Iliana Alanis

Sustaining a Dual Language Immersion Program: Features of Success

The promise of dual language education has spurred a movement in the field of bilingual education to shift from remedial programs to enrichment forms of bilingual education. Although research supports the effectiveness of such programs, many programs do not maintain their level of implementation and quickly revert to their original remedial form. This research looks at one elementary campus that has implemented a 2-way dual language program for more than a decade. Findings indicate that pedagogical equity, qualified bilingual teachers, active parent–home collaboration, and knowledgeable leadership contributed to the programs success.

“I don't belong here”: Chicanas/Latinas at a Hispanic Serving Institution Creating Community Through Muxerista Mentoring

In order to create more diverse communities and greater social justice in academia, a group of Chicana/Latina junior faculty at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) established a research collaborative, Research for the Educational Advancement of Latin@s (REAL). Using a co-operative inquiry and dialogical epistemology, we document how REAL is an agency of transformative resistance to combat racism and sexism within academia. Also we reveal the importance of peer “muxerista mentoring” as an ideology and practice in building a supportive community in the bid for tenure. We provide implications and recommendations for the retention, tenure, and promotion of Chicana/Latina faculty.

Negotiating Linguistic and Cultural Identity: One Borderlander's Leadership Initiative.

Meeting the academic needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students requires new perspectives on behalf of school leaders. Using the concept of the border epistemology of school leadership, this case study reveals the work of one ‘borderlander’ in a dual‐language school. Telling her story through self‐reflection, the voices of her teachers and the success of her students, three critical components of effective educational leadership in a dual‐language school were identified. These included advocacy, socially cognizant behaviour and curriculum expertise. Implications for school leadership within high poverty and high language‐minority populations require the principal’s role to become more than supervising curriculum, managing budgets and evaluating teachers but rather one of a ‘borderlander’ who rejects deficit perspectives and promotes the acceptance and integration of all cultural and linguistic groups.

Translingual Play that Promotes Cultural Connections, Invention, and Regulation: A LatCrit Perspective

ABSTRACT Using Latino critical race theory as a lens, this qualitative study explored ways in which young children’s translanguaging practices informed the design of culturally relevant sociodramatic spaces in a bilingual early childhood classroom located along the Texas/Mexico border in South Texas. The authors identified aspects of language development that were evident as children engaged in free play. The findings indicated that bilingual children from the Head Start center where this study took place creatively used language to invent and imagine characters, scenarios, and dialogues. Furthermore, their translingual talk facilitated regulation and control of their free play.