Bilingual Education and Race
Art: “Schule” by Jeena Ann Kidambi
Historically in the United States, bilingual education has been inextricably connected to race. This link makes sense since embedded in language is identity, and there has always been a movement in the United States to create a northern and western European, white identity for the country. Hence, bilingualism has always been a social justice issue.
Linguistic oppression has always been part and parcel of what is now the United States since the arrival of European settlers. Back in the 1600s when Africans were first kidnapped, enslaved, and brought to Jamestown, they were not allowed to preserve their language. This of course was a power move to ensure continued enslavement. However, many European communities continued to hold onto their own European languages. By the 1800s, this preservation began to be coded in the law. In 1839, Ohio passed the first bilingual education law permitting German-English bilingual schools. By 1847, Louisiana passed a law permitting French-English bilingual programming.
In 1848, Spanish-English schools were codified in New Mexican schools. It is important to note that Spanish, although it was losing status due to the concurrent Mexican-American War, was the colonizing language of what was a successful colonizing global force. It was not until 1898 in the Spanish-American War that Spain and its language lost all clout in the United States. Hence, prior to the 1890s, Spanish could still be looked upon as a White language.
The first English-only law passed in the United States was in 1864 against the backdrop of a divided nation. Native American children would not be allowed to learn their own language at school… while European languages continued to be taught in bilingual schools.
In 1869, English-only forces against Indigenous peoples continued. A stated interest in cultural genocide ensued with the horrendous intent of “kill the Indian, save the man.” Native American children were forcibly kidnapped from their homes and sent to boarding schools where they were physically punished for speaking their language or for demonstrating any behavior that could be perceived as “Indian.” By 1926, over 80% of school-aged, indigenous children were forcibly in these schools.
As greater immigration began from Eastern Europe and Asian countries, a stronger affinity towards English-only laws began to emerge. In 1906, the Nationality Act made English a requirement for naturalization. By 1923, 34 states had passed English-only acts that prohibited Bilingual Education. Even an anti-German movement was gaining momentum.
It was not until 1968 that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Bilingual Education Act, which provided support to such “remedial programs.” The majority of programs, as named in subsequent years, were Transitional Bilingual Education programs, which by nature are subtractive programs because they, by definition, do not encourage the preservation of the heritage language. By this time, the majority of the country’s bilingual programs were in Spanish, and Spanish was no longer widely thought of as a colonizer language. It had lost status because it was now connected with darker-skinned immigrant Americans.
And hence, for more than 400 years we have struggled with protecting bilingualism, especially when it comes to preserving and building the heritage language along with English in our schools. Challenges such as the pobrecito syndrome, English-only mentality, and gentrification continue to plague our bilingual programs. But the first step in dismantling the barriers we face is to understand how race has always been and continues to be tied to bilingual programming and to see it as a social justice movement.
Author: Aradhana Mudambi
Dr. Aradhana Mudambi is the founder and Chief Advocate for Students at Language and Equity Education Solutions LLC, a consulting firm that supports schools and school districts to build and improve their multilingual programming, especially their Dual Language Education programs. Through Language and Equity, she provides professional development, consulting, and coaching. For the past few years, Dr. Mudambi has run her popular blog, Social Justice and Education. She has taught several courses such as Intercultural Communications, TESOL Methods, and Assessments for Bilingual Students at Eastern Connecticut State University. Furthermore, she serves as the Director of Multilingual Education at Framingham Public Schools in Massachusetts where she oversees Dual Language programs in Spanish and Portuguese. Additionally, she worked as the Director of Bilingual Education at Windham Public Schools, not only overseeing and restructuring Windham’s Two-Way Dual Language program, Compañeros, but also founding and building Dos Ríos, New England’s first One-Way Dual Language program. Dr. Mudambi has served as a building leader, a Dual Language teacher, an ESOL teacher, and a Spanish teacher. She has worked in India, Mexico, France, England, and The United States. You can reach Dr. Mudambi at arm977@mail.harvard.edu.