In our book Dual Language Tandem Teaching: Coordinating Instruction across Languages through Cross-Linguistic Pedagogies, we introduce six Big Ideas of Tandem Teaching. Our third Big Idea is that effective Tandem Teaching involves walking the walk of the third goal of sociocultural competence. In other words, Tandem Teaching provides dual language teachers with the opportunity and the responsibility to experience and model the third goal. If we expect our students to develop sociocultural competence, then we as educators are similarly called upon to develop and model it in our Tandem Teaching relationships, in our relationships with other colleagues, and with our students and their families. Among other things, this involves paying attention to and fostering relationships, affirming our own identities and those of our partner, recognizing and respecting differences, engaging in perspective-taking, and considering how differences in power and privilege can impact individuals and relationships.
Recognizing that you and your teaching partner are part of a single instructional system and that the instructional choices you make have implications for your partner requires Tandem Teachers to be in sync with one another. For example, Tandem Teachers must work together to engage in cross-linguistic curriculum mapping. This process is complex, time-consuming, and challenging, and may bring strong emotions and interpersonal conflict to the forefront. Developing awareness of the interpersonal and sociocultural dimensions of this type of intense collaborative work, and seeking out strategies to address them, are ways Tandem Teachers walk the walk of the third goal.
In another example, a typical imbalance in the Tandem Teaching partnership involves the status and availability of materials in the partner language. While English teachers typically are provided with curricular materials from the district, sometimes including slide decks and other teaching resources that reduce their planning demands, partner language teachers rarely benefit from this type of support. It is very common for partner language teachers to have to devote a considerable amount of time and energy to identifying and/or creating curricular materials and assessments in the partner language, and adapting strategies and resources provided through professional development activities to their work as dual language teachers. For partner languages other than Spanish, these demands are magnified. Similarly, because the partner language teacher is more likely to be bilingual than the English teacher, it often falls to that teacher to create newsletters and carry out all other family communication in that language, and to be present at any meetings that involve family members who are monolingual or dominant in the partner language.
One way to notice and address these imbalances is to use a meeting agenda template that involves listing all of the upcoming action items. Seeing the list clearly in front of you brings to the surface the potential disproportionality in workload for the English and partner language teachers, and provides an opportunity to redistribute tasks to make the workload more equitable. In addition, reserving space in the planning meetings for relationship-building helps Tandem Teachers to foster interpersonal connections with one another and with students and their families. For example, Tandem Teachers might take a few minutes at the beginning of a meeting to express gratitude to one another for a recent act of kindness or support. Both of these ideas are exemplified in this model meeting agenda.
Reprinted with permission, Howard & Simpson (2024).
Administrators can support Tandem Teachers by providing activities for them to learn more about one another’s work styles, communication styles, and preferred approaches for conflict resolution. Helping teachers understand more about themselves and one another will make the team stronger and support everyone in utilizing their strengths to navigate challenges. Tandem Teachers who don’t get along may struggle to co-plan effectively and end up teaching in more of a parallel monolingual way. Supporting the interpersonal aspect of Tandem Teaching and helping teachers walk the walk of the third goal of dual language education can go a long way towards helping them coordinate curriculum, instruction, and assessment effectively across languages.