Exploring Third Space in a Dual-Language Setting: Opportunities and Challenges

Fitts, Shanan

doi:10.1080/15348430902750668

Cited by 34 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Students may be marginalized, for example, if the teacher or peers identify them as incompetent: They can be positioned as inadequate speakers of the language of instruction or academically unprepared to perform expected tasks (Wortham, ). Positioning also has the potential to move initially marginalized individuals into empowering spaces, such as academic learners (Palmer, ), language brokers to learners of their primary language (Lee et al, ), or models for others of culturally relevant ways of talking and knowing (Fitts, ).…”

Section: Reframing Bilingualism and Bilingual Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reframing the Debate on Language Separation: Toward a Vision for Translanguaging Pedagogies in the Dual Language Classroom

Palmer

Martínez

García-Mateus

et al. 2014

The Modern Language Journal

289

121

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The policy of strict separation of languages for academic instruction dominates dual language bilingual education programming. This article explores the dynamic bilingual practices of two experienced bilingual teachers in a two‐way dual language public school in Texas and contributes to current research problematizing language separation. Data included interviews, field notes, and classroom interaction video in a pre‐kindergarten and a first grade classroom. The instructional practices of the two teachers suggested powerful strategies to promote bilingual identities. Drawing on identity theory, particularly the notions of positioning and investment, we attempt to contribute to recent research offering teachers potential translanguaging instructional strategies. These strategies include: (a) modeling dynamic bilingual language practices, (b) positioning students as bilingual (even before they are), and (c) celebrating and drawing attention to language crossing. In combining these strategies, teachers move toward using students' bilingual language practices as a resource for academic instruction.

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Section: Reframing Bilingualism and Bilingual Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reframing the Debate on Language Separation: Toward a Vision for Translanguaging Pedagogies in the Dual Language Classroom

Palmer

Martínez

García-Mateus

et al. 2014

The Modern Language Journal

289

121

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“…Likewise, many bilingual education programs are being contested for two reasons arising from our increased understandings of multilingualism in globalized contexts: (a) Students in bilingual education are not just learning an additional language as a ‘second’ language or maintaining a ‘first’ language, in strictly additive fashion, and (b) bilingual education students are not simply immigrants, but are Americans of all types and with different degrees of bilingual proficiency (Fitts, , ; García, , ; Gort & Sembiante, ; Palmer et al., ).…”

Section: Language Policy In Education Today: Responses To Transnationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Policy and Planning in Language Education: Legacies, Consequences, and Possibilities

Wiley

Garcı́a

2016

The Modern Language Journal

126

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This article considers the relevance of language policy and planning (LPP) for language education in the United States in relation to the country's longstanding and continuing multilingualism. In reflecting on the U.S. context, one striking feature is the absence of a guiding overarching explicit national educational language policy. Language policies and practices may either promote or restrict the teaching of languages. Thus, whether having such a policy would be desirable for promoting the learning of languages depends on a number of factors such as the features of the policy and the extent to which it was adequately resourced, understood, valued, and implemented effectively, just to mention a few. Explicit language planning and policy making in the United States−when it does occur−tends to be done at the state, local, or institutional levels, or within rather limited domains of federal priorities, such as those related to defense or national security. Beyond formal policies, implicit language practices sometimes have more influence on language behavior. Even when policies are intended to promote languages, they may not always be well conceived, received, resourced, or implemented. Given some of these issues, it is useful to consider the role of agency in language planning and policy (LPP). Even when guided by national or state top‐down policy agendas, policies can be interpreted and reinterpreted, by policy intermediaries, agents, administrators, or arbiters (Johnson, ). Moreover, within the context of school language policies, at the level of implementation, teachers, parents, and the students themselves help to determine the effectiveness of policies in practice (Menken & García, ). Beyond the schools, parents and stakeholders in the community can play significant roles in creating practices that have the force of policy from the bottom up. Given these considerations, this article weighs the role of policy and the legacy of past policies and their consequences; assesses some of the strengths and weaknesses of current policies and practices, both in schools and families and communities; and considers prospects for a more promising future that involves embracing the fundamental multilingualism of U.S. society, communities, and families. In so doing, the article reflects on alternatives to U.S. language education policy that would transcend national conceptions of languages so as to leverage speakers’ actual linguistic competence.

