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The culture of the classroom: Socialization in an urban bilingual classroom

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Abstract

This article reports on an ethnographic study of a fourth-grade bilingual classroom. The focus of the article is on the culture that is created in this classroom and how children are socialized to it. Three themes are explored: socialization around being engaged learners, socialization to participate in a community of learners, and socialization to be second-language learners. I argue that the culture of the classroom for students who typically do poorly in school and who have negative experiences in school, such as the poor, urban Latino students in this study, must be one that has different roles, values, beliefs, and expectations than what exists in the cultures outside the classroom. In this way, the children experience school in positive ways which can lead to school success.

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Shannon, S.M. The culture of the classroom: Socialization in an urban bilingual classroom. Urban Rev 27, 321–345 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02354411

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