A Novice Bilingual Teacher’s Journey: Teacher’s Noticing as a Pathway to Negotiate Contradictory Teaching Discourses

Abstract

This qualitative case study investigates a fourth grade novice
bilingual teacher’s repertoire of practice during her first year of teaching.
Drawing on recent work on teacher noticing, the study explores how the
teacher negotiates prevailing bilingual education discourses. Two themes are discussed: how this novice teacher embraced bilingual teaching while
questioning practices and policies and how she negotiated contradictions
through multiple attempts to redefine her teaching practices. Findings show
how the teacher’s ability to notice framed her possibility to bridge her
understandings about teaching, her critical pedagogical discourse, and the
contextual contradictory discourses predominant in her school about bilingual education.