Despite the documented benefits of Two-Way Immersion (TWI) programs, bilingual Latino students with exceptionalities continue to experience disrupted biliteracy development. One underexamined practice contributing to this disruption is the selection of the language of instruction during Individualized Education Program (IEP) development. Grounded in a Latino/a Disability Critical Race Theory (LatDisCrit) framework, this qualitative narrative inquiry examines the perceived influence of language selection in IEP development on biliteracy for bilingual Latino students with exceptionalities who participated in K–5 Two-Way Immersion programs. Drawing on testimonios from multiple stakeholder groups—including alumni, family members, educators, and administrators—this study centers lived experience to understand how instructional language decisions shaped access to learning, identity, and long-term biliteracy trajectories. Findings reveal that language-of-instruction decisions were often inconsistent, poorly communicated, and guided by deficit-based assumptions about bilingualism and disability, resulting in fragmented biliteracy development and enduring impacts on academic confidence and belonging. At the same time, participants’ accounts illuminate acts of resilience and resistance, conceptualized in this study as Resilenguantes, through which individuals and families navigated, contested, and reimagined linguistic pathways within inequitable systems. Through a LatDisCrit lens, these findings call for intentional, linguistically responsive IEP decision-making that treats bilingualism as an instructional foundation and advances linguistic justice for students with exceptionalities.
","abstract_html":"<p>Despite the documented benefits of Two-Way Immersion (TWI) programs, bilingual Latino students with exceptionalities continue to experience disrupted biliteracy development. One underexamined practice contributing to this disruption is the selection of the language of instruction during Individualized Education Program (IEP) development. Grounded in a Latino/a Disability Critical Race Theory (LatDisCrit) framework, this qualitative narrative inquiry examines the perceived influence of language selection in IEP development on biliteracy for bilingual Latino students with exceptionalities who participated in K–5 Two-Way Immersion programs. Drawing on testimonios from multiple stakeholder groups—including alumni, family members, educators, and administrators—this study centers lived experience to understand how instructional language decisions shaped access to learning, identity, and long-term biliteracy trajectories. Findings reveal that language-of-instruction decisions were often inconsistent, poorly communicated, and guided by deficit-based assumptions about bilingualism and disability, resulting in fragmented biliteracy development and enduring impacts on academic confidence and belonging. At the same time, participants’ accounts illuminate acts of resilience and resistance, conceptualized in this study as Resilenguantes, through which individuals and families navigated, contested, and reimagined linguistic pathways within inequitable systems. Through a LatDisCrit lens, these findings call for intentional, linguistically responsive IEP decision-making that treats bilingualism as an instructional foundation and advances linguistic justice<strong> </strong>for students with exceptionalities.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["O'Leary, Consuelo"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Ed.D. Doctor of Education","degree_level":"Dissertation - NLU Access","degree_discipline":"Curriculum and Instruction","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Terry Joe Smith","Ruth E. Quiroa","Blanca Gamez-Djokic"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2026,"date_issued":"2026-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2026-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:21:46Z","subjects":["special education","bilingual","language of instruction","identity","resistance","Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education","Disability and Equity in Education","Elementary Education","Humane Education","Language and Literacy Education","Special Education and Teaching"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/diss/973","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Terry Joe Smith","Ruth E. 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Doctor of Education"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["special education","bilingual","language of instruction","identity","resistance","Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education","Disability and Equity in Education","Elementary Education","Humane Education","Language and Literacy Education","Special Education and Teaching"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/diss/973"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Despite the documented benefits of Two-Way Immersion (TWI) programs, bilingual Latino students with exceptionalities continue to experience disrupted biliteracy development. One underexamined practice contributing to this disruption is the selection of the language of instruction during Individualized Education Program (IEP) development. Grounded in a Latino/a Disability Critical Race Theory (LatDisCrit) framework, this qualitative narrative inquiry examines the perceived influence of language selection in IEP development on biliteracy for bilingual Latino students with exceptionalities who participated in K–5 Two-Way Immersion programs. Drawing on testimonios from multiple stakeholder groups—including alumni, family members, educators, and administrators—this study centers lived experience to understand how instructional language decisions shaped access to learning, identity, and long-term biliteracy trajectories. Findings reveal that language-of-instruction decisions were often inconsistent, poorly communicated, and guided by deficit-based assumptions about bilingualism and disability, resulting in fragmented biliteracy development and enduring impacts on academic confidence and belonging. At the same time, participants’ accounts illuminate acts of resilience and resistance, conceptualized in this study as Resilenguantes, through which individuals and families navigated, contested, and reimagined linguistic pathways within inequitable systems. Through a LatDisCrit lens, these findings call for intentional, linguistically responsive IEP decision-making that treats bilingualism as an instructional foundation and advances linguistic justice for students with exceptionalities.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION: THE PERCEIVED INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE SELECTION IN IEP DEVELOPMENT–ON BILITERACY FOR BILINGUAL LATINO STUDENTS WITH EXCEPTIONALITIES IN TWO-WAY IMMERSION"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Terry Joe Smith","Ruth E. Quiroa","Blanca Gamez-Djokic"],"dc:creator":["O'Leary, Consuelo"],"dc:date.available":["2029-04-25T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Despite the documented benefits of Two-Way Immersion (TWI) programs, bilingual Latino students with exceptionalities continue to experience disrupted biliteracy development. One underexamined practice contributing to this disruption is the selection of the language of instruction during Individualized Education Program (IEP) development. Grounded in a Latino/a Disability Critical Race Theory (LatDisCrit) framework, this qualitative narrative inquiry examines the perceived influence of language selection in IEP development on biliteracy for bilingual Latino students with exceptionalities who participated in K–5 Two-Way Immersion programs. Drawing on testimonios from multiple stakeholder groups—including alumni, family members, educators, and administrators—this study centers lived experience to understand how instructional language decisions shaped access to learning, identity, and long-term biliteracy trajectories. Findings reveal that language-of-instruction decisions were often inconsistent, poorly communicated, and guided by deficit-based assumptions about bilingualism and disability, resulting in fragmented biliteracy development and enduring impacts on academic confidence and belonging. At the same time, participants’ accounts illuminate acts of resilience and resistance, conceptualized in this study as Resilenguantes, through which individuals and families navigated, contested, and reimagined linguistic pathways within inequitable systems. Through a LatDisCrit lens, these findings call for intentional, linguistically responsive IEP decision-making that treats bilingualism as an instructional foundation and advances linguistic justice for students with exceptionalities.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/diss/973"],"dc:subject":["special education","bilingual","language of instruction","identity","resistance","Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education","Disability and Equity in Education","Elementary Education","Humane Education","Language and Literacy Education","Special Education and Teaching"],"dc:title":["LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION: THE PERCEIVED INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE SELECTION IN IEP DEVELOPMENT–ON BILITERACY FOR BILINGUAL LATINO STUDENTS WITH EXCEPTIONALITIES IN TWO-WAY IMMERSION"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Curriculum and Instruction"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation - NLU Access"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ed.D. Doctor of Education"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:21:46Z"}