Leading the Multilingual School

Abstract

Schools that educate multilingual learners need leaders who can ensure that the curriculum, instruction, and assessment align with the needs of students. Each of these areas—curriculum, instruction, and assessment—impact the opportunities students have to learn. To ensure that the needs of multilingual learners are met, leaders design coaching and professional learning opportunities for teachers and provide feedback to teachers to continue their development. In this chapter, we review the leadership moves that are necessary to ensure that these aspects of schooling are strong and meeting the needs of students. In addition, we focus on the support that must be in place to ensure that students feel they belong and are valued.

1. Introduction

The cultural and linguistic makeup of our public schools is diverse. To meet the needs of their students, these schools need educators willing to learn and implement a wide range of effective instructional practices to reach students where they are, support their growth academically, and create a welcoming learning environment where students know they belong.

According to the 2021 American Community Survey administered by the National Center for Education Statistics, 49.5 million children are enrolled in public schools [1]. The number of students who are multilingual learners has increased steady over the last decades. As of fall 2020, the last reported year, more than 10% of those students are learning English as a language, and the major first language is Spanish [2]. However, they are unevenly distributed, ranging from 13.7 percent in cities to 4.4 percent in rural areas. We use the term multilingual learner in this chapter to reflect contemporary research about students who are adding English to their language and literacy skills [3].

Beyond the statistics, the growing presence of multilingual learners requires new thinking in education. There are significant instructional and well-being decisions that educators who welcome students into their schools must make each day. As teachers prepare their lesson plans to address content standards, they must consider how to introduce the content, provide relevancy for students, offer support through scaffolding or supplemental materials, assess learning and provide feedback, and develop ongoing evaluation methods. Multilingual learners require specialized approaches to ensure academic attainment.

Multilingualism represents a significant advancement that pushes past acquisition of the language of instruction as the primary goal. Multilingualism must be seen across several dimensions, especially in cultivating the home language alongside newer language acquisition. Importantly, language is bound in the context of identity. A multilingual identity is more than a set of oral and written language skills. It requires a deeper understanding of “evaluative, emotional, and experiential dimensions, as legitimate indicators of multilingualism” [4]: This 3-E framework of multilingualism informs individuals about their multilingual identities; we believe that multilingual schools can similarly craft their organizational identity (Table 1) [5]:

Dimension of multilingual identity	Individual identity	Organizational identity
Evaluative	How do I and others measure the languages I use?	How do we leverage the use of multiple languages in our school?
Emotional	What are my feelings about the languages I use and the language learning process?	How do we foster belonging in our school such that all multilingual learners benefit?
Experiential	What is my exposure to my languages, and in what settings?	How do we ensure that all languages are welcomed and celebrated throughout the school day?

Table 1.

Dimensions of multilingual identity.

The role of school leaders is vital as a key driver of instructional excellence. School leaders set the climate of the school as a place which fosters the multilinguistic identities of its students. School leaders can promote language programs that ensure that multilingualism is perceived as an inherent normality of the day-to-day life rather than an exception or source shame, as has been the case for some students who wish to hide their identities as multilingual members of society. In order to promote multilingualism, leaders of create and maintain systems of support for students and their teachers. In particular, effective school leaders in multilingual environments build the instructional capacity of their teachers, create conditions that prioritize teaching and learning, and foster an environment that promotes a strong sense of belonging across their campus [6].

The research on the impact effective school leaders have on the academic outcomes of students points to the significance of their role [7]. School leaders make hundreds of decisions each day, addressing a wide range of needs, including finance and operations, staffing, parent and community involvement, liaising with central office, and overseeing compliance. The field of educational leadership has evolved and redefined the role of school principal from solely an authoritative figure with an emphasis on discipline, to one of an instructional leader. The transition in expectations of school leaders has been well-documented, leading researchers to seek to understand the practices that effective leaders implement. Five major elements that effective principals directly oversee are:

• clear communication of their school’s educational vision

• implementation of evidence-based curriculum and instruction

• supporting the professional growth of their teachers

• monitoring student progress, and

• establishing high expectations for all learners [8, 9].

