Navigating power in multilingual classrooms: teachers’ engagement with language education policies

ABSTRACT

Multilingual learners represent a tremendously diverse group encompassing various languages, cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities. However, the current U.S. educational system tends to overlook the linguistic diversity multilingual learners bring to the table and label these students as deficient in English proficiency. The narrow viewpoint fails to recognise the richness and complexity of students’ multilingualism, dismissing the cultural and linguistic assets and unique perspectives they offer. Consequently, multilingual learners are often placed in remedial or segregated programmes, perpetuating a cycle of marginalisation and inhibiting their academic success and social growth. This study explores how teachers conceptualise the language proficiency of multilingual learners and make deliberate pedagogical adjustments in their language classrooms. Guided by Butler’s concept of performativity and the production of identity, the analysis highlights that teachers’ perception of multilingual learners’ language proficiency exhibits both counter-hegemonic perspectives and limitations. The findings also reveal that teachers’ critical understanding of multilingual learners’ identities informs their implementation of critical pedagogies in classrooms. By amplifying teachers’ voices and bringing their perspectives into public discourse, the study aims to contribute to future research and inform policy developments that support multilingual students in equitable ways.

KEYWORDS:

• Multilingual learners
• teacher agency
• language education policy
• performativity

Disclosure statement

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