Support or Segregation? Student Perspectives on the English Learner Label and English Language Development Classrooms

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 11:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Interrogating Perspectives and Practices in Bilingual Education

Abstract

This paper examines how the English Learner (EL) label and English Language Development (ELD) classrooms affect the schooling experiences of racially and linguistically minoritized bi/multilingual students in two Arizona high schools. Drawing on raciolinguistic ideologies , this study explores the paradox of ELD classrooms as spaces of both support and segregation. Classroom observations, interviews, and focus groups reveal that while students experience ELD as a space of belonging, the EL label stigmatizes them and marks them as inferior within the broader school community. Moreover, Arizona’s restrictive language policy and school structures physically and socially isolate these students. These findings urge a critical reexamination of language educational structures and policies that claim to support while sustaining segregation.

Author

• Thaina Ferrari Deolindo, University of Arizona