Stigma and Social Boundaries English Learner Classrooms

Posted by Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk on January 19, 2015

The stigma of sheltering

A new study published in the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk investigates how teachers interact with immigrant-origin youth in sheltered instruction, where English learners (ELs) are placed into separate content-area courses taught by general education teachers, targeting their linguistic needs. The study highlights unintended consequences of placement by examining three teacher cases where courses designed to increase access were, in fact, stigmatizing spaces in which students made social distinctions and engaged in impression management to mitigate perceptions that they lacked intelligence. Teachers managed stigma in distinct ways, with different orientations and communication strategies. The study interrogates how language status, race, and classification intersect with solutions intended to ameliorate inequalities, and how teachers participate in this dynamic. The study recommends teachers be invited to analyze how stigma intersects with EL categorizations and placements, and be given collective opportunities to address these complex issues. Teachers left to their own strategies may undermine their teaching efforts, and because social stigmas are often normalized, may fail to notice them. Collectively addressing the matter raises awareness of less visible issues that emerge as teachers attend to student experiences.

http://www.academia.edu/7354014/_I_Am_Not_a_Shelter_Stigma_and_Social_Boundaries_in_Teachers_Accounts_of_Students_Experience_in_Separate_Sheltered_English_Learner_Classrooms