Navigating English-Dominant Schooling: Bi/Multilingual Students’ Responses to Raciolinguistic Ideologies

• In Event: Civic Practices, Education Policy and Diverse Perspectives

Abstract

This study centers the voices of bi/multilingual high school students labeled as English Learners (ELs)—youth often overlooked in education research and policy. Drawing on classroom observations, focus groups, and interviews, I examine how students navigate English-dominant environments and respond to deficit narratives that frame their linguistic practices as inadequate. Findings reveal that some students appear influenced by such narratives, at times avoiding the use of their home languages or describing them as obstacles to learning English. Others express pride in their bi/multilingualism, pushing back against practices and narratives that marginalize their linguistic repertoires. This study contributes to efforts to reimagine language education by challenging tokenistic valorizations of bi/multilingualism and calling for justice-centered approaches that resist English supremacy.

Author

• Thaina Ferrari Deolindo, University of Arizona