This study attempts to do the following things: (1) to identify values and assumptions as they influence research on bilingual education; (2) to identify and delineate the major theories employed in explaining and predicting phenomena in bilingual education; and (3) to explore alternative explanations of identical phenomena, and to show that seemingly similar phenomena are in fact different. The first two chapters place bilingual education within a setting of language maintenance and language shift, and give a description of the variables to be found in a bilingual program. They also provide a brief account of the historical-legal development of bilingual programs in the United States. Chapters three and four discuss two models, the equilibrium paradigm and the conflict paradigm. These chapters, a partial review of literature on bilingual education, sort out the various theoretical approaches with their identification of variables and assumptions. The conclusion points out the complex nature of the bilingual education question, and the need to determine which questions, and which problems are most fruitfully answered within the various approaches. (Author/AMH)