DLBE in 12 of the Largest Districts: Is There Demographic, Discursive, and Programmatic Gentrification?

• In Event: Critical Issues in Dual-Language Education

Abstract

We compared district directories of their dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs with publicly available demographic data using a typology of three forms of gentrification: demographic (overrepresentation of privileged students), discursive (inequitable messaging in policy documents), and programmatic (over-use of program models that favor privileged students). Using descriptive statistics and critical discourse analysis, we describe evidence of all three types, including (a) inconsistent rates of inclusion of emergent bilinguals (the maintenance constituency), and two patterns that privileged the already socially privileged world language constituency: (b) fiftyfication of language allocation program types and (c) discursive slippage in the meaning of two-way programs in new immigrant destination states. Implications of the influence of these large districts’ choices are discussed.

Authors

• Garrett Delavan, Georgia State University

• Trish Morita Mullaney, Purdue University

• Juan A. Freire, Brigham Young University