Who is the bilingual Science teacher:
Literature review
Sebastian Figueroa[1]
Abstract
In this review, we seek to identify how the identity of
bilingual Science teachers has been conceptualized, theoretically and
methodologically. For the analysis we looked for articles in the Francis &
Taylor and Scopus databases, selecting 50 articles from different parts of the
world which were based on the construction of a search phrase that houses the
categories of interest. The found trends were: 1) The invisibility of the
science teacher as an individual in bilingualism processes, 2) bilingualism policies
and practices that shape the identities of science teachers, and 3) getting,
usually, the language teachers in charge of teaching science in bilingual
processes. We conclude by noticing that research exploring the identity of the
bilingual science teacher is scarce making it necessary to problematize this
issue, as well as investigate it in depth, keeping in mind that bilingualism
has been normalized around the world and has been understood using English as a
Medium of Instruction (EMI) and a Content and Language Integrated Learning
(CLIL).
Resumen
En este profiling se busca saber cómo se ha trabajado metodológica y teóricamente la identidad de los profesores de ciencias bilingües. Para el análisis se buscaron artículos en las bases de datos Francis & Taylor y Scopus, seleccionando
50 artículos de diferentes partes del mundo basados en la construcción
de una frase de búsqueda que alberga las categorías de interés. Las tendencias encontradas fueron: 1. La invisibilización
del profesor de ciencias como individuo en los procesos
de bilingüismo, 2. Las políticas
y las prácticas de bilingüismo
moldean las identidades de los profesores de ciencias, 3. usualmente el profesor de lengua se encarga de la enseñanza de las ciencias en procesos bilingües.
Como conclusión se tiene
que los trabajos acerca de la identidad del profesor de ciencias bilingüe son escasos; es necesario problematizar este campo dado que se ha normalizado
partiendo del hecho de que el bilingüismo en el mundo
ha sido entendido desde el uso
de *English as Medium of Instruction (EMI)
(Inglés como medio de instrucción) y *Content
and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) (Aprendizaje
integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras -AICLE-)
Keywords
Bilingualism, Identities, Identity, Science teacher, Bilingual
Science Teacher
Introduction
Recently, in Colombia, there has been a powerful trend in
private schools to teach Science in English. This is controversial
because in the Colombian territory 90% of the population speaks Spanish, and
there are other individuals whose indigenous/native languages are spoken as well.The increasing demand of
bilingual teachers has overwhelmed programs that train professionals to teach
bilingually. This review seeks to examine how bilingual Science teaching has
been explored, in order to find research trends that
can serve as input to future doctoral research about the identities of
bilingual Science teachers.
We did the bibliographic review with a research phrase that
encompasses the categories related to the “Bilingual Science teacher identity”.
This same phrase was inserted in the Scopus and Taylor & Francis databases.
A total of 500 articles were obtained, of which 50 were selected to carry out
the work. It is important to clarify that when searching for few articles that address research on
the identity of the bilingual Science teacher, it was necessary to
acknowledge the importance of knowing
how such identity has been conceptualized and approached; the Science teacher
identity has been taken as an emerging category and it has been revised under
its relation to the use of English as a medium of instruction.
Within this work, we address the category of Bilingualism in
Science, therefore, we analyzed how bilingualism is carried out in different
countries and how Science teachers are marginalized within the process.
Likewise, we advance towards another category where we discuss how Science
teachers have been considered, of course, identity here is not explicitly
addressed. Finally, we are led to a review of how the identity of science
teachers has been worked along the way.
Within this paper we have explored the following trends: the
Science teachers do not identify themselves into bilingual teaching, even
though the identities of Science teachers are closely linked to bilingualism
policies and language teachers are
usually the ones used to teach Science through CLIL or EMI; In one hand, we
might conclude that these trends result from the reading and analysis of the 50
articles and in a second hand, that the relevance of identity studies within
bilingualism policies is strongly discussed.
