Between language as problem and resource: Examining teachers’ language orientations in dual-language programs

ABSTRACT

Using a case study methodology, the article examines the language practices of two third-grade bilingual, dual-language education teachers as they prepare their students for their state’s standardized assessment. Findings revealed that both teachers taught in between the contradicting tensions of the language-as-problem and -resource orientations that simultaneously valued bilingual language practices but also positioned bilingual education and development as problematic to success on an English state test. Without a more concerted effort toward Bartolomé and Balderrama’s “ideological clarity” among educators and recentering of a language-as-right orientation in bilingual education, there is a danger that the benefits of bilingualism and the opportunity for bilingual development may not be extended to subjugated language communities.

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Christian E. Zúñiga

Christian E. Zúñiga is an Assistant Professor in Biliteracy and Literacy Studies at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Her research focuses on language policy, ideology and bilingual teacher education and their impact on U.S. bilingual communities’ schooling experiences, particularly in the borderlands.