Against the Odds: The Black and Brown Plight to Bilingualism and Agency in a Dual-Language Program

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: School-Based Surveillance of Children of Color

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic data in a two-way dual-language immersion program serving low-income African American and Latinx children, this chapter offers a raciolinguistic analysis of kindergarteners’ engagement with and investment in English and/or Spanish in a school context of racialized expectations of student behavior, excessive adult control over students’ bodies and voice, and students’ continuous struggle for agency within the limits of English hegemony. The analysis illustrates how despite the dual language teacher’s efforts to enact a counter-hegemonic pedagogy, raise the value of Spanish, and foster bilingualism, English ultimately prevails as the only language of power and of children’s access to agency.

Authors

• Claudia G. Cervantes-Soon, Arizona State University

• Idalia Nunez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Enrique David Degollado, University of Iowa