RUNNING HEAD: CONTESTED COMMUNITIES IN A DEBATE OVER DUAL-LANGUAGE EDUCATION:
THE IMPORT OF “PUBLIC” VALUES ON PUBLIC POLICIES
Contested Communities in a Debate over Dual-Language Education:
The Import of “Public” Values on Public Policies
Victoria Palmas
Action Research Methods: Teachers as Inquirers
College of Education
California State University, Long Beach
CONTESTED COMMUNITIES IN A DEBATE OVER DUAL-LANGUAGE EDUCATION: THE IMPORT OF
“PUBLIC” VALUES ON PUBLIC POLICIES
Dorner, L. M. (2011). Contested communities in a debate over dual-language education: The
import of “public” values on public policies. Educational Policy, 25(4), 577–613.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904810368275
(1) Type of study : This qualitative action research study’s (2) Purpose: The study’s
specific purpose aims to examine how public perception can shape policies in school
districts. The study was conducted utilizing qualitative methods utilizing 3 years of
ethnographic stakeholder data (explain type of data on p 9). (3) Research Question(s):
This study included three research questions; RQ1: Who takes part in a local school
district’s debate about language policy?, RQ2: What values and discourses do vocal
participants espouse?, and RQ3: How does public debate shape the nature of the policy
itself? (pick one research question to focus on)
(4) Participants: The participants in this study include various stakeholders in a Chicago
area school district that the author calls “Engleville School District.” The author also adds
that participant observation was heavily influenced by observing and working with six
Mexican immigrant families (p. 585). The primary participant data that was analyzed
include email messages on public school listings, public comments in school board
meetings, and articles regarding bilingual education in the two, local Engleville
newspapers. (provide commentary on one of the data collected)
(5) Findings:
(6) Critique:
Positive: Author provides succinct yet concrete information about different types of dual
language immersion programs. Author also provides reasoning for why each type of data
is being collected in the manner of which it’s being collected. Data collected in the
middle of the 2nd year of the ethnographic study. Author provides table for DLI program
implementations.
Negative: Author does not provide number of actual students in study for which it is
intended for. Author does not specify how many schools have dual language immersion
programs.
CONTESTED COMMUNITIES IN A DEBATE OVER DUAL-LANGUAGE EDUCATION: THE IMPORT OF
“PUBLIC” VALUES ON PUBLIC POLICIES