These five elements highlight the range of responsibilities that school leaders must address, and that go well beyond the traditional perception of what the public believes a school principal does. The work required to impact student achievement is not done in isolation or by chance. Rather, it is an intentional and collective effort required to move the needle in the right direction and improve measurable outcomes. Effective school leaders in multilingual environments have the ability to unite their instructional teams to identify root causes and strategize approaches to solutions that address challenges in the achievement of their students through collaborative efforts [10].

Therefore, leaders of multilingual schools must communicate the school’s vision of fostering true multilingual identities among its students. These multilingual identities are simultaneously inward and outward facing. While others may identify a student as multilingual based on proficiency in two or more languages, the individual must also see their multilingualism as part of their self-identity. A school that diminishes the use of language other than the one used for instruction negatively impacts students’ identities as multilingual. Unfortunately, some students avoid speaking the language of their immigrant families in in effort to blend in and avoid discrimination. Without strong leaders and teachers to foster a true sense of belonging and honor students’ language and cultural backgrounds, students may suffer from an imposter syndrome and act in ways that they believe will allow them to be accepted.

To address an issue such as imposter syndrome, the design of instruction and decisions on its delivery must be intentional. Recently, 9th graders in their ethnic studies class engaged in a cultural and linguistic learning experience. The unit focused on the impact of the Latinx culture in the region. As part of their learning, students researched cultural sites of significance in the area. One site that stood out was Chicano Park, a historic landmark located in the Barrio Logan neighborhood of San Diego. Students visited the park and collaborated to identify the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of the landmark. They observed the vibrant murals that local artists paint to represent aspects of Chicano culture, history, activism, and significant figures. They then produced videos to promote the area. The project helped not only to use a variety of linguistic abilities, but also elevate student identity and their sense of belonging by recognizing the significance of culture.

Similarly, students at our school studied the Green Book, a historical guide for Black travelers during the Jim Crow era. Developed by Victor Hugo Green “to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trip more enjoyable.” [11] As part of their learning, students traveled from San Diego to Los Angeles to see an exhibition of the Green Book at the Petersen Museum, and then wrote informative essays about that period in time.

However, a school’s educational vision as a place that cultivates multilingual identifies is seriously hampered when curriculum, instruction, and professional learning of teachers are not aligned. Actions speak louder than words, so the saying goes. When curricular, instructional, and professional training actions fail to manifest the high expectations of learners in an environment that builds on students’ strengths, multilingual identities are threatened.

Leaders seek to maximize their time and their impact in addressing the needs of multilingual learners’ school needs. While adoption of new initiatives, programs, or other similar directives seem never-ending, effective school leaders in multilingual environments steer an unswerving course. They make decisions about what is best suited for short-term implementation, and long-term desired outcomes stemming from an adopted approach to supporting multilingual students and their teachers.

But to do so, leaders must adopt practices that create opportunities for high-quality and collaborative professional learning for teachers about research-based practices for multilingual learners. Our own work in leading and researching schools with multilingual learners has encouraged us to align best practices in language development with those that inform leadership and systems thinking [12]. We have identified powerful and proven approaches for creating comprehensive systems of support. The selected approaches that follow meet criteria for inclusion: evidence-based, possess the potential to have a strong positive influence on student learning, foster a strong sense of belonging for all students to develop multilingual identities, and support the ongoing professional learning of teachers to accomplish these goals.

The ongoing professional learning of teachers of multilingual students is key to academic attainment [13]. School leaders are well-positioned to evaluate the professional needs at their schools and allocate necessary resources for initiating professional learning opportunities for their teachers. These efforts should be focused, structured around intentional practices that build multilingual learners’ identities, are centered on equity, and use data to inform the collective work. In the following sections we discuss ways that leaders can frame their approach in addressing the teaching and learning needs in multilingual settings through professional learning communities that allow for continuous improvement, coaching, and feedback. We conclude the chapter with ways leaders of multilingual schools can foster a sense of belonging using practices that strengthen the school climate and multilingual identity.

