Critical Inquiries into Language Ideologies and Pedagogies in a Linguistically Diverse, Reform-Minded Urban Middle School

Abstract

Research underscores that hegemonic stances toward non-mainstream languages and language varieties are prevalent in the larger educational landscape and have potential to cause harm for linguistically diverse student populations. The Standard Language Ideology (SLI), for example, fuels the perception that there exists one unchanging, standard form of English—one that is a more complex, correct, and prestigious form of communication than non-mainstream languages and language varieties. In turn, research has demonstrated that educators who identify more readily with aspects of the SLI tend to engage in prescriptive or subtractive schooling practices that risk subordinating non-mainstream languages and their students who speak them. Informed by this research, and drawing from situative theory that forwards the role of context and group membership in the formation of individuals’ beliefs and values, this dissertation was designed to engage educators at one social-justice-oriented, urban middle school in an investigation of language ideology and its relationship to their instructional practices. Three studies were conducted; two reflective studies, and one action-oriented study. In the first study, I worked with nine lead educators at Agency School, seven lead teachers and two administrators, who are charged with setting policy and shaping practice at the school. Taking a mixed-methods approach, I examined the group’s dispositions toward “standard” vs. non-mainstream language varieties, closely examining how their stances toward the SLI shape language and language mediated, instruction at the school. The second study was designed to explore the unique perspectives of four early-career educators at Agency School, all of whom were former middle school students at the school, and who themselves grew up speaking non-mainstream languages or language varieties. Using the methodology of portraiture, I examined what these four educators remember about their own experiences negotiating home and school language, and how their experiences reflect aspects of language subordination, or, in contrast, more asset-based ideology. In the third study, I worked with the school’s four English Language Arts teachers to implement and examine an inquiry-based professional development learning endeavor known as Lesson Study as a mechanism to foster critical language pedagogies that were otherwise notably absent from their practice. Drawing on varying methodologies to conduct the study, through this dissertation, I seek to model for schools and practitioners the importance of reflecting upon their own ideological stances and ensuing practices in the domain of language. In addition, I aim to surface the promise and limitations of one professional development approach designed to foster critical stances and pedagogies related to language teaching and learning.