"Only Here for the Experience?" Successes and Challenges to Inclusive Education for Bilingual Newcomer Students

• In Event: 43.077 - MTCC Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 43.077-8 - Bilingualism and Special Education: Issues of Dual-Identified Students

Abstract

There is an increasing number of specialized programs in US schools aimed at supporting newcomer bilingual students’ linguistic, social, and academic development. We examine how a newly designated middle school newcomer program in the Midwest is addressing newcomers’ needs and tapping into their strengths. We relied on ethnographic methods to collect and analyze semi-structured interviews with key school personnel and observations of four teachers over the course of an academic year, finding that (1) the school positioned newcomers as a homogeneous group whose primary needs related to social integration, (2) a difference between goals set forth for mainstream students and newcomers, and (3) a desire across personnel to support newcomers, but an uncertainty of how to do so.

Authors

• Rabia Hos, University of Rhode Island

• Mark Barba Pacheco, University of Florida