Profiling in Bilingual Science Teachers’
Identities
In this paper, we carried out a profiling (Porter, Kongthon and Lu, 2002) to examine trends and learn from the
authors who have worked on the concept of “bilingual Science teacher identity”
worldwide. Our interest stems from the fact that in Colombia, schools are
increasingly requiring Science to be taught in a “bilingual” way. Our primary
objective enclosed three aims: to understand the scope of theory and research
pertaining to “bilingual Science teacher identity,” to identify how this issue
has been problematized in recent times, and finally, to understand the reason
why the studies have been carried out in this field. To comprehend the
previous, we start from inquiring the following:
1) How has the concept of identity been approached in studies
related to bilingualism in Science?
2) Which have been the methodological approaches in the studies
related to the identity of the bilingual Science teacher?
3) Which have been the main findings in the studies related to
the identity of the bilingual Science teacher?
In order to carry out this work, we decided to use a set of keywords and
phrases, that would allow us to cover
the search categories related to our interest, such as: Bilingualism in
Science, use of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) and, Bilingual Science
teacher identity. These categories are closely related to one another deriving
from them the following search phrase: “TITLE-ABS-KEY ((Bilingual Science
teacher identity) OR (English as medium of instruction In science) OR
(Bilingualism in science class) OR (CLIL in Science) AND (LIMIT-TO (OA,
"all"))". We read in titles, abstracts
and Keywords. With this phrase, we made the search in two databases: Scopus and
Taylor & Francis. These databases gather works of different journals
worldwide, which has allowed us to have a broad overview regarding the
selection of articles.
In our first search, we did not manage to identify academic
works that explicitly address bilingualism and Science teaching, driving us to
re aim our search for academic works related to Science
teacher identity in order to understand how the identity of the Science teacher
has been studied in a broader spectrum, that allowed us to analyze how this
category intersects with the teaching of Science. From English, therefore, the
research phrase changed to “TITLE-ABS-KEY ((Bilingual science teacher identity)
OR (English as medium of instruction In science) OR
(Bilingualism in science class) OR (CLIL in Science) OR AND (Science Teacher
Identity)) (LIMIT-TO (OA, "all")) that, taking into account the
category of Science teacher identity. After passing the search phrase in these
databases, we found 248 articles in Taylor & Francis and 252 in Scopus, of which
50 articles were selected taking into account that the
categories of the phrase were crossed through the titles, abstracts, and
keywords.
Within this work, we consider it important to understand how the
identity of the Science teacher has been explored in different parts of the
world, since it allows us to understand which are the
scenarios similar to Colombia (scenarios in which there is a use of a
foreign language for science teaching). The next step was to look for
investigations examining the Science teacher as an individual, including the
characteristics of their identity in studies that look at bilingualism in Science, and to analyze how the identity of Science teachers
has been studied.
The science teacher: the big absentee in the bilingual science
class
Many studies cover the subject of bilingualism in Science teaching, evaluating the success of bilingual
methodological processes, however, they have made the Science teacher invisible
as an active individual within the in and out class development. Regarding this
category, we found the articles that examine the subject of bilingualism in
Science, but that take for granted the identity of the bilingual Science
teacher, or do not problematize the issue at all. The interest in this type of
study lies in understanding how the Science teacher is involved in
teaching-learning practices from the use of a foreign language, and glimpses
how their identity is configured in the practices of invisibility. Therefore,
the trend in these studies is in the way they “address the teaching of Science
from bilingualism, an invisibility of the teacher as an individual within the
process is evidenced.” The reviewed articles give an account of how the
processes of bilingualism in Science are carried out in different countries,
nonetheless, their methodologies are aimed at understanding the process without
taking people into account.
