Agency in Action: How Teachers Interpret and Implement Arizona’s 4-Hour Structured English Immersion Program

Abstract

Sharing the findings from two qualitative case studies, analyzed together, this article examines various ways educators, both elementary teachers and teacher educators, exercise agency in their interpretation and implementation of Arizona’s model of Structured English Immersion (SEI), a 4-hour English Language Development (ELD) block, which mandates separate classrooms for English Learners (ELs). The educators describe a host of negative outcomes of this SEI model, suggesting that Arizona’s policy may be considered to act as a hegemonic force in the lives of these teachers and their students. Yet, the teachers also find ways to mitigate this force in order to continue teaching in ways they believe are best for their students. Implications include the need for educational leaders and policy makers alike to more carefully consider the active role that teachers play as implementers, and negotiators, of language education policy, particularly within restrictive policy contexts such as Arizona.