Gentrification and Bilingual Education: A Texas TWBE School across Seven Years

by Deborah K. Palmer (Editor), Suzanne García-Mateus (Editor), Melissa Adams-Corral (Contribution by), Claudia Cervantes-Soon (Foreword by), Suzanne García-Mateus (Contribution by)

Overview

This unique volume brings together findings from six separate but interconnected studies, carried out over seven years in the same small bilingual elementary school. During a period of rapid gentrification in Austin, Texas, Hillside Elementary transformed from a predominantly Latinx, under-resourced and under-enrolled neighborhood school with a transitional bilingual program to a two-way dual language bilingual education (TWBE) school with a waiting list of middle-class families from across the school district. Chapter authors entered the context as researchers at various points along the timeline, with varied theoretical lenses, research questions, and methodological approaches. Most authors have also been parents or teachers at the school, and all were deeply invested in the school community and the education of bilingual students. They come together to argue that in order for a TWBE school to serve marginalized bilingual and BIPOC children and families, it must work collectively toward critical consciousness. Educators, parents, and students must learn to center the cultural, linguistic and racial/ethnic identities of marginalized families, and engage in ongoing dialogue at every level. The culminating product is a theme with variations: one context, one phenomenon, multiple varied positionalities and perspectives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781793653031
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	12/13/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	218
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Suzanne García-Mateus is assistant professor and the director of the Monterey Institute for English Learners at California State University - Monterey Bay.

Deborah K. Palmer is professor of equity, bilingualism and biliteracy in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Hillside Elementary, Our Research Collaborative, Gentrification, and TWBE in Texas

Chapter 2 Espacios de confianza: Affectively and Systemically Resisting Color-blind Ideologies in TWBE Home-school Planning

Chapter 3 “The Dual Language Program Changes Everything”: The First Year of TWBE at Hillside and the (Re)negotiation of a School’s Identity

Chapter 4 “I feel it’s not about ability, it’s about power.” Bilingual Teachers’ Interpretation of a Gentrifying Two-way Immersion Program

Chapter 5 “Tenemos que seguir nuestra cultura”: Whiteness as Property at Hillside Elementary and Sam Houston Middle Schools

Chapter 6 Spaces of Resistance, Hope, and Justice: Centering the Foundational Goal of Critical Consciousness at Hillside

Chapter 7 From Tamales and Mole to Pizza and Pasta: Where Went the Neighborhood, So Goes the School

Chapter 8 ¡Adelante!

Editorial Reviews

People advocating for the expansion of DLBE programs often point to quantitative studies that illustrate their effectiveness at improving student academic outcomes. This volume powerfully illustrates the ways that long-term ethnographic research can help us to move beyond these numbers by bringing critical attention to troublesome dynamics—including the ways that the expansion of DLBE programs may serve to displace the racialized bilingual students they were created to support. Gentrification and Bilingual Education is a must-read for anybody currently working with or hoping to begin DLBE programs in their local communities in ways that support racialized bilingual students.

Nelson Flores

This is a troubling account. Gentrification and Bilingual Education takes a close look at the gentrification of Latino communities and how this can be ironically enhanced by the availability of two-way dual language/bilingual education programs. It raises the serious, if not haunting, question of whether vulnerable communities comprised of immigrant, bilingual learners should entertain the resources that a gentrifying community brings. This book is destined to be a staple of Critical Bilingual Education Studies.

Angela Valenzuela

This book provides a deep, critical, and much needed examination of interest convergence and gentrification with respect to dual language bilingual education. Gentrification and Bilingual Education demonstrates through multiple data sources how working class Spanish speaking children are initially invited to participate in dual language programs because they serve the interests of white English speaking children intending to learn Spanish. Over time, with increased gentrification of the neighborhood, it becomes clear that the dual language programs move exclusively towards a white mainstream, colorblind curriculum. This book is a must-read for bilingual educators who wish to learn about the power dynamics in dual language bilingual education.

Christian J. Faltis

This book is essential reading for educators, parents, and policy makers interested in establishing Dual Language Bilingual Education programs. Focusing on a single school viewed over a seven-year period, the chapters describe the very serious social justice challenges surrounding gentrification and tell a compelling story about the ways that sincere efforts to build an inclusive school can still result in re-centering whiteness and marginalizing low-income children and their families.

Guadalupe Valdés

This book is essential reading for educators, parents, and policy makers interested in establishing Dual Language Bilingual Education programs. Focusing on a single school viewed over a seven-year period, the chapters describe the very serious social justice challenges surrounding gentrification and tell a compelling story about the ways that sincere efforts to build an inclusive school can still result in re-centering whiteness and marginalizing low-income children and their families.

Guadalupe Valdes