Abstract:

This dissertation examines the effects of federal and state education policies toward language-minority children as they are realized through the everyday experiences of immigrant students in Phoenix, Arizona. Specifically, this two-year ethnographic project explores the lived reality of language-minority students in an urban school district comprising four K-8 schools. Aside from suffering the consequences produced by heavy-handed federal (No Child Left Behind) and state (Arizona Learns and Proposition 203) education policies, language-minority students in this school district must also deal with the challenge of negotiating everyday life within an area that is fraught with poverty and other social inequities. This study also illustrates the difficulties facing educators attempting to implement Arizona's anti-bilingual education law (Proposition 203) in a school district that has a 60% English Language Learner population. While managing language issues in the classroom should be considered the most immediate concern for educators, the current emphasis on standardized test scores overshadows the importance of providing adequate linguistic support for the district's language-minority students. Furthermore, the resulting widespread academic underachievement experienced by students in this district is related to the lack of cultural and linguistic resources. In order to capture the lived reality of language-minority students in this context, ten students were recruited to keep a personal journal to describe their experiences over a one-year period. Additionally, extensive participant observation and numerous interviews were conducted with language-minority students and educators to bolster the themes that emerged in the student journals. Without adequate classroom support, educators are forced to rely on a peer-lingual approach to language-minority education. Furthermore, the student consultants describe the impact that family members and friends have on their education and language use. Aside from the explicit educational themes that surfaced, the accounts given by the students reflect an ingrained understanding of their subordinated social status as immigrants and Spanish speakers. This research suggests that widespread academic underachievement might be avoided if the alternative forms of knowledge and skills demonstrated by the students could only be tapped into with greater success and/or frequency.