Communities of Practice in a Network of Catholic Bilingual Schools

• In Event: Catholic Education Through an International Lens and From Within Urban Communities

Abstract

Public and private schools, including Catholic schools, typically fail to provide equitable educational opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students. This paper reviews a nascent effort to ameliorate this problem by presenting a case study of the Two Way Immersion Network of Catholic Schools initiative (TWIN-CS). TWIN-CS is a multi-year effort forming a national network of Catholic elementary schools implementing a two-way immersion model. With TWIN-CS as the focus, we explore how communities of practice emerge within a network of schools striving to effectively educate culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Authors

• Martin Scanlan, Boston College

• Minsong Kim, Boston College

• Caroline Vuilleumier, Boston College

• Mary Bridget Burns, Boston College