these students require. English as a second language (ESL) teachers are often called upon to be the experts in their buildings (Brooks, Adams, & Morita-Mullaney, 2010) and charged with the task of meeting the instructional needs of ELLs both in their ESL classes and in mainstream classes. This leadership responsibility of ESL teachers can include developing capacity in mainstream teachers to more effectively meet the instructional needs of ELLs in content classrooms.

The role of teacher leadership in developing teacher capacity has the potential to influence mainstream teacher practice in a way that is authentic, embedded in the culture and context of the school, and ongoing (Cobb, McClain, Lamberg, & Dean, 2003). This article details a study that focused on the supports that enabled an ELL facilitator1 to contribute to a culture of collaboration between the ESL and Language Arts Departments to meet the instructional needs of ELLs in an inclusive high school setting. This analysis highlights the ELL facilitator's ability to enact teacher leadership through her advocacy for ELLs in the mainstream and her content expertise in second language acquisition within a collaborative school culture. Building on recent research that highlights the potential of collaboration between ESL teachers and mainstream teachers to contribute to both the development of teacher leadership and improved student learning (Dove & Honigsfeld, 2010), this analysis focuses on the following research questions:

1. What supports enable the ELL facilitator to contribute to the development of a culture of collaboration in order to meet the instructional needs of ELLs?
2. How do the structure and organization of the school influence this culture of collaboration?

In this article I describe and analyze the supports for the ELL facilitator's work and the collaboration between the ESL and Language Arts Departments in one high school. I focus on how she enacts leadership to influence the instruction of ELLs in mainstream content classrooms through her collaboration with these two departments. I also analyze the structures and organization of the school that influence this collaborative work. Specifically, I use the way the school uses common structures for instruction across content and classrooms, and how the school is organized to meet the needs of ELLs in the mainstream, to build a framework for understanding collaborative efforts.

Framing the Problem

The approach that I used to analyze this culture of collaboration and the supports that enabled teacher leadership relies on sociocultural learning theories and takes into account the interdependence of individual and social processes (Rogoff, Baker-Sennett, Lacasa, & Goldsmith, 1995; Vygotsky, 1978). In particular, I rely on communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) as a lens for understanding the interactions between the ESL and Language Arts Departments as these teachers develop mutual shared goals within a supportive leadership context. As teachers and leaders engage with one another with the express purpose of more effectively meeting the needs of ELLs in the mainstream, it is possible that they will make changes to the instructional practices used in their classrooms and school-level supports for ELLs. It is through the interactions of the participants and their participation with one another in a community that learning is possible. This learning is influenced by opportunities for the teachers and leaders to engage with one another in the work of more effectively meeting the needs of ELLs through such things as involvement on a literacy team (with both mainstream language arts and ESL teachers), collaboration and coteaching in the context of mainstream classes, instructional coaching, and whole-staff professional development. Teachers and leaders coming together and working toward the common goal of ELLs learning can exemplify a community of practice.

In addition to this theoretical framing, this analysis draws from three main literature strands: (1) instructional needs of adolescent ELLs; (2) school culture, leadership context, and collaborative work; and (3) teacher leadership.

Instructional Needs of Adolescent ELLs

There is a growing consensus in the literature that the instructional needs of ELLs in mainstream content classrooms are different than the needs of native English speakers...

This article first appeared in TESOL Journal, 3, 445–468. For permission to use this article, please go to http://www.copyright.com/.
doi: 10.1002/tesj.24