Erasing Race and Disability from Educational Policies of a Chinese–English Dual Language Charter School

Abstract

There is increasing research focusing on dual language (DL) education program policies and practices regarding who has access to bilingualism and whose bilingualism is valued and represented. However, limited research is situated in the context of Chinese–English DL education and its service of emergent bilingual learners with disabilities (EBLWDs). The current study examines DL policy documents from one Chinese–English DL charter school to answer the following research question: How do a Chinese–English DL charter school’s policies and practices address racial and disability injustice? Textual analysis is conducted to examine publicly available educational policy documents from school, district, and parent-hosted websites; photos from school Facebook pages; and meeting minutes from the school principal, with permission. Drawing from a Disability Critical Race (DisCrit) stance, this study reveals textual silences on disability and race and the exclusion of EBLWDs through no-excuses accountability policies. Discourses of elite bilingualism and neoliberalism are perpetuated and reproduced by White, nondisabled, middle-class, English-speaking families who control the right to make policy decisions. These discourses shape the lived experiences of EBLWDs, who are deemed as deviant for their racial/ethnic identities and deficient for disability and linguistic status, and are thus denied access to bilingual DL education.