Studies have found that dual language education is powerful for all learners and particularly essential for the success of first- and second-generation immigrant learners in the United States. The learning model enhances students’ academic achievement, school participation, and healthy identity development. Students proficient in both their heritage language and culture and their new homeland’s dominant culture and language are also more likely to gain higher upward mobility and enjoy advanced cognitive development. While the benefits of dual language education (DLE) are explicitly illustrated in the literature, there are currently no Somali dual language programs found to be existing in Minnesota schools despite the large presence of the immigrant community in the state. This professional development capstone uses Knowles’s androgogical framework to raise awareness of families on the benefits of DLE so they can promote the instructional model in their children’s schools. The intended participants are Somali families whose children attend schools in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. Limitations, implications, and reflections on effectuating Somali DLE programs in Minnesota are offered in this capstone
