CONCEPTOSY REQUISITOS GENERALES: La dependencia o unidad ejecutara interesada en el contrato iniciará el proceso precontractual con la

There were two security guards who safeguarded school premises during its functioning hours. One of them was located to the high school grounds, whilst the other looked after primary school grounds. I had regular contact with one of the security guards, from the high school campus, however, both were informed of my residence and research intentions. This made it possible for me to gain entry and exit as I pleased. My ability to move through campus was not a privilege granted to ordinary visitors, nor students at the school. Students were expected to remain on campus for the duration of the 8-hour class days and were further prohibited from visiting neighboring facilities. Most students were expected to eat at the cafeteria, located in the Elementary school campus58_{, however the}

administration was more lenient towards seniors (12th _{graders), some of whom had access}

to vehicles and were able to drive to nearby establishments, supermarkets or fast food restaurants.

Substantial ‘policing’ took place throughout different parts of the school as members of faculty guarded school hallways. During my time at Mission I witnessed several instances in which the principal patrolled around school hallways during lunch time and class hours to ensure student discipline and safety. On multiple instances, she could be seen chastising children for not complying with the school dress code. One of my informants, whom I call Dave, was continuously reprimanded for wearing a beanie and for having long hair. He was regularly sent to the principal’s office for breaking school dress code. Other violations included the use of colorful jumpers or sweaters (rather than the school color, navy blue), jewellery, and colourful shoes (rather than the designated black dress shoes). For girls the following rules were to be followed: (a) a white polo shirt with the school logo printed on the sleeves, (b) knee-length plaid skirts with school colors of blue, black, and white, (c) long white socks, (d) closed black shoes, (e) absence of jewelry, (f) no excessive make-up. These rules added to the school’s image of discipline and student safety, all the while keeping a uniform image which made it less possible to detect shared behavioral practices on the basis of school wear.

Most students in Mission complied with uniform rules. If broken, students could face potential suspension. Rebellious students like Dave sought to define identities of their own, regardless of school norms. Dave thrived in being alternative and opposing to

the school norm. Because of clothing restrictions, Dave’s oppositional acts of identity (cf. Tajfel & Turner, 1979) were short-lived. In this way clothing played a small but significant role for some, like Dave, in their construction of identities through fashion.

Most apparel-based acts of identities were observable in backpack choice and/or stationary. For instance, girls affiliated to the Pop Culture Enthusiasts group, formerly labelled as the ‘Disney CofP’, could be seen wearing Disney merchandise, such as a Nightmare Before Christmas themed backpack, or a Frozen themed lunchbox. In the Gamer CofP, Roberto wandered around school hallways sporting a Marvel Superheroes backpack and reciting the previous night’s episode of Arrow to his friend Marty. These small symbolic affiliations, within heavily policed contexts, provided insights to the personalities and interests of members of different CofPs. Furthermore, examining preferences with regards to backpack wear provided a small but significant insight to the influence of North American culture and globalized material culture among the Puerto Rican youth.

A third form of policing took place with regards to technology. Students were not allowed to use their smartphones during school hours, this was done in an attempt to control over inappropriate content being shared in school premises and administrative accountability. This action was in compliance with the school’s objective of providing education in a ‘safe’ and ‘spiritual’ environment. In order to ensure this spirituality teachers were expected to micro-manage student use of smartphone technology. During lunch time, teachers would patrol around school hallways and seize students mobile devices should they feel it necessary, although during out-of-class times most teachers were flexible and did not adhere at all times to school smartphone policy. Thus, it was not unusual to run into a group of students listening to music through their mobile devices. Due to technological interventions, it was difficult to observe the precise role of smartphone technology within school functioning hours. In fact, at the beginning of the second semester of Mission High, I was informed by a school faculty member that an executive decision was made to close off the second level of the main campus building because students had been caught observing obscene content in their smartphone technology. Nonethelees, outside of school functioning hours students could be seen on their phones, using social media applications such as SnapChat and Instagram and listening to music.

