ERIC Number: EJ1340819
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1523-5882
EISSN: N/A
English Language Development "jaulas": Latinx Students' Critiques of ELD through Confinement and Resistance "testimonios"
Abril-Gonzalez, Paty; Shannon, Sheila M.
Bilingual Research Journal, v44 n4 p426-443 2021
Understanding identity labels as "jaulas" [cages] and testimonios as theory and method, this article centers bi/multilingual Latinx students' experiences in high school English Language Development (ELD) classes. We present how two teachers, now researchers, built long-term relationships with former elementary school students, affording "confianza" [trust] to share testimonios. Through a larger study, authors learned students' critiques through confinement and resistance testimonios of how their identity and language abilities were negatively tested and classified. For these reasons, authors theorize ELD classes as jaulas, trapping students with unengaging instructional practices limiting and distorting their schooling experiences. We present findings through various vantage points within and outside of the ELD jaulas, establishing the following themes: 1) Low-Quality Education, 2) Obstacles to Learning Experiences and 3) Targets of Resistance. When including, listening to, and trusting students' testimonios, there is an opportunity for change, liberating them from ELD jaulas. The educational system should reclaim assessment practices and embrace Latinx students' identities and bi/multilingualism as beautiful and powerful assets for shifting and reimagining the language classification process.
Descriptors: High School Students, Hispanic American Students, English Language Learners, Second Language Instruction, Student Attitudes, Labeling (of Persons), Bilingual Students, Resistance (Psychology), Educational Quality, Barriers, Learning Experience, Personal Narratives, Educational Change, Bilingualism, Multilingualism, Classification
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A