Educational language policy and the role of advocacy among English Language Professionals in the United States: An historical and case study analysis

Abstract

Reform-oriented efforts geared toward transformative education and equal educational opportunities for all U.S. school children (regardless of race, gender, or cultural/linguistic background) are underway and advocacy is emerging as an important topic of discussion and debate among language-ineducation specialists, applied linguists included. ^ In this dissertation, the author (1) draws on library-based and archival research to situate and trace the subject of advocacy within the broader, historical framework of the social sciences within the U.S.; (2) explores diverse origins, conceptualizations, and personal experiences of advocacy among select English Language Professionals (ELPs) via interviews; and (3) aims to move ELPs toward a more comprehensive understanding of and strategy for advocacy by presenting the first framework for advocacy in the field. ^ Library and archival research focuses on the emergence, development, and importance of the first U.S. social science organization–the American Social Science Association (ASSA). The pattern of growth, development, and evolution with respect to the present-day relationship between research-generated knowledge and advocacy-oriented action among ELPs.^ With respect to modern-day understandings and experiences of advocacy, interviews were conducted with prominent ELPs in the following areas: civil rights law, second language acquisition, bilingual education, literacy development, organizational lobbying, language policy and planning, K–12 school administration, and English education. Interview data and analysis is organized according to three central themes: (1) the conceptualization of advocacy as a process; (2) the complexities part-and-parcel to the process of making research-generated knowledge accessible and applicable to a non-specialist audience/context; and (3) the need to discuss advocacy-oriented efforts and opportunities within the context of professional organizations specifically with respect to issues of professional development, educational leadership, and teacher education. ^ Finally, the Heuristic for Advocacy among English Language Professionals is presented and described. This model, providing ELPs with a structured and functional framework by which the process of advocacy can be more comprehensively understood and discussed, is comprised of five interwoven and non-sequential stages—Inquiry, Consciousness, Critique, Vision, and Action. The heuristic proposes a continuum in which the process of generating research-based knowledge is valued and positively linked to advocacy-oriented efforts.^