5.2.4E

&A

Spiritual Events: Semana de Oración / Week of Prayer

During my time at Mission there were a host of activities taking place: some limited to faculty members and students, others open to the general public. Each of these activities had their rituals and behavioural practices some demanded student participation, while others were organized by faculty and administration. For instance, in my first weeks of participant-observation an annual activity known as Semana de Oración ‘Prayer Week’ took place. This was a week-long event where students and academic faculty from all campuses gathered at the school gym. A series of talks were delivered by an invited speaker on a particular biblical theme, and the speaker was typically a member of the Mission Church. Worship songs were sung in Spanish and English and prayers were held at the beginning and end of the activity. Most of these talks would take place in the Spanish language, although instances of single-word English insertions were not uncommon. Semana de Oración mimicked a church service, furthermore, the fact that it was held in school premises during school hours (approximately one hour duration) meant that students would not be able to opt out.

When these events took place, a considerable amount of policing also took place. Each homeroom teacher was instructed to look after their pupils and ensure their attention, by restricting the use of mobile devices and chatting. All students from Grades K- 12 were obliged to attend. Semana de Oración provided one of the few opportunities in which all students were seen under one roof, specifically the gym facility (visible in Figure 18 and 19 respectively). The event presented students with the opportunity to of interact, or share the same space, as members from a different school campus. However, given the intensely supervised nature of such event, little interactions occurred even within members of the same age group. Furthermore, students were expected to sit next to others of their same homeroom.59

59 _{Homeroom in North American contexts refers to “a classroom where pupils report especially at the}

Fund Raising Activities for Graduating Classes

Graduating classrooms were expected to conduct fundraisers and school activities that would help raise funds for their class fieldtrips. This gave everyone the opportunity, including those from lower income families to gain equal access to graduating class trips and events, to socialize and to celebrate their last year with other classmates. This latter point of inclusion regardless of income was important, despite the elite nature of the school, there was still variation in socioeconomic composition, as some students were wealthier than others (and thus more likely to attain certain benefits that came difficult to others).

The act of organizing events provided an opportunity for members from different groups to meet and work for a shared cause. During these meetings, students discussed fundraising activities, upcoming field trips, class t-shirts, and upcoming holiday events. Often tensions emerged when students disagreed on how to organize a particular event, these proved to be excellent opportunities to observe allegiances in scholastic matters, that were not necessarily the same as those in peer group or friendship allegiances. For instance, while a Pop Culture Enthusiast such as Cristina might have allegiance to her peer group for friendship matters, when it came to the organization of school events, she demonstrated loyalties to members of the Jock CofP, as most were involved in the organization of class trips as members of el comité. In this way, attending classroom meetings allowed for a better understanding of group dynamics and shared practices as well as fleeting, temporary allegiances that were context-dependent. Furthermore, I was able to detect the most academically successful students and whether those academically successful were also simultaneously invested in extracurriculars that would further aid their educational prospects. Understanding educational investment was also key to understanding language practices in certain students, whether they were more likely to engage in bilingual or monolingual talk.

In the organization of school events all 12th _{grade students interacted, irrespective}

of their social standing or authority within the classroom community. There were several events that required the participation of all students, these were the following:

Ø Puerto Rican Night (November 2015);

Ø Christmas Lightening Up Celebration (December 2015); Ø Valentine’s Day (February 2016);

Ø The Annual Cycling Marathon (March 2016); Ø Senior Class Talent Show (April 2016); Ø Graduating Class Field Trip (Mid-April 2016).

In addition to these events, smaller events and fundraisers also took place on a more regular basis.

Ø Pizza sales (2 USD per slide; 1.50 per drink); Ø Frappe/Smoothie sales (3 USD per drink); Ø Cinema days (2 USD per student); Ø Casual days (1 USD per student); Ø ‘Jean’ days (1 USD per student).

