The present study analyzed the writing of emergent bilingual second grade students enrolled in a two-way dual language bilingual education program. Writing samples were analyzed holistically and cross-linguistic strategies were documented that support the claims that the process of developing biliteracy is dynamic and singular. In addition, Spanish language arts classes were observed and teacher interviews were conducted in order to contextualize the emergent bilinguals’ writing process. A preference for English was documented during classroom observations as well as in the writing samples collected. Of the 16 emergent bilingual second graders, only four Spanish-dominant students chose to write in both languages. The teacher’s stated concerns over the Spanish proficiency of her English-dominant students led her to alter her instruction during Spanish language arts, deferring to English. The implications of this shift to English for the developing biliteracy of emergent bilinguals are discussed. / text

This is a longitudinal study that examines children's perspectives on the development of biliteracy. The theories of children as they learn through two languages reflect a crucial source of knowledge that has received little attention in the research. This study is concerned with the ways in which children learn to read and write in two languages for academic and social purposes as they encounter discourse laden with ideological contradictions.Using a case study design, the study draws on theoretical frameworks from the fields of language socialization, biliteracy, dual language education, and middle school literacy. By showing that children hold sophisticated notions of biliteracy, transforming the ways that language, oral and written become defined and perceived, the research presented here demonstrates that biliteracy is a complex phenomenon that includes meaning-making in two languages and cultures.The study triangulates ethnographic data from interviews with students, families and teachers, participant observation in classrooms, literacy instruction, other school domains, and document and archival analysis. These data indicate that there are multiple paths to biliteracy and that home and school literacy practices can mediate the effects of low income status on literacy development. Additional findings indicate that curriculum and instruction that consistently support minority language literacy promote the development of additive biliteracy in both language majority and language minority students.

This research examines the bilingual and biliterate trajectories of graduates of a K-5 dual language immersion program who are now young adults. Their experiences as emergent bilinguals within the setting of their elementary school was foundational for their long-term academic outcomes and their deep metapragmatic awareness of simultaneous linguistic experiences. This study explores where these students are now, what happened since they left this particular dual language program, and how their language practices and ideologies have shifted over time and shaped their current practices and ideologies surrounding language and literacy across time and space. Using qualitative methodology, this study draws on frameworks of New Literacy Studies, communities of practice, language ideologies, capital, and language-as-resource to highlight how bilingualism and biliteracy are complex phenomena, and how the multiple, complex, and competing forces at play ultimately shape language and literacy. This study examines the fluidity of how resources for learning are transformed across multiple landscapes and how important insights arise concerning how retrospective analysis of previous learning environments have shaped students' current lived experiences. Findings illustrate the dynamic nature of bilingualism not through discreet domains of language use in bounded contexts, but fluidly moving across fields in remarkable ways. Additional findings underscore the mobilities of language and literacy and how ideologies are neither static nor fixed, but continuously evolving in fluid and dynamic processes.

This paper studies the educational effect of the two-way immersion dual language programs (DLE) in California’s public elementary school system using statewide testing scores as the common measurement tool. The average California Test Standards (CTS) test scores for English language arts (ELA), Mathematics and Science on the California statewide assessment, STAR, for 5th graders in the years 2009-2012, were utilized to compare student achievement for dual language participants to students in similar schools in the same district. Similar schools are matched to the participating schools by the state assigned schools ranking. This study evaluated DLE programs in terms of academic achievement and its effect on minimize the achievement gap between English learners (ELL) and English speakers (ES). The analysis consists of a series of OLS regression models that evaluates test scores on a series of variables that can help the state government assess quality of education received by DLE participants. I found a highly statistically significant correlation between ES’s achievement level and DLE participation, this relationship was consistent even when I considered scores from the far right tail of the achievement distribution. A positive but not statistically significant correlation was found for ELL in the participating schools. It should be noted that in this study, only those student who had yet to be identified as English proficient were considered under the ELL subgroup. Therefore, the end of the year examination might be testing language proficiency more than academic achievement. Nevertheless, DLE was found to be positive for all regressions.

The purpose of this study was to understand how young children bridge belonging and language in a dual language immersion (DLI) setting. I developed a 10-week ethnographic study in a Spanish-English third-grade class in the Northeast of the U.S. where data was collected in the form of field notes, interviews, and artifacts. Here I explored the way language instruction and student participation influenced the development of the teacher and students’ multiple identities. The findings of this study suggest that emergent bilinguals’ identity development derives from the process built through multiple dialogic classroom instruction and practices. The products of this process emphasize the sense of belonging and language practices as main components of students’ hybrid and fluid identities. This research contributes to the field of identity development and DLI studies in terms of knowledge, policy, and practices. In particular, the findings of this study: (a) increase our knowledge of students’ multiple identities development in DLI settings; (b) impact policy implementation in elementary schools; and (c) reveal classroom strategies and successful instructions in elementary education.

