The Old Woman, Her Pig, and the Public Good: The Campaign for Spanish Language Education, 1914-1945

• In Event: School Accountability: Methods, Mandates, and Curriculum

Abstract

This is an historical study whose aim is to interrogate assertions of the centrality of Spanish language education to the realization of US economic and geopolitical interests in Latin America. Based on a study of Spanish language education advocacy between 1914-1945, I make two claims: first, that realization of US economic and geopolitical interests across the hemisphere did not in practice require significant capacity in the Spanish language among the US population; second, that linking Spanish language education to such interests had the paradoxical effect of closing ideological and implementational space (Hornberger, 2006) for second language education overall, Spanish included.

Author

• Jeff Bale, Michigan State University