All members of the graduating class were expected to partake in these fundraising activities, primarily through sales. Executive members of the graduating class, such as the class president and vice president, were tasked with the responsibility of organizing fund-raising events, establishing budgets, liasing with sponsors and parents, and negotiating a time and place to conduct events and fieldtrips alongside school principal and staff.

Events reached the general audience and the school community through promotional flyers, many of which exhibited translanguaging practices. In sections to follow, I discuss some of these language practices in the environmental landscape of Mission High Private School.

Figure 20. Promotional Flyer for movie event.

Picture by Katherine Morales (December 2015).

Occasionally, 12th _{grade students would host film events or cinema days, as demonstrated}

in Figure 20 above. In order to attend these events, other members of the school community were expected to pay a small fee of two dollars to any member of the graduating class. In this way, 12th _{graders profited from smaller regular activities open to}

by the sign above where there is bilingual speech in the event advertisement. Figure 19 demonstrates English single-word verb phrase Enjoy! displayed under the name of the event. A second creative act of languaging is the name of the graduating class itself,

Arlinexius, thought to mean ‘Obtaining the Grace of God’60_{, however, no conventional}

dictionary source links this word to this or any particular meaning. The definition can only be found on a Spanish website that suggests names for graduating classes called ‘Tu Clase Graduanda’ (2013). The ending -nexius in Arlinexius, bares similarities to Latin suffix -nexus, defined by Oxford English Dictionary as ‘a central or focal point’ or ‘a connection or series of connections linking two or more things’ (‘nexus’, 2016). Meanwhile, ‘Arli-’ has no direct link to any biblical source, though online naming website

BabyNamesPedia describes variants ‘Arlo’ and ‘Arley’ as Hebrew for ‘promise’ (‘Arley’, 2016)61_{. This item is most likely an online innovation, or neologism, which has been}

constructed and distributed through the online community. The chosen name spiritual inclinations that students were socialised in, as well as the set of norms students were to follow, such as that of incorporating a biblical theme to their graduating class name.

The movie screened in English and featured Spanish subtitles, once again confirming the diverse languaging practices that took place within the institution of Mission, where distribution of English materials was common (textbooks, assignments) in a somewhat Spanish-dominant classroom, in this case English was the language of choice for the movie while Spanish became the language of literacy. In the day of this particular cinema day, the graduating class was hosting a screening of the Disney Pixar film Inside Out (Docter & Del Carmen, 2015). Since the event was open to the wider school audience (Grades K -12), the film had to be approved by the school principal and be rated [G] (i.e. general audience).

60 _{Tu Clase Graduanda. (2013). Nombres Para Clases Graduandas. [online] Available at:}

http://tuclasegraduanda.com/2013/08/08/nombres-para-clases-graduandas / [Accessed 8 Aug. 2017].

61 _{Potential variants such as ‘Arlo’ and ‘Arley’ have been suggested as baby names, some sources link it to}

Figure 21. Casual Day event flyer. Picture by Katherine morales (February 2016).

Seniors were also allowed to host ‘Casual Days’, in which the proceeds of the event went to 6th_{, 9}th_{, and 12}th _{grade graduating classes (each representing elementary, middle school,}

and high school respectively). A sample promotional flyer is provided in Figure 21. During these days students were allowed to come to school in casual attire62 _all

for the price of 1 dollar.63 _{Certain restrictions were imposed as to what sort of attire was}

permitted, for instance, girls were prohibited from wearing short skirts or pants. Most female students opted for jeans and a t-shirts during these days. Casual days were rarely held, unfortunate as these would be perfect opportunities to envision the role of clothing in the construction of peer group and personal identities. Therefore, clothing as a symbolic act of identity was limited to backpacks, notebooks and other forms of stationary. Because of its conceptual origin, ‘Casual Day’ as a lexical item cannot be interpreted as particularly noteworthy or marked instance of code-switching or style- shifting, particularly within the context of Puerto Rico, as it represents a foreign concept that was been widely adopted on the island and has retained its original orthographic form.

