Chapter 3: Dual Language Teachers as a Potentially Democratizing Force in English Learner Education

As the adage so correctly captures, the more things change, the more they stay the same: one teacher’s refusal to teach students who are labeled “illegal” does not represent a new ideological stance since attacks on select groups of immigrants, English learners (ELs), and other linguistically minoritized students have been a constant in U.S. history. In this chapter, we argue that the challenge for all educators, including dual language teachers, is to cut the ideological yoke of colonialism by helping students decolonize the mind and reject all forms of subjugation or the seductive propaganda of White supremacy that equates being White to being human—a yardstick teachers often use in their evaluation and judgement of students’ worth and humanity (Macedo, 2006).