Cheng (2020), for instance, shows that in Hong Kong, English as
a Medium of Instruction (EMI) is used through Content and Language Integrated
Learning (CLIL). The author reviews public policies and justifies the use of
EMI. Garzón-Díaz (2021) similarly, shows concern for understanding how
students’ appropriate science content in English, without reviewing how
teachers prepare themselves to face this challenge, like Cheng (2020), he
reviews public policies on bilingualism to support their arguments in its favor.
The article is similar to Garzón-Diaz (2021) given
that the approach is linked to the result of the bilingualism process in the
students. Likewise, Hughes, and Madrid (2020) with their work The effects of CLIL on content knowledge in
monolingual contexts, seek to understand how the processes of bilingualism
affect or not the Science learning in different Spanish contexts, the mention
that the use of CLIL does not impair Science learning. In these articles, the
main concern is the use of CLIL, and EMI in monolingual contexts and their
success in terms of Science learning, but they do not wonder about the
training, beliefs, or other elements of the Science teachers
identity who, in fact, carry out the processes. This is one of the reasons why
it is important for us to bear in mind the main concerns of these works,
establishing then, that individuals are not the protagonists within the studies
but should be.
Ismail et al. (2011) seek to understand how the process of
bilingualism is carried out in Malaysia in higher education, they do not delve
into the identity of Science teachers nor about their
perceptions in the process. Connected to this, it is relevant to mention Izquierdo et al. (2016) who in their work SciencePro Project: Towards Excellence in Bilingual
Teaching evaluate the importance of the SciencePro
project in Spain, which consists on teaching Science through the use of the
English language, at the university level, recognize the importance of
evaluating these projects to make them visible in Science teaching training
programs, but do not inquire deeply enough into the Science teacher identity.
Likewise, Kiraz (2010) shows how the bilingualism
project is implemented in the schools of Cyprus, assessing the level of success
of students towards the natural sciences, but leaves out a fundamental actor in
the teaching of Science in English: the Science
teacher.
Now, we have analyzed works regarding bilingualism focused on
students and their appropriations either of Science or language, in the work of
Rahman (2010) Examining the role of
language on students achievement: a study on the use of second language As a
medium of instruction in teaching Science subject in Malaysia, it is
possible to understand that access to Science in English also depends on the
socio-economic level of students, suggesting that students whose parents have a
higher income have greater confidence in learning Science and the use of
English unlike students whose parents
have fewer economic resources; the author explains that this has a
strong relationship in how English plays or not play an important role in the
daily lives of the students. This work has a strong relationship with the paper
of Liu (2019) Exploring bilingual
learners' desires in English- medium studies: evidence from a Thai private
bilingual school. who exposes how the identities of the students are
immersed by the culture of the countries that speak English. Although the
author proposes to implement critical multilingualism to prevent the hegemony
of the white native English, giving space to an identity of Asia and the
Pacific, these works allow us to understand how students' identities are
developed regarding the use of EMI, then again, we reiterate that they do not
show concerns about the training of Science teachers,
or how they have become bilingual teachers.
Although these articles do not mention the identity of the
bilingual Science teacher, or the identity of the Science teacher, they allow
us to understand what the research trend has been in terms of bilingualism, it
should be noted that articles of this nature were the majority within the
results in the databases. In the following sections, we will study how the
teacher has been taken into account as an individual
in bilingual education and then analyze how the identity of the Science teacher
has been studied, and which relationships it may have with the use of English
in Science classes.
Scrutinizing the identity of the bilingual Science teacher
In this section, we focused on the reviewed articles that have to
do with bilingualism, and that focus on the Science teacher including
their perceptions, opinions, training and/or struggles. The review dug into how Science is considered
within bilingualism research. The category includes 19 studies of the 50 selected
articles, from which the trends evidenced that "the Science teacher does
not identify him/herself with bilingual teaching" "the identities of
the teachers of Science are closely linked to bilingualism policies” and “the
language teacher is usually used to teach Science through CLIL or EMI".