This research concerns a Kuna-Spanish bilingual elementary school in Panama City, founded for Kuna children by Kuna teachers. Based on ethnographic and linguistic fieldwork, this research investigates the socio-cultural context for the emergence of the school and the ways that students, teachers and parents, together with Kuna elders, navigate the path of indigenous schooling. The process of negotiating linguistic and cultural meanings in Kuna-language education includes both "traditionalized" Kuna forms of learning and informal education in and around the home. These various foundations of Kuna knowledge, from the use of Kuna oral history to eating Kuna food in the home, are incorporated into the curriculum in various ways, highlighting the potential of schooling as a place of knowledge production for indigenous peoples that is culturally inclusive. At the same time, the manner in which Kuna identity is indexed in the school is uneven. It is liberating in some moments while very restrictive in others, reflecting similar patterns, often in relation to state-sponsored notions of "multiculturalism" in the Kuna community and in the broader context of Panamanian society. In order to fully explore the complexities of the school and its workings, this research explores the Kuna experience in Panama City, where more than half of the Kuna population currently resides. This dissertation is a contribution to the fields of linguistic anthropology and the anthropology of education, analyzing the case of an urban Kuna school that employs both Western and indigenous pedagogy and content, with specific implications for studies of language socialization, bilingual education and educational politics for indigenous peoples. / text

This case study explores the Spanish speaking and writing practices of middle-school Latina/o youth in Miami, Florida. Its ethnographic approach aims to re-present students learning English as a second language as emerging bilinguals (Escamilla, 2006; García, 2009) who access, maintain, and develop their first language to varying degrees while learning English. Through my position as an attached member (Wax, 1971) of a Spanish-English dual language school, I examined students' Spanish production within larger socio-historical and institutional frames of reference. Shadowing students in their Spanish-instruction classes (e.g., Mathematics, Humanities, and Spanish), I drew from observations, student work, interviews with students, educators and parents, and student focus groups. Analysis of data sources reveal that students, together with influential adults, created and received messages about language--ideologies of language as standard, evolving, and dynamic. Youth engaged in normative translanguaging and transliteracy practices in mathematics class; confronted institutionally-created labels and articulated their bilingual identities as members of two language programs; and developed their Spanish writing as part of varying, yet often prescriptive, literacy instruction. This study adds to the limited research on Latina/o middle-school experiences and K-12 heritage language education. This research has pedagogical and language policy implications for those who educate and oversee the education of bilingual youth.

abstract: This multilevel, institutional case study used ethnographic methods to explore the intersections of local language policies and emergent bilingual students’ identities in dual language and structured English immersion (SEI) classrooms at one urban elementary school. Using a sociocultural policy approach as means to explore the ways that educational language policies are appropriated and practiced in schools and classrooms and an intersectional literacy identity framework, I engaged in a multilevel qualitative analysis of one school, two fifth-grade classrooms, and four focal emergent bilingual students. At the school and classroom levels, I sought to understand the ways educators practiced and enacted language policies as well as how they conceptualized (bi)literacy for emergent bilingual students. At the student level, I engaged in identity-text writing sessions designed around student interests yet aligned with the opinion/argumentation writing style the students were working on in class at the time of data collection. Additionally, I conducted one-on-one interviews with the participants at each level of analysis (i.e. school-level, classroom-level, and student-level). The primary data analysis sources included participant interviews, classroom observations, and student identity-text artifacts. Findings highlight the dynamic in-school and classroom-level realities of emergent bilingual students in an Arizona educational-language policy context. Specifically, at the school level, there was an ongoing tension between compliance and resistance to state-mandated policies for emergent bilingual students. At the school and classroom levels, there were distinct differences in the ways students across the two classrooms were positioned within the larger school environment as well as variation surrounding how language and culture were positioned as a resource in each classroom context. The role of teachers as language policymakers is also explored through the findings. Analysis of student texts revealed the centrality of intersectional student identities throughout the writing processes. The discussion and conclusions more broadly address implications for educational practice, policy, and future research directions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2018

Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been used to help predict and explain human behavior in specific situations. According to the TPB model, behavior is based on behavioral intention and the three determinants to behavioral intention include attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. According to TPB, perceived behavioral control moderates the effect of behavioral intentions on behavior. Previous research has focused on the application of TPB to health behaviors, although some research has been done in educational situations. In addition, dual language immersion (DLI) programs are increasing in popularity, particularly in Utah. The Utah model begins in first grade, and follows a 50/50 model. Because of its researched based program, Utah has become a recognized leader in the field of DLI through its focus on sufficient instruction time, active cognitive engagement, motivation, continuity of learning, and cultural interaction. However, little is known about the factors that motivate parents to enroll their children in DLI. The current study uses longitudinal survey methodology to evaluate how the TPB applies to parents’ intentions and behavior of enrollment in DLI (N = 74). Approximately one third of participants took steps towards enrollment. Results indicate that parental attitudes significantly influenced behavioral intentions to enroll. In addition, for every one-unit increase in behavioral intentions, there was a 2.78 greater likelihood in enrollment. Limitations of sample size and difficulties of recruitment are discussed. Implications of the findings and areas for future research are also presented.

Two-Way Immersion (TWI) programs offer settings and goals that foster multilingual and multicultural communities; however, communities are complex and fluid, and have aspects that may or may not promote equitable education and learning. This research analyzes the actions and interactions of a group of first grade students to address how community develops during the first semester of implementation of a TWI program. Theoretical notions of figured worlds and communities of practice frame the analysis of ethnographic data to provide insight into the complex social and pedagogical dynamics of this setting 1) through conversations with teachers, 2) through observations of teacher-student interactions during teacher-centered activities, and 3) through observations of students interacting with less teacher presence. Findings describe the teachers’ discourses about their students, which centered on issues of equity and dismantling language status hierarchies. The findings also describe practices that the teachers themselves frame as promoting unified, equitable communities; however, analysis was mixed in finding that certain practices appeared to promote unity within the classroom and others appeared to reinforce divisions among students. Key findings also confirm the results of other researchers regarding the positioning of initially bilingual students in TWI as “dual language experts.” This study notes some ramifications of teaching practices and aspects of the specific 50-50 TWI model for the entire community of learners, which, while elevating balanced bilinguals may marginalize English learners and Spanish learners. / text