A Foucauldian genealogy of spatial and material discourses in U.S. bilingual education

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  In Roundtable Session: Towards a Justice-Oriented Bilingual Education

Abstract

While acknowledging that linguistically and pedagogically tailored approaches have meaningfully supported multilingual learners (MLs) within classroom settings, this study argues that the spatial and material arrangements of those spaces have historically functioned as institutionalized discourses, contributing to the marginalization of MLs and the regulation of their subjectivities. Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of discourse and power as its theoretical framework and employing Foucauldian genealogy as its methodological approach, actualized through archival research, this study traces ruptures and discontinuities in the history of bilingual education in a southeastern U.S. state. It reveals how spatial and material configurations have functioned as disciplinary apparatuses that normalize, classify, and exercise power over MLs’ bodies, calling for reimagining of bilingual education within the neoliberal educational context.

Author

• Seon Ja Chang, University of Georgia