Teachers working together to resist and remake educational policy in contexts of standardization

Abstract

Recently, those examining the role teachers of language minority students play in the language policy-making process have found that their autonomy has been threatened by increasing standardization as reflected in rigid one-size fits all curricular mandates focused on the learning of discrete skills in the national language, enforced high-stakes standardized testing, and external monitoring. Given the pervasive nature of this policy environment, we are heartened by our experiences working with a teacher collective in Northern California that has resisted policies of standardization requiring them to teach in ways that ignore students’ instructional needs, interests, and experiences. In elucidating a perspective that considers all educational stakeholders, including teachers, as engaged in the LPP process, this article provides an account of how the collective is negotiating educational policies concerning the teaching of language and literacy to students designated as English language learners. As a members of the collective, the authors draw on participatory and ethnographic approaches to describe how resistance and agency are implicated in the LPP processes, paying special attention to the processes, actions, and impacts that have comprised our collaboration. In addition to discussing how these findings contribute to a dynamic and complex view of the role teacher agency and resistance play in the LPP process, the authors discuss the implications of their findings for promoting agentive teacher education.