Under the Law: Unveiling Ideological Orientations and Local Practices of Bilingual-Bicultural Education Programs in Wisconsin

• In Event: Not all Bilingual Education Policies are the Same: Learning from History to Build the Future

Abstract

Objectives
Across the United States, state laws vary widely in how they mandate language-support services for students identified as English Learners (ELs) to meet federal requirements. In Wisconsin, the Bilingual-Bicultural (BLBC) statute, established in 1975, guides the structure and funding of programs serving ELs. We investigated the degree to which ideological orientations embedded in Wisconsin's BLBC statute are reflected in district-level bilingual education program structures and practices.

Theoretical Framework
Utilizing an ecological lens (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), we analyzed language policies and ideologies (Kroskrity, 2010) as represented in Plans of Service submitted to WI’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) for BLBC funding. An ecological lens facilitated holistic examination of language policies within a complex system of interdependent levels of influence. This work builds on scholarship that explores how language policy travels across levels of the education system (Hornberger, 2002; Menken & Garcia 2010; Johnson & Johnson, 2015). We also examined how state policies reflect or resist the promotion of bilingualism. Despite evidence of the benefits of bilingualism (e.g., Bialystok, 2011), many state educational policies continue to reflect monolingual and nationalistic ideologies that push the acquisition and use of English (deJong, 2011).

Methods
We analyzed WI districts’ Plans of Service obtained through an open records request. The Plans serve as applications for creating or maintaining BLBC programs eligible for reimbursements. Of 55 Plans obtained, 41 contained sufficient detail for analysis. Document analysis took place in two phases. First, the team developed and utilized a five-point Likert scale representing five ideological groups, based on how home languages were incorporated and sustained in language programs. Four raters participated in consensus moderation (Sadler, 2013; O’Donovan et al., 2024), a process of negotiation to improve reliability and resolve ambiguities in the criteria, reducing subjective variability and bias (Belur et al., 2021). Then, we analyzed the content of each Plan of Service qualitatively to better understand the specific structures and practices of each program to determine whether there were common patterns within each of the five ideological groups.

Findings
Findings based on the analysis of the Plans of Service reported by bilingual programs across WI suggest that the pro-English and monoglossic ideologies of the BLBC statute are mirrored in the majority of the BLBC-designated programs in Wisconsin. In nearly 60% of them, there appears to be a linguistic homogenization that favors English as a national language. These Plans of Service documents provide an insight into how the macro policy is reified – or contested - at the meso level. They represent the bureaucratic interactions between local institutions, such as school districts, and macro-level administrative bodies, like the Wisconsin DPI, as both groups of actors implement and respond to state policies.

Scholarly Significance
This study highlights the ideological tensions in bilingual education policy and implementation in WI. While the BLBC statute enables bilingual programming, its ideological underpinnings often constrain the full realization of bilingual education’s goals. Ultimately, this research underscores the complexities of aligning policy intentions with program realities and reveals broader challenges in promoting equitable language education at the state level.

Authors

• Cory Mathieu, Western Washington University

• Mariana Castro, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Kathryn Henn Reinke, University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh

• Zach Page, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay