A narrative autobiographical exploration of language-in-education policy roles in a youth reengagement program

This study explores the language-in-education policy roles taken up by an instructor/case manager in his support of emergent bilinguals in a youth reengagement program in the American state of Washington. In conceptualizing agency as relationally constituted, I apply positioning analysis to journal entries in order to identify policy roles as they emerge in interaction with others. The findings reveal that I act as a gatekeeper, translator, and critic which are then situated within existing typologies of language policy roles and discussed in terms of their relational and discursive production. Given the impact student placement and acceptance procedures have on emergent bilinguals, gatekeeper may deserve its own category as a policy role in the literature. Additionally, while some positions co-emerge relationally between multiple agents taking up the same role, others are merely relationally contingent. In these cases, an interlocutor facilitates another individual either assuming a policy role or reevaluating his/her interpretation of the rights and duties associated with that position. Because students often participate in this process, they deserve greater attention as language policy actors. Finally, these findings highlight the need for further scholarship aimed at developing a more nuanced typology of language-in-education policy roles.