Barragan and Moreno (2014), in their work El bilingüismo en
la Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Colombia: experiencias pioneras en la clase de ciencias con estudiantes de pregrado argue that Physics teachers must have skills
in a second language, they propose bilingualism not only from individuals, but
also from objects (books, magazines, etc.) that are written in another language
The work is developed with students of the
Universidad Pedagógica de Colombia of the Bachelor
of Physics, there is a discussion on training in bilingualism not aimed to
teaching, but as an element of teacher training, where the management of this
ability allows teachers to be trained internationally. It is interesting that
the reflections are not made in pedagogical terms but in terms of training and
appropriation of the concept, unlike Aiello et al. (2017) in Preparing teachers in Italy for CLIL:
reflections on assessment, language proficiency and willingness to communicate,who
carried out a study on how to prepare teachers to work with CLIL in Italy, the
article focuses on the challenges faced by that teachers who intend to teach
with CLIL. Within the paper, the authors show how the CLIL process is carried
out in some European countries, where knowledge of the target language is
required, they do not mention that it is English nor the knowledge in the area
to be taught, they do not mention if there are requirements in the development
of skills, training or knowledge in pedagogy and education; researchers have
postulated that the success of CLIL courses depends on the linguistic
competence of their teachers; for Hudson (2009) in his research Learning to Teach Science Using English As
The Medium of Instruction ? a CLIL teacher must learn the contents in
English or in the target language, this provides them with appropriations and
elements at the time of teaching the contents from bilingualism; in addition,
Escobar (2013) in Learning to become a CLIL teacher: teaching, reflection and
professional development, finds that the developed constructs in the field
of Applied Linguistics allow Science teachers to generate best practices in
teaching content in multilingual contexts. Martin and Herrero (2018) with their
paper Evaluación formativa de la lengua de los profesores
de Science: un estudio de caso,
also propose that the bilingual Science teacher should have a constant
reflection of his/her doing since this allows him/her to appropriate the way of
teaching and learning. The study ensures that the speed with which CLIL has
been implemented has exceeded the rate of teacher training, which is why the
identity of bilingual Science teachers has had to be formed during the
development of the process, this generates practices where the same teachers
are the ones who have to find the tools to be able to
teach Science through a foreign language.
Within this category lies the following trend: the identities of
Science teachers are closely linked to bilingualism
policies that discuss the way Science teachers have been forced to teach their
content in English without having a relevant preparation or training in the
foreign language. Here, it is necessary to highlight the paper called Revisiting English as medium of instruction
in rural African classrooms by Early and Norton (2014) where the authors
studied how in a province of Uganda people work with English as a medium of
instruction. The research analyzes the precarious conditions in the schools of
the province, how teachers navigate in these conditions, and it takes into account Science teachers and their perspectives
on the use of English. The Biology teacher argues that
there is no visual aid or equipment to carry out teaching, finding that a
crucial problem in the application of English as a medium of Instruction. This
is related to the fact that different languages are spoken in the country and
many teachers do not speak English. It is important to note that the policy of
EMI has shaped the
teachers’ practices in the classroom, granting low marks if the
students do not write the answers in
proper English usage, even if the answer
in terms of Science is correct. In addition, teachers are punished if they
speak their native languages when explaining specific concepts, they are even
recognized as incompetent. In the same way Lodge (2020) in What's in a name? The power of the English language in secondary school
science education addresses the relationship between two languages:
Jamaican Standard English (JSE) and Jamaican Creole (JC). In general, JSE is
positioned as superior to JC, Science teachers, therefore, consider JC as a
"bastardized" language. In conclusion, it is emphasized that the
teaching of Science through English has instrumentalized scientific knowledge
in favor of achieving improved linguistic skills in the English language. We
see in these two studies how the bilingual Science teacher and his/her doing is
closely linked to bilingualism policies and the cultural consequences that this
brings.
