Re-conceptualizing Bilingual
Education by Cecilia Palacio-Ribón
Abstract
Bilingual education has been
put on the spot of the controversy not only as an important concern of
education system, but also as an issue that impacts directly into the
sociocultural structure, and involving political and economic aspects as well.
Thus, bilingual education programs are an important topic to analyze and to
undertake by educators, administrators, communities, and government as the
whole responsible group for creation of citizens well prepared to face
globalization. There are some examples of mutual collaboration between
stakeholders; this paper is intended to expose some of them to explore their
experiences to propose that those efforts should be imitated and improved.
Hence, bilingual education ought to be transformed if we want our children to
be multilingual and multicultural. We have to re-conceptualize bilingual
education and then our children will become global citizens.
Keywords:
bilingual education, community bilingual education, re-conceptualization,
cultural identity, translanguaging, multilingualism, multicultural, global
citizens.
Conclusion
Therefore, a re-conceptualization of bilingual education should be an
effort to combine the benefits of bilingual programs in public education with
the valuable knowledge from community bilingual alternatives. As suggested by
Garcia, a collaborative work is essential to improve bilingualism going beyond
language heritage and a domestic second language learning program. It is
crucial a change of mind and rethink about bilingual education as a gap into
acculturation process. Our global society is demanding a multilinguistic and
multicultural preparation; communities ought to take what is taught in public
schools and vice versa. As long as this partnership is taken seriously,
administrators and policy makers will have the evidence of the success that
children can achieve if they are linguistically well-prepared, then they will
support more bilingual education.
If public schools and community education work separate, children are
just bilingual rather than biliterate and bicultural. Moreover, if they combine
efforts and allow cultural and linguistic diversity, they will prepare multilingual
and multicultural future citizens. All cultures are valuable and deserve to be
respected, and this is possible if educators engage a multicultural environment
encouraging translanguage, culturally diverse communities’ involvement, and
enacting a sincere curriculum with no taboos, paradigms, institutionalized
rules, stereotypes or discrimination. It is fundamental a cultural appreciation
so everyone will feel accepted, valuable, and able to share while teaching and
learning. It is not Americanization, it is not to learn a second language, and
it is not a religious commandment. Moreover, it is a humanistic perspective
about prepare children to become global citizens transforming our world in a
better world where children can speak the same language not as a linguistic
code, but as a multicultural understanding to speak social justice around the
world while being competitive and successful regardless cultural background.
Human beings are diverse and equals. We all deserve to be loved and to learn to love others. Small changes make big differences.
-Cecilia Palacio-Ribón
