Bringing forth immigrant students’ voices by leveraging their linguistic repertoires in regional bilingual programs

This research focuses on bringing forth immigrant students’ voices by leveraging their linguistic repertoires in regional bilingual programs. Educational policies respect and acknowledge the heritage languages of immigrant students, but do not include them as a resource for learning, signaling an assimilationist trend. In the Basque Country, the ideology of language separation to protect the minority language in place, Basque, is still very relevant. In order to achieve pedagogical justice for all students, there is a need to better understand these learners’ linguistic repertoires and the ways they relate to the different languages they use across formal and informal contexts. It is also fundamental to explore the way these students’ practices and perceptions are shaped by their parents’ and teachers’ language ideologies and expectations.