This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Stephen Krashen, Sarah Dee Shenker, Nabin Chae, Kate Menken, Nadjah Rios-Villarini, Karl F. Swinehart, Tatyana Kleyn, Nancy H. Hornberger, Lesli A. Maxwell, and Melissa Ausbrooks Rusher.
(2012). State of Outrage: Immigrant-Related Legislation and Education in Arizona, Journal of the Association of Mexican American Educators. In April 2010, Arizona made national headlines when Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1070, the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act" which was aimed at deterring illegal immigration to Arizona. SB 1070 is the most prominent of a series of laws and other state policies targeting immigrants in Arizona that date back to the late 1990s. This period of active legislating coincides with a dramatic increase in the state's Hispanic population. In this paper, we provide an analysis of the state laws that have influenced the educational experiences of immigrants in Arizona passed during this period: Proposition 203 and HB 2064 (Bilingual Education), HB 2281 (Ethnic Studies Courses), and Proposition 300 (Higher Education and Adult Education). [More] Descriptors: Immigrants, Laws, Law Enforcement, Neighborhoods
(2012). Not Just "Situaciones de la Vida": Professionalization and Indigenous Language Revitalization in the Andes, International Multilingual Research Journal. Within discourses of language endangerment, life stages such as child language acquisition, adolescent language shift, and the death of community elders figure prominently, but what of the role of other, intermediate life stages during adulthood and professional life in the course of language obsolescence or revitalization? Drawing from long-term ethnographic research in the Andes, this article examines narratives and classroom interaction of Indigenous Andeans in an "intercultural bilingual education" master's program, to argue that professional formation enters into a dynamic with these individuals' personal language policies, marking their adult lives with stronger identification with Indigenous language and culture. This work suggests that these instances of language planning from the bottom-up in a global/local space of professional development are one way these Indigenous educators push back against Indigenous language endangerment. [More] Descriptors: Language Maintenance, Language Planning, Bilingual Education, Child Language
(2003). The Amazing Case of Bilingual Education, Mosaic: A Journal for Language Teachers. Examines why there is so much opposition to bilingual education, despite the strong rationale for it and the positive research regarding its effectiveness. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Educational Objectives, Instructional Effectiveness, Language Research
(2012). Supply-Side Interventions and Student Learning in Guatemala, International Review of Education. This paper presents estimates of production functions of reading and mathematics test scores to assess the effects of supply-side interventions, such as the provision of a community-based school management programme, bilingual education and multigrade teaching, on student learning in Guatemala. The efficiency and consistency of the estimates is improved by using seemingly unrelated regressions to account for potential correlation between test scores. Results indicate that the community-based management programme, bilingual schools and traditional schools produce comparable learning of first-graders. However, in the case of third-graders the community-based school management programme and bilingual schools produce less learning than traditional schools. The learning of both first- and third-graders is found to be diminished in the multigrade teaching approach. [More] Descriptors: Traditional Schools, Bilingual Schools, Bilingual Education, Multigraded Classes
(2012). Translanguaging in Today's Classrooms: A Biliteracy Lens, Theory Into Practice. As US classrooms approach a decade of response to No Child Left Behind, many questions and concerns remain around the education of those labeled as English language learners, in mainstream, English as a Second Language, and bilingual education classrooms. A national policy context where standardized tests dominate curriculum and instruction, and first language literacy is discouraged and undervalued, poses unusual challenges for learners whose communicative repertoires encompass translanguaging practices. Drawing on ethnographic data from two different educational contexts, we argue via a continua of biliteracy lens that the welcoming of translanguaging in classrooms is not only necessary, but desirable educational practice. We suggest that Obama's current policies, on the one hand, and our schools' glaring needs, on the other, offer new spaces to be exploited for innovative programs, curricula, and practices that recognize, value, and build on the communicative repertoires and translanguaging practices of students, their families, and communities. [More] Descriptors: Teaching Methods, Bilingual Education, Standardized Tests, Ethnography