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“…Eight studies (Basu & Calabrese Barton, 2007;Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2009;Camangian, 2010;Fitts, 2009;Henderson & Zipin, 2010;Marshall & Toohey, 2010;Riojas-Cortez, 2001;Street, 2005) exemplify the third theme of classroom transformation and the reorientation of teachers and students in their roles, identities, and relationships with each other. Pedagogy as micro-and macro-level consciousness and as conduit for personal, institutional, and societal transformation best summarizes the pedagogical forms that emerge within this third theme.…”

Section: Within-classroom Pedagogiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This illuminates the need for addressing the power relations that exist among teachers and students, as well as with respect to students' families and home communities. A variety of tandem theories are represented amid these studies, including third space theories that point to the hybridity of knowledge production processes that are neither exclusively school-nor community-based but recontextualized by students as a result of more inclusive learning opportunities provided via the FoK approach (Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2009;Fitts, 2009;Hammond, 2001;Moje et al, 2004;Smythe & Toohey, 2009); critical literacy theories that combine with FoK approaches to increase the consciousness of teachers (and students) toward multiple forms of literacy and facilitate students' ability to "read the world" (Camangian, 2010;Fisher, 2006;Freire, 1970Freire, /1993Keis, 2006;Pirbhai-Illich, 2010;Rogers et al, 2004;Street, 2005); sociocultural theories that are linked to the potency of FoK approaches to bring situated and socially mediated learning into relief, particularly for preservice or novice teachers and parents of preschool-age children (Dantas, 2007;Monzo & Rueda, 2003;Nathenson-Mejia & Escamilla, 2003;Riojas-Cortez, 2001;Riojas-Cortez & Flores Bustos, 2009;Riojas-Cortez et al, 2008;Wang, Bernas, & Eberhard, 2005); and social justice and community empowerment theories that link FoK practices to broader critical consciousness imperatives involving the reformulation of social arrangements and the fostering of interdependence among community members (Henderson & Zipin, 2010;Kurtyka, 2010;Sugarman, 2010;Upadhyay, 2009;Zipin & Reid, 2008;Zipin et al, 2012).…”

Section: Power Relations Within the Context Of Fok Research Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power and Agency in Education

Rodriguez

2013

Review of Research in Education

131

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T he purpose of this chapter is to explore the pedagogical dimensions of the Funds of Knowledge (FoK) framework and approach with a focus on the role of power and agency in the sites where such teaching and learning takes place. It is clear that educators continue to find both potential and challenge in developing appropriate methods for engaging increasingly diverse student populations in public school settings. Many educators seek not just to instruct but to inspire, connect with, and engage students in meaningful learning experiences. However, the racial/ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic differences that continue to exist between student populations and teachers in many educational settings produce an imperative to create teaching-and-learning environments that are characterized by mutual understanding among students and educators. Challenged further by the current meritocratic policy context that privileges conformity and standardization over responsiveness and inclusiveness, educators confront hegemonic forces that continue to shape public education for the majority of students living in poverty or who are ethnically, linguistically, and otherwise diverse. To more fully understand and appreciate the contributions to critical pedagogy offered by the FoK approach, this review takes up notions of power and agency within the pedagogical dimensions as they play out in the variety of settings documented in current literature. The key research questions guiding this review are the following:Research Question 1: What do we know from the Funds of Knowledge literature about the development and enactment of pedagogies within and beyond the formal classroom?

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Exploring Third Space in a Dual-Language Setting: Opportunities and Challenges

Cited by 34 publications

References 22 publications

Reframing the Debate on Language Separation: Toward a Vision for Translanguaging Pedagogies in the Dual Language Classroom

Reframing the Debate on Language Separation: Toward a Vision for Translanguaging Pedagogies in the Dual Language Classroom

Language Policy and Planning in Language Education: Legacies, Consequences, and Possibilities

Power and Agency in Education

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