"The Reason Why I'm Coming to School Is to Learn": Counter-Understandings of Disengagement Among Long-Term English Learner–Designated Students

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Five
  In Roundtable Session: Counter-Understandings: Gentrification, "Post-Truth," and the Reclamation of Space (Table 8)

Abstract

Currently, there are 361,482 students in the state of California designated as Long-term English Learners (LTEL). This study explores the academic trajectories of Latinx students classified as Long-term English learners. In the literature, disengagement in school is presented as one of the characterizations of students designated as Long-term English learners (LTELs). In this paper, student interviews and a focus on student experiential knowledge complicate this common descriptor. Interview analysis finds that LTEL designated students face specific challenges such as understaffed courses, poor relationships with teachers, and academic demoralization. This study examines the LTEL designation from the epistemologies of LTEL designated students with implications for changing how LTEL designated students are characterized in the literature by researchers and policymakers.

Author

• Victoria Melgarejo, Stanford University
  Presenting Author