2. Structured collaboration: professional learning communities

Professional learning communities (PLC), which are comprised of teams of teachers working together toward a shared student-centered goal, have been in existence for more than 40 years [14]. They hold the promise of leveraging teacher collaboration to meet the needs of students. However, the ubiquity of PLC’s has led to a loosening of these structures, and in some places almost any teacher meeting is labeled as such, even when it does not possess the characteristics of a true PLC. In the case of multilingual schools, this loosening threatens to undermine efforts to promote multilingualism through curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Lee and colleagues [15] conducted a systematic review of instruments used international studies of professional learning communities and identified 11 such measures, including those developed by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Wallace Foundation. The researchers identified three commonalities that inform leaders about the conditions needed to foster student academic attainment:

1. There is a shared set of tangible goals among the adults

2. There is a focus on student learning for a group of students who are served by the educators of the PLC, and for adult learning as an outcome of the team’s efforts

3. Adult collaboration required for development of a plan of action, including implementation monitoring, results analysis, and revisions and refinements

In order for schools to adequately fuel academic attainment of multilingual learners, they must implement a coherent, comprehensive, and sustained effort, and professional learning communities, done well, can do. In terms of multilingual identity, the organization must create mechanisms that encourage evaluative thinking that goes well beyond a single data point.

We have designed and implemented a process for collaborative teams that has been reconceptualized to reflect the intentionality of engaging in professional learning to directly address the needs of multilingual students [16]. Each investigation cycle is guided by questions that call for members to examine the data and their practices, taking action as needed to strengthen student learning. Furthermore, the process requires that teams consider the equity implications of their collective decisions. We have named the model PLC+ to reflect the importance of equity at every stage. Five questions guide PLC+ teams:

1. Where are we going?

2. Where are we now?

3. How do we move learning forward?

4. What did we learn today?

5. Who benefited from our efforts, and who did not?

The final question, who benefited from our efforts, and who did not?, is a particularly powerful one to ask in the context of multilingual schools. When implementing PLC+, educators reflect on their collective impact on students. They note which students made progress and which did not, while interrogating their decisions and agreed-upon implementation of practices. Despite the efforts of their teachers, some students may not respond to the learning experiences and may require additional supports, beyond those initially provided, to experience success. In discussing this question, teams may identify barriers to learning that need to be removed. They may discover strategies that provide new opportunities to learn. Confronting the data, and remaining focused on what can be learned from the evidence, allows teams to try new strategies that can improve student outcomes. As they identify these tools, they become incorporated into routine teaching and learning experiences. Rather than focusing solely on individual students and their potential need for intervention, teams using the PLC+ framework must consider the impact they have had on groups of students and thus redesign or re-teach to ensure all students are benefiting.

PLC+ cycles offer instructional teams with valuable thinking, planning, and learning time to analyze trend data and bring to the group important conversations about equity. Each of the PLC+ guiding questions help set the stage for teams of educators to look within the data that is available, determine what it is that stands out, what is missing, and what is within their reach that they can agree to implement to address the identified gap. For teachers who teach multilingual students, this means that the way they look at their data offers opportunities to identify how their instructional practices are helping to address the needs of their students, or what gaps might exist that warrant a look at another approach—be it an overall approach to a teaching strategy, or a considering just-in-time supports and intervention.

For example, students are asked to reflect on the established success criteria at the end of each lesson. These success criteria are not limited to content area learning, but rather include language and social aspects of learning. Students are asked for feedback about the lesson and its impact on their success. Teachers use this data to identify which lessons are most impactful in supporting students’ learning. Importantly, this applies to all students, including those learning Spanish, American Sign Language, English, and Mandarin, all of which are options for students’ in our school.

One common shortcoming is in reporting data such that the only measurement is growth of English language proficiency. While important, reliance on a single measure obscures growth in other dimensions. As one example, our school interviews each multilingual learner individually to discuss state assessment results. These interviews are accompanied by questions designed to seek the student’s own goals, both academically and linguistically, in their home and acquired languages. The results of these interviews are shared among the professional learning community members to further contextualize the data. By doing so, the team is able to establish learning goals for their multilingual students that consider academic attainment as well as furthering their multilingual identities.

3. Harnessing strengths: collective efficacy cycles

When it comes to selecting an approach to address student learning needs, educators are faced with a myriad of options for instructional practices. To meet the needs of multilingual students, educators must select strategies and tools that build students’ self-confidence and sense of belonging, which includes exposing them to regular academic standards and evaluation with a well-designed support system. Thus, educators need information about effective instructional and social emotional learning strategies as well as a system for enacting these strategies in the classroom.