Likewise, Karabassova (2020) in his
work Is top-down CLIL justified? A
grounded theory exploration of secondary school Science teachers 'experiences
shows us some experiences that Science teachers had when implementing a
bilingual project using the CLIL methodology. It works around the teachers'
efforts to understand how to teach Science from a bilingual methodology. One of
the problems they have to face is that they do not handle the English language
appropriately, which is why they are forced to turn to students who have a
higher level of English; Mahan (2020) in her study The comprehending teacher: scaffolding in content and language
integrated learning (CLIL) observes CLIL teachers of natural sciences and
social sciences and, recognizes that teachers make efforts to make the topics
understood but, having no experience in teaching languages, they do not resort
to strategies to improve this scope in students, identifying the importance of
the use of visual aids in the bilingual Science class is also recognized. On
the other hand, Klu and Demana
(2020) in The Impact of Using Code
Alternation in Teaching Life Science to English First Additional Language
learners in South African schools recognizes that teachers and students
have a very low level of English, despite having a wide diversity of
languages, the subjects are always given in English as the medium of
instruction. Teachers, not having command of English, go to code switching to
be able to explain the Science content in an adequate way.
In Investigating the
coexistence of the mother tongue and the foreign language through teacher
collaboration in CLIL contexts: perceptions and practice of the teachers
involved in the plurilingual program in Andalusia, Mendez and Pavon (2012) explore the level of collaboration between
teachers of language and content teachers in a monolingual context, they
recognize that Science teachers are not trained to visualize the benefits of
teaching from the use of CLIL; this work has a strong relationship with the
work of Campillo-Ferrer (2020) (CLIL teachers' views on cognitive development in primary education)
who shows how CLIL teachers do not develop complex cognitive processes in their
students other than the repetition of vocabulary, which makes the process of
bilingualism totally precarious; likewise there is a tendency to hold the
teacher responsible for the cognitive processes of the students but their
identity is not questioned. Similarly, Morton (2012) in his work entitled Classroom talk, conceptual change and
teacher reflection in bilingual science teaching criticizes that the use of
transmission methodologies generates problems for Classroom Talk, since it inhibits communication in the bilingual
program, however, the author clarifies that more research should be done in
this regard. Once again, in these studies, it is possible to understand how
Science teachers carry out EMI or CLIL methodology but their Science
training does not include linguistic aspects of the English Learning Teaching
(ELT) field.
Some scholarships unpack the struggles of Science
teachers to carry out bilingualism processes at school. Within this discussion
we found Fernández-Barrera’s (2019) in Doing
CLIL in the Science Classroom: a Critical
Sociolinguistic Ethnography in La Mancha Secondary Schools, where we see
how CLIL methodology is developed in La Mancha, Spain. He refers to the
struggles that teachers have when adapting their subjects contents to a new
language, for Science teachers it is a challenge to have to deal with the
linguistic element and the Science content at the same time, pointing out an instrumentalization of English by reducing
it only to the memorization of vocabulary; likewise Block and Moncada-Comas (2019)
in their work English-medium instruction in higher education and the ELT gaze : STEM
lecturers' self-positioning as NOT English language teachers, shows us how
teachers place themselves against the use of English as a Medium of
Instruction, it shows that teachers do not feel identified as language
teachers, which is why they do not dare to correct mistakes made by their
students, teachers explicitly state that they have no grounds to correct their
students in the use of the English, in this study the three teachers are
allocated as Science teachers more than English teachers. Since they understand
that they do not have the linguistic elements to achieve improvement in their
students in terms of the use of English, the teachers have disciplinary
identities and these are closely linked to their tastes and preferences, which
is why they do not feel identified with the field of ELT. In this regard,
Alonso-Belmonte and Fernández-Agüero (2020) with their work Teachers' narratives of resistance to
Madrid's bilingual program: An exploratory study in secondary education, carried out a study in
schools in Madrid about the perceptions that Science teachers have about
bilingualism policy in their country, in general, they show resistance to the
program because they consider it an element of marketing and a race between
schools in Madrid. Teachers recognize that they are not doing true
bilingualism, since bilingualism carries characteristics of more complex
communication, some of them state that they know colleagues who do not speak
the language and yet, are in the process of bilingualism.
