The Discursive Formation of California's Post–Proposition 58 Bilingual Education

• In Event: Immigrants, Language, and Educational (In)Justice

Abstract

Recent gains in California’s bilingual education policy have generated renewed interest in bilingual program models. This study draws on Said’s conceptualization of discursive formation to understand potential implications for bilingual education in this new landscape. A discourse analysis of three of the highest-level policy documents produced in the wake of this policy shift, finds that bilingual education is discursively formed within a neoliberal lens, framing language as an economic asset and failing to address the linguistic power imbalances that pervade our school systems. These findings suggest that schools and educators should be critical in their implementation of new bilingual programs if they hope to build equitable spaces of language and content learning.

Author

• Olivia Elvira Obeso, University of California - Los Angeles