Heritage agency in a transnational california community: Latino parents and bilingual education

Abstract

Latino immigrant parents were interviewed in a transnational urban community in California after passage of a law intended to abolish bilingual education (BE). Approximately half had English learner children in bilingual classes; the others in English-only classes. Guided by a macrocultural psychological interpretive framework, the study used a concurrent nested mixed methods design to examine the influences of material and social conditions in shaping parents' agency for their children's heritage preservation. It was found that local community resistance to mainstream assimilation played a significant role in agency formation and that depth and quality of experience with BE and Latino-dense schools influenced the perception of BE as a viable means for heritage agency fulfilment. International policy implications are discussed. © 2009 Taylor & Francis.