(2012). Spotlight on "Long-Term English Language Learners": Characteristics and Prior Schooling Experiences of an Invisible Population, International Multilingual Research Journal. This article presents qualitative research findings about the characteristics and prior schooling experiences of "long-term English language learners" (LTELLs), who have attended U.S. schools for 7 years or more, and about whom there is little empirical research, despite their significant numbers. Findings indicate that these students are orally bilingual for social purposes, yet have limited academic literacy skills in English and their native languages as a result of subtractive prior schooling experiences. Two main groups of LTELLs are identified: (a) students with inconsistent U.S. schooling, who have shifted between bilingual education, English as a second language, and mainstream classrooms with no language support programming, and (b) transnational students, who have moved back and forth between the United States and their family's country of origin. It is argued that programming for LTELLs in high school must be distinctive, and recommendations for policy and practice are outlined. [More] Descriptors: Qualitative Research, Bilingual Education, Second Language Learning, English (Second Language)
(2012). Towards a World in which Many Worlds Fit? Zapatista Autonomous Education as an Alternative Means of Development, International Journal of Educational Development. This paper examines the Zapatista schools which arose in 1996 in the state of Chiapas in Mexico as a pillar of Zapatista autonomy and also as a result of the indigenous communities' dissatisfaction with the government's bilingual education programme. Based on ethnographic field work, the author reveals the objectives of the schools as being the protection of indigenous culture, values, languages and rights, the promotion of sexual equality, the gearing of education towards the rural context and the strengthening of communities' independence of external organisations. The author finds that despite the political, financial and didactic obstacles they face, the schools are succeeding in making progress in fulfilling their objectives and building an alternative to the neoliberal development model. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Bilingual Education Programs, Foreign Countries, Indigenous Populations
(2012). Floating Migration, Education, and Globalization in the US Caribbean, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE). This article follows a research project that collects oral histories of bilingual education teachers from Puerto Rico who migrated to the US Virgin Islands in the late twentieth century. The teachers' oral histories are used as a case study that provides in-depth analysis of competing discourses related to education and globalization in these two US Caribbean territories. The paper begins by examining intersections between migration and globalization in the Caribbean. Analysis of oral teachers' accounts of events experienced in both islands is provided, with a focus on how they dealt with tensions tied to floating migration, constructions of "otherness," language use, and racial formations in their articulation of transnational identities and cultural differences. [More] Descriptors: Cultural Differences, Bilingual Education, Foreign Countries, Migration
(2012). The Effect of Arizona Language Policies on Arizona Indigenous Students, Language Policy. This article discusses the effect of Arizona's language policies on school districts serving Native American students. Although these policies were designed to restrict the access of Spanish-speaking immigrant and citizen students to bilingual education programs, their reach has extended into schools and school districts serving Native Americans. Arizona's coercive and contradictory language and education policies for English language learners thus provide an instructive example of the "phenomenon of unintended consequences". Nonetheless, that such policies may be unintentional make them no less egregious. The authors argue that Arizona's language policies, together with the difficult reporting mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, have compromised tribal efforts to revitalize endangered Indigenous languages and abrogated their federally recognized, though frequently ignored, rights to self-determination and sovereignty. The article discusses these and other inconsistencies between federal and state-supported policies that both create and foreclose educational opportunities and spaces for Indigenous communities. [More] Descriptors: Federal Legislation, American Indians, Bilingual Education, Second Language Learning
(2012). Moving towards Effective English Language Teaching in Japan: Issues and Challenges, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. Compared with other countries in Asia, Japan is far behind in terms of introducing and delivering bilingual education, let alone effective immersion programmes. In order to make its citizens more bilingual, Japan has been introducing innovative measures including the implementation of the teaching of English in elementary education and a new curriculum guideline requirement of using English exclusively in all high school English classes. However, these innovations are met with opposition and obstacles. Before Japan can introduce effective bilingual and immersion programmes comparable to those in Europe, North America and other Asian countries, it is crucial that Japan addresses these concerns. At the same time, other linguistic resources unique to Japan are being neglected. To elaborate and explore the above issues, this article focuses on public English education and ethnic bilingual schools in Japan. [More] Descriptors: Program Effectiveness, Bilingual Education, English (Second Language), Foreign Countries
