“Survival” Versus “Curiosity” in DLBE: A Latina Principal’s Use of Interest Convergence with the White Listening Subject

• In Event: Gentrification 3.0 in Dual Language Bilingual Education: A Districtwide Analysis of Equity for Emergent Bilinguals

Abstract

Purpose
This study focuses on the leadership practices of Sofia, a Puerto Rican principal of Suncrest Elementary. We asked whether and how DLBE gentrification including demographic, discursive or programmatic (Authors, 2024a) manifested in her decision-making.

Theoretical Framework
The two theoretical lenses guiding this study were raciolinguistic ideologies and interest convergence. The construct of the “White listening subject” (Flores & Rosa, 2015) helps unpack how languaging is often heard and understood through the norms of Whiteness, which drives the marginalization of bilingual communities in the U.S. (García et al., 2021). Interest convergence posits that the White majority’s support for racial equity occurs only when it aligns with White interests (Bell, 1980; Milner et al., 2013).

Methods
We drew on data from Suncrest Elementary, including field notes and two interviews with Sofia, which focused on her DLBE leadership. Using three rounds of analysis, we coded forms of gentrification (Authors, 2024b) and grouped findings by emerging themes. Using Milner et al.’s (2013) four analytic sites of interest convergence (curriculum and instruction, teacher demographics, routes into teaching, and partnership incentives), we explored whether Sofia’s leadership decisions reflected demographic, discursive or programmatic gentrification.

Results
Subtle forms of gentrification emerged despite Sofia’s discursive commitment to equity and service to the Latinx community. Sofia’s decision-making showed solicitation of interest convergence with the White listening subject of the two program languages. These choices prioritized White norms and English hegemony, reinforcing inequities among the school’s EBs.
First, several of her discursive and programmatic choices prioritized White, English-monolingual families’ interests over those of multilingual or Latinx families in the program. Three instances include: (a) her portrayal of curriculum and instruction emphasized standardized test scores intended to attract White families; (b) she hypothesized that periods of English-only instruction might be better for some EBs; and (c) she characterized Ebs’ learning with a scarcity/remediation discourse of “survival” and “access to the language of power” while characterizing English-dominant students’ learning with an abundance/enrichment discourse of “curiosity” and “dreaming.”
Second, teacher demographics reflected diversity differently for the two sets of teacher recruits (routes into teaching): Spanish teachers were valued for dialectal variation while English teachers were selected based on language experience, race, and gender. Sofia portrayed her school’s international hires as lacking preparation for diverse classrooms and required assimilation into U.S. pedagogy, framing it as an individual responsibility.
Third, partnership incentives similarly reinforced dominant interests, especially the teacher-recruitment partnership with a locally based “global think tank” with priorities that reflect neoliberal and imperialist values.

Scholarly Significance
Raciolinguistic ideologies centering on notions of appropriateness and responsiveness to a White-majority audience can create a hierarchy of priorities and interests even among representatives of the linguistically or culturally minoritized communities. Our paper is the first to analyze DLBE gentrification through the lens of Milner’s four critical sites of interest convergence (curriculum and instruction, teacher demographics, routes into teaching, and partnership incentives) while intersecting this work within raciolinguistic ideologies. Our study demonstrates the utility of theoretical intersections as critical sites for advancing and transforming equity and inclusion.

Authors

• Priya M Dabak, Purdue University

• Vikrant Chap, Purdue University