A Call for Critical Consciousness in Secondary Bilingual Education: A Review of Policy Research From Two States

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

Abstract

While the United States has seen a significant increase in the availability of secondary bilingual education (BE) programs, many of these programs fail to provide additive language education that speaks to the lived realities of minoritized students. This paper provides a review of the research literature produced in California and Texas, two states with historically distinct policies for BE. By applying a Critical Race Theory lens, we found that secondary BE policy implementation in both states struggled to create equal educational opportunities, especially for Spanish-speaking youth. A meta-narrative of the articles implied a call to action: include teaching for critical consciousness in BE methodology. Our findings suggest that policies are too vague to confront longstanding educational inequities.

Authors

• Allarie Coleman, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Deborah K. Palmer, University of Colorado - Boulder