One resources in which educators can find valuable insights in is Hattie’s Visible Learning Meta^X database. Hattie has synthesized over 2100 meta-analyses that look at factors impacting student learning. The database includes statistical measures of more than 320 influences on student learning, comprised of more than 350 million students worldwide [17]. Because the database includes many studies of multilingual students, these measures can give school leaders insights on what practices might be worth their time, budget, and effort. The average effect size in the database is.40, which is representative of one year of growth in student learning per year in school. Factors with an effect size at and above.40 are considered to be in the zone of desired effects, meaning that they have the potential to accelerate learning.

One of the most powerful influences is collective teacher efficacy. Collective teacher efficacy is the shared belief by a group of teachers that they have the skills to positively impact student outcomes. In fact, collective teacher efficacy has the potential to significantly shift student achievement in a positive direction. With an effect size of 1.34, it can hold the potential to significantly accelerate student learning. Importantly, this isn’t driven by wishful thinking, but rather by evidence. The routine examination of results and outcomes through the PLC+ process is designed to provide teachers with evidence of their impact. Unfortunately, some educators are unsure of their ability to ensure high levels of learning for multilingual students. They may not feel particularly efficacious. Strong leaders build teacher teams that focus on goals, align their efforts toward those goals, collect and analyze evidence, and determine their impact. Over time, these teams develop their collective efficacy, raising their expectations for students knowing that they have the power to ensure that students learn at high levels.

However, waiting an entire school year to learn about one’s evidence of impact is not sufficiently robust to build collective teacher efficacy. Thus, systems must be designed and structured so that evidence is more immediate and frequent. To support a positive and productive culture and climate among colleagues, school leaders can consider collective efficacy cycles (CEC) as an implementation model to structure and guide how their instructional teams can engage in the work necessary to address student needs through evidence-based practices. A CEC cycle is centered on a common challenge, and an evidence-based strategy to learn and implement as agreed upon by the group of educators. Each cycle is comprised of six phases, and typically lasts anywhere between 6–10 weeks, with the time dedicated for each phase dictated by the group [17].

At the multilingual school we lead, we have used CEC cycles for several years to deepen attention on practices that accelerate academic attainment and multilingual identities. Every cycle focuses on addressing the common challenge. The common challenges are identified by teachers as they review their impact on student learning. As part of the process, teams engage in purposeful dialogue on strategy identification, shared learning, implementation, and assessment of progress, and reflection on practice. This phased cyclical approach is intended to scaffold the process for the instructional team, as they collaborate to build their instructional capacity and gain ownership of their practice through the shared experiences in the learning process. We will first explain this method in detail, as outlined by Faddis and colleagues 2022, in order to set the stage for our section 4 case study at our school. The six phases are as follows:

3.1 Common challenge

The group of educators engage in dialogue and analysis of data (e.g., anecdotal, observational, student work samples, formative and summative), to determine a challenge that is observable and can be addressed through their instructional efforts. As an example, a group of teachers of multilingual students identifies their common challenge as strengthening the oral language development of their students in academic content.

3.2 Build knowledge

The group evaluates and selects evidence-based practices to adopt that they will learn or revisit, and which directly address the agreed common challenge. The team determines how their efforts will be internally measured and monitored through collection and analysis of data. Time and space is secured, and resources are provided for teachers to build knowledge and skills on how to implement the strategy. In our example, the collaborative team investigates research-based practices for content-area oral language development and agrees to implement Socratic seminars in their classrooms.

3.3 Safe practice

Teachers have opportunities to try the evidence-based approaches by practicing it in a non-evaluative environment, where they are able to take risks through deliberate practice, and engage in dialogue with their colleagues to debrief the measurable impact of their practice. In our example, teachers introduce Socratic seminars to their classes, and teach students about the use of language frames to support their text-based discussions.

3.4 Opening up practice

Teachers participate in peer observations that are guided by agreed upon focus for the observation. Each peer observation lasts for 10–15 minutes, with the intent of observing the evidence-based practice in action. The observation is structured with a pre-conference, the observation, and a post-conference to allow the host teacher to debrief and discuss the observations and data with the visiting teachers. This phase is a key coaching opportunity that allows teachers to reflect and set goals. The team in our example engage in visits to each other’s classrooms to witness an element of Socratic seminars being implemented and discuss their noticings with one another.

