Considering the Emergence of Dual-Language Instruction/Programs in Noncosmopolitan Spaces

• 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

In the last three decades Brook Valley (pseudonym), a rural region in the Pacific Northwest, has experienced population growth and demographic change, particularly among the area’s Latinx population. Public school districts have developed a range of programs in response and since 2014, a particular focus has been the implementation of dual language programs in English and Spanish. This instrumental case study (Stake, 1995) draws upon Low’s (2014) notion of spatialized culture as it explores spaces where multilingual students are served in schools in order to “...uncover systems of exclusion that are hidden or naturalized and thus rendered invisible” (Low, 2014, p. 34). The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the ways school leaders’ beliefs about multilingual learners shape and reproduce programmatic spaces of inclusion and exclusion (Gitlin, Crosland, & Doumbia, 2003). Participants were identified through their participation in an administrative leadership preparation program offered through the regional public university located in Brook Valley. Data were collected over six months and included results from a survey on beliefs about multilingualism in schools, fieldnotes from participant observation and semi-structured interviews, and student work-product from courses.

Dual-language programs, first designed to balance language and power inequities (Cummins, 2000) have been in practice in the United States for more than a half-century. However, as Howard, Sugarman, & Christian (2003) point out, programs have expanded across the country since the late 1970s. While programs emerged in predominantly urban areas at the center of the Latino diaspora (e.g., New York, Boston, Miami, L.A.), programs have moved beyond cosmopolitan areas. School districts across the U.S. continue to draw upon dual-language program models developed for cosmopolitan, populated regions. These models were not designed for a region like Brook Valley. Thus, when five school districts in this small area implemented dual-language programming models in rapid succession over the course of six years, districts adopted and “reinterpreted” established models according to available resources. In a phenomenon also described by Paciotto & Delany-Barmann (2011) in Illinois, each district co-opted program models with varying degrees of alignment or coherence (e.g., curriculum, licensed bilingual teachers) or professional learning and support for teachers or educational leaders.

A district leader or building principal who can see the bigger picture and understands programmatic spaces across tiers and the ways they include or exclude multilingual students and their families is crucial (Baecher, Knoll, & Patti, 2016; Dentler & Hafner, 1997; Theoharis & O’Toole, 2011). Educational leaders in Brook Valley report feeling ill-equipped to design and implement programs, support teachers, or engage multilingual students and families. Findings highlight the need for (a) stronger administrator preparation and ongoing professional learning around serving multilingual learners and (b) additional published research on implementing dual-language programming in less cosmopolitan regions of the new Latinx diaspora (Hamann, Wortham, & Murillo, 2015). These findings are particularly significant as schools across the United States serve a growing population of multilingual students (Murphy & Torff, 2012) and licensure programs evolve equip leaders to better serve multilingual students in their particular context (Baecher et al., 2016).

Author

• Aprille J Phillips, University of Nebraska - Kearney