Rethinking Dual Language Bilingual Education Pedagogies for Spanish Heritage Speakers

The purpose of this case study was to explore 1) the relationships between a Spanish heritage speaker's Discourses used in the school and home settings in an elementary Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) context, and 2) how a DLBE teacher promotes or constrains the SHS's heritage Discourses to engage in learning in an elementary school. This qualitative case study was conceptually based on sociocultural understanding of "academic" Discourses and home Discourses. Additionally, I used a culturally sustaining pedagogies framework to explore the case of a Spanish heritage speaker (SHS) from Mexico studying in a DLBE elementary school. Methodologically, I employed a case study approach to qualitative study as the design of this research study. The phenomenon analyzed was the Discourses (Gee, 2008) that this SHS enacted in the home and DLBE school contexts in Texas. Findings demonstrated a multiplicity of ways in which the Spanish heritage speaker developed and expanded a hybrid, interconnected and dialogical Discourse repertoire. Some of these home Discourses can be associated with school and professional literacies, practices and knowledges. Additionally, findings demonstrate how DLBE classrooms can become sites of empowerment and pluralism and, simultaneously, spaces of repression (Yosso, 2005). I provide a discussion about the demystification of the notion of "academic" Discourses. Furthermore, I discuss implications for teaching, teacher education as well as curriculum and policy making.