ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Language, Culture and Diversity
"This is our mission": Equity and Ideological Clarity in a Montessori Dual Language School
Provisionally accepted
- University of Colorado Denver, Denver, United States
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Educational equity remains elusive in Two-Way Immersion Bilingual programs (TWBE), where students of color experience significant disparities in academic achievement, parental voice, and meaningful engagement compared to their white peers. This study examined teachers' and administrators' perspectives on equity in the context of a public Montessori Dual Language School (MDLS) within a gentrifying neighborhood. The qualitative analysis of 15 interviews revealed two primary orientations to equity: political and ideological clarity and a Montessorian approach, with some educators drawing on both. Administrators shared teachers' views of equity; however, they adopted a broader perspective on the impacts of gentrification on TWBE program sustainability. This view reinforced the necessity of holding educators accountable for addressing achievement disparities, particularly among boys of color. Findings suggest the critical role of ideological and political clarity within integrated dual language bilingual schools.
Keywords: Bilingual education (BE), Dual language bilingual education, Equity, gentrification, teachers' perspectives, Two-Way Immersion (TWI)
Received: 02 Jun 2025; Accepted: 16 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Chaparro, Schamu and Bacmeister. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sofia E Chaparro
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