Centering the Fourth Pillar in Times of TWBE Gentrification: “Spanish, Love, Content, Not in That Order”

“So, Is Gentrification Good or Bad?”: One Teacher’s Implementation of the Fourth Goal in Her TWBE Classroom

“…Springer (2015) emphasizes that due to this manifestation of processes and interactions neoliberalism should be “read as a verb, and understood in a processual, unfolding, and action‐oriented sense” (7). I argue that the explosive growth of TWBE programs on a national scale (Arias and Fee 2018) has blazed a neoliberal path (Heiman and Yanes 2018; Peck et al 2009) due to social forces and specific actors (Springer 2015) that overlook the interests and needs of minoritized populations (Valdez et al 2016).…”

“…As a recently discovered and rebranded bilingual education in the form of TWBE gains traction from the dominant group, I argue there is dangerous potential to reorient the ways of being and knowing of TWBE stakeholders around purely neoliberal aims (Cervantes‐Soon et al 2017; Valdez et al 2016), which decenters the original goal of bilingual education focused on language minoritized students (Flores 2016; Flores and García 2017). Recent work in TWBE has proposed the urgency of reissuing Guadalupe Valdés’ (1997) cautionary note that foreshadowed the current neoliberal moment in TWBE and responding to this reissuing by proposing a fourth goal of TWBE around the development of critical consciousness (Heiman and Yanes 2018; Palmer et al 2019). In this study, I documented how one fifth‐grade TWBE teacher (Michelle) and I enacted this fourth goal by positioning gentrification processes as a generative theme (Freire 1997), which created opportunities for students to interrogate power, historicize, critically listen, and experience discomfort (Palmer et al 2019).…”

“…I applaud the Guiding Principles of Dual Language Education (Howard et al 2018) for taking note of these inequalities by highlighting the need to center equity and social justice in TWBE. At the same time, as TWBE programs continue to proliferate, and as this rapid growth contributes to their whitening (Flores and García 2017) and gentrification (Valdez et al 2016), there is an urgency to document hopeful and critical pedagogical projects that center the realities of language minoritized students and families (Heiman and Yanes 2018).…”

“…In this critical ethnography I examine how my focal participant (Michelle)2 and I embarked on this journeying through a critical pedagogical intervention based on a situation of violence and injustice (Freire 1998): gentrification processes that were impacting students’ communities and TWBE school. Through this intervention we mapped the local to the global (Means 2013), as the gentrification of urban communities and TWBE were taking root in the local context (Auyero 2015; Heiman and Yanes 2018) and on a national scale (Cucchiara 2013; Lipman 2011). It was this generative theme grounded in an unresolved social issue (Freire 1998), fueled by a critical pedagogy of love, imagination, and fury (De Lissovoy 2015), that spurred curricular openings, dialogue, and the awakening of critical consciousness (Freire 1998).…”

The Impact of Brown on EL Students: Addressing Linguistic and Educational Rights Through School Leadership Practice and Preparation

“…5. Readers interested in this history may wish to read Guadalupe Valdés's (1997) cautionary note alongside contemporary critiques of the gentrification of bilingual education (Heiman & Yanes, 2018). 6.…”