“Stealing from the language”: interest convergence and teachers’ advocacy for language-inclusive practices
English Teaching: Practice & Critique
ISSN: 1175-8708
Article publication date: 2 January 2023
Issue publication date: 20 March 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to support advocacy for racial and linguistic justice by examining teachers’ efforts to contest their colleagues' language-exclusive policies and practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The author used a critical and reconstructive discourse analysis guided by interest convergence theory to analyze narratives shared by teachers working to contest language-exclusive practices.
Findings
Teachers identified or created interest convergence to successfully contest specific practices. However, their arguments had the potential to be coopted for hegemonic purposes.
Originality/value
Previous studies have used interest convergence to analyze bilingual education policy. This study is one of the few to apply the theory to analyze other efforts to contest language-exclusive practices.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Arnetha Ball for her decades of work advancing racial and linguistic justice, for her mentorship and advice, and for her invaluable feedback on this study. The author is also immensely grateful to the participants for the vital work they do as antiracist teachers and for graciously sharing their time and insights with me. Finally, the author wishes to thank Bryan Brown, John Rickford, Ramón Martínez and Mike Metz, as well as the reviewers of this manuscript and the guest editors of the special issue, for their invaluable support and feedback during various stages and iterations of this work.
Citation
Sedlacek, Q.C. (2023), "“Stealing from the language”: interest convergence and teachers’ advocacy for language-inclusive practices", English Teaching: Practice & Critique, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 112-130. https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-03-2022-0037
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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