Dual-Language Education as Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

• In Event: Examining Issues of Language, Culture, and Power Through Culturally Sustaining and Revitalizing Pedagogies

Abstract

In this study, I explore the classrooms and perspectives of teachers who work with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) 5th grade students in a dual language education program (DLE) at one urban elementary school in Arizona. Specifically, this paper highlights the role of classrooms as cultural spaces in which opportunities for learning occur through bilingual, culturally sustaining pedagogies.

Background

Numerous researchers have found that educators often fail to engage CLD youth due to low expectations, deficit perspectives, and lack of educator awareness of the extensive cultural and linguistic knowledge that students bring to school each day (McCarty, 1989; Moll, 1992; Ladson-Billings, 1995). As a result, scholars have developed diverse pedagogical innovations most often referred to as culturally relevant or sustaining pedagogies (CSP). The diverse approaches that fall under CSP merge curricula and teaching methodologies with the multiple, lived sociocultural realities of students (Paris, 2012).

Methods

In this study, I sought to answer the following research question: In what ways does the DLE program at Amparo Elementary (pseudonym) engage CLD students pedagogically? More specifically, in what ways and forms is CSP incorporated into daily classroom activity?

Over a 15 week period, I used ethnographic methods to collect pertinent documents, engage in classroom observations once a week, and conduct two semi-structured interviews with each teacher (n=2) (Spradley, 1979). Additionally, I wrote extensive field notes and collected video data as a part of the observations.

Both teachers were Spanish speaking Latinas with five and eleven years of teaching experience respectively. One taught the English portion of the day and the other the Spanish portion. Their classrooms included approximately 60 CLD students enrolled in a 50:50 dual language program. For data analysis, all audio recorded data was transcribed verbatim and later all data were coded thematically in three distinct phases using the MaxQDA software program.

Findings

Preliminary results found salience around four key themes, including differentiation as pedagogy, testing as pedagogy, multiliteracies as pedagogy, and dual language as tension. Specifically, classroom practices evidenced a focus on small-group, differentiated instruction. Likewise, the role of standardized testing and test scores was ubiquitous throughout the spring semester, often limiting the curricular content and possibilities of CSP. At the same time, this DLE program emphasized genre-based literacies across content areas in ways that value the personal interests of students. Finally, the data evidenced that by the fifth grade students began transitioning to English in ways that point to their astute understanding of the power of English. In the final discussion, I argue that dual language education (DLE) programs serving CLD students should be of central importance to educators committed to CSP, particularly in Latinx and other language minority communities.

Significance
The study presented above expands our understanding of the ways that DLE programs can serve as important avenues for students from language minority backgrounds to preserve and develop biliteracy as a key component of their day to day curriculum. Likewise, the findings point to the need for continued ethnographic research on ways that CSP can be better merged with dual language programs to benefit CLD students.

Author

• Evelyn C Baca, Arizona State University - Tempe