Two-Way Dual-Language Immersion as a Policy Lever for Racial Integration

• In Event: Residential, School, and Classroom Racial Stratification and Its Impacts on Educational Outcomes

Abstract

Despite increasingly diverse public school enrollment, students across the U.S. are increasingly segregated, and English learners (ELs) often experience triple segregation by race, poverty, and language. Two-way immersion (TWI) programs may create racially integrated learning environments, by offering a dual language model that balances native English speakers and speakers of the partner language. Through semi-structured interviews, observation, and document analysis, this qualitative case study examined how a Spanish TWI program facilitates integration in a rural elementary school. Findings show that students from different backgrounds can become bilingual and bicultural and may have equal status in mutually beneficial environments. Implications include the need for increased funding to support districts using TWI to achieve integration and a federal language policy.

Authors

• Elizabeth Uzzell, North Carolina State University

• Jenn Ayscue, North Carolina State University