Because We Have to Speak English at School: Transfronterizx Children Translanguaging Identity to Cross the Academic Border

This article presents the findings of a multiple-case study that examined the everyday language and literacy practices of three transfronterizx, bilingual students experiencing schooling in the US–Mexico borderlands. With attention to what it means to be “academically” acceptable and recognized at Frontera Elementary, the findings revealed that the three transfronterizx children engaged in restrictive monolingual language and literacy practices when under academic surveillance, and they pushed linguistic boundaries when the surveillance was removed. These findings have important implications for what it means to be bilingual in explicitly monolingual school settings, and for educators and administrators who are serving bilingual communities such as those in the borderlands and beyond.