DOI: 10.11648/j.edu.20261505.15 ISSN: 2327-2619

Beliefs in Motion: How Educators Influence One Another's Perspectives on Emergent Bilinguals

Marilyn Nicol, Julia Sainz
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This study examined how cooperating teachers’ (CTs’) beliefs about language and emergent bilinguals relate to and change alongside the beliefs of student teachers (STs) during the student teaching experience. Grounded in associative diffusion theory, the study conceptualized the cooperating teacher–student teacher relationship as a context in which beliefs about language, linguistic diversity, and instructional practice may be negotiated and transformed. Using a quantitative correlational design, the study followed five cooperating teachers and five student teachers in an educator preparation program and a partnering school district in central Texas across a four-month student teaching semester. Participants completed a language attitudes survey at three points during the semester. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank-order correlations were used to examine patterns of beliefs and relationships between CTs and STs over time. Findings highlight the student teaching placement as an important site of teacher belief formation and suggest that teacher education programs should intentionally examine language ideologies before and during clinical experiences. Structured opportunities for CTs and STs to discuss assumptions about linguistic diversity, examine instructional beliefs, and engage in collaborative inquiry may help prevent the unexamined reproduction of deficit-oriented perspectives and support more linguistically responsive practices for emergent bilinguals.

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