Counternarratives of Cultural Wealth: Challenging Deficit Discourses Around Emergent Bilinguals' Career and Technical Education Enrollment

• In Event: Countering Deficit Ideologies Surrounding English Language Learners in K–12 Settings

Abstract

Deficit perceptions of emergent bilingual students (EBs) and their limited educational opportunities have been well documented. However, limited attention has been given to EBs’ enrollment in career and technical education (CTE), especially from the perspective of students and educators. This paper, based on an ethnographic study of EBs in a CTE school, examines the discourses surrounding EBs’ enrollment in high school CTE programs from the perspective of teachers, administrators, and EBs. The data showed that CTE teachers and administrators harbored deficit perceptions of EBs as lacking the agency and social and familial support to make sound educational decisions. However, EBs’ counternarratives demonstrated rich community cultural wealth that informed their decision to pursue CTE in high school.

Author

• Mark R Emerick, Muhlenberg College