Breaking With Tradition? Emergence and Expansion of Dual-Language Immersion in Nebraska

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Examinations of the Everyday: Case Studies of Embodied Sociocultural and Sociolinguistic Spaces in School

Abstract

The present state of political polarization and the use of immigration policy as a contentious issue that is snowballing in its use to create a “politics of fear” (Wodak, 2015) has reintroduced the pressing need for schools to become places of welcome (Gitlin, et. al, 2003). The state of Nebraska is not new to political polarization becoming socially produced within schools. Rather in Meyer v. Nebraska (1923), the Supreme Court protected the right of schools to teach foreign languages other than English, a ruling that at once pushed back on nativist ideologies that had grown intolerant of languages other than English while also defining those same languages as not local. In recent decades and in similar political environments, following demographic change, Nebraska has seen an emergence and growth of dual language immersion programs in schools to respond to the educational needs of emergent bilingual students with the goal of increasing equity, opportunity, and achievement.

This paper seeks to critically examine the construction and co-construction of dual language immersion programs as they are practiced across both rural and urban school districts in the state of Nebraska. Drawing on Low’s (2014) theoretical conception that “social space is both a field of action and a basis for action” (p. 35) this comparative case study (Stake, 1995) analyzes how the key stakeholders within these districts work to construct and enact dual language immersion through both space and place (Low, 2014). Participants were identified through their participation in enacting dual language immersion programs in the five public school districts with programs in the state of Nebraska. Data collection included a survey on their conceptualization of dual language foundations and beliefs about multilingualism in schools, as well as field notes from participant observation and ethnographic interviews. Data were collected across six months during one academic school year and were coded for emergent themes (Agar, 1980; Emerson, Fritz, & Shaw, 2011).
By design, dual language immersion programs move away from the segregated nature of schooling often used for emergent bi/multilingual students. It is an additive approach that builds on students’ linguistic skills and cultural knowledge while also working to integrate students from different backgrounds for most or all of the day to foster cross-cultural competence (Bearse & De Jong, 2008). However, while testing demonstrates improved outcomes for students in dual language immersion programs, specific benefits of native/nonnative speaker integration cannot be assumed, nor taken for granted (De Jong & Howard, 2009).
Findings in Nebraska suggest that while the intentions of practitioners within dual language settings were geared toward improving educational equity and achievement, the distributed programmatic knowledge from district to district additionally enacted the construction of old borders in new spaces, reaffirmed identities as foreign or local, thus highlighting the need for stronger pre-service and ongoing in-service professional learning around serving multilingual learners and their communities.

Author

• Jessica Mitchell-McCollough, University of Nebraska - Lincoln