Contesting Language Orientations: A Critical Multicultural Perspective on Local Language Policy in Two Middle Schools.

Abstract

This article presents findings drawn from the development of an intervention designed to leverage Spanish to improve English reading comprehension. Five teachers and 18 middle school English learners (ELLs) in 2 urban middle schools participated in the project over the course of an academic year. Analysis of policy documents, interviews, and observations reveals the presence of multiple orientations in the enactment of local policy, and these differing orientations afford and constrain ELLs' access to languages other than English. The authors conclude that opportunities for critical educators to engage inequity and promote linguistic diversity exist at multiple levels of the educational system, from state administrators to local principals and teachers. Moreover, findings suggest that students also participate in the enactment of policy, and students' orientations to linguistic diversity impact the implementation of instruction.This article analyzes the policy in a local public school district and illustrates multiple ways in which individual orientations to diversity influence policy implementation in two middle school settings. Specifically, this article documents a plurality of orientations in a state whose Englishonly policy remains largely absent from the national debate over of instruction, a debate which has primarily focused on English-only ballot initiatives in states such as California, Arizona, and Massachusetts. Adopting a critical perspective, this article argues that teachers and students maintain agency to interpret and enact policies, potentially exerting bottom-up influence on the broader sociopolitical context of schooling for linguistically diverse students.Language is an integral aspect of education, as well as a fundamental human right and instructional resource. Affirming the centrality of in theo- ries of education, Nieto and Bode (2008) argue that culture and are inseparable (p. 185); however, they caution that language issues are frequently overlooked in (p. 229). With as a central component of their framework, these scholars claim that recognizing and honoring diversity will support student identity development and encourage wider participation in schoolbased activities. Thus, we concur with critical educators that in multicultural nations the issues of rights and loss and the equitable redistribution of textual and discourse resources through literacy education are test cases for democratic (Luke, 2003, p. 132).In middle schools, the to meet the needs of the growing English learner (ELL) population is particularly pronounced. ELL enrollment growth is considerably larger in middle schools than in elementary schools (Capps et al., 2005). Additionally, heterogeneity among ELLs in terms of socioeconomic status, years of U.S. residency, and native and literacy proficiency is greater for middle school students than younger students (Rubinstein-Avilla, 2003). In addition, by grade 4, and particularly in middle and high school, students learning English are confronted with more conceptually dense texts in subject areas (Cummins, 2007; ELL Working Group, 2009). Moreover, adolescent ELLs have fewer years to master these additional academic and demands of U.S. schools than their elementary counterparts (Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007). Add to these issues is the fact that ELLs drop out of school at higher rates than the general education population beginning in middle school, and one can see why Rubenstein-Avilla claims that the challenge for middle school teachers, therefore, is to retain the growing number of ELLs who are enrolled and to ensure their literacy development and content-rich (Rubinstein-Avilla, 2003, p. …