Date of Graduation
Winter 12-4-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
College/School
School of Education
Department
Educational Leadership
Program
Organization & Leadership EdD
First Advisor
Dr. Seenae Chong
Second Advisor
Dr. Danfeng Koon
Third Advisor
Dr. Ursula Aldana
Abstract
The population of multilingual learners in the United States has been steadily increasing. While California and the rest of the nation have been experiencing an influx of newly arrived multilingual learners coming from other countries, there is a large group of emergent multilingual learners, or so-called long-term English learners, who were born in the United States and continue to be invisible in secondary classrooms and on schools’ campuses. Over the decades, research has continuously marginalized and labeled this group of students as those who are not able to reach academic English proficiency and be academically successful (Freeman et al., 2002; Menken & Kleyn, 2010; Olsen & Jaramillo, 1999; Rance-Roney, 2009; Ruiz-de-Velasco et al., 2000; Valdes, 2001; Walqui, 2000). Recent research has shifted this perspective and added the value of bilingualism, focusing on these students' assets and cultural and linguistic values (Brooks, 2020; Garcia, 2009; Kleyn & Stern, 2018; Rosa, 2019; Stewart & Genova, 2021; Zacarian & Staehr Fenner, 2020). Even though multiple studies have been conducted around emergent multilingual learners, most concentrate on elementary and high school students, leaving middle school emergent multilingual learners as an understudied area of research.
This qualitative case study examines existing teachers’ and leaders’ beliefs and school-wide practices that support emergent multilingual learners at one public middle school in the Bay Area, California. The study consisted of classroom observations, professional development feedback, and interviews with classroom teachers, school administrators, and teacher leaders. The findings of this research are centered on the following themes: 1) teachers and administrators' conflation; 2) emergent multilingual learners' invisibility at the school-wide level; 3) invisibility in the educators’ instructional practices; 4) glimpses of potential visibility; 5) staff school-wide proposed steps for increasing awareness and accountability around the needs of emergent multilingual learners. Findings underscore that individual teacher and administrator conflation, as well as the invisibility of emergent multilingual learners at the classroom level, derive from the overall institutional invisibility of this group of students. The findings suggest that in order to bring visibility to this group of students, it is vital to start at the systemic level and have a shared understanding of this group of students and their needs.
Recommended Citation
Mixcoatl-Martinez, A. V. (2024). Uncovering the Invisibility of Middle School Emergent Multilingual Learners: A Qualitative Case Study. Retrieved from https://repository.usfca.edu/diss/728
Included in
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration Commons, Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching Commons
