Integration in Two-Way Bilingual Education as Transformational Practice

• In Event: Exploring Successful Integration for Equitable Teaching and Learning in Two-Way Bilingual Education (TWBE) Contexts

Abstract

Objective
Two-Way Bilingual Education (TWBE) programs have been positioned as optimal sites to address the integration of diverse student populations within an asset-oriented framework (de Jong et al., 2022). While acknowledging this potential, research has noted the challenges of equal access, equity of learning opportunities, and mediating language status and other differences (race, socioeconomic status) when fluent and less fluent speakers of English and the partner language are brought together for instruction. These realities have prompted some scholars to question whether TWBE can indeed fulfill its potential particularly when race and socioeconomic status differences are taken into consideration. The purpose of this session is to explore how this challenge can be mediated.


Overview of the presentation 
This presentation will first clarify the concept of integration as it has been traditionally examined in U.S. educational policy, comparing and contrasting it with commonly related terms, such as (de-) segregation, marginalization/isolation, inclusion/exclusion, as well as assimilation from a programmatic and student-level perspective (program and student integration). After positing a process-oriented working definition of integration that stresses the importance of equal-status relationships, the presentation explores a set of alternate frameworks that stress the importance of leveraging ‘difference’ for teaching and learning (Stolte, 2017), including empathy and solidarity (Carter, 2015), intersectionality (Anthias, 2008), sense of belonging and critical care (De Nicolo et al., 2017; Wastell & Degortardi, 2017), and trust (Turner, 2016). The paper concludes with insights into how diversity and equity can function as a transformative experience in TWBE.

Scholarly or scientific significance
Despite the importance of integration, this dimension has yet to receive the attention in TWBE research that it needs and deserves. Most studies to date have focused on the language aspect of student integration (access, use; e.g., Angelova, Gunawardena, & Volk, 2006; Ballinger and Lyster, 2011) and to a lesser extent relational aspect (intergroup relationships; e.g., Cazabon, 2001; Hausman-Kelly, 2001; Muro, 2016). In this presentation, we aim to propose alternate frameworks that support a more comprehensive conceptualization of integration in diverse educational contexts (like TWBE) and to outline transformative practices at the school, program, and classroom level.

Authors

• Ester J. de Jong, University of Colorado - Denver

• Katherine Barko-Alva, College of William & Mary

• Tuba Yilmaz, University of Utah