The ability to communicate in different languages is increasingly essential in today's interconnected world. However, language learning outcomes can often suffer due to low engagement and participation, especially among students from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. To address this challenge, it is crucial to create a culturally…

This narrative inquiry highlights the experiences of three high school students labeled Long-term English learners (LTEL) in a North Texas high school. This narrative inquiry study uses semi-structured interviews to restory the students' lives, emphasizing the emergent themes of family (the strongest pillar) and the language of the home (Spanish).…

For many Mexican-origin bi/multilingual children, Mexican music education begins early in their home. Music is inextricably linked with the sociocultural context in which it is produced, consumed, and taught and the interrelationship between music, society, and culture. Using ethnographic methods, this article examines a small group of bilingual…

This study investigated how students learning English and students learning Spanish activated multilingual repertoires as they participated in one high school program that aimed to promote reciprocal learning and teaching of multilingual literacy practices. Grounded in sociocultural theory, we examined how students drew upon Spanish, English, and…

This ethnographic study aims to foreground the voices of 34 first through twelfth graders who belong to first-generation immigrant families from Mexico and Central America and attend Nueva Vida Church (fictitious name) in a Midwestern US city. They insightfully reflect upon their language, culture and citizenship during Sunday school class focus…

Social reproduction scholars and the literature on critical race theory and student resistance contend that schools are not neutral institutions existing in a vacuum free of the political and social struggles for rights and resources (Delgado Bernal, 1998; Fine, 1991). Instead, schools can be institutions that reproduce dominant ideologies and…

This article discusses the racial opportunity cost of academic achievement for Latina/o students who graduated from urban high schools and participated in a larger study of 18 high-achieving students of color. The article focuses on the ways the school context influenced their success. Interviews with the seven Latina/o participants reveal that…

With a focus on bilingual students' sociocultural learning and cultural assets, the current study presents in-depth interview data from five bilingual Latino/a graduating seniors at a public high school in California. All five participants come from immigrant families and are first-generation college-bound students. Their voices speak to the role…

Background/Context: Two-way dual-language programs have become an increasingly popular educational model in the United States for language minority and majority speakers, with a small but growing number of programs at the high school level. Little is known, however, about how adolescents' social networks develop in the contexts of these programs.…

A decade ago, the subtractive schooling of many Latino youth in the United States resulted in a devaluing of cultural identity and heritage as resources to support learning. Today, educators are urged to revalue cultural resources toward literacy development. This study explores the experiences of Latina adolescent students as writers during an…

The researcher is a native Nicaraguan who has similar cultural background and language as the students and parents who participated in this study. The purpose of this study was to identify some of the factors that influence Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners' ability to complete high school in a public school district in the State of…