Education Commons^™

Bilingual Education Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Educational Climate And Policies In The United States And Spain, Miguel Fernández Álvarez, Amanda Montes, Other Co-Authors

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Access to high-quality bilingual education is critical and has evolved in many different ways during the last decades. Given recent efforts to enhance bilingual education, it is important to examine the perceptions of the current education workforce who serve students in bilingual education programs. A hundred and sixty-four bilingual education professionals from Spain and the U.S. participated in the research. They completed a questionnaire about the effect of educational climate and policies in their own countries. Findings show that teachers from Spain rate bilingual education higher than teachers from the U.S. There are significant differences in their general perceptions and …

Foundations Of Bilingual And Bicultural Education, Demet Arpacik

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus is for a course about Bilingual/Bicultural education, including history, goals, models, rationale, legal and legislative basis, linguistic principles, and language evaluation. Current issues and research findings in bilingual/bicultural education are also included.

Beyond Language And Academics: Investigating Teachers’ Preparation To Promote The Social-Emotional Well-Being Of Emergent Bilingual Learners, Amy J. Heineke, Elizabeth Vera

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

In recent years, institutions have responded to changing school populations by preparing teachers for the growing number of emergent bilingual learners (EBLs). But this preparation largely focuses on supporting students’ academic learning and language development, despite enhanced attention to social-emotional well-being in wider educational circles. This comparative case study seeks to understand whether and how teachers are prepared to facilitate this integral component of student learning in five schools with linguistically diverse populations and varied program models to serve EBLs. We first probe how teachers draw from various facets of their preparation to support EBLs’ social-emotional well-being, including teacher education, …

Representing Percents And Personas: Designing Syncretic Curricula For Modeling And Statistical Reasoning, Sarah Radke, Sara Vogel, Christopher Hoadley, Jasmine Ma

Publications and Research

Syncretic literacy can link everyday and scientific concepts in student learning. In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a curricular unit in a bilingual middle school science class developed to help students link everyday conceptions, conceptions from math, science, and computer science, and their own broad linguistic repertoires to support syncretic literacy in modeling and statistics in a unit on post-Hurricane Maria outmigration from Puerto Rico. The unit invited students to use printed maps, physical objects, computer code, and simulations to explore concepts such as percentages and scientific models, framed by an approach from translanguaging pedagogy. Qualitative …

Languages, Literacies, And Literate Programming: Can We Use The Latest Theories On How Bilingual People Learn To Help Us Teach Computational Literacies?, Sara Vogel, Christopher Hoadley, Ana Rebeca Castillo, Laura Ascenzi-Moreno

Publications and Research

Background and Context: In this theory paper, we explore the concept of translanguaging from bilingual education, and its implications for teaching and learning programming and computing in especially computer science (CS) for all initiatives.

Objective: We use translanguaging to examine how programming is and isn’t like using human languages. We frame CS as computational literacies. We describe a pedagogical approach for teaching computational literacies.

Method: We review theory from applied linguistics, literacy, and computational literacy. We provide a design narrative of our pedagogical approach by describing activities from bilingual middle school classrooms integrating Scratch into academic subjects.

Findings: Translanguaging pedagogy …

Translanguaging Through Story: Empowering Children To Use Their Full Language Repertoire, Erin E. Flynn, Selena L. Hoy, Jessica L. Lea, Monica A. Garcia

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Translanguaging through story documents the progression of an emerging bilingual preschooler who draws on his full linguistic repertoire to story his experiences with others. Over the course of the school year, Diego progresses in his ability to tell a complete story in both English and Spanish. Repeated engagement in storytelling provides the support needed for Diego to continue and extend ideas in his stories and in his drawing and play. The case shows how opening the space for children to use their full language repertoire enables a child to reciprocally develop named languages like English and Spanish as he improves …

Prioritizing Multilingualism In U.S. Schools: States’ Policy Journeys To Enact The Seal Of Biliteracy, Amy J. Heineke, Kristin J. Davin

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

Fueled by immigration and globalization, the United States has evolved into a nation of linguistically diverse residents; however, English remains the dominant language in schools. A recent language policy initiative emergent in states across the nation, the Seal of Biliteracy challenges English monolingualism by promoting the development of students’ bilingualism and biliteracy by high school graduation. Using narrative inquiry, this study explores the policy journeys that states have taken to enact the Seal of Biliteracy, as educators and stakeholders come together to engage in grassroots policy work. Findings include the collective stories of these efforts to disrupt English-dominant ideologies in …

