The Importance of Theoretical Foundations for the Academic of Education - Research Paper Example

?Children of Immigrants in Quebec The final paper relates to theoretical frameworks. The goal of this paper is to discuss the key components of theoretical frameworks and demonstrate the relevance of theoretical frameworks to the academic study of education. To achieve this purpose, the author has chosen to analyze the theoretical framework of the study Commitments to Academic Biliteracy: Case Studies of Francophone University Writers, written by Guillaume Gentil and published in 2005. This article synthesizes and interprets research compiled over a two and half year case study that Guillaume Gentil conducted as an assistant professor at Carleton University, in the department of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. The case study followed three post-secondary students whose first language was French and studied the degree and application of academic biliteracy that each student demonstrated in his or her academic writing assignments. The case study took place in Ottawa, Canada, which as the capital of Canada is a fully bilingual environment, both French and English. The author chose this article because the theoretical framework applied in this particular study has similar resonance and application to the author’s topic of "Children of Immigrants in Quebec". The goal of this paper is to discuss the key aspects of theoretical frameworks and demonstrate why researchers develop and apply theoretical frameworks to their academic study topics in the field of education. The theoretical framework used by Guillaume Gentil relates in several cases to the key themes that the author is currently pursuing in the "Children of Immigrants in Quebec" study, most notably the ideas of individual voices and construction of identity as it pertains to first language. Guillaume Gentil built theoretical framework using elements from the continua model of biliteracy developed by Hornberger; the critical social theory work created by Bourdieu and also applied philosophical hermeneutics to the framework (Bourdieu, 1998; Hornberger, 1989). Guillaume Gentil applied this framework to test his hypothesis that “individual biliterate development [is] a subjective and intersubjective evaluative response to social contexts of possibilities for biliteracy” (Gentil, 2005, p. 421). Upon the completion of the two and a half year case study, the research that Guillaume Gentil amassed, including examination of each case study member’s compromises and sometimes circuitous routes followed in order to fully commit to and uphold a bilingual academic writing environment in an landscape dominated by English demonstrated “the challenges and resources of bilingual writers to uphold their commitment to academic biliteracy within English-dominant institutional and disciplinary contexts” (Gentil, 2005, p. 421). Similarly, within the topic of "Children of Immigrants in Quebec", multiple challenges arise for first generation children of immigrant parents in Quebec to commit to and adhere to an often multilingual environment, including the language or languages spoken at home, the cultural link to the languages spoken in the home country and the bilingual environment of the province of Quebec. The overall goal therefore is to demonstrate the author’s comprehension of the concept of theoretical frameworks, using Gentil's theoretical framework to relate to the topic of "Children of Immigrants in Quebec". The paper will begin with a discussion of the theories Guillaume Gentil applied to build the theoretical framework of Commitments to Academic Biliteracy: Case Studies of Francophone University Writers and analyze their importance to the study. The paper will also analyze the theoretical framework of this study and draw parallels between it and the "Children of Immigrants in Quebec" study. Theoretical Frameworks: Overview The main purpose and value of a theoretical framework is to prove the specific hypothesis that the researcher develops (Anfara & Mertz, 2006; Cline, n.d.). A theoretical framework functions as filtering mechanism that channels pertinent information toward the researcher and keeps non-relevant information extraneous to the research process (Anfara & Mertz, 2006; Cline, n.d.). This function saves a great deal of time and also cuts down on potential red herrings in the research. At the onset of a course of study into a particular topic, a number of researchers may feel inundated by information. There may be thousands of studies that relate in some seemingly crucial way to the topic; however, no researcher will want to spend years wading through academic journals only to find that the original study did not have the perspective necessary to contribute to the hypothesis. Not only does a theoretical framework