Journal Article

The Gentrification of Dual Language Education

Freire, Juan A., Delavan, M. Garrett, Valdez, Verónica E.

2016

Overview

Utah’s dual language education (DL) initiative, officially introduced in 2007 and backed by unique state-level planning, is touted as a new “mainstreaming” of DL and is sparking interest across the U.S. Using a critical language policy lens and a mixed method approach, we asked which student groups were positioned discursively and materially to benefit the most from this policy across three types of privilege: white racial privilege, wealth, and English privilege. A critical discourse analysis conducted of five main Utah DL policy texts pointed toward already privileged student groups being discursively targeted for DL participation. Analysis of the demographics of schools housing DL programs between 2005 and 2014 showed a statistically significant drop in access for those without the three forms of privilege under study. We argue these findings are consistent with a larger trend toward the metaphorical gentrification of DL by students of more privilege than those it historically served. We discuss our concerns that as the Utah model spreads nationwide, the gentrification process threatens to position DL as the next wave in a broad pattern of inequitably distributed enrichment education within U.S. schools. We recommend steps toward avoiding this inequitable outcome.

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Academic Achievement / Advantaged / Bilingual education / Bilingual Education Programs / Community and Environmental Psychology / Critical discourse analysis / Critical theory / Demography / Discourse Analysis / Education / Education policy / Educational Policy / Educational Research / Equal Education / Gentrification / Housing / Immersion programs / Improvement Programs / Language instruction / Language Planning / Language policy / Mainstreaming / Mixed Methods Research / Racial Discrimination / Second language learning / Social privilege / Socioeconomic Status / Sociology / State Policy / Statewide Planning / Statistical Significance / Student Participation / Students / Utah / Wealth