From English Learner To Spanish Learner: Raciolinguistic Beliefs That Influence Heritage Spanish Speaking Teacher Candidates, Allison Briceño, Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica, Eduardo Muñoz-Muñoz

Teacher Education

This qualitative study explored Spanish-speaking teacher credential students’ beliefs about academic language that might promote or inhibit their decision to become bilingual teachers. Data includes interviews with 11 bilingual teacher candidates who were heritage Spanish speakers. Findings show that most were only aware of English-only educational contexts and did not know that bilingual teaching and the bilingual authorization pathway were options. Their schooling experience fostered English hegemony; even their Spanish classes were pervaded by linguistic purism and elitism. Schools taught them that their registers of Spanish, which they learned at home, were insufficient, inappropriate or incorrect. Consequently, they questioned their …

An Expanded View Of Translanguaging: Leveraging The Dynamic Interactions Between A Young Multilingual Writer And Machine Translation Software, Sara Vogel, Laura Ascenzi-Moreno, Ofelia García

Publications and Research

Two central forces re-shaping education in the 21st century in the United States are the increasingly diverse and rich multilingual practices of students, as well as our growing use of digital technologies to communicate and make meaning (Deumert, 2014; García, Bartlett & Kleifgen, 2007; Jewitt, 2008; New London Group, 1996). Even if much scholarship has focused on the trends of multilingualism and multimodalities as separate entities, there are many intersections. Digital tools like machine translation software are being used in schools by multilingual students, and their often-monolingual teachers. Frameworks for multilingual teaching and learning involving intentional use of machine translation …

Promoting Student Success: Bilingual Education Best Practices And Research Flaws, Lillian Fassero

Senior Honors Theses

This paper first determines the benefits which bilingual education offers and then compares transitional, dual-language, and heritage language maintenance programs. After exploring the outcomes, contexts, and practical implications of the various bilingual programs, this paper explores the oversight in most bilingual studies, which assess students’ syntax and semantics while neglecting their understanding of pragmatics and discourse structures (Maxwell-Reid, 2011). Incorporating information from recent studies which question traditional understandings of bilingualism and argue that biliteracy requires more than grammatical and vocabulary instruction, this paper proposes modifications in current research strategies and suggests best practices for transitional, dual-language, and heritage maintenance programs.

Translanguaging, Sara Vogel, Ofelia García

Publications and Research

Translanguaging is a theoretical lens that offers a different view of bilingualism and multilingualism. The theory posits that rather than possessing two or more autonomous language systems, as has been traditionally thought, bilinguals, multilinguals, and indeed, all users of language, select and deploy particular features from a unitary linguistic repertoire to make meaning and to negotiate particular communicative contexts. Translanguaging also represents an approach to language pedagogy that affirms and leverages students’ diverse and dynamic language practices in teaching and learning.

Educators’ Beliefs About Appropriate Pedagogical Models For Spanish-Speaking Ells Who Differ In Home-Language And English-Language Literacy Abilities, Audrey Figueroa Murphy, Bruce Torff, David Sessions

Curriculum & Instruction Faculty Publications

Survey research (n = 366) examined educators’ beliefs about the efficacy of five pedagogical models (English as a second language (ESL) self-contained, ESL push-in, ESL pullout, bilingual, and dual language) for English language learners who differ in English literacy proficiency and home-language abilities (delimited to Spanish in this research). Dual language was preferred when students have high English proficiency; this effect was extremely strong for students who are also proficient in Spanish, and moderate when students’ Spanish skills are low. Bilingual education was moderately favored when English is low and Spanish is high. ESL self-contained was moderately favored when students …

Math Is More Than Numbers: Beginning Bilingual Teachers’ Mathematics Teaching Practices And Their Opportunities To Learn, Cathery Yeh

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In this article, the author provides results from a 3-year, longitudinal study that examined two novice bilingual teachers’ mathematics teaching practices and their professional opportunities to learn to teach. Primary data sources included videotaped mathematics lessons, teacher interviews, and field notes of their teacher preparation methods courses. Findings revealed that the teachers were oriented toward differing views of learning that shaped how they organized students’ learning of language and mathematics during classroom instruction. While both teachers used similar teaching strategies to support students’ development of mathematics specific literacies, there were variances in how the learners were positioned within the classroom …

Translanguaging: Definitions, Implications, And Further Needs In Burgeoning Inquiry, Luis E. Poza

