Building Dual language bilingual education without a roadmap

Dual language bilingual education (DLBE) and Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs have burgeoned, yet studies, policies, and program models remain overwhelmingly centered on Spanish as the partner language. This leaves DLBE and DLI in less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) profoundly underrepresented—particularly LCTLs that are typologically, scriptually, and culturally distant from English. This qualitative case study addresses this gap by examining an elementary-school Urdu–English DLI program serving a Pakistani-American community in the U.S. Drawing on 18 months of a research-practice partnership and guided by Hornberger’s (Citation2004) continua of biliteracy, we analyze how the school community navigates systemic constraints and instructional needs in the absence of established models for Urdu. Findings reveal both convergence with DLBE research based on more commonly taught languages—such as flexible language allocation, capacious teacher agency, and purposeful translanguaging—and new insights unique to LCTL contexts, including challenges in addressing biscriptual literacy development and the heightened burden placed on teachers as curricular and assessment designers. By theorizing the realities of LCTL implementation, this study contributes timely insights for the design of inclusive, equitable, and sustainable DLBE programs that can serve diverse linguistic communities who remain sorely underrepresented and underserved in current education and research.