Using a case study of a dual language education program, I explore how teachers perceive available professional development opportunities in light of their identified instructional challenges in a dual language environment; and how such perceptions can affect a school’s and a district’s approach to professional development design. The study sheds light on how differences in individual backgrounds and prior professional and personal experiences influences a professional’s perceptions of the value, challenges and approaches involved in dual language bilingual education. The study also raises questions about how the surrounding contextual complexities—institutional goals, policy structures, and actor perceptions and relationships within an institutional structure—affect the learning experiences of teachers in a dual language environment. Despite wide variations in the forms and structure of existing dual language bilingual programs in the United States, the study confirms the universality of certain issues around biliteracy and biculturalism in the monolingual national education environment. A unique contribution of this study to the field is in helping understand how the relevance of teacher support in a dual language environment tends to get defined primarily by the issue of language, rather than the format or source of the support system. Additionally, the findings indicate the importance of alignment between program goals and program elements (such as the standards, curriculum, student and teacher assessments, and instructional support framework) in forming the basis of a coherent professional support system to enhance the possibilities of student achievement.
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