Community-Based Action Research Toward Participatory and Transformative Educational Language Policy

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

A goal of language education policy research (--& Author, 2017) and educational policy research more broadly (Ball, 1997) is uncovering how policies can uphold or unpend unequal social power dynamics. Research demonstrates the power of those who interpret and implement language policies (e.g. Ball et al. 2011; Menken & Garcia, 2010), but potential for transformation centered in the perspectives of those whose language practices policy regulates is scant. This session features studies which utilized community-engaged action research to bring multiple stakeholders together for change. Through studies where citizen-researchers, educators, community members, parents, and students co-collaborated, we argue that community-based methods reveal evidence-based action steps towards strategically addressing language education problems.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Bilingual Education Research

Chair

• Crissa Stephens, Georgetown University

Papers

• Commonly and Less Commonly Taught Language Communities' Designs for Curriculum and Teacher Education - Jenna Cushing-Leubner, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater

• Singletons and Survivors: Translanguaging and Affect in Almost-Bilingual Classrooms - Elaine Cristina Allard, Swarthmore College

• Mothers Are Powerful: A Community-Based Study of Language Policy, Identity, and Access - Crissa Stephens, Georgetown University

• Culturally Sustaining Systemic Functional Linguistics: Remixing of the Communal and Hegemonic in an After-School Program - Jason D. Mizell, University of Miami

• Language Policy Considerations From Bilingual Adolescent Latinx Youth - Sarah Hesson, Rhode Island College

Discussant

• Edwin Mayorga, Swarthmore College