Dr. Carhill-Poza, recent alumna Jesse Rubio, and doctoral students Vannessa Quintana Sarria and Aram Ahmed of the Department of Applied Linguistics presented their one-hour-colloquium Symbolic Multilingualism and Linguistic Justice: Teacher Perspectives on Language Policy at the American Association of Applied Linguistics 2024 in Houston, Texas on March 18. This colloquium presented three perspectives on language policy and classroom practice for multilingual students (classified in public schools as English learners) and their teachers in contexts of rapid change. The projects address the possibilities and obstacles teachers of multilingual students encounter as they interpret and implement evolving language policy while at the same time responding to the unprecedented challenges of longstanding educational inequities exacerbated by the pandemic, teacher shortage, and social unrest in the United States.
Their conversation began by deconstructing official policies governing the education of students classified as English learners in Massachusetts, where recent policy change has supported the expansion of multilingual programs. The paper identified how official language and education policies operate across the state, district, school, and classroom level to shape teachers’ understanding of multilingual students’ experiences and possible futures.
Second, they explored classroom practices that support linguistic justice and equitable educational access for multilingual students and how such practices connect to teachers’ identities, beliefs and educational journeys. The paper also addressed the obstacles that in-service multilingual English teachers face in mainstream education and their recommendations for overcoming them.
In the third paper, they concluded with a paper focused on teacher talk in two ESL classes at the college level. The paper employs stimulated recall to investigate student perceptions and attitudes towards teacher talk; it reveals how students make sense of teacher talk, their teacher’s pedagogical choices, and their participation in class discussions and activities.
Finally, the discussion followed the papers presented in thinking about teachers as language policy makers and bringing together the perspectives from each project.
