Bilingual Paraeducators Navigating Narrow Identity Spaces in a Rural Elementary School

• In Event: Rethinking Inclusivity, Equity, and Diversity for Rural Multilingual Learners

Abstract

In the rural community of this study, demographic change began in the 1980s, a result of the union-busting of the U.S. meat industry. Latinx workers and their families moved to Athens to work in the newly-relocated local pet food and pork processing plants, making up 45% of Athens’ population by 2020. As such, Athens has come to typify a new kind of company town (Champlin & Hake, 2006) in rural America today where the local elementary school is ‘minority majority’ and Latinx restaurants and groceries occupy the former diners and Czech bakeries of Athens’ downtown.
However, as the school and general population changed, school personnel largely did not, resulting in a student body of mostly Spanish-speaking Latinx learners taught by White, English-speaking teachers. Despite decades of Latinx community growth, the teachers remained predominantly White, the school culture European-descent focused, and the language English. Much of the burden of making schools work in these circumstances fell to bilingual paraeducators whose linguistic and cultural knowledge were essential to the functioning of Athens schools.
Utilizing a case study design and positioning theory, the author explored the narrow identity spaces of two bilingual paraeducators, Juana and Manuela. The participants reported identity positioning that restricted their desired identities as caring Latinas and proud bilinguals. As both paraeducators and as Latinas, Juana and Manuela, were in positions lacking power at Athens elementary where majoritarian norms continued to stifle and stymy new cultural and linguistic understandings. Findings suggest that the colonial project of white settlement (Chatterjee, 2019) continues to play out in Athens, and similar rural spaces, but with a new twist: resettling Latinx and other minorities to rural spaces in service to white settlers' economic advantage.
Implications of this study include the need for rural, multilingual schools to reckon with the language and culture ideologies that restrict not only bilingual paraeducators but also their linguistically minoritized learners. And, from a wider perspective, if rural communities’ welcome of Latinx and other newcomers is to be genuine, the white settler colonial logic must be challenged and space made for new community members.

Author

• Jenelle R. Reeves, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  Presenting Author