Interrogating the racialization of “heritage language learners” to broaden conceptualizations of equity

• In Event: Asian American Racialization: Critical Perspectives on Mandarin-English Bilingual Education

Abstract

Purpose
Critiques of the gentrification of dual language immersion classrooms (Flores & García, 2017; Valdés, 1997; Valdez et. al, 2016) center how DLI programs have shifted from their foundations in providing linguistically equitable bilingual education for heritage language learners (HLLs), who, in Spanish DLI, are often racialized as Latine. Yet, there is a dearth of research on how racialization processes affect conceptualizations of HLLs and accompanying notions of linguistic equity in Mandarin-English DLI (MEDLI). As such, the purpose of this project is to illuminate how class, race, and language become co-naturalized in everyday practices to complicate notions of linguistic equity in MEDLI.

Theoretical framework
This project illuminates the intersections of literature on raciolinguistics (Flores and Rosa, 2015) and Asian American racialization (Au, 2022; Museus, 2022; Kim, 1999; 2024). By highlighting the intersectional construction of the “Mandarin HLL” in relation to other ethnoracial and linguistic categories, it adds to calls for more equity for HLLs within MEDLI (Tian et. al, 2024) by positing the need to revise categories we use to determine equity practices.

Methods
Data comes from 1.5 years of fieldwork at a diverse-by-design MEDLI in Northern California. East Academy (EA), serves a diverse demographic of 40% Asian American, 30% Latine, 16% Black, 14% White, and 47% lower income students. Ethnographic fieldnotes, audio recordings of student and teacher interviews, as well as physical and digital artifacts were coded inductively and deductively for emergent themes (Braun and Clarke, 2006; Saldaña, 2021).

Results
I highlight two instances where processes of racialization constrain notions of equity for both HLLs and non-HLLs alike.
1) While about 17% of EA’s mixed-race students are culturally and ethnically at least half Chinese heritage, most are not considered HLLs but often spoke other languages at home. Lower-income, mixed-race students were often racialized as Latine or Black rather than Asian Americans if they face challenges in academic settings due to prevalent discourses of “achievement gaps.” When racialized as such, teachers questioned why these students are enrolled in a MEDLI program.

2) 20% of students who are “Mandarin HLLs” were racialized as high achieving Asian Americans and, ironically, considered not in need of further racial or educational equity. Teachers share that these students achieved because they were in programs that fit their linguistic and cultural heritage, essentializing a type of “academic fit.” Many were higher-income third generation immigrants whose parents’ financial, social, and cultural capital helped reify stereotypes of Asian American achievement.

Discussion & scholarly significance
While simplified, the findings above demonstrate how processes of Asian American racialization and relative construction of Latine and Blackness, in fact, excludes students with complex and intersectional positionalities in conceptualizations of linguistic equity in MEDLI. Asian American students are seen as already higher achieving even if they are HLLs, while students constructed as Latine and Black students are figured to belong elsewhere, despite shared cultural heritages. I gesture towards broader conceptualizations of linguistic equity in DLI that may serve more, and more diverse multilingual students within MEDLI programs that accounts for, and interrogates the naturalization of race, class, and linguistic practices.

Author

• Catherine Park, University of California - Berkeley