Since 2008, I have studied the development of Spanish, French, and Chinese one-way immersion schools in the Midwestern United States. Working in partnership with teachers and school leaders, we have asked a series of questions designed to improve their practice. Graduate students and colleagues have designed many of these projects. Together, we have explored the following:
- the development of parent engagement policies and parents’ involvement in creating language schools (Dorner, 2015)
- the evaluation of school climate across a network of language immersion schools
- the politics of developing language immersion education in mainly monolingual towns (Dorner, 2014)
- the nature of language use and interactions among first-grade students (Dorner & Layton, 2014)
- the discourse and interactions among language education and accountability policies (Dorner & Layton, 2013)
- classroom management challenges and successes in a French kindergarten class (Slapac & Dorner, 2013)
- the implementation of inquiry-based instruction in new language immersion elementary schools (Coppersmith, 2013)