articulate the goals for the research, it also creates a way of looking at the research, and this way of seeing in turn affords the researcher tremendous clarity during the research process (Anfara & Mertz, 2006; Cline, n.d.). Research problems themselves cannot be thought of outside of a conceptual structure (Anfara & Mertz, 2006; Cline, n.d.). No research has the capacity to study one research problem from multiple perspectives at the same time – this is simply not how the mind works (Anfara & Mertz, 2006; Cline, n.d.). Therefore, the value of the theoretical framework is it establishes an organizing principle for the topic, the thesis and the research chosen to prove the thesis as a whole (Anfara & Mertz, 2006; Cline, n.d.). The theoretical framework “establishes a vantage point, a perspective, a set of lenses through which the researcher views the problem” (Cline n.d., para. 6). For the researcher, the choice of a theoretical framework “is both a clarifying and exclusionary step in the research process” (Cline n.d., para. 6). The theoretical framework serves many roles within the development of the research once the topic and thesis have been established. It allows the research to hone his or her focus on the issue at hand, and as result of a solid theoretical framework, rather than narrow the researcher’s perspective; the theoretical framework will actually facilitate clarity and allow the researcher to begin to see more of the problem (Anfara & Mertz, 2006; Cline, n.d.). This phenomenon occurs because a well designed theoretical framework “increases clarity brought to the problem area, [and] excludes from the view of the inquirer other perspectives that might be brought to bear on the problem” (Cline, n.d., para. 11). In addition, the well designed theoretical framework allows the researcher to understand why certain perspectives need to be excluded from the research. As Cline (n.d.) not, the well designed theoretical framework excludes these perspectives “in explicit recognition of those perspectives and the rationale for their rejection” (para. 11). Academic Biliteracy and Hornberger’s Continua of Biliteracy Model Biliteracy is defined as the “development of academic proficiency in the primary language while simultaneously continuing the development of language and academic proficiency in English” (Cadiero-Kaplan & Ochoa, 2004, p. 27). In Gentil’s study, the researcher applies Hornberger’s continua of biliteracy model in order to “understand the complex and multiple interactions among the contexts, conditions, and actors of biliteracy, [and] propose an ecological model in which biliteracy is described in terms of four nested sets of continua characterizing the contexts, media, content, and development of biliteracy” (Gentil, 2005, p. 430). Biliteracy occurs in both the primary and the secondary language, and the student is said to be biliterate if both languages are spoken and written at competent levels (Bass & Garcia, 2007; Cadiero-Kaplan & Ochoa, 2004; Hornberger, 1989; Kalbach & Pigott, 2005). In biliteracy that occurs in an academic context, post-secondary students “become competent in listening, speaking, reading and writing in at least two languages” (Cadiero-Kaplan & Ochoa, 2004, p. 27). Academic biliteracy is the result of many years of biliterate schooling, and the student must have full access to both languages in order to develop the ability to conceptualize in both languages at the post-secondary level (Bass & Garcia, 2007; Cadiero-Kaplan & Ochoa, 2004; Gentil, 2005; Hornberger, 1989; Kalbach & Pigott, 2005). This is especially true of the rigors of vocabulary that occur in academic writing (Bass & Garcia, 2007; Cadiero-Kaplan & Ochoa, 2004; Gentil, 2005; Hornberger, 1989; Kalbach & Pigott, 2005). Effective schooling in the primary language confers benefits to the secondary language as well. As Cadiero-Kaplan & Ochoa (2004) explain, “when schools provide students with a quality education in their primary language they give them two things: knowledge and literacy. The knowledge that students get through their first language helps make the English they hear and read more comprehensible. Further, literacy developed in the primary language transfers to the second language” (p. 28). In Commitments to Academic Biliteracy: Case Studies of Francophone University Writers, extends this understanding in order to focus on one of his key research questions, namely to ascertain how “contexts of biliteracy enable and constrain individual biliteracy development and how individuals respond to their contexts of possibilities from within their particular evaluative perspectives” (Gentil, 2005, p. 429). The theoretical framework applied by Gentil in this context therefore allows the researcher to measure the influence of cultural phenomena, cultural attitudes toward