An exploratory study of the relationship between multilingual instructional program model and student teacher trust

A sense of trust among students and teachers is an indicator of an equitable school environment and impacts student experience, academic outcomes, and other measures of school success. Students from language minority communities are sometimes ignored, separated, or segregated from their peers within their schools, limiting their sense of trust in their teachers. School district’s perspectives regarding language as an asset or problem influence students' success. Historically, measures of school success depended on standardized scores on academic assessments administered only in English. This study went beyond test scores to consider the student experience in an organization. School districts make decisions at the meso level that influence students’ experiences in school. In Illinois, the range of program models that provide language instruction for multilingual students can be additive or subtractive to the students' sense of student-teacher trust, emotional belonging, and school connectedness. This study examined the relationship between the multilingual program model in place and the student’s feelings of trust in their teacher on five statements that conceptualize trust in a survey administered to students in public schools in Illinois. This research was a quantitative nonexperimental correlation study of archival survey data. Results for four of the five research questions regarding the participants' responses were independent of the multilingual program model. However, in an additive multilingual program model, participants agreed to the statement, my teachers treat me with respect, with a response rate that was statistically significant, with a probability value of .037, below .05 threshold for statistical significance. The results indicated there is a relationship between the multilingual program model in place and an affirmative answer to that prompt. The additive models of multilingual instruction are a way schools create affinity spaces designed around shared values, but the impact they have on the sense of student-teacher trust has not been examined. The results of the research questions in this study provide further guidance to schools regarding structural and programmatic choices that support multilingual students, whose sense of student-teacher trust may be different from their peers due to their intersecting social identities and characteristics. Areas of future research include replicating this study over multiple years in different school districts and why the students in the additive model of multilingual programming felt respected.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Devlin, Gabrielle Marie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ward Hood, Denice
• McNair Barnett, Bernice
• Kang, Hyun-Sook
• Mason, Curtis

• Multilingual
• Trust
• Belonging
• Dual Language Two-way
• Transitional Bilingual Education

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Gabrielle Devlin

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124276

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F124276