Mobilities of Language and Literacy Ideologies: Dual Language Graduates’ Bilingualism and Biliteracy

Abstract

Using qualitative methodology, this research examines how graduates of a K-5 dual language immersion program have experienced multiple and competing social, cultural, institutional, and political forces at play in complex processes that ultimately affect one’s mobilities of language, literacy, and learning. These students have now grown into adulthood, and the extent to which their past experiences as dual language students have affected their current language and literacy ideologies and practices is examined. As graduates experienced and internalized notions of Spanish as social, cultural, economic, and literacy capital, this likely contributed to current ideologies that greatly esteem bilingualism and biliteracy. The findings highlight that ideologies of language and literacy are neither static nor fixed, but over time, they have been molded and reshaped in a very fluid and lively process.