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Margaret Caspe Contents:
Case NarrativeMother and Daughter Battle Over Homework Ines Campos didn't know what to do. Her daughter Nina sat under the kitchen table crying, refusing to continue with her homework. “I don't like it! Don't like it! ¡No me gusta!” Nina screamed. Ines was exasperated. She had been helping Nina with her homework assignment for the past three hours and was beside herself. Ines wondered where her creative and artistic daughter was—the girl who loved to paint portraits of the neighbors. Nina's homework difficulties were beginning to make her hate school. Nina was not doing well academically and did not have many friends. Ines wondered if in choosing a monolingual classroom for her daughter she had made a poor decision. “I am the defect for my child,” she thought… Ines Chooses an English-Only Classroom for Nina (translated from Spanish) “…I know I am the defect for her. She's not doing well in school because she doesn't speak English well. She doesn't like to read English books. She loves to hear stories—but she always asks that I read Spanish language books. She asks for Spanish because I put some flavor into it. You know when I read in Spanish I get animated. But in English, no. So, she doesn't even want to bring out a book in English.” Ines came to the United States from Mexico for a short vacation. She had not intended to remain in the United States and had never imagined coming to the country to work. In Mexico she was a schoolteacher in good economic standing and surrounded by a loving family. When she became pregnant with Nina, however, she changed her mind. “I feel that here Nina can do something. I don't say that in Mexico she can't do it, it's just that I think she has better chances to do it here. But the key in America is English. Nina has to learn to speak English quickly. I know from my own experience. Everything is hard for me. I work at a childcare center, sell products door-to-door, and clean houses and I still depend on the government welfare. I sometimes feel trapped. I need to learn English so that I can undertake my own business and my own dreams. Right now I can't work with Americans because I don't understand English. So that is my goal—to learn English.” Ines reflected on her own struggles in not understanding the English language and was determined that her daughter should learn English first and foremost. Ines enrolled in adult English classes at the nearby high school and knew how difficult acquiring a second language was. She was adamant about placing Nina in an all-English classroom to bypass her own hardships. As well, she had been instructed by close friends at her church group not to speak with her daughter in Spanish so that she could develop a better grasp of the language. In the beginning of the year Nina was placed in a bilingual first grade classroom. Ines went to the school and talked with the principal to request the all-English setting. She was grateful that the principal permitted the switch, but then faced the problem of not being able to help her daughter with homework. At the parent-teacher conference in the beginning of the year, Ines was afraid to tell the teacher, Ms. Chesin, about her difficulties in helping Nina with homework and understanding what was being sent home. Nina translated throughout most of the meeting. When Ines asked the teacher for more direction on how to help, Ms. Chesin encouraged Ines to read with her daughter in Spanish at home. “The teacher says it doesn't hurt for children to learn both. So that's what I've been trying to do. I try to teach her Spanish because I promised the teacher that I would. I was a teacher in Mexico myself and I notice that the different sounds get her a little confused—you know, the vowels all make different sounds. But we work on it. I've also been getting help from my friend Cora at church. She speaks both English and Spanish and I send Nina over to her house to practice her English. But I don't like being so far from her. I feel a little like I'm losing her and I don't want her to know how little English I know.” Ines did not tell Ms. Chesin that they were working on homework assignments for up to three hours each night. “I don't want to tell the teacher too much because I don't want Nina in a bilingual class. I think where she is now is better as far as I understand. She has to learn English. If she learns Spanish she will go down. But it worries me because I know she's very far behind. Too far behind. I ask her questions when she reads to me in Spanish and I give her reading comprehension to see if she knows what she's reading—but she doesn't know. I wonder if she'll even go to second grade…?” Ms. Chesin Believes a Bilingual Classroom May Suit Nina Better “I'm going to send Nina to second grade. I think it's normal that she is having so many problems in school because English is her second language. It's very hard for children who speak Spanish to learn English. Since English is her second language I expect her not to do as well as some of the other children. I'd be more concerned if she were a native English speaker. I guess Nina wouldn't be in my room if she really needed more Spanish support because I'm not the bilingual classroom. But I definitely think she needs remediation. She'll never be at the top of the group. You know, she just doesn't have the support at home. These are working people, you know, they're working people and they don't have access. They probably don't go to the library a lot or go to museums or go to plays. They don't come from that kind of background so it's pretty hard for them to give their children that kind of knowledge. Getting a job, staying alive, and putting food on the table is just a big chore.” As a veteran teacher at Morrison Elementary, Sonya Chesin believed that a bilingual placement might be a more enriching experience for Nina. She worried about Nina's reading and writing skills as well as her social emotional progress. Nina was very sensitive and cried a lot, especially when things were too difficult for her. Ms. Chesin attributed these difficulties to Nina's second language acquisition. Ms. Chesin's homework policy followed the school guidelines of twenty-minute assignments every night except Fridays and holidays. She attempted to individualize the work and send notes in two languages, but due to the time constraints and a busy teaching schedule, this often did not happen. She wished she had more regular communication with parents. “I mentioned to Nina's mother at the first parent-teacher conference that she should really consider a bilingual placement for her daughter. She seemed very negative towards this suggestion. I think Spanish is a beautiful language and a real asset if she can speak both. So, I made some suggestions about how she might work with her daughter at home and work on beginning sounds. We have to abide by the parents' wishes…” Principal Andy Beber Identifies Bilingual Issues at Morrison Elementary “A number of parents in our school advocate for their children and bilingual education has been a hot topic around here. Parents will often come to me and request one program or the other. What's interesting is you never know where someone will come out on the issue. The controversy is not just one side against another. I speak Spanish, so I think it's easier for parents to come to me. Some native speakers will come requesting a bilingual placement for their