Too often in our classrooms, conversationsand labelsfocus on the learning of English rather than the recognition or development of students home languages. When founding and developing the social justice-based, two-way bilingual program at La Escuela Fratney in Milwaukee, Bob Peterson explains that he and his colleagues knew they didnt have all the answers. Rethinking Bilingual Education promotes equality among language users from many ethnicities and contexts. Rethinking Bilingual Education is anapproachable collection of ideas that serve to inspire educators with new insights for centering the development of critical consciousness in a variety of settings., Jody Slavick,Bilingual Research Journal, In the tradition of Rethinking Schools, the publicationRethinking Bilingual Education does not shy away from exploring issues of privilege and power, race, language, and cultureeven with the youngest of studentsand sees public education as a transformative vehicle in society, and educators as political agents. And they are multiculturalthey seek out connections to other languages and other cultures. Teaching a language means teaching the cultures that are integrated and embedded in it. 3. Students need opportunities to think critically about the racism and bias they see in the world around them. This writing is a transformative act where they build their literacy skills at the same time as they build a place for themselves in the world. La Escuela Fratney: Creating a bilingual school as a greenhouse of democracyBob Peterson, Building Bilingual Communities at Csar Chvez Elementary: An interview with Pilar MejaElizabeth Barbian and Grace Cornell Gonzales, Why Are We Speaking So Much English? Although there is a lot in common among languages, each one is unique, both in its structure and in the way it reflects the culture of the people who speak it. When Jacoa speaks to a class of graduate students at a local college, she exudes joy in taking what she learned about Ebonics out of our high school classroom and into the university, but she speaks about justice when she tells the linguistic history of a language deemed inferior in the halls of power including schools. 6. Chapter 4 is centered around equityfrom promoting non-dominant languages, to teaching anti-racist curriculum to young children, to advocating for the resources our programs deserve. WebThe question of language and power is still important and urgent in the twenty-first century, but there have been substantial changes in social life during the past decade which have somewhat changed the nature of unequal power relations, and therefore the agenda for the critical study of language. How do we design bilingual programs that work for social justice and equity? My uncle flexed his intellectual muscles every time he climbed aboard the Arctic and left Astorias harbor. Privacy Policy. In teaching, as in writing, we need models. Linguistics scholars seek to determine what is unique and universal about the language we use, how it is acquired and the ways it changes over time. As we learn from Indigenous educators and activists, it is often a matter of cultural survival. Alma Flor Ada, award-winning childrens author, professor emerita, University of San Francisco, The narratives of teachers, students, and parents that form the core of this inspiring volume demonstrate that sustained bilingual instruction rooted in anti-racism is a prerequisite for effectiveness in the education of emergent bilingual students. Professors Jennifer Eberhardt and Dan Jurafsky, along with other Stanford researchers, detected racial disparities in police officers speech after analyzing more than 100 hours of body camera footage from Oakland Police. As my mother used to say, Many hands make light work. And it is true, whether were cleaning up after a family dinner or creating a unit for a literature circle on the politics of food. Critical discourse analysis in practice: interpretation, explanation, and the position of the analyst. 7. This month, the Natural History Museum of Utah honors Women's History Month by Celebrating Women in Science. : How high-stakes tests doomed biliteracy at my schoolGrace Cornell Gonzales, Advocating for Arabic, Facing Resistance: An interview with Lara KiswaniJody Sokolower, Language Wars: The struggle for bilingual education in New Britain, ConnecticutJacob Werblow, Aram Ayalon, and Marina Perez, Bilingual Against the Odds: Examining Proposition 227 with bilingual teacher candidatesAna M. Hernndez. WebLanguage and power: Uncovering the legacy of language and power. This month, the Natural History Museum of Utah honors Women's History Month by Celebrating Women in Science. How can we develop equity-centered bilingual programs at the school level? I was just sitting, watching her, because we knew she was passing soon. Maintenance (sometimes called developmental) bilingual programs aim to develop students home languages with the goal of bilingualism and biliteracy. Goodwill Jay by Chrysanthius Lathan 82, Writing for Justice 85 Christensen is recognized as one of the countrys finest teachers. I had insulted his family and reinforced the class lines built into the structure of our educational system. 218 pages, Paperback. This isnt just an individual right. He doesnt have to learn everything in one draft. The stories below represent some of the ways linguists have investigated many aspects of language, including its semantics and syntax, phonetics and phonology, and its social, psychological and computational aspects. I cant expect that students know how to write when they enter my classroom, especially when so many children these days have been pressed like tarnished pennies through mechanical curriculum that promises increased test scores and delivers thin imitation writing without a hint of originality anywhere on the page. When we begin from the premise that students need to be fixed, invariably we design curriculum that erases students home language and culture; we fail to find the strength and beauty in the experience and heritage that students bring with them to school. As more and more words emerged, I could finally rest: I had a place to stand for the first time in my life. The educators who contributed toRethinking Bilingual Education show us many examples of social justice curriculum being taught in bilingual classrooms from Deaf students learning about the genocidal roots of Native American boarding schools to 1st graders inquiring into the lives of farmworkers, from high school students investigating the legacy of Afro-Mexicans to young elementary school students having challenging discussions about race and skin color. That is the central premise of this book. To prepare for this reading without words assignment, I interviewed my Uncle Einar, who fished the Pacific for salmon and tuna his entire life, about how he read