Throughout the course of my first year in a doctoral program, I have realized my limited knowledge in my area of specialization Early Childhood Education (ECE), a secondary emphasis in Multilingual/ Multicultural Education (MME), and research methods. As I completed this year’s coursework, I have my knowledge in my field as well as my individual perspective to understand the world. By doing so, I learned there is a value to hear and understand diverse perspectives. This discussion and reflection is how my coursework came together to shape my conception of the field and to further develop my research topic.
As conveyed in my reflection analysis from EDUC 800, my educational experiences in Korea shaped my dichotomous view in learning knowledge-there should be a correct or incorrect answer. With this attitude, I persisted to find objective results from educational research, which can be generalized. Moreover, from my experience during my Master of Arts in Teaching English Speaker of Other Language (TESOL), I was exposed to a number of quantitative research studies but not nearly as many qualitative research studies. From this experience, I assumed that quantitative method is a more valuable way to study in the field of education.
The foundation courses, Ways of Knowing (EDUC 800) and Problems and Methods in Education Research (EDRS 810) helped me to recognize that both qualitative and quantitative research paradigms are valuable methods to investigate critical issues in education. All approaches have their blind spots. Different perspectives can find these spots and assist researchers to have balanced views. Thus, researchers can make enhanced decisions when they look the issues through these very different approaches than when used them respectively. For my EDUC 800 final paper, I investigated narrative inquiry with a focus on teacher education. I realized that researchers could hear the deep stories of participants and find underlying assumptions that shape their knowing and behaviors through narratives. On the other hand, quantitative methodology can explain and predict events by analyzing numerical data. It can give objective descriptions of some events such as how often, how long, where, and when it happens as well as a demonstration of the relationship between factors. Also, for EDRS 810 assignments, I wrote quantitative and qualitative research proposals about my research topic on young children’s writing. While reviewing the articles, I learned that each methodology could explain different aspects of the children’s writing. These experiences in the two foundation courses taught me to value both quantitative and qualitative methodologies and prompted me to explore research techniques for designing my future research.
During the first semester, I experienced self-doubt: Were my experiences from Korea valuable in conducting research in U.S.A setting? Who I am? I felt like I had limited knowledge and experiences in the education. Now, as I reflect upon my thinking, I might be confused and uncertain about my identity in academia. I began to think about how I can make my previous experiences and knowledge relevant to investigate my research topic.
The courses I took in my second semester, ECED 804 Family Research and Practice in ECE and EDUC 882 Second Language Acquisition, brought my focus on linguistically and culturally diverse families and children. EDUC 882 provided various readings about multiculturalism and multilingualism as well as teaching and learning in multicultural settings. I found that it is challenging for immigrants to keep their heritage languages (HLs) for several reasons: peer pressure, limited opportunities to use HLs, and misconception that using HL limits their English acquisition (Potowski, 2010). Reflecting on these readings, I decided to explore interrelationship between children’s home language skills and their literacy development in second language for my final project in this course. I found empirical studies that showed bilingual children’s basic reading and writing skills can transfer from one language to another (Goodrish, Lonigan, & Farver, 2013; Gort, 2006).
Moreover, in ECED 804, I used Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model to investigate how different types of environmental systems influence Korean-American children’s bilingual development. From the final project of this course, I learned that language monolingual dominant policy, culture, and ideology in USA, which are macrosystem affect other lower systems such as exosystem (e.g., education system, school curriculum) and microsystem (parents, peers, and communities). Consequently, the education systems provide limited educational opportunities for Korean-American children to learn their heritage language (Kim, 2010). Moreover, children’s heritage language proficiency is bidirectionally related with other factors, such as ethnic identity, social interactions in community, and family relationships.
One of the major influences on my decision to pursue the Ph.D. degree was my teacher education experience in Korea. While training university students who wanted to be an English teacher for young learners, I realized that one great teacher can benefit students in one class while one great teacher educator can benefit several teachers who will make a great impact on a number of students. I wanted to become a teacher educator who can be a good model for preservice teachers who will work with children. ECED 803 Teacher Preparation and Professional Development course gave me an opportunity to learn what the role of a teacher educator is by observing and analyzing a class session of an ECE course. Teacher educators not only convey required prerequisite skills and knowledge, but shape values and beliefs of preservice teachers. Especially, it is important for teacher educators to prepare preservice teachers to learn about their students’ diverse cultures and communities in order to teach children from diverse background successfully (Banks et al., 2005). In the light of a growing trend for a cultural diversity in our classroom, as my final project of EDUC 797 Working in School: Spanning Boundaries/ Expanding Roles course, I examined what kinds of field-based experiences a teacher education program provides to enable to preservice teachers to work with diverse children as well as the impact of those hands-on experience on preservice teachers’ belief and existing knowledge.
Spanning across all of my semesters, slowly I began to realize where my true passion exists. I wish to support bilingual children and their families in ECE. I will continue to expand my knowledge but narrow down my research interests in order to conceptualize my research topic. Moreover, I will gain more knowledge in research methodology so I can make decisions about what approaches to utilize and which data to analyze for my research.
References
Bank, K., Cochram-Smith, M., Moll, L., Richert, A., Zeichner, K., LePage, P., Darling-Hammond, L., Duffy, H., & McDonald, M. (2005). Teaching diverse learners. In L. Darling-Hammond and J. Bransford (Eds.), Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do (pp.233-274). San Francisco: Jossey- Bass.
Goodrish, J. M., Lonigan, C. J., & Farver, J. M. (2013). Do early literacy skills in children’s first language promote development of skills in their second language? An experimental evaluation of transfer. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105, 414-426. doi:101.1037/a0031780
Gort, M. (2012). Code-switching pattern in the writing-related talk of young emergent bilinguals. Journal of Literacy Research, 44, 45-75. doi:10.1177/1086296X11431626
Kim, H. Y. (2010). Korean in the USA. In K. Potowski (Ed.), Language diversity in USA (pp.164-178) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Potowski, K. (2010). Language diversity in the USA: dispelling common myths and appreciation advantages. In K. Potowski (Ed.), Language diversity in USA (pp.1-24) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Reyes, I. (2006). Exploring connections between emergent biliteracy and bilingualism. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 6, 267-292. doi:10.1177/1468798406069801