Files
Abstract
Language education policies and practices have a significant impact on the educational experiences and outcomes of multilingual learners, who represent one of the fastest growing and increasingly diverse student populations. While the importance of effective language education for multilingual learners has been well recognized, there are salient variations in how teachers negotiate and implement language education policies in classrooms and across school districts. Given the harsh immigration enforcement policies and the ramped-up xenophobic rhetoric across the United States, researchers need to focus on how K-12 teachers engage in dense policy work to create equitable and inclusive learning environments for emergent bilingual students. In response, this study explored how teachers enact policy-in-practice by negotiating the tensions between top-down mandates and the realities of teaching multilingual learners. The dataset of this project consisted of semi-structured interviews with ESOL teachers, ethnographic observations, and state and federal-level language education policy documents. Using a critical multi-sited ethnographic approach, this research captured the lived experiences of ESOL teachers, highlighting the ways educators mediate systemic constraints while advocating for equity in language education. In addition, by incorporating the lens of critical policy analysis, the study examined the power dynamics and tensions between top-down mandates and teachers’ agency-driven practices. The study demonstrated how policy enactment is not linear but rather a dynamic and context-dependent process influenced by teacher agency, sociopolitical context, and institutional structures. Furthermore, by closely following the teacher participants and actively engaging in conversations with them, the research found that ESOL teachers, while constrained by structural forces, retain the power to engage in critical resistance and create spaces of empowerment for their students. Overall, the study can inform policymakers of ways to develop more flexible and context-sensitive policies that recognize the diversity of multilingual learners, incorporate teacher feedback in policymaking processes, and emphasize the need to develop equity-focused policies that prioritize the needs of marginalized student populations.