This article was downloaded by: [University of West Florida]On: 05 October 2014, At: 21:57Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

Bilingual Research Journal:The Journal of the NationalAssociation for BilingualEducationPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ubrj20

Editors' IntroductionSylvia Cavazos Peña a & Jaime H. García ba The University of Texas at Brownsvilleb Texas Southmost CollegePublished online: 22 Nov 2010.

To cite this article: Sylvia Cavazos Peña & Jaime H. García (2000) Editors'Introduction, Bilingual Research Journal: The Journal of the National Association forBilingual Education, 24:3, iii-v, DOI: 10.1080/15235882.2000.10162762

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2000.10162762

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Editors'Introduction

The National Association for Bilingual Education has encouraged researchand development in the education of language minorit y learners for over twodecades. Part of the association 's work has been to encourage scholarshipthrough doctoral programs and the hirin g of minority scholars in highereducation and research agen cies. Thi s long tradition of supporting thedevelopment of expertise in language minority education has increased theamount of research and writing on critical issues that should influence pol icyand practice. In higher education the expectation is that faculty should generateand dissemin ate knowled ge. This volume of the Bt/lilglfa/ Researc!JJOIfrt/a/presents the work of six recent doctoral graduates engaged in answering naggingquestions on how to serve language minority learners from the crib to theclassroom. These scholars have focused their attent ion on cr itical gaps in theresearch literature, not only to meet the requirements of the degree, but moreimportantly to enlighten research and practice.

In " Mexican American Mothers ' Perception s and Beliefs About LanguageAcquisition in Infants and Toddlers With Disabil ities," the researcher uses herex pertise as a bilingual speec h path ologist to invest igate mother/childinteractions. This study expounds on practices in parent involvement initiat ivesand point s to further investigation s in how parental interaction s affect thedevelopment of children with disabilitie s. Mendez Perez also affirms the needto respect the native language when designing strategies for parent s to use insupporting language development.

"Invo lvement of Portugese-Sp eaking Parent s in the Education of TheirSp ecial-Needs Children" is ano ther signif ic ant contribution to ourunderstandin g language minor ity children who also have special needs. Usingqu alit at ive meth od s, Telli er-Robinson studied ho w Portuguese parent smanaged to understand their own role in the education of a child enrolled in aspecial education program. Here, again, language differences between homeand school played a role in how parents managed the interaction s with schoo lpractices. Clearly, schools need parents as partners to ensure that, once enrolledin school, children will have every opportunity to succeed. And yet, parentscontinue to report that schools do not listen. Thus, this investigation, whilelimited to one lan guage group, confirms the concl us ion of other suchinvestigations that school success is a shared responsibility. The que stionremains: How can we forge more positive bonds between home and schoolwhere the goal is something more than quick cultural and linguistic assimilation?

Language use is the focus of yet another dissertation , "Mexican AmericanPreschool ers Create Storie s." In this study we learn that children use manylanguage functions to con struct elaborate interact ions during imaginative"play." It is interesting that these children were even allowed to replay, given

the strong push to restrict school time to direct instruction. This push is the

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result of high -stakes accountability policies, such as requiring third-gradechildren to read at grade-level or risk retention. Riojas-Cortez videotaped childrenat play in different conte xts and, by triangulating her data , found that suchactivities led to very rich language use, which is the foundation for developingliteracy.

In yet another study of language, Arce, in her work, "D eveloping Voices:Transfonnative Education in a Firs t-Grade Two-way Spanish ImmersionClassroom," learned how a teacher and her students engaged each other asmembers of a learning community to meet instructional goals. Using criticalpedagogy as the underlying theoretical framework, the researcher investigatedhow a teacher came to understand how her own crit ical phi losophy becameactualized in her teaching so that her students could find their "own voices" inthe teaching-learning context. The teacher 's own transformation as she retlectson her teaching led to an understanding of how those retlections were translatedinto action . In this way, the researcher was also able to determine how thechildren responded to a process that allowed them to shape their learning. Inshort, she was able to confirm how crit ical pedagogy led to criticalconsciousness in this classroom .

Alanis took a different approach in investigating a two-way bilingualprogram. Her study, "A Texas Two-way Bilingual Program: Its Effects onLinguistic and Academic Achievement," sought to determine how well studentsin a two-way program perform against state-mandated standards. Her findingssuggest that while Spani sh-speaking students held their own in both languagesin the lower grades, once Spani sh as a medium of instruction is reduced oreliminated, students lose proficiency in that language. In addition, speakers ofSpani sh as a second language did not gain much profic iency in the languageindicative of a policy that stresses proficiency in English, even in a two-waybilingual program. Alanis discu sses the compl ex sociocultural, political, andphi losophical factors affecting program design and implementation, and howsuch factor s ultimately affect student achievement.

"Case Studies of Expectation Climate at Two Bilingua l Education Schools"provides still another perspective of how students fare in bilingual educationprograms. In this study, however, Johnson conducted case studies of twoschools to determine how expectations affected program de sign andimplementation. For example, by investigating the program at the school level,the researcher was able to analyze the dynamics of student expectations ofboth biling ual and mainstream teachers. By comparing and contrasting data ,Johnson filtered out teacher beliefs and expectations relative to the intluenceof the school's philosophy, curriculum, and orientation toward Spanish as amedium of instruction , and to student achievement. He alerts the reader to theimportance of accounting for school climate while trying to affect classroomclimate and student achievement.

The se six papers are a sample of ongoing dissertation research on thethree prong s of research in this journal: bilingual education, biligualism, and

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language policy in schools. These researchers have chosen very speci fic areasof inquiry lead ing to significant inform ation and find ings, and there is muchthat needs further investigation. Their institutions and places of employmentshould support this co ntinuing work, for we need to learn how to close the gapin the achieve ment levels of language minority populations. The work withve ry yo ung children at the lan gu age learning stage is cri tic a l to ourunderstand ing of how to prepare them for school and for the task of becomingprofi cient readers in two languages. And the work with learners at all gradelevel s is also criti cal if we are to mitigate the low levels of achieve ment andeduca tional attainment of these populations. Thus, recent doctoral graduatesmust continue to inqu ire and to dissem inate their work as widely as possible.They are among the new gene ration of leaders who will take NAB E into the

next two decades .We are very enco uraged by this research and are very proud to have

served as guest ed itors for this vo lume of the Bilingual Research Journal.Thi s work , however, could not have been completed without the support of thegene ral editors, Josue M. Gonzalez and Alfredo H. Benavides, and colleagueswho helped review the arti cle s: Herman Garda, Ant onio Gonzalez, IrmaGuadarrama, Millicent I. Kushner, Juan Lira, Judith Marquez, and Patricia Prado­Olm os. We acknowledge your support and leadership.

Sylvia Cavazos PefiaThe University of Texas at Brownsville

Jaime H. GardaTexas Sou thmost CollegeMay 2(X)J

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