ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the results of a study identifying shifts in teacher beliefs as espoused in digital texts collected through online professional development (eWorkshop) for in-service teachers. Three case studies were conducted on randomly selected participants who enrolled in the “Learning Through Two Languages” eWorkshop and reported (on a post-eWorkshop survey) either no change, moderate, or high levels of change in their perspectives and practices working with multilingual learners due to their eWorkshop participation. Demonstrated via their eWorkshop assignments and threaded discussions, results indicate varying levels of shifts in ideologies regarding multilingualism and multilingual students, particularly in relationship to perspectives held at the onset of the eWorkshop as well as participant willingness to try new approaches. Overall, this study suggests the importance of existing and evolving ideologies and perspectives in teacher development for working with multilingual learners as well as the complexities of engaging those ideologies and perspectives.