Faculty Publications

The term translanguaging has appeared with growing frequency in research about the education of linguistic minority students. Amid increasing application of the term, concern emerges regarding the consistency of its definitions and characterizations, specifically with respect to the term’s social justice implications, which risk dilution. Early instances (García, 2007, 2009a) position the term as both a pedagogical strategy for supporting multilingual learners and a critique of existing conceptualizations of language and bilingualism that have historically marginalized particular speech communities. In this review of recent literature, I analyze 53 texts published between 1996 and 2014 for their definitions, exemplifications, and attributed …

Vocabulary And Sentence Structure In Emergent Spanish Reading, Allison Briceño

Faculty Publications

Dual language and bilingual education programs are increasing in number and popularity across the country. However, little information is available on how to teach children to read and write in Spanish. This article explores some of the similarities and differences in vocabulary and sentence structure in Spanish and English and considers the resulting implications for teaching emergent Spanish literacy. Understanding linguistic aspects of both languages enables teachers to better support the development of biliteracy and bilingualism.

Bilingual Education: History, Controversies, And The Philosophies That Drive It, Dia Gary

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

The purpose of this literature review is to examine the history of bilingual education. The literature review will investigate the various controversies that surround bilingual education, and the philosophical forces behind bilingual education.

Prospects For Improving Bilingual Education: An Analysis Of Conditions Surrounding Bilingual Education Programs In U.S. Public Schools, Jennifer A. Gorman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Bilingual education is a subject of debate in education. Some claim that bilingual education programs are detrimental to students, but decades of research supports the benefits of bilingualism and bilingual education for both English Language Learners and monolingual English speakers. The U.S. does not have bilingual education programs in proportion to the needs that these programs could meet for students in public schools. If bilingualism is beneficial, then why do we not have more bilingual education programs? Research extensively covers the internal components of bilingual education programs but only touches on the effect of the external conditions necessary for program …

Spiral Of Decline Or “Beacon Of Hope:” Stories Of School Choice In A Dual Language School, Timothy Pearson, Jennifer R. Wolgemuth, Soria Elizabeth Colomer

Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications

Public schools in some areas of the U.S. are as segregated as they were prior to court-ordered busing, in part due to school choice policies that appear to exacerbate extant segregation. In particular, Latina/o students are increasingly isolated in schools characterized as being in cycles of decline. Our case study of one such school is based on a reanalysis of interview, focus group, and survey data from three research and evaluation projects. We constructed accounts of parents’ decisions to leave and remain at Martinez Elementary, a segregated dual language school experiencing increases in Latina/o and low socio-economic student enrollment and …

Moisés Sáenz: Vigencia De Su Legado (English Translation), Edmund T. Hamann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This book mainly offers the biography of Moisés Sáenz (1888-1941), founding architect of Mexico's system of public schooling and former student of John Dewey, describing in particular his roles in creating rural schools, initiating bilingual education (for Mexico's indigenous populations), and experimenting with linkages between schooling and community development. The volume also includes the author's reflection on the relevance of learning about Profr. Sáenz for his own intellectual trajectory (which includes studying the movement of students between Mexico and the US) and reflections by Mexican educators Humberto Leal Martinez and Juan Sánchez García.

Curriculum Development In A Heritage Language Community-Based School: A Qualitative Inquiry Regarding A Brazilian-Portuguese Program In South Florida, Ivian Destro Boruchowski

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research aimed to describe, understand, and discuss the curriculum development process of a Brazilian-Portuguese heritage language community-based school in South Florida.

This study was guided by the following research questions: (a) What roles does this HL community-based school aim to play for its students? This investigation was also related to the subsidiary question: (b) How does this HL community-based school organize its curriculum development process? In order to explore these research questions, I observed and interviewed teachers and coordinators based on a qualitative research approach.

I analyzed the interviews’ transcripts, and the program’s website with a central focus of …

Response To Intervention For English Learners: Big Ideas And Myth Busters, Julie Esparza Brown

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation focuses on the key features of response to intervention (RTI)

Perspectivas Contradictorias: La Necesidad De Reconfigurar La Educación Bilingüe En Estados Unidos En El Siglo Xxi, Margaret Hutchison

Hispanic Studies Honors Projects

The current-day field of Bilingual Education in the US finds itself at a critical juncture. While some proponents of Bilingual Education emphasize its ability to form multilingual students for academic and economic success on a global stage, a contrasting perspective within the field emphasizes the importance of Bilingual Education to best support the achievement of language-minority students in particular. Interviews with three employees of St. Paul Public Schools in St. Paul, Minnesota, who are each involved with the implementation of a Bilingual Education program indicate the existence of this ideological split within the local context of St. Paul. This division …

