What's in a Name? Rethinking and Undoing How We Label Linguistically Diverse Students

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In this session top scholars exploring language use in U.S. schools critically examine the labels they and others use to define linguistically diverse students. Schooling serves to “curricularize” language – defining what the language of schooling is and is not, and in turn, who learners are (Authors, XXXX). If an important goal of education is to nourish students’ sense of “linguistic belonging” (Murdock, 2015) in a democratic society, then what are the implications for how we as scholars and educators use such language ourselves? Scholars present findings from their empirical research in order to examine the labeling of learners in settings they study, rationales behind the term(s) they use (or avoid), and theoretical and practical implications of these naming practices.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 3: Social Context of Multiple Languages and Literacies

Chairs

• Amanda Kibler, University of Virginia

• Guadalupe Valdes, Stanford University

Papers

• Conceptualizing Language Learners: Socio-Institutional Mechanisms and Their Consequences - Amanda Kibler, University of Virginia; Guadalupe Valdes, Stanford University

• Macro-Level Labels and Micro-Level Effects: Undoing Discourses of "Dysfluency" in Indigenous Language Education - Teresa L. McCarty, University of California - Los Angeles

• Naming Beyond the White Gaze: Implications for Racial and Linguistic Justice - Django Paris, Michigan State University

• Bilinguals/Emergent Bilinguals: The Least Marginalizing General Terms for Ungeneralizable Categories - Deborah K. Palmer, The University of Texas - Austin

• Guadalupe Valdes Paper - Guadalupe Valdes, Stanford University

Discussant

• Jeff MacSwan, University of Maryland