In some studies, we see how Science teachers are displaced by
language teachers or foreign teachers as seen in Evnitskaya
and Morton (2011) who develop a review in their work entitled Knowledge construction, meaning-making and interaction in CLIL science classroom communities
of practice in the use of CLIL in two
different contexts within Spain (Barcelona-Madrid). The article proposes the
communication processes within CLIL classrooms as communities of practice where
there is a negotiation of meaning and identity, the study displaced as better teachers to the native
English language ones and proposes better preparation in CLIL for non-native
teachers. Similarly, Fernández-Sanjurjo et al (2019),
in their study Analyzing students'
content-learning in science in CLIL vs. non-CLIL programs: empirical evidence
from Spain, evaluate how CLIL practices are effective, or not, in Science classes in primary school. Regarding the identity of
bilingual Science teachers, they only ensure that teachers who teach Science through
CLIL are usually language teachers, likewise it ensures that Science teachers
do not receive an adequate preparation for the use of the CLIL methodology,
additionally, Graham et al. (2021) in their work A critique of Taiwan's bilingual education policy through a
ROAD-MAPPING of teacher experiences, criticize the hiring of foreign
teachers who are unaware of the context and, despite that, teach content in
English, proposing a local vision to make Taiwan a truly bilingual territory,
where the two languages could be balanced.
In these papers we see a constant struggle of teachers to grab
their identity as Science teachers, while negotiating with the identity of
bilingualism, it is interesting to see how the practices and policies of
bilingualism exert a certain violence against Science teachers.
Identity of the Science teacher
Although in the selected works the concept of identity is
implicitly worked, we decided to look for papers that address the Science
Teacher Identity category, with the aim of delving into the search for trends
on the use of the concept and methodologies related to it.
In such exploration, we found a rather striking work by Avraamidou (2014) entitled Studying science teacher identity: Current insights and future research
directions. The author seeks to understand how the identity of Science teachers has been studied around the world, it makes
a theorization around the ways in which the authors have approached the concept
of identity, where this can be seen as a social construction or a told story.
The author finds that identity has been studied to understand learning in
Science, in the way the training of Science teachers occurs, likewise, it shows
that in many studies only the subject is taken into account and not the context. Now,
the author finds that there are studies that anchor identity with disciplinary
knowledge on the subject. It makes an interesting reflection of identity seen
from postmodernity, where the subject is identified and analyzed from positions of power. Avramidou is one of the most cited authors in terms of Science teacher identity. In hee
study entitled Stories we live,
identities we build: how are elementary teachers' science identities shaped by
their lived experiences? (2019),one of her most
important findings was to take the concept of identity as life experiences,concludes with the following characteristics of
identity:
(a) Science teacher identity is multidimensional and it extends beyond cognitive domains of
becoming to include affective dimensions;
(b) Science teacher identity is relational,
linked and shaped by various other constructs or sub-identities;
(c) Place and time, defined as a space with
meaning created by experiences, and the Science teacher’s identity are
inextricably bound to one another.
