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Oakes, J., Lipton, M., Anderson, L., & Stillman, J. (2018). Teaching to Change the World (5th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351263443

Nieto, S. (2018). Language, Culture, and Teaching: Critical Perspectives (3rd ed.) https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.tc.idm.oclc.org/lib/teacherscollege-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5015631

Gándara, P., & Rumberger, R. W. (2009). Immigration, Language, and Education: How Does Language Policy Structure Opportunity? Teachers College Record, 111(3), 750–782. https://doi-org.tc.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/016146810911100303

Goodwin, A.. (2010). Goodwin, A. L. (2010). Curriculum as colonizer: (Asian) American education in the current U.S. context. Teachers College Record, 112(12), 3102-3138.. Teachers College Record. 112. 3102-3138. 10.1177/016146811011201201.

Fillmore, Lily & Snow, Catherine. (2000). What Teachers Need to Know About Language.

Delpit, L. (2006). Lessons from Teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(3), 220–231. https://doi-org.tc.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/0022487105285966

Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (1989). The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203402627

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In my critical analysis, I explore the different ways in which the re-creation of this power dynamic might be doubly disadvantaging students of the minority language in the supposed multicultural school. Through this, I aim to investigate how, and which language dictates power, and access to opportunity. I also move the readers to redefine the concept of multicultural education in a way that accounts for linguistic hegemonies.

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The consequences of all these factors interacting with one another creates a unique situation of disempowerment for the Arabic-speaking minority students:
- They are barely able to participate in class discussions, or conversations with their teacher(s), or peers. They feel underconfident in sharing their responses in larger groups.
- Though it is tough to comprehend a new language for all students in this school, the Arabic-speaking students are significantly more exhausted and withdrawn from making sense of content knowledge, and comprehending two foreign languages during the course of their days.
- They display an urgency to learn and become fluent in Spanish, which could possibly be out of the desire to "master the dominant 'culture of power' (Delpit, 2006)
Interestingly, on several occasions, one Arabic-speaking student displayed marked empathy for and acknowledgment of his French-speaking classmate, and volunteered to help her and take interest in the French pronunciation of words while their Spanish-speaking peers remained largely indifferent. This sensitivity could be the result of the feeling of disempowerment discussed above.
According to Goodwin (2010), students of a lesser-visible minority can elect to acquiesce, in essence effectively silencing any needs they might voice, any issues they might battle. This could be a possible explanation to my reflections on whether the Arabic-speaking students' linguistic identity made it more difficult for them than their Spanish peers to call out their teachers' alienating actions.

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Monolingual Teachers and their Attitudes

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Monolingual Teachers and their Attitudes

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Barring a few, all the specialized subject teachers were monolingual. These teachers taught entirely in English, and at a very fast pace, making their instruction virtually inaccessible to the ENL students, especially the Arabic-speaking minority. These teachers relied entirely on the ENL co-teachers for differentiated instruction, demonstrating what Wong-Fillmore and Snow (2000) state about teachers in disciplines other than English not being sufficiently prepared to teach students explicitly about the usage of language across disciplines, as cited by Gándara and Rumberger in their article entitled "Immigration, Language, and Education: How Does Language Policy Structure Opportunity?"
On some occasions, these teachers would single out the Yemeni-students for "acting out" in class (a phenomenon that happened less frequently with the Spanish students because they had greater access to their ENL teachers) when they would simply be translating a word or phrase into Arabic for their friend. As Nieto highlights how learning the (new) language by specialized and monolingual teachers makes them more sensitive to their struggles, I believe that the converse is true too-that a lack of exposure to other cultures and languages makes the teachers impervious to the struggles of their bilingual students. This, I believe, contributes to the lack of specialized support for minority students.
These students were also likely to be on the "radar" for having a learning disability, indicating an overrepresentation of bilingual learners among those designated as having “special needs.” (Oakes et al., 2018)

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How and why does language dictate power?

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How and why does language dictate power?

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It is undeniable that the factors discussed above are resulting in the creation of a dominant Spanish culture within the ecosystem of this multicultural school, which is marginalizing the minority Arabic and French speaking students in unique ways. It is not liberating them, but limiting them; they are being made to conform, and not transform (Goodwin, 2010).

