This study aimed to explore the implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) policy by public elementary teachers in the Philippines through a case study approach. Specifically, the study sought to examine how three elementary teachers in one public school institution distinctively implement the MTB-MLE policy in…

This article makes the case for conducting ethnographic research of a multi-scalar nature that links language policy processes and ideologies of language with everyday practices, on the ground, in local schools and classrooms. As with other researchers engaged in the ethnography of language policy (e.g. McCarty, 2011; Johnson, 2013), my concern is…

Recent studies in the field of language education policy (LEP) have emphasized the agency of educators in language policy implementation, which considerably influences the policy outcome. These studies, however, often focus on LEP measures for newcomers or ethnic minority students, and on the language used for instruction as the main LEP…

Two-way Bilingual Education (TWBE) programs are currently experiencing gentrification processes that are displacing the original beneficiaries of these programs. These gentrification processes have led to a whitening of bilingual education (Flores and García in Ann Rev Appl Linguist, 37:14-29, 2017) marked by inequities and the dangerous potential…

Since their introduction by the Conservative government in 2013, primary school children in England have taken a mandated grammar, punctuation and spelling assessment, which places an emphasis on decontextualised, standardised English and the identification of traditional grammatical terminology. Despite some concise criticisms from educational…

This paper investigates the impact of differing interpretation of federal education policy in three different states. The policy, the Workforce Investment Act Title II, has defined the services provided for adult English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in Adult Basic Education programs in the United States since it was passed in 1998. At the…

This 5-month ethnographic comparative case study of two culturally and linguistically diverse U.S. elementary classrooms juxtaposes restrictive educational language policies with the theoretical principles of culturally sustaining pedagogy to explore a gap in our understanding of how teachers reflect educational language policies in the range of…

This article documents and interrogates top-down district-wide implementation of a two-way dual language bilingual education (DLBE) program in a large urban district. We carried out a language policy ethnography to explore the way two schools' teams of third grade teachers worked together to negotiate the intersection of DLBE implementation and…

The Arizona English Language Learners Assessment (AZELLA) is used by the Arizona Department of Education to determine which children should receive English support services. AZELLA results are used to determine if children are either proficient in English or have English language skills in one of four non-proficient categories (pre-emergent,…

A tension exists for teachers in Texas bilingual third and fifth grade classrooms between state and local bilingual education policy, which encourages them to transition students gradually from Spanish into English instruction while providing bilingual support; and state and federal accountability policy, which requires them to choose a single…

In an effort to reverse the reading crisis purported to plague public education, schools and districts are mandating prescriptive reading programs and teacher-centered instructional practices in hopes of improving the academic achievement of minority students, including English learners (ELs). The wide-spread implementation of these programs in…

The "No Child Left Behind Act" establishes federal education policy for the United States, with a heavy focus on accountability through high-stakes testing. Provisions specific to English language learners (ELLs) include the mandate for their inclusion in state math tests, even for newcomer students enrolled for less than one year. Most…