the ocean when he fished. Such programs have been strongly criticized by proponents of bilingual education for not fostering sustained bilingualism and biliteracy. Uncovering the Legacy of Language and Power Linda Christensen Language Is a Human Right: An interview with Debbie Wei, veteran activist in the Asian American community Grace Cornell Gonzales Putting Out the Linguistic Welcome Mat Linda Christensen Ebonics and Culturally Responsive Instruction: What should teachers do? Welcoming Students Languages When There Is No Bilingual Program. I learned to pull books, stories, poems, and essays that helped students critically examine the world. It gives a clear and concise introduction to theoretical issues of language and power, a full range of tools for analysing texts and discourse, and excellent examples which illustrate how to apply these tools. "And then I went to school" / by Joe Suina ; "Speak it good and strong" / by Hank Sims ; "The monitor" / by Wangari Maathai ; "Obituary" / by Lois-Ann Yamanaka ; "A piece of my heart/Pedacito de mi corazon" / by Carmen Lomas Garza WebCreating an Inclusive and Respectful School Community. Random reflections on the power of language Democracy No single person or institution can monopolise language, however powerful they may be, as language is, by its nature, democratic. Discourse as social practice. As we compiled these articles, we identified some common principles that we believe should form the foundation of any bilingual program. Chapter 3 tackles the question of how to make space for students home languages, as well as support their critical understandings of language issues, in schools where there is no bilingual program. It focusses on how language functions in maintaining and changing power relations in modern society, the ways of analysing language which can reveal these processes and how people can For example, in one research paper, a group of Stanford researchers examined the differences in how Republicans and Democrats express themselves online to better understand how a polarization of beliefs can occur on social media. Discourse and power. Sometimes this mistreatment arrives in the form of an unkind comment about a persons weight, facial features, hair, or clothes. I had been struck over the years by how much school devalues the lives of blue-collar workers, divorcing manual work from intellectual work. Its popularity continues as an accessible introductory text to the field of Discourse Analysis, focusing on: how language functions in maintaining and changing power relations in modern society Understanding Biliteracy should be valued along with bilingualism; students should have the right to develop academic literacy in all subject matters throughout their school careers. New research by Dora Demszky and colleagues examined how Republicans and Democrats express themselves online in an attempt to understand how polarization of beliefs occurs on social media. It gives a clear and concise introduction to theoretical issues of language and power, a full range of tools for analysing texts and discourse, and excellent examples which illustrate how to apply these tools. Why is bilingual education so important? Cuentos del corazn/Stories from the Heart: An after-school writing project for bilingual students and their familiesTracey Flores and Jessica Singer Early, Strawberries in Watsonville: Putting family and student knowledge at the center of the curriculumPeggy Morrison, When Are You Coming to Visit?: Home visits and seeing our studentsElizabeth Barbian, Arent You on the Parent Listserv?: Working for equitable family involvement in a dual-immersion elementary schoolGrace Cornell Gonzales, Tellin Stories, Changing Lives: How bilingual parent power can complement bilingual educationDavid Levine, Rethinking Family Literacy in Head StartMichael Ames Connor, Our Language Lives by What We Do: An interview with Hawaiian educator Kekoa HarmanGrace Cornell Gonzales. These articles describe some of these attacks and also show us some examples of how students, communities, and teachers have advocated for bilingual programs. We also believe that bilingual education should not be a means to track students who speak another language at home, separating them from their peers. How do we involve diverse groups of parents in our classrooms and schools? Our sometimes-heated discussions about articles, books, and curriculum hone my ability to evaluate my work. Because of the statements grammatical structure, it implies that being good at math is more common or natural for boys than girls, the researchers said. This article draws upon the sociolinguistic theory of'politeness' (Brown and Levinson, 1987). Bilingual programs must be responsive to the changing needs of students, families, and communities, while maintaining a focus on equity and language as a human right. But its also what we need. How can we honor our students native languages, even when we dont teach in a bilingual setting? Nelson Mandela, in his memoir, Long Walk to Freedom, describes the affirming moment that occurred like a comet streaking across the night sky when Krune Mqhayi comes on stage dressed in traditional Xhosa clothing and speaks his language. Teaching and discussing and writing about the plays of Luis Valdez and August Wilson, the stories or novels of Louise Erdrich and Raymond Carver, the poetry of Lucille Clifton and Li-Young Lee, or any other writer of color or working-class writer, allows students to understand a wider human experience, to know that no matter their gender, skin color, or social class, they can write. They help me choose the more courageous path because I know Im not alone. Forest, river, and salmon loss? Teachers and students speak to the tragedy of language loss but also about the inspiring work to revitalize languages on the brink of disappearance and to defend and expand bilingual education programs. Through stories, Christensen demonstrates how she draws on students lives and the world to teach poetry, essay, narrative, and critical literacy skills. Behind a mask of humility, I seethed with mute rebellion. There might be too few speakers of a specific language, too few teachers of a particular language, or a large number of home languages at a particular school. Historian Howard Zinn talks about how too often the teaching of history gets lost in a narrow, fact-finding game about the past. Of course, bilingual programs are not possible for all students and in all contexts. Bilingual teachers should work hard to foster equity in their classrooms and schools by teaching anti-racist curricula, modeling respect for differences, and assuring that all students have the opportunity to see their language skills as an assetand themselves as valuable members of the classroom and broader community. 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