Building Connections by Teaching Language at a Two-Way Immersion School in the Southeast: Laying the Groundwork for Third Spaces Among Parents

• In Event: 14.043 - Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: 14.043-20 - Roundtable 2: Language

Abstract

One emerging issue of dual-language or two-way immersion (TWI) programs is the extent to which TWI schools are able to bring together children and parents from differing socio-economic, cultural, and racial groups while meeting the needs and interests of English dominant and Spanish dominant communities. Using the theoretical lens of third space theory (Bhabha, 1994), this paper shares the findings from a year-long qualitative case study during 2013-2014 to examine to what extent the Spanish/English parent language classes at a TWI elementary school in the southeastern United States provided spaces for parents to forge new relationships and foster cross-cultural understanding. It also explores the factors of subtractive schooling (Valenzuela, 1999) that simultaneously unraveled connections between parents and with the school.

Author

• Alison McGlinn Turner, North Carolina State University