Who’s being ‘sheltered?’: How monolingual language ideologies are produced within education policy discourse and sheltered English immersion

ABSTRACT

This paper critically examines the notion of ‘sheltered’ pedagogies for English language teaching in English-dominant contexts. I specifically explore how the increasingly popular Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) model has been interpreted in certain contexts to further monolingual language ideologies. Drawing on critical and poststructural approaches to policy analysis, I ask who is being sheltered through SEI – interrogating the degree to which the model accommodates multilingual learners as compared to ‘sheltering’ monolingual pedagogies, teachers, students, and policies of the status quo. Ultimately, this framing destabilizes assumptions around who benefits from ‘sheltered’ approaches. I first introduce a theoretical framework to challenge claims of a widespread transcendence of monolingual language ideologies through theoretical advances such as the pluri/multilingual turn. Next, I analyze the socio-historical trajectory of SEI’s use within U.S. English-only movements and the language ideologies produced therein. Finally, I provide a specific example of an SEI training mandate in the U.S. state of Massachusetts that demonstrates how monolingual language ideologies can be reinforced through teacher education, even in the absence of specific English-only policies. Beyond SEI classrooms, this analysis has implications for how language hierarchies are maintained across a broad range of educational settings and policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational policy
• inequality/social exclusion in education
• language - culture - pedagogy identity
• language education
• multiculturalism/multicultural education
• poststructural/postmodern/critical theory
• teacher education

Acknowledgement

The author thanks C. Patrick Proctor, Anne Homza, Rebecca Lowenhaupt, and Kara Mitchell Viesca for their thought partnership on earlier versions of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. As of this 2019 writing, Arizona is the only U.S. state with an English-only education law. It should be noted however, that 29 states have designated English as the sole official language of the state. Federally, the U.S. has no official language.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF).

Notes on contributors

Chris K. Chang-Bacon

Chris K. Chang-Bacon is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education. His research explores critical literacies, language ideologies, and educational policy. Dr. Chang-Bacon’s work has been featured in the Journal of Teacher Education, Linguistics and Education, and the Journal of Literacy Research.