A Critical Look at Dual Language Immersion in the New Latin@ Diaspora

Cervantes‐Soon, Claudia G.

doi:10.1080/15235882.2014.893267

Cited by 177 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…During the 80% of the school day devoted to Portuguese, instruction was tailored to the linguistic needs of English‐dominant students, while Portuguese‐speaking peers primarily provided modeling and assistance. While these findings correspond with the results of previous research on inequities in DLBE contexts (e.g., Cervantes‐Soon, 2014; Valdés, 1997), the specific relationship between English and Portuguese across the program and the broader community complexified these dynamics for the Brazilian immigrant students in the program. Essentially, opinions within the broader English‐dominant community about Portuguese as a less useful language complicated the goal of the DLBE program to elevate the status of the language.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“Eu sei, I know”: Equity and Immigrant Experience in a Portuguese‐English Dual Language Bilingual Education Program

2020

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Recent scholarship reveals how English can be disproportionately privileged in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programming (Cervantes‐Soon et al., 2017; Valdés, 1997). Through a program designed to serve Brazilian (im)migrant populations, this study expands the scope of DLBE research. This study took place in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, which has just emerged from a 15‐year period of English‐only legislation. It explores language status in a context of Portuguese Brazilian (im)migrant experience that has been largely unexplored in the TESOL literature. The researchers argue that there are three main dynamics of equity and language practices that need examination. While dual language teachers highly valued instruction in Portuguese, not all community stakeholders viewed Portuguese as a valuable language, accentuating inequalities in the experiences of children in the classroom. Brazilian immigrant children actively positioned themselves as experts during Portuguese instruction, however, often, they did not enjoy the attention and support that their English‐dominant peers experienced. Finally, Brazilian immigrant students' participation in the Portuguese‐led portions of the day was not conducive to further development of their advanced Portuguese knowledge. Through the combination of these dynamics, Brazilian immigrant children elevated the status of the language in their formal instructional environment, but were not themselves afforded a similarly high status.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“Eu sei, I know”: Equity and Immigrant Experience in a Portuguese‐English Dual Language Bilingual Education Program

2020

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“…But today, families from all different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds are interested in learning Mandarin. Contrary to Palmer () and others (Cervantes‐Soon ; Chaparro Rodarte ; Valdes ) whose ethnographic cases led them to critique how two‐way immersion programs allowed White middle‐class families to commodify a non‐dominant language for their own gain, this case shows how families of color are instrumentally repurposing Mandarin—a non‐dominant, but increasingly more powerful language—to advance their social mobility, making the critique about cultural and language appropriation not as straightforward. Cultural and language appropriation refers to a context in which people at the top of the social hierarchy are exploiting the cultural and linguistic practices of people at the bottom in order to maintain or advance their privilege.…”

Section: Becoming Cosmopolitan By Knowing Mandarinmentioning

confidence: 58%

Cultivating Cosmopolitans: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in an Age of Instrumentalism

