Shifting the Paradigm: School Personnel's Understandings Limit Latino Home-School Relations and Bilingual/ESL Education Support

• In Event: 66.086 - MTCC Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: 66.086-2 - Responding to Geographic Contexts and Their School Effects

Abstract

Policy and extensive research on home-school relations and bilingual education aim support for Latino parents of English Language Learners (ELLs) in bilingual/ESL programs. The purpose of this study was to explore the policy and its practices at school for Latino parents of ELLs. A mixed-method design was used to gain a better understanding, as well as Bahktin’s (1986) theory of double discourse and Delgado Bernal’s (2002) Latino Critical Race Theory as frameworks. In this study, the paradigm is shifted, the challenges are not the Latino parents or the English Language Learners, the challenges are the understandings and deficit perspectives identified in the school personnel that limit home-school relations and limit the commitment that can help transform the schooling for ELLs.

Author

• Vanessa Espitia Mendoza, The University of Texas - El Paso