How Power Reveals and Directs Teacher Language Ideologies with High-Achieving African American Students in a Secondary English Classroom

Abstract

Teachers’ instructional decision-making and practice reveal a great deal about their educational beliefs. In this chapter, an English education researcher (Tanji) and a high school teacher (Chrystal) have collaborated to explore how teachers’ language ideologies and the dynamics of power impact instructional decision-making and instructional delivery with high-achieving African American students (see also Wheeler, this volume, pp. 109–119). Our work is guided by several theories related to language, culture, power, and critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012; Freire, 1970; Nieto, 2010; Wilches, 2007); we use these theories as tools to understand how instructional decisions affect (and are affected by) students of color who may speak varieties of English usually not accepted in schools. The lens of language ideology offers a window into examining teachers’ thinking about and understanding of the inherent variance in language. We use Chrystal’s journey of language discovery as a vehicle to examine language ideologies and instructional power with high-achieving African American students and offer insight into the need for teachers to reflect on their beliefs and hidden biases toward these underserved students.