Challenging Raciolinguistic Ideologies through Extraordinary Pedagogies

• In Event: Extraordinary Pedagogies: An Endarkened Feminist Approach to Revolutionizing Teacher Consciousness

Abstract

This presentation reports interactions from a session in an anti-racist teacher education course that centered on “standard academic English.” Every summer, a large primarily white institution in the mid-Atlantic offers an intensive course where teacher candidates (TCs) of interdisciplinary backgrounds - most of whom self-identified as white - learn about justice-oriented, liberatory pedagogies. Drawing from raciolinguistic ideologies (Rosa & Flores, 2017), anti-Black linguicism (Baker-Bell, 2020), and Extraordinary pedagogies rooted in anti-bigotry praxis (Staples-Dixon, 2024), the session engaged TCs in questioning “standard academic English” as stabilized cultural patterns of language registers (Thibault, 2011) and challenging its status as white mainstream English that imposes deficit perspectives on Black students, students of Color, and emergent bilinguals (EBs). TCs participated in learning activities such as examining one’s language attitudes, critical analysis of case studies, and discussion of how to work with multilingual students. Via thematic analytical approach (Braun & Clarke, 2012), the analysis of the collected multimodal data (e.g., audio recording of classroom discourse, drawings, quick-writes, etc.) indicates that the 16 TCs in this study (85% of who intend to seek ESL endorsement), to various extents, externalized implicit biases subverted by native-speakerism and an emerging awareness regarding the intersectionality between their language ideologies and other ideological perversions (e.g., racism, sexism, ableism, xenophobia). To this end, the study also presents mediational means (e.g., learning activities, feedback) during and after the session that oriented TCs to develop critical consciousness and equity-minded praxis (e.g., language policy for promoting translanguaging practices). Considering that EBs are likely to work with teachers of various subject areas (Flores, 2020), the purpose of this study is to provide an empirical case where teacher educators worked with TCs from English language education and beyond (e.g., social studies, music) to disrupt biased language ideologies and co-construct understanding of linguistic justice and social justice.

Authors

• Azaria I. Cunningham, Boston University

• Jennifer Jackson, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education