Holding It Together: Immigrant Children as DLBE (Dual Language Bilingual Education) Program Implementers, and Educators’ Perceptions of Their Roles

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 10:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Building Bridges: Enhancing Bi-/Multilingual Teacher Preparation and Family Engagement (Table 2)

Abstract

Grounded on a critical orientation to immigrant childhoods, this presentation explores how a group of Brazilian immigrant children (ages 5-7) navigated and participated in a new two-way DLBE program (Portuguese-English) in the United States. Stemming from a multi-year ethnographic study (2018-2021), this presentation foregrounds how these children contributed to the implementation of their two-way DLBE program through language brokering across school spaces and by invoking transborder memories in class. However, educators varied in their perceptions of students and their actions. Teachers characterized newcomers from Brazil as bringing linguistic assets to school while positioning the U.S.-born children of Brazilian immigrants as undermining the program implementation. These findings suggest the need for a holistic focus on immigrant childhoods in two-way DLBE programming.

Author

• Mariana Lima Becker, University of Georgia