Latino Parents' “Choice” for Bilingual Education in an Urban California School: Language Politics in the Aftermath of Proposition 227

Abstract

This paper examines the choices parents have made regarding language of instruction in their children's classrooms, particularly in California after the implementation of Proposition 227. The data for this study are drawn from a 2-year ethnography of eight Latino families from an urban immigrant Latino community. The parents in the study held a high value for bilingual education, particularly in the elementary grades. However, parents' choice for language of instruction was not always a choice but rather determined by lack of access to information and school-community power relations.