While elementary teachers do not typically cover the structure and function of DNA, their students can easily understand that organisms have observable traits, that each individual has a unique combination of traits, and that the "recipe" for traits is passed from parent to offspring. The Genetic Science Learning Center has developed and…

Bilingual teachers' professional identity inquiry may open up possibilities for agency and equality in U.S. dual language contexts. Deploying Borderland, Agency, and Position theories, this article narrates the life histories of three "nepantlera" Chicanx/Latinx dual language bilingual teachers--Jessica, Roberto, and Marta--who work in…

Drawing from Chicana feminist perspectives and Pérez ("Living Chicana theory." Third Woman Press, Berkeley, pp 87-101, 1998) theories of "sitios y lenguas" (space and discourses) the authors reposition understandings of teaching and learning through a qualitative case study of a first grade Spanish/English bilingual classroom.…

In this paper, we utilize the theory of "translanguaging" to make sense of the biliterate activities of young emergent bilinguals in a before-school program for Latinx students at an elementary school. Our findings show that even early writers are able to draw from their full linguistic repertoire, utilizing orthographic and syntactic…

This mixed methods descriptive study examined the effects of job-embedded professional development (JEPD) in reading on the content knowledge and instructional practice of teachers of English learners (ELs). Four first-grade teachers of ELs at one urban elementary school received JEPD over the course of a year. Results of pre- and posttests of…

This qualitative sociolinguistic research study examines Latino/a students' use of language in a science classroom and laboratory. This study was conducted in a school in the southwestern United States that serves an economically depressed, predominantly Latino population. The object of study was a 5th-grade bilingual (Spanish/English) class. The…

This case study focuses on one primarily Latino public primary school in New Jersey that waived the state's bilingual education requirement and implemented a curricular alternative, comprised of bilingual and monolingual English classrooms. A corpus was generated from one-to-one interviews (N = 8) with administrators and teachers, as well as…

This article explores the ways that general education and bilingual teachers make sense of a Spanish/English transitional bilingual program housed at one elementary school in a Midwestern school district. An in-depth examination of perceptions and attitudes unmasks key factors regarding the implementation and interpretation of bilingual programs…

This case study focuses on a 2008 incident where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vans appeared near a K-5 elementary school. It was the first time school personnel experienced the impact of federal immigration agents policing illegality in their school community, and the event set off a chain of decision-making choices as to how…

Students who struggle with vocabulary knowledge often see a decline in comprehension of content. Even students who receive strong reading instruction in the early elementary years may still experience the fourth-grade slump (Chall, 1983), which more often affects students from underserved populations. Many of those same students are also affected…

This mixed-methodology study surveys 63 fifth graders in a one-way dual language school. Findings alarmingly indicate that although these students are native Spanish speakers in a school that delivers 50% of their instruction in Spanish, they prefer English both academically and socially. Subsequent interviews with 10 sample students of the larger…

The purpose of this article is to counter widespread deficit discourses about Latino parental involvement in their children's education. In particular, we show Latino immigrant parents' views and understandings of curricular and pedagogical practices in elementary school, especially in mathematics. Using data from the Agency and Young Children…

This article examines how four urban elementary teachers designed their literacy instruction in ways that sought to sustain students' cultural competence--maintaining their language and cultural practices while also gaining access to more dominant ones--amid expectations to prepare students for high-stakes testing. A large part of their teaching…

As a result of a university partnership, elementary students at two midwest Catholic elementary schools have been provided with exploratory world language instruction (FLEX) from pre-service teachers. To investigate students' attitudes and learning of Spanish, researchers interviewed second and fourth graders. The students' parents and pre-service…

This study examines how elementary teachers (grades three through five) in dual-language, bilingual programs (Spanish/English) view informal reading inventories (IRIs) to support their students' reading growth. The research, conducted in an urban district in the Northeastern United States, draws on interviews with 20 teachers in these programs.…