On the other hand, some authors have dealt with understanding
the identity from the professional development of Science teachers, authors
such as Molander and Hamza (2018) with their work Transformation of Professional Identities
From Scientist to Teacher in a Short-Track Science Teacher Education Program who
discuss the concept of teachers’ professional identity, in their study, they
find that many stages in the training and professional experience of
in-training teachers are in some way similar; following the same line are
Chung-Parsons and Bailey (2019) in The
hierarchical (not fluid) nature of preservice secondary science teachers'
perceptions of their science teacher identity, who explore three identities
of primary Science teachers taking into account two concepts: Science teachers’
identity and Science Identity, it is proposed to see teachers in the central
axis of scientific literacy and the concern of the government to encourage
students to pursue Science careers. The authors find a complex relationship
between science identity and identity as a Science
teacher, where the Science identity is part of the "core" of the
individual one, while the latter is socially recognized, so there is a daily
use of Science for the participants while teaching and learning practices which
are only put into play in school. Similarly, Forbes and Davis (2008) in their
study The Development of Pre-service
Elementary Teachers' Curricular Role Identity for Science Teaching, study
how pre-service teachers use curricular tools for teaching Science,
and propose that the characteristics of identity guide teachers practice
at the time of teaching.
Additionally, we explore articles where the identity of Science
teachers depends extremely on the context, as the work of Drewes (2020) Personal, professional, political: an
exploration of science teacher identity development for teaching climate
change. Where he
explores the identity of teachers of Science as climate change
educators, then, recognizes 4 constructions of identity: Passionate
Environmentalist, Student Interest Engager, Content First Educator, and Civic
and Epistemic Skills Promoter. Most frequently teachers exhibited combinations
of identities and often created a unique amalgam of multiple dimensions of
identities in action, hand in hand with El-Deghaidy
et al (2015) in A framework for designing
effective professional development: Science teachers' perspectives in a context
of reform, who explores the ways in which Science teachers promote their
professional development, contrary to Villena-Agreda
(2020) in his study Negotiating and
Defining "Self" as Science Teachers: A Narrative-Case Study among
Non-Science Education Major Teachers, who worked with a multiple case
study, on the identity of Science teachers who are not specialists in the
subject matter, teachers are forced to teach Science, there is evidence of
negotiated and recognized identities, which means that despite the fact that
the Individuals who are not science specialists have negotiated their identity
in institutions as Science teachers.
In his study Science
Teachers' Indigenous Knowledge Identities, Mhakure
(2014) proposes the inclusion of
indigenous knowledge in Science classes, this
inclusion is proposed in terms of interaction with the concepts of traditional
natural sciences, for him, the role of teachers’ identity plays an important
role since the authors acknowledge that Science teachers do not have the
training to work on this interaction within their classes. Some teachers
consider that indigenous knowledge is
backward and they do not feel identified with it, the
reason why they do not understand the relationship with traditional knowledge.
Teachers show a dynamism in their identity with regards to indigenous knowledge after carrying out activities in communities
of practice, after this exercise, the teachers see the ancestral knowledge
valuable. Another work that seeks to recognize differential identities and
their relationship with knowledge is that of Sjöström
(2018), in his work Science teacher identity
and eco-transformation of science education: comparing Western modernism with
Confucianism and reflexive Bildung, he analyzes
the tension between the values of the Confucianism and the traditional
teaching of Science, proposing in the center of this tension, the Science
teacher and his identity, he speaks of the concept of Eco-identity that
proposes a holistic look between nature and the human, eliminating the
instrumentalization of traditional knowledge; similarly, Huang and Anila (2018) in Science education reform in Confucian
learning cultures: teachers' perspectives on policy and practice in Taiwan seek
to understand the perspectives of Science teachers in Taiwan, conducting some
interviews with Science teachers. The results show that the Confucian tradition
has a great impact on the identity of Science
teachers, the study emphasizes the struggles of Science teachers and how
identity is built.
Limitations
This paper review is limited by several
factors. We consider that like all review articles, the scope of the proposed
analysis is limited by the objective that is linked to the interest in knowing
how the identity of the bilingual Science teacher has been studied. Revised
documents could provide more elements to understand how bilingual education in
Science is given, how bilingual education policies have been structured, how
bilingualism works in different contexts, among others, nonetheless, these are not our objectives, we are
interested in the individual and its identity. Another limitation has to do
with the chosen databases, these databases collect articles from very important
journals in education, but they may have omitted the results of related
research, conferences and / or publications of more discreet journals, which
could also contribute in an important way.
