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ERIC Number: EJ1239837
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1946-7109
EISSN: N/A
Latina/o Teacher Insurgency and No Child Left Behind: The Politics of Resistance to English-Only Policies in Urban School Classrooms
Lapayese, Yvette V.
Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education, v3 n3 Spr 2005
Teacher insurgency is on the rise as critical educators refuse to accept the authoritarianism of English-only reforms by struggling to undermine current educational policies while at the same time advancing alternatives. Federal hijacking of language policies -- presently manifested by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) -- is being met with opposition from many teachers, some of who engage in subversive acts aimed at transforming the schooling experiences for their bilingual students. As English-only policies weigh heavily on the backs of teachers, now is the time to explore oppositional acts of resistance by critical educators committed to safeguarding bilingual education. As a teacher educator, the author provides a political space in her courses for teachers to develop oppositional consciousness and engage in political acts that can serve as manifestations of resistance. Informal and fluid political communities are established whereby teachers form alliances with peers to corroborate, support, and engage in both clandestine and overt acts of resistance. In this article, the author exposes the work of five Latina/o bilingual teacher insurgents with whom she worked closely and who she supported throughout their teacher education program in actively practicing oppositional acts of resistance. These teachers identify and define their work as radical pedagogy. These bilingual teacher insurgents are actively engaged in counteracts in urban schools to oppose the primacy of monolingual education as articulated in NCLB. Through their counterstories the author demonstrates that teacher insurgents are: (1) actively resisting English-only policies and promoting bilingualism; and (2) undermining scripted programs and testing raids geared for language minority students and infusing their classrooms with student-centered curricula. The author proposes a fluid framework for teacher education programs that can better meet the needs of critical educators invested in resistance vis-àvis monolingual language practices in schools.
University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education. 3700 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. e-mail: journal@gse.upenn.edu; Web site: https://urbanedjournal.gse.upenn.edu
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: No Child Left Behind Act 2001
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A