Power and Possibilities for Equity and Change in Dual-Language Immersion: Making the Case for a Collaborative Examination of the (In)Visible Complexity of Language and Identity

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Challenging Normalized Conceptions of Bilingual Identity in Multilingual U.S. K–12 Education

Abstract

Dual language immersion (DLI) programs continue to emerge in the US as effective ways to support the academic and linguistic development of emergent bilinguals in school settings. However, issues of inequity and dissimilar power dynamics in these spaces have been a constant concern for scholars in the field (Cervantes-Soon, 2014; Flores, 2016; Valdes, 1997). With this in mind, the questions this paper explores are: Is change possible under the current programmatic and academic structures in DLI settings? If so, what does this change look like in contemporary diverse school contexts? Using an ethnographic case study methodology, this paper has two goals: first, it examines the interactions of Citlali, a five-year-old kindergarten emergent bilingual in a DLI (Spanish/English) program to demonstrate how her quiet demeanor and disposition had rendered her (in)visible in a DLI program that paradoxically was created for emergent bilinguals like her. Second, this work aims to demonstrate how open collaboration and continual conversations between educators and researchers can provide new avenues for a more nuanced understanding of the reality contained in DLI spaces and the possibilities for change within these learning environments.

Using the framework of raciolinguistics (Alim, Rickford, & Ball, 2016; Flores & Rosa, 2015), I critically examine how language is utilized within a kindergarten classroom space to construct and negotiate perceptions of individuals through social processes and interactions. Data for this year-long ethnographic case study was collected during the 2017-2018 school year at Oakville Elementary Schoolin Springville, Wisconsin. Data sources included 8 months of participant observation in a kindergarten DLI classroom, video-recorded lessons, and semi-structured interviews with teachers and students. An in-depth examination of one participant’s interactions (Citlali), allowed me to glean a deeper understanding of the (in)visible dynamics at play in this context. It also provided opportunities to engage in rich conversations with the teachers in the program regarding issues of equity and dissimilar power dynamics. Data analysis involved a combination of open and descriptive coding of field notes, interview transcripts, researcher memos, and video-recorded lessons (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014). Subsequently, deductive coding was used to create a recursive data analysis process (Graue & Walsh, 1998).

Citlali’s case illustrates the complex processes that young emergent bilinguals engage in as they use language to enact and negotiate their identities (Gee, 2011). Understanding these processes from different perspectives, I argue, plays a significant role in bringing to light the learning experiences of minoritized emergent bilinguals who seem to remain (in)visible in DLI classrooms; yet these are the students for whom these programs were created. The evidence provided by this study helps to problematize unidimensional explanations regarding equity in DLI contexts and brings attention to the kaleidoscopic nature of emergent bilinguals’ learning experiences. In addition, this study emphasizes the significance of collaboration between researchers and educational stakeholders in order to counteract superficial understandings of identity in DLI classrooms, oppose misguided “truths” in contemporary American schools, and optimize the possibilities for change in culturally and linguistically diverse school settings.

Author

• Giselle Del Carmen Martinez Negrette, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign