‘In other schools you can plan it that way’: a raciolinguistic perspective on dual language education

ABSTRACT

In recent years, there has been a massive expansion of dual language education (DLE) programs across the United States. Many of these programs are located in relatively affluent areas with large numbers of white professional families. Yet, most Latinx students attend high-poverty schools. In this article, we use the School District of Philadelphia as a case study of efforts to expand DLE in such high-poverty schools with large concentrations of Latinx students. We first offer a historical overview of bilingual education in Philadelphia, emphasizing the ways that broader political and economic challenges impeded efforts to develop and sustain quality programs. We then examine a recent effort to expand DLE in the district. Using case studies of three different schools, we illustrate the ways that broader racialized histories that have created and exacerbated the segregation and poverty of Latinx communities within the city have made it difficult for these programs to be successfully implemented.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual education
• dual language education
• Latinx students
• neoliberalism
• raciolinguistic perspective
• Philadelphia

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Jacob Berexa for his support in putting this manuscript together.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Pseudonyms used for all schools that participated in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by School District of Philadelphia: [Grant Number 567050; 569245; 572174; 576869].

Notes on contributors

Nelson Flores

Nelson Flores is an associate professor in educational linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. His research examines the intersection of language, race and the political economy in shaping US bilingual educational policies and practices. He was the recipient of the 2017 AERA Bilingual Education SIG Early Career Award and was a 2017 Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow.

Lauren McAuliffe

Lauren McAuliffe holds a B.A. in Sociology and Hispanic Studies from the College of William and Mary and an M.S.Ed. in Intercultural Communication from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. She has more than five years of dual language teaching experience.