(2012). The Life Course and Sense-Making: Immigrant Families' Journeys toward Understanding Educational Policies and Choosing Bilingual Programs, American Educational Research Journal. Implementing policies relies on their design, the will and capacity of implementors, the organizations within which implementation occurs, and individuals' interpretations. Despite the fact that families' decisions are critical to the successful implementation of educational programs, however, few studies examine their sense-making processes. Using life course theories, this ethnographic study examines how "historical time and place" and "developmental timing" shape immigrants' choices for bilingual education. Findings demonstrate that the intersections of time and place (the history/structure of organizations, people, policies) and timing (family members' composition and developmental needs) shape parents' interactions with schools, understandings of policies, and children's pathways toward bilingualism. Such findings have implications for theories about the policy process and for districts with growing immigrant student populations. [More] Descriptors: Immigrants, Mexicans, Family (Sociological Unit), Educational Policy
(2015). Language Policy and Bilingual Education in Arizona and Washington State, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. In this paper, we compare the bilingual/language education policies of Arizona and Washington to show that state-level language policy plays a critical role in shaping the appropriation of federal language policy [No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), Title III] and how different state-level language policies impact the district level of policy appropriation. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of "habitus" and "doxa," we argue that different types of appropriation, in turn, impact how educators and students orient toward bilingualism. Based on ethnographic research in demographically similar school districts in Arizona and Washington, we juxtapose the voices of students and school faculty from both states to demonstrate how language polices are appropriated and instantiated in distinct ways that may not be predictable based on federal language policy. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Language of Instruction, State Policy, Bilingualism
(2012). Language Interdependence between American Sign Language and English: A Review of Empirical Studies, Online Submission. This study provides a contemporary definition of American Sign Language/English bilingual education (AEBE) and outlines an essential theoretical framework. Included is a history and evolution of the methodology. The author also summarizes the general findings of twenty-six (26) empirical studies conducted in the United States that directly or indirectly investigated language interdependence between American Sign Language and English through correlational or causal-comparative analysis. Findings are summarized in laymen's terms to ease dissemination of this comprehensive review of literature to classroom teachers, in addition to teacher preparation faculty and researchers. Implications for future research due to the extent and limitations of the current field of knowledge on the topic are addressed. [More] Descriptors: American Sign Language, English, Comparative Analysis, Bilingual Education
(2012). "Dual" Classes See Growth in Popularity, Education Week. Growing numbers of schools are offering dual-language classes, where teachers split instruction between English and a second language. The numbers of dual-language-immersion programs have been steadily growing in public schools over the past decade or so, rising to more than 2,000 in 2011-12, according to estimates from national experts. That growth has come even as the numbers of transitional-bilingual-education programs shrank in the aftermath of heated, politically charged ballot initiatives pushing English immersion in states like Arizona, Massachusetts, and in California. Experts say the interest in dual-language programs now is driven by an increased demand for bilingual and biliterate workers and by educators who see positive impacts on academic achievement for both English-learners and students already fluent in English. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, Immersion Programs, Bilingual Education, Politics of Education
(2016). Pedagogical Mentorship as an In-Service Training Resource: Perspectives from Teachers in Guatemalan Rural and Indigenous Schools, Global Education Review. This study analyzed challenges faced by teachers in rural and Indigenous schools, and the impact of pedagogical mentorship in contributing towards more culturally and linguistically relevant education. Using a case from Guatemala, this article explored pedagogical mentorship as an in-service teacher training resource for multi-lingual and multi-cultural rural realities. The data was drawn from a qualitative and multisite research study based on participant observation and in-depth interviews. Results demonstrated that main challenges included economic hardships, malnutrition, absence or delays in basic government social programs, and superficial teacher training in bilingual intercultural education (EBI). Teachers perceived pedagogical mentors as "help" and "support" inside their classrooms, where they learned from and collaborated with mentors to strengthen their pedagogical skills, primarily in subjects related to language and communication. Mentor visits were scarce and short due to mentorship program designs that failed to consider in their budgets, recruiting practices and curriculum contents; and the travel distances and rural school community languages and cultures. However, findings showed that even with program shortcomings there was a wide acceptance of pedagogical mentorship by all teachers particularly for professional development in bilingual and intercultural education. Results suggest that pedagogical mentorship offers an opportunity to enforce the long overdue right for rural and Indigenous peoples to quality and culturally relevant education. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Inservice Teacher Education, Mentors, Teacher Attitudes