‘Ahí fuimos jalando gente’: transnational Latina mothers’ enactments of navigation and resistance in hyper-gentrified dual-language schools

Abstract

This study explores the experiences of middle-class transnational Latina mothers whose children are enrolled in gentrified dual-language ­programs. Drawing upon the theory of differential consciousness, I explored how these mothers’ own complex identities informed their navigation of conflicting discourses that position dual-language education on one hand as part of an anti-racist, social justice movement, and conversely as a neoliberal enrichment tool that confers a competitive social advantage for privileged children. Ultimately, this paper highlights how mothers engaged differential consciousness to shift between these ideologies strategically, centering community and working to expand access to these programs to other Spanish-speaking and transnational families. In doing so, they increased racial and linguistic diversity—but not socioeconomic diversity—in these programs. This study argues for the importance of considering multiple dimensions of parent identity in dual-language programs, and for continually acknowledging the key role social class plays in families’ experiences of and access to these programs.