Federal Language-in-Education Policy in Practice: An Ethnographic Examination of an Adult ESOL Program

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 77
  In Roundtable Session: Rethinking Human Capital in Adult Literacy and Adult Education

Abstract

The recent passing of the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) is increasing the integration of adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and workforce development programs. This paper considers how WIOA, as a language education policy, is being shaped in the context of one ESOL program in the Northeast. We adopt a postmodern perspective, juxtaposing an examination of the larger policy discourse with an analysis of the program’s response to WIOA. Our ethnographic data set includes field notes taken during classroom observations in 2017, the program’s instructional materials, and policy and program documents that were mentioned in the personal testimony of the program’s director. Our findings illuminate differing interpretations of career-focused language teaching across two ESOL classrooms.

Author

• Emma Razifard Britton, University of Massachusetts - Amherst