Complexifying internal linguistic discrimination: bilingual Latinx teachers navigating Spanish language ideologies in bilingual programs

Abstract

This qualitative study highlights the nuances behind apparent internal linguistic discrimination by Latinx bilingual teachers toward their Latinx students’ Spanish. Using a teacher solidarity lens and building on prior work in language ideologies and minoritized bilingual teacher identities, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 U.S. and non-U.S. born bilingual Latinx teachers. Specifically, we asked teachers to react to sentences containing features characteristic of U.S. Spanish varieties and their opinions of their students’ Spanish. Although teachers’ responses reflected hegemonic and monoglossic language ideologies, their answers did not suggest that teachers merely followed the bilingual program guidelines or had passively internalized these ideologies. Instead, teachers rationalized their decisions according to their (1) desire to protect their students from the linguistic discrimination they suffered themselves; (2) intent for Latinx students to maintain their Spanish language in the English-dominant U.S. social and educational system; and (3) belief that the ability to use ‘standard’ Spanish will result in students’ academic and professional success. In other words, teachers’ deep caring for their bilingual Latinx students and embodied knowledge of Latinx experiences influenced their pedagogical decisions regarding teaching of and in Spanish. Implications for the preparation of bilingual Latinx teachers are discussed here.

Keywords:

• Latinx
• bilingual teacher identity
• Spanish
• language ideologies
• internal linguistic discrimination

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 A heritage language refers to a language other than English in the United States to which a speaker has a historical or personal connection (Valdés 2001).

2 All names are pseudonyms.

3 IRB Protocol #2016-046-PASA.