Gratidão, gratitude: Brazilian immigrant parents’ perspectives on their children’s bilingual education

Abstract

This article explores Brazilian immigrant parents’ perspectives about a newly established Two-Way Immersion (TWI) program in their community. The analysis of parental answers to a family engagement survey, using the framework of investment, reveals that the Brazilian parents in our sample assembled narratives of gratitude through overt statements of thankfulness, multiple compliments to the school, to the bilingual program and its teachers, and by placing the TWI program as a space for “helping those in need”. On one hand, engagement with the discourse of gratitude validated school agents as authorities and relegated immigrant parents and children to vulnerable positions as beneficiaries. On the other hand, it enabled parents to secure the right to speak in interactions with the school and vouch for their children’s education. This article sheds light on immigrant parents’ beliefs and orientations toward a model of bilingual education that is rapidly growing in popularity in U.S. schools.

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