LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION: THE PERCEIVED INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE SELECTION IN IEP DEVELOPMENT–ON BILITERACY FOR BILINGUAL LATINO STUDENTS WITH EXCEPTIONALITIES IN TWO-WAY IMMERSION

<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>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D. Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation - NLU Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculum and Instruction

Year dc:date.available

2026

Author dc:creator

• O'Leary, Consuelo

Contributors dc:contributor

• Terry Joe Smith
• Ruth E. Quiroa
• Blanca Gamez-Djokic

• 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

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/diss/973

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.nl.edu:diss-2044