Placekeeping to address gentrification in dual-language programs: Taking lessons from social justice, equity-based urban planning.

• In Event: Critical Geographies of Belonging: Justice in Bilingual Education

Abstract

Recently, researchers in bilingual education have exposed the gentrification of bilingual dual language (DL) programs, where students who lack white racial privilege, wealth, and native English proficiency have experienced a “significant drop in access” to these programs (Valdez et al., p. 601). Valdez et al. (2016) call this the “metaphorical gentrification of DL by students of more privilege than those it historically served” (p. 601). We argue that DL programs have been caught up in the business of “placemaking,” in order to court the participation and resources of middle-class, white families. “Placemaking is complicit in the historic and pervasive violences of systemic racism, settler colonialism, gentrification, and socioeconomic elitism” (Moran & Berbary, 2021, p. 1). We report on a local community effort informed by social justice, equity-based urban planning that took a placekeeping orientation and ask what can bilingual education learn from non-educational social foundations that address shared challenges?

Author

• Steve Przymus, University of Rhode Island