Jim Crowing Bilingualism? A Critical Spatial Analysis of Texas Dual Language Programs

• In Event: Multilingual Learners and Bilingual Education: Language Policy Perspectives

Abstract

The focus of this paper is to assert that while bilingual education and policies that govern its access were designed to broaden linguistic abilities of all students, it has shifted to benefit a heterogenous population of monolingual, middle to upper class White students. Drawing on critical spatial analysis, this study utilized data from the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) English Learner Program Report for the 2021-2022 academic year; GIS spatial data from the US Census, and school locale data from TEA. All to answer the question: have bilingual programs in Texas become a haven for a new Jim Crow segregation which preserves Whiteness while denigrating historically marginalized communities?

Authors

• Emily Holtz, University of Tennessee

• John A. Williams, Texas A&M University