3.5 Monitor, measure, and celebrating

In this closing phase, the group of teachers discuss their experiences in the professional learning, implementation of practice, and their findings from data collected to share what worked well and next steps for future improvement. The team we spotlighted determined that their successes included gains in the oral language of many of their multilingual learners. They also discussed students who did not make progress, and determined that those students would receive additional scaffolding in the next round for developing questions for use in the next Socratic seminar.

For school leaders, collective efficacy cycles can help them to bring their teachers together around a common challenge. This can allow for teachers’ voices to be elevated in the collective decision-making process on identifying what matters, and how to best approach. Because of the shortened cycles of investigation, teams are able to make responsive decisions and revisions in real time to support students.

4. PLCs and collective efficacy cycle in action

We have implemented Collective Efficacy Cycles (CECs) at the high school where we are instructional leaders. The school is located in the mid-city area of San Diego, California and serves a large population of multilingual learners, who comprise 25% of the school population. We began implementing CECs several years ago to support professional learning community teams in their work to address the student needs they observed in the classroom.

In California, students who do not speak English as their primary language, or who have been identified as an English Learner (typically through a home language survey), are required to take the initial and summative English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) each year until they are reclassified from an English Learner to a Redesignated Fluent English Proficient (RFEP). The ELPAC is a four-part annual assessment. Two domains, speaking and listening, are administered individually by a trained assessor. Two other domains (reading and writing) are administered in small groups. Students must phase all four domains using cut scores set by the state. Reclassification to English proficiency is an important achievement for students, as those who fail to reclassify before high school graduation must pass the more demanding Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) for admission to universities. For this reason, successful passage of the ELPAC is a crucial milestone for multilingual students to achieve.

In their CECs teachers decided to dedicate their efforts to analyzing the demands of the ELPAC in the listening, speaking, reading, and writing domains in the context of their subject areas. Throughout their cycles, the groups select instructional strategies they can implement to support their identified common challenge. The selected evidence-based strategies include modeling world solving, reciprocal teaching, sentence frames to support justifying a claim with evidence and reasoning, and Jigsaw.

As the teachers progress through each phase of the CEC, they collaborate within their group to learn and implement the selected strategy, identify data to measure the impact of their efforts, and seek feedback by opening up their practice. They use their collaborative time to inform modifications of future implementations as needed. At the culmination of each cycle, the teams reflect and share their findings from their practice with other teams. A few examples of the CECs’ findings included recognizing the successes in crafting rubrics with clear expectations for students on what success looks like on assignments, the importance of evaluating when to introduce and when to gradually remove scaffolds for students as they gain proficiency, and the need in helping students self-determine when and how to use strategies across a variety of text types. The application of this ongoing structure promotes the continued professional learning of teachers, while strengthening student outcomes. Importantly, these ongoing investigations lead to the identification of gaps that become the common challenge for the next investigative cycle.

While each CEC implemented strategies that are aimed at addressing the language acquisition needs of multilingual learners, the teachers recognize that their implementation does not take place within a vacuum. Rather, their instructional decisions also consider the relevancy in supporting monolingual English-speaking learners in their own development of language and literacy skills. And monolingual English-speaking students need to be challenged to learn additional languages and earn the State Seal of Biliteracy. Although monolingual English-speaking students may be at an advantage and experience privilege by not having the same expectations in learning a second language, it’s vital that teachers consider the dynamics in their classroom and evaluate the learning needs of all students. While multilingual learners may be held to local and state language assessment benchmarks, other students also benefit from multifaceted approach of instruction and scaffolds provided.

The result of these efforts has been positive for our multilingual students. Our passage rate on the ELPAC has improved, allowing more students to pursue post-secondary education goals. As noted earlier in Section 2, the use of ELPAC assessment data results are now used in individual interviews with multilingual students to explain results and set future academic and multilingual identities goals. What began as an experiment developed by a single team of teachers has now become a signature practice at our school.

5. Setting high expectations for multilingual students

Earlier we stated that school leaders are positioned to set the tone at their schools, especially in embodying a vision for multilingual identities development. This includes creating the conditions in their schools for encouraging and supporting high expectations for all students. Historically, the expectations of the skills and abilities teachers held of multilingual learners have not been the same as their counterparts. This mindset perpetuates a cycle of expect less, get less. The expectations that teachers have of their students can have a significant positive or negative impact on their academic achievement [18, 19].

