Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T07:42:04.766Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“It's like they don't see us at all”: A Critical Race Theory critique of dual language bilingual education for Black children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2022

Brittany L. Frieson
Brittany L. Frieson*
Affiliation:
University of North Texas, College of Education
*
*Corresponding author. Email: Brittany.Frieson@unt.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article highlights the institutional harm that many dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs can impose upon Black American children. By uncovering the ways that bilingual education is often complicit in educational injustice for Black children, this article argues for a closer interrogation of unquestioned DLBE policies and practices through an analysis that gives centrality to race and intersectionality. In this piece, a composite counterstory is crafted using African American Language to powerfully facilitate a Critical Race Theory-informed critique of DLBE's institutional structures and practices that detail the experiences of many Black children in DLBE programs. A recommendation for intersectional approaches to DLBE that center, support, and advocate for intersectional consciousness across all Black identities is offered.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , Volume 42 , March 2022 , pp. 47 - 54
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker-Bell, A. (2020). Linguistic justice: Black language, literacy, identity, and pedagogy. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanton, A., Kasun, G. S., Gambrell, J. A., Espinosa, Z. (2021). A Black mother's counterstory to the Brown-White binary in dual language education: Toward disrupting dual language as White property. Language Policy, 20, 463–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boutte, G. S., Earick, M. E., & Jackson, T. O. (2021). Linguistic policies for African American language speakers: Moving from anti-Blackness to pro-Blackness. Theory Into Practice, 60(3), 231–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, K. D., & Brown, A. L. (2021). Anti-Blackness and the school curriculum. In Grant, C. A., Woodson, A. N., & Dumas, M. J. (Eds.), The future is Black: Afropessimism, fugitivity, and radical hope in education (pp. 72–78). Routledge.Google Scholar
Cervantes-Soon, C. G. (2014). A critical look at dual language immersion in the new Latin@ diaspora. Bilingual Research Journal, 37(1), 64–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cervantes-Soon, C. G., Dorner, L., Palmer, D., Heiman, D., Schwerdtfeger, R., & Choi, J. (2017). Combating inequalities in two-way language immersion programs: Toward critical consciousness in bilingual education spaces. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 403–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaparro, S. E. (2021). Creating fertile grounds for two-way immersion: Gentrification, immigration, and neoliberal school reforms. Language Policy, 20, 435–461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chavez-Moreno, L. C. (2020). Researching Latinxs, racism, and white supremacy in bilingual education: A literature review. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 17(2), 101–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, D. A., & Dixson, A. D. (2013). Writing critical race theory and method: A composite counterstory on the experiences of black teachers in New Orleans post-Katrina. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(10), 1238–1258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, (1), 139–167.Google Scholar
Delgado, R. (1989). Storytelling for oppositionists and others: A plea for narrative. Michigan Law Review, 87(8), 2411–2441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixson, A. D., & Rousseau Anderson, C. (2018). Where are We? Critical race theory in education 20 years later. Peabody Journal of Education, 93(1), 121–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorner, L. M., & Cervantes-Soon, C. G. (2020). Equity for students learning English in dual language bilingual education: Persistent challenges and promising practices. TESOL Quarterly, 54(3), 535–547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, N. (2016). A tale of two visions: Hegemonic whiteness and bilingual education. Educational Policy, 30(1), 13–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, N., Tseng, A., & Subtirelu, N. (Eds.) (2020). Bilingualism for all? Raciolinguistic perspectives on dual language education in the United States. Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kynard, C. (2018). Stayin woke: Race-radical literacies in the makings of higher education. College Composition and Communication, 69(3), 519–529.Google Scholar
Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what's it doing in a nice field like education? Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(1), 7–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinez, A. Y. (2020). Counterstory: The rhetoric and writing of critical race theory. National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Motha, S. (2020). Is an antiracist and decolonizing applied linguistics possible?, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 40, 128–133. doi:10.1017/S0267190520000100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy. Scholastic.Google Scholar
Presiado, V. E., & Frieson, B. L. (2021). “Make sure you see this”: Counternarratives of multilingual Black girls’ language and literacy practices. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 70, 1–20.Google Scholar
Saeedi, S., & Richardson, E. (2020). A Black lives matter and critical race theory-informed critique of code-switching pedagogy. In Kinloch, V., Burkhard, T., & Penn, C. (Eds.), Race, justice, and activism in literacy instruction (pp. 147–61). Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Solorzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, E. (2016). The foundations of critical race theory in education: An introduction. In Taylor, E., Gillborn, D., & Ladson-Billings, G. (Eds.), Foundations of critical race theory in education (pp. 1–11). Routledge.Google Scholar
Valdés, G. (2018). Analyzing the curricularization of language in two-way immersion education: Restating two cautionary notes. Bilingual Research Journal, 41(4), 388–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuniga, C. E., Henderson, K. I., & Palmer, D. K. (2018). Language policy toward equity: How bilingual teachers use policy mandates to their own ends. Language and Education, 32(1), 60–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar