The bilingual education of cuban‐american children in dade county's ethnic schools

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Abstract
An ethnographic study was conducted in seven private, low‐tuition ethnic schools attended mostly by working‐class Cuban‐American children. Our study was initially guided by questions that frame the discussion about the education of Hispanic children from these same socio‐economic backgrounds in public bilingual programmes. They are the following: — Should schools maintain and develop Spanish? Should all Hispanic children receive instruction in two languages or should Spanish be used only with those not proficient in English? — How does one determine language dominance and is there a difference in the curriculum for Spanish dominant children and English dominant children? — How much instruction in English as a second language should children receive and when should it stop? — Which language should initial reading be in? When should reading in the second language start? The most significant finding of our study was that these four questions were irrelevant in these ethnic community schools. Bilingualism and biliteracy were naturally expected and obtained. We concluded that when Hispanic parents and educators are in control of the education of their own children, they question the educational process itself, and not the role of the minority language or the minority child in the majority school.