Chapter 14: Cross-Cultural Equity: Pathway for Impoverished and Marginalized Students in Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Programs

The purpose of this study is to analyze the cross-cultural equity of peer interactions between Native Spanish Speakers (NSS) and Native English Speakers (NES) in Two-Way Bilingual Immersion (TWBI) programs. This will be accomplished by examining student dispositions during classroom instruction. The researchers will examine the sociolinguistic and sociocultural relationships between White, middle class NES students and low socioeconomic (SES) NSS Hispanics/Latinos residing in impoverished urban and suburban environments. The immersion program is designed to facilitate the attainment of bilingual and biliteracy skills of both groups of students without the risk of native language loss (Cummins, 1994; Lindholm-Leary, 2001, 2005). Students learn academic content in both languages, as well as cross-cultural awareness. However, while the fundamental role of TWBI programs is to ensure positive social interactions between NSS and NES in learning environments (Howard et al., 2007; Lindholm-Leary, 2001, 2005), the sociolinguistic and sociocultural dispositions between NSS and NES students continue to be a challenging goal for educators and students. Concerns include the matter in which the NES students disrespected the academic spaces of NSS students by cutting off classmates during class discussions and dominating oral contributions (Palmer, 2008). Similarly, other studies confirm the status quo of equity in the TWBI and outline the challenges of NSS conforming to subordinate roles (De Jong, 2006; Fitts, 2006; Hernandez, 2011; Palmer, 2008).