Bookcover: Contested Policy: The Rise and Fall of Federal Bilingual Education in the United States, 1960-2001

Contested Policy: The Rise and Fall of Federal Bilingual Education in the United States, 1960-2001

vol. 1: Al Filo: Mexican American Studies Series

February, 2020

Published

176

Pages

Notes. Bib essay. Index.

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Ideal for Classrooms

$14.95-$21.95

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About San Miguel's Contested Policy

Bilingual education is one of the most contentious and misunderstood educational programs in the country. It raises significant questions about this country’s national identity, the nature of federalism, power, ethnicity, and pedagogy. In Contested Policy, Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr., studies the origins, evolution, and consequences of federal bilingual education policy from 1960 to 2001, with particular attention to the activist years after 1978, when bilingual policy was heatedly contested.

Traditionally, those in favor of bilingual education are language specialists, Mexican American activists, newly enfranchised civil rights advocates, language minorities, intellectuals, teachers, and students. They are ideologically opposed to the assimilationist philosophy in the schools, to the structural exclusion and institutional discrimination of minority groups, and to limited school reform.

On the other hand, the opponents of bilingual education, comprised at different points in time of conservative journalists, politicians, federal bureaucrats, Anglo parent groups, school officials, administrators, and special-interest groups (such as U.S. English), favor assimilationism, the structural exclusion and discrimination of ethnic minorities, and limited school reform.

In the 1990s a resurgence of opposition to bilingual education succeeded in repealing bilingual legislation with an English-only piece of legislation. San Miguel deftly provides a history of these clashing groups and how they impacted bilingual educational policy over the years. Rounding out this history is an extensive, annotated bibliography on federal bilingual policy that can be used to enhance further study.

“San Miguel provides the complete history of the rise and fall of federal bilingual education policy and details how the English-only movement defeated it at the federal level, only to continue the fight state-by-state. This is a clearly written, controlled overview of a complicated public policy debate that has extended over four decades and resides squarely inside the multiple ideological debates over American identity, the federal role in education, and multiculturalism and diversity versus Americanism.” —History: Review of New Books

“In this book Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr., provides important insights into the bilingual education debate at the federal level. This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding one of the most contentious and misunderstood educational policy issues in the United States.” —–Rubén Donato, School of Education, University of Colorado at Boulder

Classroom Adoption

Contested Policy: The Rise and Fall of Federal Bilingual Education in the United States, 1960-2001 is a recommended text for use in classrooms where the following subjects are being studied: Education; Chicano/Latino Studies.

The author provides the complete history of the rise and fall of federal bilingual education policy and details how the English-only movement defeated it at the federal level, only to continue the fight state-by-state. “A clearly written, controlled overview of a complicated public policy debate that has extended over four decades and resides squarely inside the multiple ideological debates over American identity, the federal role in education, and multiculturalism and diversity versus Americanism… An invaluable tool for researchers.”—History: Review of New Books

Adopted By

[“Amherst College for "Race and Educational Opportunity in America"”, “Boise State University, Department of Bilingual Education/ESL, for "Cultural Diversity in Schools"”, “Brown University for "Theory into Practice: Service Learning at a Dual Language Charter School"”, “California State University, Northridge, for "Graduate Seminar in Chicano/a History"”, “Clark University for "English 257: Language at Issue"”, “California State University, San Bernardino, for "Theory and Practice in Teaching Bilingual Students"”, “Eastern Michigan University for "The History of Bilingual Education in the United States"”, “Florida State University for "Black and Latino Education: History and Policy"”, “Heritage University for "History and Theory of Bilingual Education"”, “Midwestern State University for "Foundations in Bilingual Education"”, “Otterbein College for an education course titled "Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice"”, “Texas A&M University-Kingsville for "Survey of Bilingual Education"”, “Texas Tech University for "Foundations of Bilingual Studies" and Foundations of Bilingual Education"”, “University of Texas at Brownsville for "History, Politics, and Models of Bilingual Education"”, “University of Texas-Pan American for "Bilingual/Multicultural Critical Issues" and "Social/Cultural Context"”, “University of Wisconsin-Madison”]

About the Author

GUADALUPE SAN MIGUEL, JR., is professor of history at the University of Houston. He is the author of “Let All of Them Take Heed”: Mexican-Americans and the Campaign for Educational Equality in Texas, 1910-1981, Brown, Not White: School Integration and the Chicano Movement in Houston, and Tejano Proud: Tex-Mex Music in the Twentieth Century.

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