South Tyrol, which is situated on the border between Austria and Italy, has been considered a 'peace model' by many nation-states since the creation of the province's autonomy statutes. The objective of these statutes was to allow for minority protection of the German- and Ladin-speaking communities while also permitting Austria to be the 'protector' of South Tyrol even though the province is situated in Italy. Another bi-product of these statutes was the creation of the 'separate but equal' education system, which allowed the German-, Italian- and Ladin-speaking communities to have individual schools in order to protect their culture and language identity. In the past several decades, there has been an increase in 'mixed' marriages with members of differing language groups producing bilingual children. Additionally, civil service positions now require that all applicants have a mandatory comprehension of the L2, or in some cases L3, in order to apply for certain posts. As the education system tries to adjust to local concerns regarding the insufficient teaching of the L2 in monolingual education, the concept of South Tyrol as a 'peace model' is brought into question. In this thesis, I examine how the South Tyrolean school system is reflective of society at large as its divided education mirrors the current fissures existent amongst the language communities. With parents looking for alternative measures to instruct their children in the L2, some residents would prefer a bilingual schooling option to encourage inter-group assimilation. Furthermore, I discuss, outside of education, external social factors in the region which impact L2 learning creating language learning 'blocks' and 'victim' versus 'conqueror' mentalities. The objective of this research is to try and understand how South Tyrol continues to be in transition as the province adjusts to more bilingualism despite the historical need to preserve the language minorities.

This thesis investigates the intertextuality of language policy, K-12 TESL pedagogies, and EL identity construction in the perpetuation of unjust TESL practices in these contexts. By examining the power structures of English language ideology through critical discourse analysis of recent California language policy, this thesis demonstrates English language teaching’s intrinsically political nature in K-12 education through negotiations and exchanges of power. Currently, sociolinguistic approaches to TESL and second language acquisition acknowledge the value of language socialization teaching methods. This requires the acceptance of cognition, not as an individual pursuit of knowledge containment and memorization, but cognition as a collaborative and sociohistorically situated practice. Thus, this project also examines the power structures in place that negotiate and enforce these ideologies and how these practices influence pedagogy and EL identity construction. Many English users are second language (L2) users of English yet authorities of English use tend to consist of homogenous, monolingual English users, or English-sacred communities, not L2 users of English. Often, this instigates native speaker (NS) vs. non-native speaker (NNS) dichotomies such as correct vs. in-correct use, and us vs. them dichotomies. These are the same ideologies that permeate the discourse of California’s Proposition 227 and some pedagogies discussed in the data of this research perpetuating culture wars between monolingual and multilingual advocates and users.

In der Dissertation wurden Effekte der zuwanderungsbezogenen Klassenzusammensetzung auf verschiedene Leistungsmaße und psychosoziale Schülermerkmale im Rahmen von drei Zeitschriftenbeiträgen untersucht. In Teilstudie eins wurden Effekte der sozialen und zuwanderungsbezogenen Zusammensetzung auf das Leseverständnis im Verlauf der neunten Klasse und deren Vermittlung durch Merkmale der Unterrichtsqualität analysiert. Der Klassenanteil von Heranwachsenden mit Zuwanderungshintergrund war unter Kontrolle des mittleren sozioökonomischen Status nicht mit der Leseleistung assoziiert. Es zeigten sich Hinweise einer partiellen Vermittlung des Effekts sozialer Zusammensetzung durch das Ausmaß herausfordernden Sprachunterrichts. Teilstudie zwei beschäftigte sich mit Effekten der Zusammensetzung auf die Lernmotivation im Verlauf der neunten Klasse und deren Vermittlung durch das Ausmaß schülerorientierten Unterrichtsklimas. Heranwachsende mit Zuwanderungshintergrund berichteten höhere Motivation, wenn sie Klassen mit einem höheren Anteil von Heranwachsenden mit Zuwanderungshintergrund besuchten. Es zeigten sich keine vermittelten Effekte durch Merkmale des Unterrichtsklimas. In Teilstudie drei wurden der Anteil von Kindern mit Zuwanderungshintergrund und Maße zuwanderungsbezogener Heterogenität in ihrer Assoziation mit Mathematik- und Leseleistung sowie dem Verbundenheitsgefühl mit Peers von Kindern der vierten Klasse verglichen. Es bestanden stärkere negative Effekte des Klassenanteils im Vergleich zu Heterogenitätsmaßen. Bei simultaner Berücksichtigung von Klassenanteil und Heterogenitätsmaßen waren Heterogenitätseffekte größtenteils nicht mehr signifikant. Es zeigten sich jedoch leicht positive Heterogenitätseffekte auf die Mathematikleistung. Es bestanden keine Effektunterschiede zwischen Heterogenitätsmaßen. Die Befunde verweisen auf die Bedeutung der Schulklasse für die akademische Entwicklung sowie für die Erklärung zuwanderungsbezogener Disparitäten im Bildungssystem. / The thesis at hand explored effects of the language-related and ethnic makeup of classrooms on several achievement outcomes as well as psychosocial outcomes in three research articles. The first article investigated effects of socioeconomic and language minority classroom composition on ninth graders’ reading achievement across two measurement points and explored the mediating role of instructional quality. The proportion of minority students had no effect on achievement after controlling for the socioeconomic composition. The results suggest that the effect of the socioeconomic composition on achievement may be mediated partially by the teacher’s focus on language during instruction. The second article focused on effects of the proportion of language minority students on the development of ninth graders’ motivation and the mediating role of a student-oriented climate. The analyses revealed that minority students were increasingly motivated in classrooms with a higher proportion of minority students. The compositional effect was not mediated by the instructional climate. The third article explored various measures of the ethnic makeup of classrooms and their relationship with student outcomes. The proportion of minority students and measures of diversity were compared in their prediction of fourth graders’ achievement in math and reading as well as the feeling of belonging with one’s peers. The proportion of minority students showed stronger negative effects on student outcomes than the diversity measures. Including diversity measures and the proportion of minority students, the diversity effects mostly lost their significance. However, students showed slightly higher levels of math achievement in more diverse classrooms. The various measures of diversity led to similar results. The findings add to the evidence indicating that the classroom learning environment affects students’ academic development and contributes to ethnic disparities in the education system.