bilingualism and biliteracy, an individual’s sense of self, access to education, and school learning environment on the development of biliteracy (Gentil, 2005). The individual’s desire to speak his or her voice in a multilingual manner therefore becomes a reflection of his or her construction of identity, which in turn is informed by a complex socializing process involving many factors which form the “discourses through which biliteracy develops” (Gentil, 2005, p. 429). Construction of Identity and Language and Identity The first language of an individual is said to relate strongly to his or her self-defined ethnic and cultural identity (Bass & Garcia, 2007; Cadiero-Kaplan & Ochoa, 2004; Hornberger, 1989; Kalbach & Pigott, 2005). This occurs because the “language retention of a mother tongue or home language acts as a stronger connector to the ethnic community for such persons as compared to those who do not retain the language” (Bass & Garcia, 2007, p. 63). For example, language is at the center of the policy dispute over the effect of immigration on the culture of the United States (Bass & Garcia, 2007). As Bass & Garcia (2007) explain, “research on sentiment toward making English the official language, as Propositions 187 and 227 in California intend, indicates the importance of language in shaping attitudes toward illegal immigrants…Americans who believe that English should be the only language in schools increased from 40 to 48 percent from 1993 to 1995” (p. 63). The “English-only sentiment” represents a key indicator of the attitudes toward immigrations, immigrants themselves, and English as a second or even third language. As Bass & Garcia (2007) note, “analysis of our survey data shows this trend has become more pronounced with 66 percent of 395 respondents in 2001 reporting that English should be the only language used in public schools” (p. 63). A similar phenomenon exists in the province of Quebec, which has led to the development of the Office Quebecois de la Langue Francaise, a policy mandated provincial organization that has as its mission the preservation and protection of the French language in Quebec. Despite the fact that Canada lists itself as a bilingual country, bilingualism truly exists only in Quebec and other pockets of French-language speakers such as the province of Manitoba. The majority of Canadians are unilingual English speakers. Within this English only bias therefore, academic biliteracy becomes “situated at the conjunction of literacy and bilingualism” (Gentil, 2005, p. 430). Most academic studies into biliteracy, as Gentil notes, have emphasized “bilinguals’ and multilinguals’ development of writing and reading competences in more than one language. However, much biliteracy research has been concerned with children of majority and minority language groups in bilingual education programs in North America and elsewhere” (p. 424). In addition, the students under investigation in these studies tend to be in primary school. “Few studies have looked at bilingual writers in professional and postsecondary contexts” (Gentil, 2005, p. 424). In Commitments to Academic Biliteracy: Case Studies of Francophone University Writers, Gentil applies the critical social theory of Pierre Bourdieu to the study’s theoretical framework, in order to investigate the social and cultural influences on the bilingual post-secondary student. As Gentil (2005) explains, Bourdieu’s theory, as it pertains to the theoretical framework of the case study, ground his research in a “social theory [that] provides a theoretical lens through which to analyze the relationship of individual language learners to their language-learning contexts” (p. 429). References Anfara, V. A. & Mertz, N.T. (2006). Theoretical frameworks in qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Bass, L. E. & Garcia, C (2007). American identity and attitudes toward English language policy initiatives. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 34(1), 63-77. Bourdieu, P. (1998). Practical reason: On the theory of action. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Cadiero-Kaplan, K. & Ochoa, A. M. (2004). Towards promoting biliteracy and academic achievement: Educational programs for high school Latino English language learners. High School Journal, 87(3), 27-52. Cline, D. (n.d.). Logical structure, theoretical framework. Retrieved from http://education.astate.edu/dcline/guide/framework.html#N_1_ Gentil, G. (2005). Commitments to academic biliteracy: Case studies of francophone university writers. Written Communication, 22(4), 421-471. Hornberger, N. (1989). Continua of biliteracy. Review of Educational Research, 59, 271-291. Kalbach, M. A. & Pigott, B. S. (2005). Language effects on ethnic identity in Canada. Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal, 37(2), 3-17. Read More