Fifty Years On: Lau v. Nichols, Language Rights or English-Only? (Poster 41)

• In Event: Friday Poster Session 9:35 am
  In Poster Session: Division G: Policies Mattering and Praxis Poster Session

Abstract

Research addresses the 1974 Lau v. Nichols U.S. Supreme Court case, which found that the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) was in violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for not providing additional supports to students not fully proficient in English. Analyses of archival records revealed findings that identify artifacts, communities, and salient discourses, which together illustrate patterns of conflicting underlying interpretations—English-only ideologies derived from SFUSD leadership and language rights ideologies, aligned to Chinese-origin activism that constituted the genesis of Lau v. Nichols. We argue that because Lau failed to stipulate bilingual models for instruction of multilingual students, its key policy implication is the prevalence of English-only ideologies at the expense of multilingualism.

Authors

• Sarah C.K. Moore, University of Maryland

• John Chi, University of Maryland