It is especially imperative for multilingual students that their teachers have high expectations in their ability to learn new language skills, and that teachers clearly communicate the expectations as well as provide appropriate scaffolds to help students meet the expectations. In fact, the experiences of multilingual students who benefit from quality daily interactions ensures that the organization provides a welcoming academic climate that honors all languages. These practices are especially important for fostering teacher expectations, and how they communicate them, contribute to what is an important affective variable that can be observed in the self-fulfilling prophecy of multilingual students [20].

High expectations teaching is manifested in ways that are observable and measurable and should be enacted in daily teaching in multilingual classrooms [21].

• Does the teacher regularly ask open questions?

• Does the teacher rephrase questions when answers are not correct?

• Does the teacher check for understanding frequently throughout the lesson to inform feedback?

• Does the teacher provide a range of learning experiences so that students can exercise choice and decision making? (trust in learners)

• Does the teacher provide a clear framework for learning? (learning intentions and success criteria)

• Does the teacher set individual goals with learners?

To shift the impact in a direction that contributes to increasing the knowledge and skills of multilingual students, school leaders should work with their teachers to understand the elements of instruction that can strengthen the articulation and application of high expectations. That is, the expectations of teachers should be supported by daily habits and routines that move from the episodic to common practices to elevate key skills and content exposure for multilingual students. To this end, leaders can look to components of teacher clarity that are essential to building consistency in lesson planning. Key contributors to teacher clarity are learning progressions, learning intentions, and success criteria [22]. High expectations and associated practices facilitate clear communication, strategic scaffolding supports, and assessment of student progress. Observations by school leaders using the lens of high expectations teaching of multilingual learners provide a platform for coaching and feedback.

6. Feedback practices: Learning walks and microteaching

Seeing the teaching and learning in action is an important step following analysis of student data, identification of a common challenge, strategy selection, and professional development to support implementation. Leaders in multilingual schools should support non-evaluative conditions that allow them and their teachers to observe the high expectations teaching in practice, followed by a team debrief to reflect on what was observed. Learning walks and micro-teaching are two types of exercises that teachers can participate in to seek feedback.

A learning walk is a focused observation of an agreed instructional element. Much like the peer observations described earlier in the section on professional learning communities, learning walks are scheduled in advance and led by the school leader [15]. The learning walk teams are deliberately kept small, with no more than six teachers. The feedback and coaching that accompanies the learning walk is then used by the professional learning community team to further guide their collaborative work.

Learning walks are conducted routinely by small groups of teachers (often those in a PLC+ team) and a school leader. One team was piloting the use of translational earbuds powered by artificial intelligence with emergent multilingual students at our school. The teacher and the student each wear a pair of earbuds, with spoken language translated into their preferred language in real time. Observing teachers watched colleagues using the translational technology and were able to discuss benefits with the students using them in three different classrooms. Ximena, a ninth grade student new to English, said she used the earbuds when her mathematics teacher was presenting new content. In turn, her teacher used them when engaged in scaffolding and guided instruction with Ximena, noting that the intermittent use of the technology allowed him to better understand her academic skills without confabulating them with her emergent language skills.

Another technique used to provide feedback is microteaching. Microteaching is especially useful for teachers of multilingual learners, as they may otherwise struggle with how to best shape instruction to meet students’ language needs [23]. Microteaching, which has an effect size of 1.01 [16], is the practice of recording a segment of instruction (no more than 10–15 minutes) for video analysis with peer(s). The intent with this practice is to allow the teacher some control and flexibility over the part of the lesson to be discussed. Perhaps most importantly, microteaching puts the teacher in the driver’s seat because they select the video segment, and they pose questions to their peers. It serves as an opportunity to review aspects of instruction, reflect on the experience, and help facilitate reflective dialogue about the impact on student learning.

The same PLC+ team viewed a recorded segment of instruction by different teacher using translational earbuds in his World History class. He selected a recorded segment to gain feedback from his team members regarding the frontend and backend scaffolds he provided during a discussion with another emergent multilingual learner. His members watched the segment several times, posing questions to the teacher about his reasoning for using different questions, prompts, and cues during the interaction. Because the reflective conversations are so powerful in enacting change, we position both learning walks and microteaching as required practices for every professional learning community team [15].

