From Policy to Practice : Analyzing Ideology in Arizona's Language Policy

• In Event: AERA Research in Progress Roundtable Session Four
  In Invited Roundtable: Research-in-Progress RT071 (Saturday)

Abstract

This project uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to interrogate the ideological underpinning's of Arizona's restrictive voter-initiated educational language policy. This "English-only" policy, passed into legislation in 2000, has effectively eliminated bilingual educational opportunities for emergent bilingual students for the past 25 years despite heavy opposition by academic and social activists in the courts. This research seeks to track and analyze ideology as it has shaped and been shaped by this policy since it was first introduced. CDA is used as a methodology in order to bring diverse texts (news reports, speeches, classroom dialogue, and more) into a cohesive conversation.

Author

• Katie R. Clones, Arizona State University