The Counter-Story of a Chinese Immigrant Mother Against the Neoliberal Framing of Dual Language Education

• In Event: Imagining Futurities in Bi/Multilingual Education Through Counter-Stories From Racialized and Minoritized Parents

Abstract

Compared to other linguistically minoritized groups, Asian Americans are especially vulnerable to the erasure of their heritage languages (HL; Pew Research Center, 2012). To counter the assimilative force of English, dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs have the potential to address the HL learning needs of language minoritized children. However, these programs often overlook these needs and instead prioritize other rationales, such as future employment opportunities and cognitive advantages (Author, 2023b). Such neoliberal framing of language in DLBE programs commodifies HL learners’ heritage and culture, disregards the close connections between language minoritized children’s HL and identity, and serves to prioritize the needs of English-speaking students, who are predominately White (Cervantes-Soon, 2014).

This study employs an ethnographic case study (Stake, 1995) approach and showcases the counterstory (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002) of a first-generation Chinese-immigrant mother, Aimei, who speaks Fujianese, Mandarin, and little English. Aimei lives in a Southeastern state in the US and enrolled her children in a public Mandarin-English DLBE program. Data sources included semi-structured interviews, ethnographic field notes, and analytical memos.

The findings of the study reveal that Aimei recognizes the importance of English within a predominantly White and middle-class school context. Despite her awareness of English hegemony, she deliberately implements family language policies prioritizing Fujianese and Mandarin to preserve her children’s cultural and ethnic identities. Aimei enrolls her children in a Mandarin-English DLBE program with the hope of supporting her children’s language learning. While she appreciates the program’s efforts to maintain her children’s cultural pride, she also acknowledges the power dynamics and the prioritization of White students’ interests within the program.

The school, district, and public discourses frequently render the Mandarin DLBE program as an elite program that fosters global competence and promotes cognitive development without mentioning how the program benefit HL-speaking children (Author, 2023a). Non-DLBE parents in the school district, many of whom are also racially minoritized, felt excluded and believed this program deprived their children’s resources for enrichment purposes. Although the program prioritizes English-dominant, White families’ interests, Aimei and other Chinese immigrant parents were accused. Aimei felt guilty, as her children’s rights to maintain HL were never legitimatized and validated in the public DLBE discourses. Their children are considered model minorities with no needs in school, a stereotype that disregards the systemic racism they encounter and pits them against other marginalized communities (Lee, 2001).

Using the neoliberal discourse to frame the goals of Mandarin DLBE programs reinforces the stereotypical portrayal of Asians as model minorities, fuels the systemic dismissal of Asian immigrant children’s linguistic rights and needs, ignores the inseparable connections between language and identity, pits them against other minoritized groups, and perpetuates the prioritization of English-speaking families’ interests. Aimei’s counterstories highlight the importance of emphasizing the heritage aspect of promoting DLBE programs and reframing DLBE programs using counterhegemonic discourses that prioritize heritage/equity reasons over others (Valdez et al., 2016b). It underscores the need to critically examine issues of race, ethnicity, class, and English hegemony within DLBE spaces and validate language-minoritized families’ rights to their HLs.

Authors

• Wenyang Sun, University of Utah

• Xinxin Wang, Fudan University