Conclusion
In this review, we found research trends linked to the concept
of identity and its relationship with the bilingual Science teacher. These
trends allow us to establish that the studies regarding the identity of the
Science teacher are new and it is a very fertile field to explore. In many
countries, English is used as a medium of instruction
but it is done in order to reinforce the learning of English, which is why
Science teachers are displaced by their peer English teachers, the identity
problem arises in between the relationship of Science teaching and foreign
language teaching.
It seems that there are few countries in the world that have
university programs for the training of bilingual teachers. This results in
bilingual Science teachers having to learn and grow during their professional
career. Although many countries organize EMI training, it is
clear that many Science teachers feel instrumentalized, they perceive
their classes no longer as Science classes instead, they become language
classes. This brings problems in terms of identity since teachers must look for
tools to be able to develop the pedagogical processes. Now, it is a surprise to
find that in many jobs, Science teachers do not feel identified with bilingual
Science teaching, either because they find it instrumentalized, because they do
not have the linguistic tools to carry out the subject instruction or because
they consider that it gives priority to the teaching of the language over the
teaching of the content in which only a level of proficiency in English is
required to carry out the teaching-learning process from bilingualism.
Another great conclusion is closely linked to the training of Science teachers and their training. Some authors assure
that the implementation of CLIL or EMI in Science has exceeded the speed at
which the teacher training processes are changing, having a problem, since,
from the universities, there has been no epistemological discussion about the
relevance, or lack of it, of Science teaching through
a foreign language, neither the relationship between language and content, and
much less there has not been pedagogical explorations of bilingualism in
Science. This makes the Science teachers who carry out the process, or often
language teachers, or even native speakers who are neither Science teachers nor
language teachers. In these processes, it is necessary the dialogue between the
conceptual bodies of Science didactics and the field
of ELT, since the discussion could be enriched from there.
In this review we found three major trends. One of them is
related to the invisibility of the subject that is closely connected to studies that speak of bilingualism
in Science, but that do not address characteristics of individuals, these
studies aim to evaluate the processes of bilingualism in Science, but they do
not allow to read the teacher or his identity. Another trend is linked to
bilingualism policies that in one way or another, shape the identities of
teachers, since they indicate what characteristics
they must have in order to teach from EMI or CLIL; regardless of the fact that
there are no bilingual training programs in the countries where these projects
are being developed. In the case of Science teacher
identity studies, the concept has been worked from different perspectives, with
the narrated identities being the most used, but the methodologies speak of the
case study and the narratives.
Another conclusion is that bilingualism is being considered in
different parts of the world through CLIL and EMI, with English at the center
of conversations/studies regarding bilingualism. In many of the papers
presented, bilingualism is explored as a phenomenon within countries in which
policies are evaluated, but there is a tendency to make Science teachers
invisible/overlooked. In most studies, it is reviewed whether the bilingualism
processes are successful in terms of learning for students, but they do not
address the Science teacher as a category of study.
Regarding our main concern, the Science teacher identity, we conclude that
there are many studies that cover this category with very interesting findings
such as the relationship between Science identity and Science Teacher identity,
where the first is closely linked to knowledge and specific practices of
Science, while the second is put into play in the teaching-learning process.
Likewise, the findings in terms of how to cover the study of identity from life
stories allow us to understand from a much broader perspective how science
teachers construct their identity.
Finally,weI consider that the studies of the Bilingual
Science Teachers are necessary, understanding that the processes of
bilingualism in Science are already being carried out, we consider that it is a
very fertile field that allows us enriching the discussion in terms of
teaching-learning of Science and English as a foreign language.
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[1] Doctoral Student at Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Emphasis ELT Education.
Email: csfigueroas@correo.udistrital.edu.co ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9375-3172
Fecha de recibo: 26/04/2022 Fecha
de aceptación: 31/08/2022