The waning of an innovative dual-language program in a culturally and linguistically diverse rural community

Responding to rapid changes in the demographics of their rural community and to the inadequacy of the State-required Transitional Bilingual Education arrangements, a small group of teachers initiated a two-way, dual-language (D-L) immersion program for the elementary grades of their school. When first established, an experienced director was hired to see to the needs of the program and a quasi-partnership with two area professors. They created professional development specific to the needs of the teachers. For a little over fifteen years, immigrants from several countries, with cultures and languages different from longtime residents of the community, came to work in the small town’s factory. After approximately ten years of the official dual-language program, this qualitative study was carried out. It looked at how the program had been originally designed and at how it currently functioned; in particular, at how the teachers in the D-L program classrooms and, to a smaller extent, the “general education” classrooms, responded to the school-wide adopted textbook, curriculum and materials, to the State Core Curriculum and to the State mandated testing. Early supportive implementation and a Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant funding ran out. At the close of the decade, many of the 20-some program teachers continued multicultural, child-centered, interactive teaching, but with ever-growing warnings and requirements by the State and with little local leadership, the D-L program became difficult to recognize. The report portrays a decade-long enervation of the teacher-initiated, college and grant supported dual-language program as the community grew even more culturally and linguistically diverse and as administrators, teachers and staff members were replaced.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Elementary Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Gilman, Deborah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stake, Robert E.
• Bresler, Liora
• Bruce, Bertram C.
• Johnston-Parsons, Marilyn A.

• dual-language program
• biliteracy
• multiliteracy
• teacher-initiated school program
• new U.S.diaspora sites
• bilingual education
• English as a Second Language (ESL)

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2013 Deborah Gilman

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/46702

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/46702