Imagined Communities by Design: Latina/o Middle School English Language Learners in a College Preparation Community of Practice

• In Event: 51.058 - Immigration, Culture, Language, and Family Separation for Latinxs

Abstract

Wenger (1998) knew of the power of design in creating opportunities to learn, and posited that “those who can understand the informal yet structured, experiential yet social, character of learning – will be the architects of tomorrow” (p. 225). This ability to design classrooms and schools for ELLs is more than just designing for learning language, but learning new visions of possible selves and possible futures. Using lenses of community of practice and imagination, this study looks at the learning experiences of Latina/o English language learners and emergent bilinguals in a college-preparation program at a Texas-Mexico Border middle school, and how this program, by design, attempted to address the complexities of preparing the students for post-secondary access and success.

Author

• Reynaldo Reyes III, The University of Texas - El Paso