‘A little bit marginalized’: the structural marginalization of English language teachers in urban and rural public schools

Abstract

The increase in the number of English language learners (ELLs) in US public schools has been well documented. In just a 10 year period between 1990 and 2000, the enrollment of students with limited proficiency in English increased by 105%, compared to a 12% overall enrollment gain. This places increased pressure on teacher educators to prepare general education teachers to not only work with ELLs but to also utilize the knowledge of English language teachers (ELTs). Many teacher education texts give various methods and strategies to modify instruction and scaffold content to engage ELLs, yet there is little discussion about building collaboratory relationships with ELTs to aid in better understandings of issues that individual learners face. This paper focuses on these obstacles by examining how linguistic differentiation is described, explained, and excluded within schools in terms of implicit or explicit deliberation about English language learners (ELLs) and English as a second language (ESL) programs. I argue that the participants’ experiences resulted in the marginalization of ELTs and their students. I maintain though that this marginalized status can be ameliorated through collaborative relationships between general education teachers and English language teachers.