7. School climate: leading belonging for all

All learners deserve to feel like they belong. In fact, it’s critical for multilingual learners to feel and know that they are not only welcomed, but that they add value to the learning environment by contributing their knowledge and skills based on their personal experiences and perspectives. There is a correlation with belonging and learning as well. Belonging has an above average effect size of .46 [16]. As a point of reference.40 is the measure for academic growth in a single year. Further, the overall school climate, of which sense of belonging is a crucial feature, has an effect size of.53 [16].

Multilingual learners in particular face threats to their sense of belonging in and out of school. While we cannot directly change societal issues related to race, cultural stereotypes, and anti-immigration biases, we can exercise quite a bit of influence in our schools to counter these narratives. Keep in mind that the young people in school today are the decisionmakers of tomorrow. A commitment to the emotional dimension of multilingual identities is instructive for all students, including those who are monolingual. For leaders, there are considerations for creating conditions that help foster belonging for multilingual students. The notion of belonging is more than being a part of something, it is essential to feel we have something to contribute to the group [24]. With contribution as a key component of belonging, and drawing from Carter’s [25] 10 dimensions of belonging, eleven dimensions have been proposed [26] for leaders in multilingual schools to consider. The 11 dimensions are:

7.1 Welcomed

First impressions matter, and for our students how they greeted when they arrive at our schools is important. Whether the student is on time, late, or returning after missing school, the ways in which we welcome them can positively impact each student.

7.2 Invited

Leaders should evaluate what student voices are and are not represented in academic and extra-curricular clubs. Multilingual students should know that they are invited to participate and lead clubs, and school policies and practices should reflect this.

7.3 Present

It’s hard for students to belong if they are missing school. Attendance is critical, and so it’s important for leaders to analyze the ways in which their school’s policies and practices prioritize instructional time rather than disciplinary actions that remove students from class.

7.4 Known

Building healthy, growth producing relationships is beneficial. For multilingual learners, it’s important that educators take the time to know them beyond the surface-level and recognize their strengths, what they have to contribute from their unique perspectives and lived experiences to class. This shifts the focus from identifying deficits, towards one that focuses on the strengths that can be leveraged to support the learning of multilingual students.

7.5 Accepted

School leaders should work with their teachers to seek ways in which they can recognize and celebrate the unique characteristics and identities of their students. The intent and actions should align, simple welcoming messaging should be reflected in the language and actions of educators.

7.6 Involved

Collaboration and engagement doesn’t happen by chance. Rather, educators should consider student group configurations that promote collaboration, shared learning, common goals, and make appropriate scaffolding supports available. These structures and resources can facilitate multilingual learners to actively engage and contribute to the learning experience.

7.7 Heard

It’s important to seek input from multilingual learners, and to keep in mind the supports that students might need in order to respond. However, it’s how we act with their input that is key. Input should be sought after, and it should result in actions that benefit students. The ways in which input is collected is also important. Leaders should consider a variety of ways to collect preferences and perspectives from multilingual students. Online polls in class or through social media, asking for volunteer, or calling on students in class for input are some of the ways to collect their insights.

7.8 Supported

Do multilingual students know where to go for help? Having high expectations for students is important, and so providing the appropriate scaffolds is critical to support their learning. Providing scaffolds communicates to students that they belong, and how they can contribute to the learning taking place.

7.9 Befriended

Educators have the opportunity to create group formations that foster friendships among students and change group structures when they notice they are not healthy—where there may be instances of bullying. Educators can be expert noticers in situations and facilitate repairing relationships if harm is done.

7.10 Needed

Multilingual learners should know they are needed, that they have something to contribute. Classroom responsibilities, opportunities to help peers, or being involved in community projects can help reinforce a sense of belonging.

7.11 Loved

We’re not talking about romantic love. Rather about love of self, or as one of the eight types of love that the Greeks identified. The love for humanity, and for self—referred to as agape. Multilingual learners should feel loved in a place where they belong.

7.12 Creating a vision of belonging

It’s important for teachers to be involved in the conversations and decisions that shape the vision of a multilingual school. A key element to a school’s culture is the shared belief of belonging. We facilitated a series of professional learning events at our school and invited the staff to be part of a process to re-envision what belonging means at the school. To do so, we started by asking teachers to reflect on their lived experiences specific to being welcomed by an educator in their life. We asked them to describe what that educator did that made them feel welcomed, and that meant to them. Then, we asked them to think about the actions that could be taken at the school to fosters a strong sense of belonging for all students. We asked each teacher to reflect individually and identify factors that contributed to their experiences, and then we asked teachers to share their reflections, and collectively craft a definition they agree upon that describes their shared belief about what a healthy teacher and student relationship should be.

