EM Reflection Paper

Carmen Durham
Michigan State University
For my experimental module project, I wanted to explore how teacher identity affected
teaching practices. I specifically wanted to focus on how intercultural skills benefited language
teachers. I used ethnographic methods to interview an English as second language teacher about
her cross cultural experiences. I then observed her classes to make connections between the
intercultural skills she gained through her personal experiences and the way she addresses
curriculum and interacts with her students.
The process for my project was twofold. In the first part, I interviewed my informant,
Lidia, and used qualitative analysis to discover what challenges she faced when she moved to the
United States, how she overcame those challenges, and what skills she gained. In the second
part, I focused on her pedagogy. I observed her classes for 19 hours to see how she interacted
with her students and how she incorporated her intercultural skills in her curriculum. I also
interviewed her twice, before and after the observations, so I could understand her viewpoint of
her curriculum and pedagogy. I used descriptive coding to find patterns in the data.
I chose to observe Lidias classes at the beginning of the school year, which brought
about multiple challenges to my observation schedule. First of all, a majority of Lidias job
during the first few days was to communicate with and clarify misunderstandings between
parents, administrators, bus drivers, and general classroom teachers. For example, one of her
students got on the wrong bus because neither the teacher nor the students knew the correct bus
number. The parent, not understanding the whole situation, was confused by why the child did

not get on the bus that afternoon. Lidia had to step in to communicate with all parties involved
to make sure the student knew his bus number. Moreover, the beginning of the school year
involved a great deal of organization and reorganization. The students at Lidias school changed
classes, so teachers were getting to know their schedules and their students, and other staff
members were enforcing rules and coming up with new policies based on observed needs. This
all meant that there were assemblies, visits to the library, paperwork being collected, special
education testing, etc, making the schedule very unpredictable. All these factors kept Lidia from
pulling students out on a set schedule, which kept me from observing her curriculum. Even so,
Lidia pulled out students when she could, allowing me to gather enough data and see her interact
with a majority of her students.
There is a huge focus in schools on following the standards and passing certain
examinations, but a focus on passing a test does not have to deter from a student centered
environment where students needs are placed first. Lidias main goal was that her students
scored high enough on the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English
State-to-State test to exit the ESL program, but she used an intercultural, student centered
approach to reach that goal. It seemed like the student centered environment actually
encouraged students to learn the material more effectively and, in turn, to exit the program.
Lidia used her intercultural skills to learn about the students languages, backgrounds, and
preferences, which in turn gave them power over their own language learning. Observing this
had a huge impact on my pedagogical practices. I noticed how important it is to use the
students previous knowledge, interests, and family background in planning curriculum. Often,
using those factors could change the focus of the days lesson. A change of focus during a class

session can be very beneficial if it means allowing students to practice their language skills and
reflect on their cultural practices and perspectives. Changing course sometimes also means that
students can discuss dissonant cultural factors and learn from one another. Again, the teacher is
not the center of the curriculum, but students bring their own knowledge and experience to class
to share. Even if those experiences are contrary to one another, students can become more open
minded towards other ideas and learn to live harmoniously with people who have different ideas
and opinions.
This project reinforces several values and abilities that make an ESL professional
effective; it takes much more than an understanding of the linguistic elements of English to be an
effective language instructor in general. The focus on a majority of ESL research is on the
effectiveness of native speakers vs non-native speakers. However, ESL is such a complex
subject to teach because of the diverse backgrounds and needs of the students. Going through
difficult cross-cultural experiences may give a language teacher empathy to understand the
challenges his/her students are overcoming in order to become multilingual. Also, those
challenges often, maybe always, include changes in identity, or taking on new characteristics
needed to communicate in the new language and cultural context and losing portions of the
former self that no long fit into the new multicultural existence. A teacher with personal
experience forming a cross-cultural identity may have advantages to help students take on the
challenge of becoming multilingual. Knowing this information can help administrators select
effective candidates for their ESL programs, and it can encourage teachers and teacher
candidates to both gain a variety of intercultural experience as well as use personal insights in the
classroom.

I chose this particular EM, an ethnographic project, over others because it gave me the
ability to learn a new way to do research. At the time of the EM, I did not teach my own classes,
but I still wanted to explore issues relevant to the educational context. I considered doing a study
abroad program instead, but I really wanted to write a paper that may be worthy of publishing,
and I already had a head start on how to complete an ethnography project through the culture
course. By completing the culture class and my EM, I learned how to interview my informants
in the most unbiased way possible. I learned to ask open ended questions and help the informant
feel secure answering. I also learned how important it was to take copious notes throughout the
entire process, from asking permission to complete the research and reading background sources
to observing the classes and quoting people when possible.
There were a few challenges that were new to me since I was planning on publishing my
work. First of all, going through the IRB process was eye opening. I never knew that research
had to be so thoroughly documented or that a researcher had to ask for permission before
attempting research with human subjects. It was challenging completing their detailed
paperwork, but it is reassuring to know there is a governing body ensuring that all research is
ethical. It was also a challenge to work with minors in an elementary school environment
because of legal reasons. Without parental permission, I could not record the interactions in any
way, meaning that I had to write quickly and precisely everything I saw and heard. I also read
more sources for this paper than any other paper in the past. Luckily, I had great guidance from
my professor about which works were canonical in the field of identity research. Otherwise, it
would have been difficult to pick and choose relevant sources. It was humbling and empowering
to learn so much about one topic and read the works of experts who have been working in this

field for decades. By the end of all my reading and observing, I had so much data that it was
tricky to organize it all so that I could use it to complete my paper. I really learned how to
organize my documents and write notes when they were fresh on my mind. I also learned how to
reword my research based on audience. On top of my paper, I also created a presentation that
was meant to share my results with others, including researchers, current teachers, and training
teachers.
I will take all of this new knowledge with me into the future. I hope to submit my paper
to a journal to be published in December or January after I finish the MAFLT program. I am still
learning about the application process to submit articles to journals, which is quite intimidating.
Fortunately, however, I have guidance from the professors in the MAFLT program about how to
choose a journal and how to edit my work. In the future after I finish the program, I hope to
continue doing research similar to this and contributing to the excellent body of work that
already exists about effective language education.