This study, as an extensive case study, offers a detailed analysis of practice rooted in daily realities and pedagogical decisions made by one particular teacher. I chose Sra. Soto not because she was somehow typical or representative, but because she was generally recognized as an excellent teacher. Based on her strong reputation and years of experience as an English as a second language (ESL) teacher, she had been selected to teach this new and high profile two-way immersion (TWI) classroom. Far from being a ‘representative sample’ of a typical teacher, Sra. Soto was an exemplary teacher who was working in response to social realities that, indeed, data suggest are generalizable to other classrooms. Her practices should not be seen to represent practice characteristic or typical of TWI teachers, but as possibilities to be analyzed, discussed and disseminated.

In this chapter, I will share my own interpretations of the main findings of this study and how they are relevant beyond this particular classroom. I want this research to contribute to an ongoing dialogic process of deepening understanding. This chapter examines how this study might fit into this process, explaining how my observations might be useful to members of various communities: researchers, teachers and educational administrators.

Recognizing that New Methodologies Involve New Philosophies

Freeman argues that teachers should be understood as architects of learning rather than transmitters of content, as ‘someone whose thinking about and understanding of what she (is) teaching allow(s) for a range of learning possibilities (whether extensive or limited)’ (Freeman, 2004: 179). Sra. Soto described herself as an expert in direct teaching methodologies, but she also felt that children would learn language most effectively through interactions with each other. While the new TWI classroom that she designed was coherent with some of her underlying teaching and learning philosophies, its inconsistency with others contributed to tensions and frustrations that she attributed to failure in the students, in the school administration and in herself.