The teachers’ responses were documented individually and then collectively as they discussed, negotiated, clarified, and crafted their agreed upon definition. What resulted was a statement that ultimately represented all teachers, their shared belief, and their commitment:

We seek to cultivate a dynamic learning environment where linguistic diversity is celebrated and leveraged for holistic growth. We are committed to fostering linguistic proficiency, cultural appreciation, and academic excellence across multiple languages, equipping students with the skills and perspectives needed to thrive in an interconnected world. Through innovative teaching methods and a supportive community, we nurture curiosity, empathy, and respect for all languages and cultures. Together, we inspire a passion for lifelong learning and empower our students to become compassionate leaders, effective communicators, and engaged global citizens.

Following the development of their collective definition, teachers then engaged in their professional learning communities to further define their individual and group action plan to contribute to supporting the broader school vision on belonging. Each group was asked to identify a priority or concern based on one of the eleven dimensions of belonging. Based on their group’s agreed upon priority, they then proposed strategies they could put into action, and further defined steps they could take individually, and what others could do to support as well. Their action plan included measures that they could use to help determine their progress individually, and the impact on students.

One PLC+ team took on the dimension of being needed. They named the common challenge as being one where multilingual learners were rarely asked to provide help and assistance to others. In order to change this dynamic, they adopted weekly 15-minute classwide peer tutoring sessions called Mastery Mondays. All students were trained on how to provide tutoring supports to one another, as well as how to accept supports. There was a special emphasis on ensuring that multilingual learners were placed in the role of tutoring, not just receiving tutoring. A different PLC+ team chose the dimension of being heard. The teachers on this mathematics team taught a unit on survey research and the use of data to make decisions. Student teams developed survey instruments to gather feedback and insights from their classmates in grades 9–12. Many of their questions concerned issues specific to multilinguistic learners. Armed with data, student representatives shared results with the student governance and with school administrators. Collaborating with one another, school leaders and student governance put into place three policies related to strengthening their multilinguistic school:

1. An improved language access policy to ensure equitable access to educational information for families, regardless of their language background. This policy outlined procedures for providing language support, language assistance programs, and translation services for communication with parents.

2. A series of student-led cultural competence trainings for classmates and staff. With assistance from school leaders, students developed and now run an annual Day of Understanding at the local convention center. Students advise on the hiring of keynote speakers, and host sessions on various aspects of the cultures and languages represented at the school.

3. Development of a language Maintenance and enrichment policy focused on maintaining and enriching students’ proficiency in their home or heritage languages alongside the acquisition of additional languages. This policy includes strategies for integrating students’ home languages into the curriculum, providing opportunities for language enrichment activities, and promoting the value of multilingualism within the school community.

8. Conclusion

A multilingual school must have an organizational perspective that reflects and embodies multilingual identities. To do so requires that the school itself adopts its own identity as a multilingual school, not just a school with a certain percentage of students learning a new language. The 3-E framework of evaluation, emotions, and experiences should be evidenced in the policies and practices of the school and its leaders (Table 2) [4, 5].

Dimension of multilingual identity	Organizational identity	Organizational practice
Evaluative	How do we leverage the use of multiple languages in our school?	Use professional learning communities to interrogate data beyond single measures of language proficiency.
Emotional	How do we foster belonging in our school such that all multilingual learners benefit?	Invest in policies that promote belonging for all students.
Experiential	How do we ensure that all languages are welcomed and celebrated throughout the school day?	Create continuous improvements processes (e.g., collective efficacy cycles, learning walks, microteaching) to ensure high expectations practices are enacted for multilingual learners.

Table 2.

Dimensions of Multilingual Identity.

The shift in expectations for school leaders in multilingual schools, and three areas to help frame their approaches in supporting the instructional needs at their sites through professional development, coaching, and feedback. In addition, we offered considerations for leaders in creating schools that foster a strong sense of belonging. The actions presented in this chapter offer leaders much to consider in the ways in which they set a tone of high expectations, high support, and high collaboration for the teachers they lead. As Carter noted in 2022, “We thrive in the midst of community.” School leaders can create that community.