Teacher Beliefs About Multilingual Learners: How Language Ideologies Shape Teachers' Hypothetical Policy Making

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Four
  In Roundtable Session: Challenging Erasure, Symbolic Violence, and Assumptions of Race and Language (Table 3)

Abstract

Teachers’ language ideologies shape their classroom language policy-making. This mixed methods, survey-based study explores the language ideologies of 134 pre- and in-service teachers at a large public university in Arizona, employing decision tree models to examine connections between participants’ demographics, their language ideologies, and their hypothetical policymaking around Spanish-English dual-language bilingual education (DLBE). Findings show intersections between current and future educators’ (a) contextualized experiences, (b) ability to discuss DLBE accurately (without misunderstandings), and (c) ability to engage concretely with details of hypothetical policy making around DLBE. The study offers a unique vantage point for teacher educators who seek to support pre- and in-service teachers in becoming on-the-ground policy makers of pro-multilingual language policies.

Authors

• Kevin Close, The Spencer Foundation
  Presenting Author

• Katie Bernstein, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Kate T. Anderson, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sara Rodriguez Martinez, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author