How to better retain teachers in one-way K-12 language immersion programs

Language immersion education is a dream of the 1960s and 70s that has repeatedly found a way to reinvent itself and continue to survive. It not only brings language and culture to classrooms in all corners and cross-sections of society, but it raises the academic capital of the students who are a part of it. Also, as this study aims to promote, it is a part of the fabric of the school, school district to which it belongs, and the greater community of citizens that surrounds it. Very important to that school and overall community are the teachers who dedicate their professional lives to the biliteracy and biculturalism of their students, though it comes with additional costs. K-12 immersion schools, especially their teachers, are often pulled in many directions. Consequently, the quality of curricular instruction can become suspect at times (Tedick & Young, 2018). Though the legitimacy of these programs is quite obvious in border and multicultural communities where both languages (i.e. Spanish and English) are very prevalent on the streets of the community, the programs face wavering support in places with a more monolingual culture (i.e. the U.S. Midwest, western Canada) (Rocque, 2014). One-way immersion programs are an understudied part of immersion education that has become more prevalent, and this researcher argues, needed around the globe. Hence, the main focus of this research study is on one-way language immersion programs, its talented reservoir of teachers, and the stressors that most affect them and the ability to retain them in immersion education.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2021

Author dc:creator

• Blair, Collin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cope, Bill
• Kalantzis, Mary
• Montebello, Matthew
• Pak, Yoon

• language immersion
• teacher retention
• bilingual education
• one-way immersion
• content-based instruction
• multicultural education
• K-12
• foreign language studies

Statement dc:rights

• © 2020 Collin Blair

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109375

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/109375