Planning Microlevel Language Education Reform in New Diaspora Sites: Two-Way Immersion Education in the Rural Midwest

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: Bilingual Education Research: Theory, Policy, and Practice Poster Session

Abstract

U.S. rural schools experiencing a recent flow of English language learners represent salient new contexts for language policy implementation. Drawing on teacher/administrator personal narratives, this study describes a case of primarily White teachers’ “correction” of macrolevel language policies and development of a Two-Way Immersion program in rural Illinois. It traces (1) the processes educators experienced when enacting state language policies with limited educational resources and professional expertise; (2) how the implementation of subtractive bilingual education and professional development opportunities shaped teachers’ language ideologies and transformed them into resisters of top-down mandates and enactors of a bottom-up dual language policy; and (3) how program implementation was constrained by social forces, as parents challenged teachers’ choice of bilingual teaching for all children.

Author

• Gloria Ann Delany-Barmann, Western Illinois University