Raciolinguistic Distinctions in U.S. Science Education: A Century of Dividing "Potential Scientists" From "Not-Yet-Healthy Citizens"

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Constructing and Challenging Borders in Educational Theory and Practice

Abstract

For a century, difference from a norm of English monolingualism has operated in U.S. science education as a proxy for a distinct kind of student. This study historically examines how science education journals constituted the ‘Spanish-speaking student’ as needing concrete, health-oriented instruction—often placed in lower-track courses. Genealogical analysis suggests that, despite key shifts from 1921 to 2021, U.S. science education journals have persistently racialized Spanish-speaking students as having: (1) a deficient mentality via psychological constructs of healthy decision-making; (2) disordered living via sociological depictions of home lives; and (3) cultural deviance via anthropological distinctions of language-as-worldview. Restoring historical tethers is crucial to unsettle raciolinguistic distinctions that naturalize tracking as responsive to pathologies projected onto students’ minds, homes, and cultures.

Authors

• Kathryn Lewkowicz Kirchgasler, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Cynthia Baeza, University of Wisconsin - Madison