Trusting Their Intuition and Experience: Latino Teachers' Agency in the Bilingual Classroom

• In Event: 18.050 - Bilingual Education Programs, Policies, and Practices

Abstract

Using a qualitative approach this study employed the frameworks of LatCrit and Hornberger’s (2003) continua of biliteracy to bring to light the agentive possibilities of bilingual classroom teachers as the implementers of language policy. Guided by their cultural intuition, experiences of learning English, and graduate education, these teachers took an active role in making decisions at the classroom level for how language policy implementations. The study highlights the tension between strict separation of languages vs. multilingual pedagogy.

Authors

• Gilberto P. Lara, The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley

• María G Leija, Oregon State University