A Tale of Two Visions: Hegemonic Whiteness and Bilingual Education. (January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Flores, Nelson
• Other Names: Dumas Michael J. guest-editor.; Dixson Adrienne D. guest-editor.; Mayorga Edwin guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Educational policy. Volume 30:Number 1(2016:Jan.)
• Page Start: 13
• Page End: 38
• Publication Date: 2016-01
• Subjects: bilingual education -- racism -- Latino -- Whiteness -- multiculturalism; Education and state -- United States -- Periodicals; Education -- Periodicals; 379.2
• DOI: 10.1177/0895904815616482
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0895-9048

Abstract

In this article, I examine two visions of bilingual education that emerged during the Civil Rights Movement: race radicalism and liberal multiculturalism. I argue that although proponents of both visions believed that bilingual education was necessary for empowering language-minoritized populations, race radicalism conceptualized this empowerment as liberation from hegemonic Whiteness while liberal multiculturalism conceptualized this empowerment as assimilation into hegemonic Whiteness. I then examine the ways that the institutionalization of bilingual education erased race radicalism through reframing the debate around whether these programs should be subtractive or additive. I conclude by arguing that this dominant framing of bilingual education debates continues to reproduce hegemonic Whiteness in ways that marginalize language-minoritized students.