Kathryn I. Henderson

Educator Language Ideologies and a Top-Down Dual Language Program.

ABSTRACT Dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs are framed to reflect pluralist discourses (de Jong, E. [2013]. “Policy Discourses and U.S. Language in Education Policies.” Peabody Journal of Education 88 (1): 98–111) and affiliated language ideologies. The continued expansion of DLBE programs not surprisingly brings to light the diverse and ever-changing landscape of educator language ideologies. This survey-based study used inferential statistics and qualitative thematic analysis to explore the language ideologies of a random sample of administrators and teachers involved in a district-wide, top-down implementation of a DLBE program in a large urban school district. The following three research questions guided our investigation: (1)What are prevalent educator language ideologies in DLBE schools? (2) How and to what extent do these language ideologies vary by: participation in the DLBE, level of teaching experience, educators home language, and degree of DLBE training? (3) How do educators perceive the attempted program shift to DLBE? Eight language ideologies including languages other than English (OTE) as endowments and multiple languages as a problem accounted for 46% of the variance in the data. All four experiential variables differentiated ideological orientation. Educators reported that ideological tensions and lack of support influenced their implementation.

Teacher and Student Language Practices and Ideologies in a Third-Grade Two-Way Dual Language Program Implementation.

This article provides an in-depth exploration of the language ecologies of two classrooms attempting to implement a two-way dual language (TWDL) program and its mediating conditions. Drawing on ethnographic methods and a sociocultural understanding of language, we examined both teachers’ and students’ language ideologies and language practices, including the use of Spanish, English, and code-switching. The English language arts teacher adhered to strict language separation as dictated by the TWDL model, while the Spanish language arts teacher instructed in both English and Spanish to accommodate standardized test preparation. Students enacted agency to engage in their hybrid language practices. Despite the multiplicity and, at times, contradictory ideologies embodied and articulated by both teachers, the overarching dominant language ideology of English superiority was present and powerful. We discuss implications for dual language implementation, including the role of standardized testing, students as language policy makers, and teacher (mis)alignment between articulated and embodied ideologies.

Dual Language Bilingual Education Placement Practices: Educator Discourses About Emergent Bilingual Students in Two Program Types

ABSTRACT This article explores the placement practices of students into different educational programs in PreK–first grade, including two bilingual education programs and an ESL “mainstream” classroom. We then examine the discourse practices of four third-grade teachers and the school principal. Our findings suggest that initial program placement resulted in a perception that students were tracked by ability, and educator discourses on student ability reflected long-term consequences of these initial placement practices. We conclude with both theoretical implications and practical suggestions for the development of equitable dual language bilingual education program implementation.

Language policy toward equity: how bilingual teachers use policy mandates to their own ends

ABSTRACT The article explores the intersection of equity goals and language ideologies within a dual language bilingual education (DLBE) language policy context. We present two DLBE teachers, Karina and Marisol, and explore their language ideologies and professional conviction towards equitable learning opportunities for their students. We investigate how each teacher constructed language policy in their classroom as influenced by their personal experiences, articulated language ideologies, and embodied language practices. Based on their beliefs and ideological perspectives, Karina dismantled the DLBE program, while Marisol strove to implement the program with fidelity. We demonstrate how two teachers with similar equity goals engaged in such distinct language policy implementation. Despite different approaches, each teacher ascribed to the idea that this program was not a fit for all students. Implications for bilingual education and teacher development are discussed.

The danger of the dual-language enrichment narrative: Educator discourses constructing exclusionary participation structures in bilingual education

ABSTRACT Researchers have identified inequities in dual-language bilingual education (DLBE) student participation, and with large-scale DLBE expansion, equitable student access is an increasingly important issue. In this study, I used a multimethod, multisite, comparative analysis to critically examine educator discourses addressing student participation in DLBE from two highly distinct bilingual education contexts (one in which the programs are generally designed for initially English-dominant speakers [Utah] and one in which the programs are predominantly designed for initially Spanish-dominant speakers [Texas]). This article explored how educators’ discourses and embedded language ideologies reinforced or reinvented the set of cultural rules and power relations regarding student access to DLBE. Teachers’ inclusionary and exclusionary discourses created distinct DLBE participation structures. Context and ideologies worked in tandem to discursively construct a more open or closed-off program to particular students with different academic, linguistic, and sociocultural backgrounds. Students that were perceived by educators to struggle academically and/or linguistically were discursively discouraged or closed off from program participation. This article demonstrates how the DLBE enrichment narrative and embedded discourses of ability and elitism can be problematic and may ultimately exclude students who have much to gain and lose from program participation.

“Mister, you’re writing in Spanglish”: Fostering spaces for meaning making and metalinguistic connections through teacher translanguaging shifts in the bilingual classroom

ABSTRACT We examine how a third-grade bilingual teacher engaged in translanguaging shifts—the moment-to-moment changes in language practices—during instruction in response to students’ language performances. We demonstrate how a teacher’s high level of multilingual awareness connected to fostering classroom spaces with linguistic flexibility that leveraged translanguaging practices as a resource. We present pedagogical practices of teacher translanguaging used intentionally for access to academic content, the cultivation of classroom community, and development of student metalinguistic awareness. This case study adds information about translanguaging in a bilingual classroom with implications for the role of teacher critical multilingual awareness within a translanguaging pedagogical framework.

The Homework Identification Plan: A Solution-Focused Activity to Promote Student-Athletes’ Time Management Skills

This article describes the first authors experiences utilizing the Homework Identification Plan (HIP). This plan is founded upon solution-focused theory and utilizes kinesthetic and visual learning methods. HIP provides a brief, inexpensive, and engaging game plan designed by the first author to promote high school student-athletes’ time management skills and to increase the hours student-athletes invest in their homework. PERSPECTIVES is a special feature included in this issue of the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health that provides mental health professionals with an opportunity to discuss their positions on a variety of creativity-related topics. In this column, a high school student and two counselor educators share their perspective on a solution-focused game plan to promote high school student-athletes’ time management skills. Gerald Bryson Juhnke, a high school student, athlete, and Winners’ Circle member, developed this creative process. His father, Gerald A. Juhnke, and a colleague, Kathryn Henderson, adapted this innovative game for use in clinical practice.