Liu

2019

Anthropology & Edu Quarterly

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Families today are using culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP)-a social justice pedagogy that incorporates marginalized cultural practices into the classroom-to cultivate their children into future cosmopolitan professionals. Asian American, black, and Latinx families rationalize that CRP helps their children learn "a little bit of everything" and be "open minded." Students find value in learning about cultures they consider different from their own and in learning Mandarin because of China's emergence as a global economic power. [Asian American students, black students, cosmopolitanism, culturally relevant pedagogy, social mobility] Liu Cultivating Cosmopolitans 91Similarly, families view CRP as a way of advancing students' individual social mobility, though it has not been written about as such. A number of scholars have used neoliberal frameworks to show how multicultural education has been commodified (e.g., Atasay 2015; Reay et al. 2007). But few have applied this same framework to understanding CRP. Instead, the CRP literature mainly focuses on the development of teachers' cultural competencies (e.g., Howard and Rodriguez-Minkoff 2017) and the efficacy of this pedagogical approach (e.g., Portes et al. 2018). In other words, it emphasizes the production side of CRP. Absent from this literature is an examination of the consumption side of CRP-that is, the perspectives of students and parents. By analyzing the perspectives of students and parents within the context of a shrinking US middle-class (Pew Research Center 2015) and a changing global political economy that rewards knowledge workers, I show how parents and students instrumentally view CRP as a commodity that advances their individual social mobility by preparing them to be professional workers in the global economy.Educational scholars have rightly critiqued how CRP gets lost in translation when these principles are applied in practice (e.g., Ladson-Billings 2014). Teachers often blunt the sociopolitical dimensions of CRP, ignoring its anti-racist orientation and its approach to teaching about structures of oppression. Yet even when CRP is implemented with fidelity and thoughtfulness, it is still subject to commodification because of a changing economy that rewards workers who exhibit cosmopolitan traits-traits such as "openness toward divergent cultural experiences" (Hannerz 1990, 239). In light of the increased value of cosmopolitan cultural capital in professional job markets, my research is guided by the following questions: (1) What meanings and values do parents and students assign to CRP? (2) What cultural practices and dispositions are prioritized in the development of cosmopolitan cultural capital?Parents and students view CRP as a way of developing cosmopolitan dispositions valued in professional-class jobs today. This article provides a case study of the Folk Arts and Cultural Treasures Charter School (FACTS). In word and deed, FACTS implemented CRP in ways that remained true to CRP's original goal of developing students' sociopolitical consc...

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“…In particular, they demonstrated support for their peers who sought to participate fully in classroom activity as well as their sensitivities about Ms. Pliner's differential validation of White and Latina/o/x students' contributions and, consequently, the need to celebrate Latina/o/x students' unrecognized efforts. The vignette begins as Ms. Pliner read from El pastorcito mentiroso [The Boy Who Cried Wolf] (Blair, 2006). Here, Molly's contributions were validated even though she acknowledged her shortcomings.…”

Section: Love For Being Between Languages and Social Worldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bilanguaging Love: Latina/o/x Bilingual Students’ Subjectivities and Sensitivities in Dual Language Immersion Contexts

Pacheco

Hamilton

2020

TESOL Quarterly

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Dual language immersion (DLI) education opens possibilities to leverage Latina/o/x bilingual students’ borderlands subjectivities and sensitivities. Yet persistent hegemonic discourses and the instantiation of linguistic and ideological borders in schools denigrate these sensibilities. By drawing on the concepts of bilanguaging and bilanguaging love (Mignolo, 2012), in this study the researchers examine the embodied epistemologies and knowledges a group of Latina/o/x students made visible as they participated in elementary two‐way DLI classrooms. Their analysis reveals first that bilingual students were aware of the linguistic, cultural, and racial and ethnic borders that shaped their Mexicana and Latina identities, but in reifying these borders these Latinas also embodied Spanish, English, and bilingualism in ways that their White peers did not. Second, the researchers analyze relationships, ways of being, and knowledges Latina/o/x bilingual students employed as they supported their peers through the challenges and discomfort around being between languages. These findings challenge views of bilingual students as Other, particularly those of Mexican and Latina/o/x backgrounds whose subjectivities are shaped by modern and colonial projects seeking to manage linguistic difference. Drawing on bilanguaging love as an equity‐oriented guiding principle, the authors argue that DLI can counter these oppressive conditions by elevating these students’ borderlands epistemologies and knowledges in schools.

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A Critical Look at Dual Language Immersion in the New Latin@ Diaspora

Cited by 177 publications

References 41 publications

“Eu sei, I know”: Equity and Immigrant Experience in a Portuguese‐English Dual Language Bilingual Education Program

“Eu sei, I know”: Equity and Immigrant Experience in a Portuguese‐English Dual Language Bilingual Education Program

Cultivating Cosmopolitans: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in an Age of Instrumentalism

Bilanguaging Love: Latina/o/x Bilingual Students’ Subjectivities and Sensitivities in Dual Language Immersion Contexts

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