Grassroots resistance and activism to one-size-fits-all and separate-but-equal policies by 90:10 dual language schools en comunidades latinas

ABSTRACT

Bilingual education—chiefly the subcategory of dual language bilingual education—has been undergoing a pattern where the interests of language-minoritized communities have in several contexts been pushed out of the way. One aspect of this gentrification process has been the fiftyfication of dual language bilingual education policy, where privilege is placed on a 50:50 balance of language allocation between English and the partner language. Using thematic narrative analysis, we looked at the only two dual language bilingual education schools in the U.S. state of Utah with a 90:10 language allocation. Findings show that (a) the two charter schools were pressured in multiple ways to conform to the state’s fiftyfication policy, and (b) the schools and their Latina/o communities resisted the policy and associated pressures on behalf of their students through forms of grassroots language activism and bottom-up resistance. Although these actions ultimately resulted in the official revision of the state’s DLBE policy to be inclusive of multiple language allocation models, the schools had to continue their activism to benefit from the policy change as the state then moved to a separate-but-equal policy approach that continued the privileging of the 50:50 model. Implications for scholars and policymakers are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Dual language education
• equity versus equality
• language policy and planning
• Latina/o education
• language allocation policy
• grassroots language activism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In 2014, at the time school board minutes and other data were collected for this research, Utah’s state education agency was known as USOE (Utah State Office of Education). It has since changed its name to USBE (Utah State Board of Education). In order to maintain consistency throughout this article we use only USBE.

2 Two-teacher DLBE models generally have two classes that alternate between two teachers, each of whom specializes in just one language of instruction, allowing the program to use teachers who are not bilingual in both target languages. Although the two-teacher model was part of the Utah fiftyfication and Lake and Chavez argued against it being on the Request for Proposals for 2019–2020 application, the state never made Lake and Chavez’s use of a one-teacher model a point of contention.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Juan A. Freire

Juan A. Freire is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Brigham Young University. His research concentrates on equity in dual language bilingual education in the areas of multicultural/bilingual teacher education and development of policy and planning.

M. Garrett Delavan

M. Garrett Delavan, PhD is an Assistant Professor of World, Dual and ESOL Language Education at Georgia State University. He studies whether language education planning creates equitable access to program types, effective teaching practices, and curriculum content (especially around ecojustice).

Verónica E. Valdez

Verónica E. Valdez is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education, Culture, and Society at the University of Utah. Her research interests include critical language policy and planning, dual language bilingual education, preparation of teachers serving culturally and linguistically diverse students, and the language education efforts in families, schools, and communities of linguistically diverse students.