The (Dis)inclusion of Latina/o Interests from Utah’s Dual Language Education Boom

Dual Language as White Property: Examining a Secondary Bilingual-Education Program and Latinx Equity

“…Prendergast (2003) suggests that institutions have treated literacy as white property by empowering some with control over the recognition of literacy, thus upholding policies that disadvantage racialized Others. Bilingual-education scholars have employed whiteness as property as a framework to study the effects of whiteness on DL policy (Freire et al, 2017;Snyder, 2019) and program practice (Burns, 2017;Palmer, 2010); still, this scholarship has not accounted for one of Harris' central arguments connecting racial identity and property, which undergirds this study: how DL may conserve the value of white racial identity, and thus maintain whiteness, to the detriment of Latinxs.…”

“…Of note are two policy analyses that use the framework of whiteness as property. Snyder (2019) examined Washington state laws, and Freire et al (2017) analyzed the (dis)inclusion of Latinx interests in Utah DL policy. Both found that because of power differences between White and Latinx communities, DL was marketed to Whites, subverting equity goals.…”

‘Converse racialization’ and ‘un/marking’ language: The making of a bilingual university in a neoliberal world

“…What is perceived as ‘new’ about this contemporary resignification of Spanish is its broader economic appeal to White-identifying middle and upper classes in the United States—the same groups that have delegitimized the Spanish of Latinxs in the first place (García 2009a; Rumbaut 2009; Flores & Rosa 2015). There is a (re)convergence of interests (Bell 1980; Freire, Valdez, & Delavan 2016) where the dominant (white) population has become increasingly willing to support the interests of subjugated populations in an effort to reproduce their own dominance in a neoliberal world. Additionally, as higher education becomes an increasingly competitive arena (for rankings, for funding, for prestige, for students and faculty), concepts like ‘diversity’, and here, Spanish and bilingualism, become competitive economic interests for universities as well (more on this below).…”

Pero Aquí se Habla Inglés: Latina Immigrant Mothers’ Experiences of Discrimination, Resistance, and Pride Through Antropoesía

“…Even though the literature supports the idea that Latino parents are content with bilingual programs, Olivos and Lucero (2018) look towards earlier theories of why Mexican American parents might report positive attitudes towards school, even when the data showed their children were doing poorly. The authors caution that an uncritical acceptance of high levels of Latinx parental support might make educators, administrators, and researchers complacent with regard to Latinx parents’ needs, particularly given the demographic trends of TWI enrollment and White parents’ tendency to be more critically vocal (Chaparro, 2019; Freire, Valdez, & Delavan, 2016; Shannon, 2011). In fact, qualitative work examining integrated TWI programs has highlighted the complicated dynamics of power and privilege that can arise in these settings.…”