children while others come demanding a monolingual one. In our school, I think the most common problem that parents and teachers in our bilingual programs face is when children's English becomes stronger than their Spanish. The bilingual program becomes hard for them. So the system is often hard for language delayed and English improved students.” Morrison Elementary has transitional bilingual, two-way bilingual, and monolingual classrooms (see Appendix). Ms. Beber is responsible for determining children's placement in the traditional rooms, then a random number system assigns whoever is left to the dual classrooms, creating a mixture of language-ability children. The transitional bilingual class includes basic instruction in Spanish and 20-30 minutes a day of English instruction for English language development. Third grade is typically the year when full bilingual students start making the transition to English instruction, but this is dependent on passing a Spanish test. The test is difficult for some students. For many who can never pass the test, the school eventually places them into English out of desperation. They often do poorly. “I grapple with what the best system is. We have a wide range of families in our school so it is hard to target our resources and audiences. I have parents who live in palaces and I have families who live in one-bedroom apartments. We have a number of parents who are very unresponsive and hard to reach. Because of this, as a principal, it's hard to know what kind of support parents need. We don't have a lot of parent involvement in this school so it's just hard to know.” Ines Wonders What To Do Next Exasperated, Ines did not know what to do. Her daughter Nina continued to sit under the kitchen table crying, refusing to complete her homework. With the spring parent-teacher conference coming up in the next few weeks, Ines was prepared to ask again for help with the homework, but she also anticipated Ms. Chesin recommending a bilingual placement. She wondered if she had made the wrong decision by choosing a monolingual classroom for her daughter. Would Nina be better served in a bilingual classroom? How could she know? “I am the defect for my child,” she thought…. The people and events in this case are based on real-life accounts, but have been disguised to protect confidentiality. We would like to thank ethnographer Gisella Hanley for conducting the in-depth interviews from which this teaching case was developed, early analytical insights, and reviewing the final case. This work was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as part of its Research Network on Successful Pathways Through Middle Childhood. Appendix: The History of Bilingual Education In 1968 Congress for the first time endorsed funding for bilingual education through the Bilingual Education Act. This was significant because up until this time, students were discouraged from speaking non-English languages. Backed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Supreme Court followed Congress's lead and ruled in Lau v. Nichols (1974) “there is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education.” Politicians and educators hoped to ensure that no student would fall behind academically because of a poor command of English. Bilingual education continues to be controversial. Many critics argue that the approach keeps students in a cycle of native language dependency that ultimately inhibits significant progress in English language acquisition. Proponents reason that if students first learn to read in the language in which they are fluent, they can then transfer the skills to English and develop stronger literacy in the long term. However, the controversy extends beyond educational issues and into politics and immigration sentiments. While proponents of bilingual education concede that often teachers are not trained sufficiently to teach in bilingual settings and that inadequate funding exists for the programs, many ballot initiatives calling for English-only schooling reflect anti-immigrant or “white only” attitudes. Complicating the debate is the range of programs that fall under the definition of bilingual education. English immersion refers to instruction that is entirely in English. In this case the monolingual classroom. In English as a Second Language Classes (ESL), students work strictly on English skills for one period a day among students who may or may not speak their native language. Transitional bilingual education students spend the majority of their time learning in their native language, but spend a certain amount of the day developing English skills. “The aim is to increase use of the majority language in the classroom while proportionately decreasing the use of the home language” (Baker, 2001). Two-way bilingual or dual immersion bilingual education is instruction divided equally in two languages. This approach is intended for equal numbers of language minority and language majority students in the same classroom, with the ultimate goal of students becoming proficient in both languages. A growing movement within the debate argues to give families more control over deciding the placement of their children. Under most policies, parents are permitted to pull their children out of bilingual education only after the students are in such classes; schools are not required to seek the parent's approval before making placements. Schools are increasingly required to provide descriptions of program options and seek parental approval of students' placements in advance. However, proposals concerning parents “rights to choose” often draw some of the strongest criticism. Opponents fear that the school system will not make information easily available to immigrant parents, especially those who speak little or no English, negating any informed parental choice. Baker, C. (2001). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (3rd ed.). Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual Matters. Discussion Questions
Resources for Bilingual Education and Family InvolvementAda, A. F. (1988). The Pajaro Valley experience. In T. Skutnabb-Kangas & J. Cummins (Eds.), Minority education. North Somerset, England: Multilingual Matters. Allexsaht-Snider, M. (1995). Teachers' perspective on their work with families in a bilingual community. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 9(2), 85–95. Calderon, M. (1997). Staff development in multilingual multicultural schools. New York: ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED410368) Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. North Somerset, England: Multilingual Matters Fueyo, V. (1997). Teaching language-minority students: Using research to inform practice. Equity & Excellence in Education, 30, 16–26. Soto, L. D. (1997). Language, culture and power: Bilingual families and the struggle for quality education. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Harvard Graduate School of Education. (2002). Tongue tied: Bilingual education in the nation of immigrants. Retrieved April, 2002, from http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/bilingualed04012002.html Valdes, G. (1996). Con respeto: Bridging the distances between culturally diverse families and schools. New York: Teachers College Press. Instructor NotesTo request instructor notes for this teaching case, send an email to FINE at fine@gse.harvard.edu. ^ Back to top |
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