Beliefs about bilingualism, bilingual education, and dual language development of early childhood preservice teachers raised in a Prop 227 environment

ABSTRACT

Despite the well-documented benefits of bilingualism, current educational practices in the United States reflect the deeply held belief that because the United States is an English speaking country, English should be the language of instruction. This belief was codified into law in California via the1998 passage of Proposition 227, which banned bilingual education. The number of young dual language learners has continued to grow, however, and the need to work with these children is a reality that preservice teachers will face despite restrictive language policy mandates. Given the well-established relationship between teacher beliefs and practices, the purpose of this exploratory study was to use survey techniques to explore the beliefs about bilingualism, bilingual education, and dual language development of university students who attended public school in a Proposition 227 context. Findings indicate that despite favorable views on bilingualism and bilingual education and knowledge of dual language development, beliefs about the role of the native language in the school environment continue to reflect the hegemony and deficit-thinking embodied by Proposition 227. Reflecting the research in K-12 settings, Latino students and those who spoke more than one language had more favorable views about bilingualism and bilingual education.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• bilingual education
• language ideologies
• language policy
• preservice teachers