Becoming the Bridge: Identity, Ideology, and Critical Consciousness in DLBE

Title: Becoming the Bridge: Identity, Ideology, and Critical Consciousness in a Mandarin Dual Language Bilingual Education Program (2025).

Summary: This ethnographic case study explores the identity construction and critical consciousness of a multiracial Chinese American heritage-speaker teacher in a Mandarin dual language bilingual education (DLBE) program over the course of an academic year. Utilizing a chronotopic approach, the study illuminates how monoglossic ideologies—viewing language and identity as singular and fixed—limit expressive possibilities, whereas transglossic ideologies—embracing fluid, dynamic multilingual identity—support more expansive and authentic performances of identity.

Lee argues that the teacher, drawing on lived experiences tied to dominant ideologies, creates chronotopes of transglossia—moments or spaces in school where transglossic ideologies flourish—to validate minoritized identities and foster a stronger sense of belonging for both students and educators.

Vashti Wai Yu Lee (李慧瑜) is a doctoral candidate (PhD) in the Second Language Studies program at Michigan State University (2021–2025) aspaceforheritage.org+8ORCID+8Google Sites+8. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she attended English-immersion international schools, experiencing multilingual education that resonates with heritage Cantonese speakers Google Sites+2aspaceforheritage.org+2.

Her research is driven by her own transnational and hybrid ethnolinguistic identity. She explores how minoritized individuals navigate power relations and how such dynamics influence belonging within communities they identify withEvents+6Google Sites+6Google Sites+6.

Key areas of her scholarly focus include:

• Language learning and teaching, particularly how identity, ideology, and emotions intersect in multilingual contexts.
• Language policy planning, implementation, and practice, especially within heritage, immigrant, and transnational spaces.
• Multilingualism and (non)belonging, analyzing experiences across diverse sociolinguistic environmentsEvents+5Google Sites+5Google Sites+5.

Her recent research includes the article, Adult Educational Cross‑Cultural Kids: Identities of Im (mobility) Across Sociolinguistic Spaces (Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 2024), which examines how adults from multilingual backgrounds—particularly those who grew up in schools with different linguistic norms from their home—are positioned as “perpetual foreigners” and how inclusion affects their well‑being Google Sites+1.

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