International and Comparative Education Inquiry in U.S. Bilingual Education: An Exploratory Literature Review (1978–2024)

• In Event: Advancing International and Comparative Bi-/Multilingual Education Research: Global Visions for an Interconnected World

Abstract

Researchers in U.S. bilingual education (BE) continue to produce scholarship primarily focused on national issues in BE advocacy, policy, curriculum, assessment, and pedagogies. Although nearly five decades ago, Alatis (1978) published the first U.S. volume on International Dimensions of Bilingual Education, it was not until 32 years later when Petrovich (2010) edited International Perspectives on Bilingual Education: Policy, Practice, and Controversy. Moreover, even a cursory review of extant literature in the field attests to a dearth of publications evidencing international and comparative education (ICE) as an approach to inquiry and analysis in U.S. bilingual education. In this session, we present the results of an exploratory review of the literature in comparative and international bilingual education research (1978 – 2024). Our exploratory analysis addresses five main questions: How are international and comparative approaches to inquiry deployed in the literature? (2) What geographical contexts are studied? (3) What topics are addressed? (4) What are the main research gaps? (5) What are future directions in the field? Data comprise peer-review articles, books, and book chapters. Peer review articles were collated via Academic Search Complete, Education Source, and Scopus using a combination of key terms: “international,” “comparative,” “bilingual education,” “curriculum and instruction,” “international study,” “comparative study,” “United States of America.” Books and edited volumes were identified via searches in Google Scholar. A total of fourteen (14) peer-reviewed articles aligned with our inclusion criteria: (1) peer-reviewed articles written in English; (2) peer-reviewed articles published between 1978 and 2024; (3) studies evidencing U.S. bilingual education scholars' inquiry into international bilingual education contexts, and (5) studies comparing any aspect of bilingual education in the United States with other international contexts. In addition, we identified one (1) book and four (4) edited volumes. A “crosswalk” approach (Matteson & Warren, 2020) was employed to document and facilitate data analysis and ensure a systematic evaluation of each article's relevance and contribution to answering the research questions. Initial results indicate scholars in bi-/multilingual education research in the U.S. (1) have implemented more international and less international-comparative studies; (2) do not deploy international and comparative approaches to inquiry in systematic ways that signal an explicit and formal engagement with traditions in this field (Phillips & Scheweisfurth, 2010); (2) have produced international and international-comparative studies addressing Chile, China, Ecuador, France, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, and Tanzania as geographical areas; (3) engage in the international and/or comparative study of themes such as (a) challenges in the provision and implementation of bilingual education; (b) language policy; (c) bilingual teachers needs and competencies; (d) biliteracy education; (e) deaf bilingual education; (f) language assessment in indigenous bilingual education; (g) parent-teacher voices. This work is scholarly significant given the need to understand the state of the art in international and comparative bilingual education research in the USA, and to build greater capacity for systematically internationalizing U.S. bilingual education research.

Authors

• Cristian R. Aquino-Sterling, Texas Tech University

• Ufomanefe Shola Kayode, Texas Tech University