Strengthening Co-Teacher Partnerships Between ENL and Content-Area Teachers

Various institutional and instructional barriers impact co-teaching partnerships between English as a New Language (ENL) and content-area teachers. Despite the mandate by New York State Commissioner’s Regulation Part 154 for integrated instruction through co-teaching, implementation often defaults to a push-in model that lacks shared planning, parity, and clarity of roles. Drawing on positioning theory and sociocultural theory, this project examines how factors such as role ambiguity, limited co-planning time, divergent teaching philosophies, and lack of professional development hinder effective collaboration and reduce equitable learning opportunities for English language learners (ELLs). A comprehensive literature review highlights the ways in which power dynamics, scheduling conflicts, and administrative decisions affect the success or failure of co-teaching partnerships. In response, this project presents a professional development workshop designed for ENL-content area co-teaching pairs. The session includes activities to identify co-teaching models, distinguish content and language objectives, and utilize a collaborative planning tool that fosters shared decision-making and instructional equity. The workshop concludes with a reflection and goal-setting activity to support ongoing growth. This project offers school districts a replicable framework to strengthen co-teaching relationships and improve outcomes for ELLs through sustainable, collaborative practices.

Grantor dc:publisher

SUNY Brockport Department of Education and Human Development

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Thaler, Danielle

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Altalouli, Mahmoud

• co-teaching
• English Language Learners
• ENL
• content-area
• collaboration

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/83163

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:soar.suny.edu:20.500.12648/83163