An alternative variant to this event, better known as ‘Jean Day’ (featured in Figure 22), could perhaps be a more socioculturally relevant event as it is not as widely used across institutions on the island. Furthermore, within this environment, the very existence

62 _{http://www.dictionary.com/browse/dress-down-friday}

63 _{The sign in it of itself makes reference to the Western culture norm of ‘Casual Fridays’, believed to have}

of ‘Jean Day’ hints at the level of policing that took place in terms of clothing that was permitted. Jean Day was often sought as the alternative to Casual Day on campus, as it only involved one casual item (a pair of jeans), to be worn along with school approved ‘Class t-shirts’ (see Figure 21) or the school uniform polo. Figure 22 illustrates a “marketing strategy” of jean day, however, the incorporation of the event in pen handwriting suggests a last-minute inclusion followed by the Spanish word mañana

(meaning “tomorrow”). The other two events on the sign displayed below referred to Valentine’s Day activities: the annual Valentine’s Day labyrinth and the ‘Jail’. The former was a fabrication of graduation class students who devised a maze in which their former classmates were to find their way out. The second constituted of a jail-like devise in which students paid to be locked inside with other classmates for one minute for the price of 0.25 cents.

Figure 23. Valentine’s Day Advertisements.

Bake sales also took place during commercial holidays, such as Valentine’s Day. Figure 23 display some of the flyers which advertised the sale, these were found across school hallways on the day of the event, thereby explaining the lack additional information regarding place and time of the event. 12th _{grade students visited different classrooms,}

announced their sale and took deliveries. Their salestand was allocated in front of the principal’s office.

During sales events it was common to see Puerto Rican Spanish contact features, such as lexical anglicisms or food borrowings, as demonstrated by Cortés, Ramírez, Rivera, and Viada (2005) in their study of fast food restaurants on the island. Figure 23 shows some examples of these practices in a bake sale, words like mashmallows and

cupcakes are appropriated in the leftside flyer, while the rightside image displays most items in Spanish. Most items in the Bake sale list are in Spanish, rather than English, thus suggesting that while the educational norm in Mission is bilingual, its sales practices address the wider Spanish-dominant audience, rather than the bilingual elite student body.

Figure 24. Flyer advertising annual cycling marathon.

At the end of my residence, the school hosted an Annual Cycling Marathon. The proceeds from this event were to be donated to a heart disease organization, the event was open to the general public, rather than Mission High. As such, street banners could be found around Mayagüez inviting islanders to join in on such occasion. The flyers accordingly addressed a Spanish speaking public, rather than English speaking, once again assuming that Spanish language advertisements could reach wider audiences.

Club Activities

Other forms of school activities included those led by certain societies or school clubs. For instance, the Math club had their annual Math Competitions generally hosted in the month of March/April (Figure 25). The English club held its annual Spelling Bee competitions in February time (Figure 26). Other more frequent club-specific events included Choir field trips around the island, usually at sister schools, churches, and other neighboring island towns or pueblos. Choir trips added to the school’s evangelical agenda of ‘spreading the message of God’ and evangelizing, as all songs that formed a part of the school choir’s repertoire were religious with biblical themes. In this way, the school completed their mission of academic and spiritual participation outside of classroom- related contexts.

Figure 25. Annual Math Competition Flyer.

Figure 26. Annual English Spelling Bee Competition Flyer.

In terms of linguistic practices visible in these academically-oriented flyers, the Math club chose Standard Spanish to communicate to its audience, meanwhile, those in charge of organising the Annual Spelling Bee chose a mixture of Spanish and English practices and read as following: ‘Competencia de Spelling Bee / Spelling Bee / Para mas informacion contacte a Prof. Lugo.’

This suggests that despite inclinations towards bilingual education, and assurance of superior English language attainment, the school did not equate this attainment with immersion-style surroundings. Rather, language norms were contested and challenged in