Linguistic Demography And Attitudinal Dimensions Of Intergenerational Transmission Of Guaraní And Spanish In Paraguay, Shaw N. Gynan

Modern & Classical Languages

Language data from the 2002 Paraguayan census ate analyzed in order to determine differential patterns of intergenerational transmission of Guaraní and Spanish. The census data are interpreted in light of the results of a survey of 168 bilingual parents on their language identity, language attitudes and language practices. In households identified by the census as Guaraní-dominant, a majority of children is reported to speak only Spanish. The vast majority of parents reports using a single language in the home. The sample that was surveyed for the language attitudes study consisted of couples who identified themselves as either Guaraní-dominant, Spanish-dominant or …

Ethics, Equity, And English-Language Learners: A Decision-Making Framework, Shelly Chabon, Julie Esparza Brown, Christina E. Gildersleeve-Neumann

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

This articles addresses challenges related to clinical decision-making in intervention with English-language learners and their families.

Building On The Cultural And Linguistic Capital Of English Learner (El) Students, Kathryn Brooks, Katya Karathanos

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

...While our nation has a long history of competing ideologies and political controversies related to English immersion (in which the primary language of instruction is English) programs versus bilingual education, scholars contend that these two educational approaches need not be conceptualized as dichotomous. Rather, when educators consider what approaches and strategies will provide the best opportunities for particular students to learn in particular contexts, they must bear in mind that for EL students, their native languages and cultures are key resources to draw upon for teaching both content and language (Lucas & Katz, 1994). They must also think about how …

Bilingual Education And English Proficiency, Christopher Jepsen

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

English Learners, students who are not proficient in English and speak a non-English language at home, make up more than 10 percent of the nation’s K-12 student body. Achieving proficiency in English for these students is a major goal of both state and federal education policy, motivating the provision of bilingual education policies. Using data for nearly 500,000 English Learners from California, I show that students in bilingual education have substantially lower English proficiency than other English Learners in first and second grades. In contrast, there is little difference between bilingual education and other programs for students in grades three …

Promoting Bilingualism In School In Two Different Contexts: The English-Spanish Bilingual Programs In The United States, Francisco Ramos

Education Faculty Works

Education authorities in several American states and the Andalusian autonomous community have made great efforts to implement programs in their territories bilingual in English and Spanish in order to improve the language proficiency of students in both languages. American programs were first established in the early 60s Andalusians, meanwhile, they were recently created. This article briefly describes the theoretical foundation, goals, origin and distribution of languages in the programs. The article concludes with a summary of studies conducted in the United States on different aspects of programs that can serve as a guide for those wishing Andalusian scholars to investigate …

Leveling The Field: Using Rubrics To Achieve Greater Equity In Teaching And Grading, Dannelle D. Stevens, Antonia Levi

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rubrics can be used to assure greater consistency in grading and as a teaching tool to promote greater equity, especially with students who are first generation and /or non-native speakers of English.

The Vote On Bilingual Education And Latino Identity In Massachusetts, Jorge Capetillo-Ponce

Gastón Institute Publications

In November 2002, the Massachusetts electorate voted overwhelmingly to pass Referendum Ballot Question 2 (Q. 2), sponsored by California millionaire Ron Unz. The passage of this initiative by close to 70% of the voters effectively ended bilingual education in the state as it had been known for thirty years. Exit polling done at selected cities in Massachusetts by the Mauricio Gaston Institute and UMass Poll revealed, however, that out of a total 1,491 Latinos polled, a vast majority of them, around 93%, had voted in favor of rejecting Q. 2 and keeping bilingual education in place.

Indeed, Q. 2 became …

Filipino Parents’ Opinions About Bilingualism And Bilingual Education Programs: Does Information Affect Support?, Francisco Ramos

Education Faculty Works

Seventy-eight Filipino parents were surveyed on their opinions about bilingualism, the underlying principles of bilingual education, and placement of students in instructional programs that include a native language component. Fifty-two parents were in the comparison group, and twenty-six parents were in the experimental group. Parents in the experimental group received a phone call during which the rationale and objectives of bilingual programs were explained to them. Support for the underlying principles of bilingual education was stronger among the parents in the group. A large number of the parents had never received any information about programs that included a native language …