| This qualitative study focused on representing, through an intrinsic descriptive case study, families' experiences in the implementation and development of a two-way bilingual immersion program in an urban, city-center, elementary school setting, in which active family involvement and engagement was required during a five-year pilot phase. Information was gathered, in part, from existing historical documents/records on family involvement and engagement, i.e. formal written surveys, participation logs, family report cards and results from the New Mexico Quality of Education surveys. In addition, participant families were each engaged in two hour unstructured, open-ended interviews following the Seidman research method, an in-depth, phenomenologically based interviewing method. Four research questions were posed. The information was compiled, creating each participant family's experience. Themes and patterns were noted as they emerged. Categories for the various themes and patterns were developed in the analysis. Connections were made about the different realities. Through the use of joint reconstruction, the participant families and the researcher created the meaning of each different family's story. Interpretation of the families' experience formed the analysis and comprised the findings. |