English is the language of power (Goodwin, 2010).
Public schools in the US have historically been used to "Americanize" students, especially students of different races, nationalities, and ethnicities, using English as a dominant language to perpetuate Anglo-Protestant values (Oakes et al., 2018). Thus, the English language became the "medium through which a hierarchical structure of power was perpetuated" (Ashcroft, Griffiths, & Tiffin, 1989, p.7, cited by Goodwin (2010)). Goodwin also talks about how even though numerous scholars have worked to explicate and substantiate the importance of multicultural, and culturally relevant curriculum, the actual practice and presence of it falls short in terms of research and intentions. "It should be no surprise then that much of the work in the name of multicultural curriculum—when it is present—is superficial, fragmented, and decontextualized, offered by teachers who have had little preparation in either the content or pedagogy of cultural relevance, and who therefore can do little more than reinforce a tokenized perspective of “minorities” in this country through an emphasis on celebrations, contributions, food, and heroes" (Goodwin, 2010, p. 19). Although the ENL classes I observed did demonstrate culturally relevant curriculum and instruction, they mostly catered to the majority Spanish-speaking students present; in other subject classes, even this was absent, and the support was disproportionately more accessible to the Spanish-speaking students in the form of ENL teachers fluent in Spanish. This highlights how the Arabic and French-speaking minority students were placed in the position of competing with other, more visible and dominant minorities for the generally limited curricular space available to those who find themselves on the periphery of the dominant (Goodwin, 2010). "Their invisibility is also a function of a hierarchy of race that exists in this country, constructed by a White power majority that makes choices about which underrepresented groups are to be emphasized over others" (Goodwin, 2010, p.20). These forces put the Arabic and French-speaking students in the school at the risk of remaining "perpetual foreigners" (Goodwin, 2010, p.21).

Nieto (2018) talks about "dispositions" as multicultural values put into practice, which do not come as a prepackaged curriculum, nor are they a specific pedagogy or set of strategies. But by being non-specific, these dispositions are likely to be determined by the more dominant group that needs to be served, thereby further marginalizing the more invisible minority (in this case, the Arabic and French-speaking students in the school.) Therefore, a critical action would be to redefine what "multiculturalism" means for schools and institutions within the context of linguistic hegemony. Another important step would be the reexamination and revision(ing) of teacher preparation curricula (Goodwin, 2010), which will help them redefine both culturally relevant pedagogy, and specialized support for bilingual students (especially those from more invisible groups) in a way that doesn't just “train” them to read, regurgitate on cue, and identify discrete sounds and vocabulary, but one which helps them become literate and fluent knowers who own ideas and integrate knowledge. (Goodwin, 2010).

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Because the ENL teachers are Spanish speakers, they are able to identify and address the needs of Spanish-speaking ENL learners in a more effective way than they can for the Arabic-speaking students. The ENL teachers try their best to support the Arabic-speaking students, but the support is mostly limited to scaffolds and support material translated into Arabic. Moreover, the translation is often factually or linguistically inaccurate, thus impeding their access to the class content and knowledge. And since no other teachers or faculty members speak Arabic in the school, there is no means to check the accuracy and soundness of the support material. Additionally, the curricular gaps that these students experience (in science, for instance) remain largely unaddressed, thereby affecting their performance and motivation in the classes.
The finding of a study conducted on ELs in California referenced by Gandara and Rumberger in their 2009 article "Immigration, Language, and Education: How Does Language Policy Structure Opportunity?" is demonstrated in this situation, "the likelihood that they (EL students) will have a teacher who can speak to them or their parents in a common language or instruct them by building on what they already know in their native language is very small."

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The struggles of minority parents/guardians

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The struggles of minority parents/guardians

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I was driven to also understand the involvement of minority Arabic-speaking students' parents/guardians.
As working-class immigrants in the United States, they work long hours in their tough jobs. Their situation as immigrants and their socio-economic status actively hinders their ability and sense of empowerment to engage with the school and participate in their child's education (Oakes et al., 2018)
As mentioned in Oakes et al., language barriers make it difficult or impossible for parents to communicate with teachers and the school. Even though this school is multicultural, there is a presence of a strong language barrier between the parents of the Arabic-speaking students and the school. These adults can speak neither English, nor Spanish, thus inhibiting their access to the teachers and the school community which could have resulted in meaningful engagement for improving their children's education.
The situation also makes me wonder about the role of the school in actively teaching and empowering parents to question conventional school practices (Oakes et al., 2018)

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The School's Attitude towards Cultural Differences

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The School's Attitude towards Cultural Differences

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As I observed the teachers in their classes, I wondered if the oblivion to this Spanish dominance and the struggles of the minority Arabic-speaking students were isolated events, or if they were the result of a larger attitude of the school towards cultural and linguistic differences.
- In one instance, some Spanish-speaking students were mocking the Arabic and French pronunciations of words. They were called out by their teacher, but for "disturbing" the class, and not for being disrespectful to another language.
- In a staff training session on literacy practices, the facilitator, who was a senior teacher, encouraged a group of 8 other teachers to make students practice new words in ASL to "shake off their energy," and not to teach them how to communicate with their disabled peers effectively.
- There was a general lack of encouragement from the leadership for monolingual teachers to learn and use a second language in their instruction. There was also evident complacency from monolingual teachers in wanting to learn and use a second language in their instruction.
While it is incorrect to generalize the school's attitude on cultural and linguistic differences on the basis of the aforementioned actions alone, they are certainly not acceptable in a school said to be multicultural and multilingual, as it reinforces feelings of inferiority among children of dominated groups, and feelings of superiority among the dominant groups (Nieto, 2018)

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Double-struggle for the minority students

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Double-struggle for the minority students

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Upon more incisive observations, I concluded that the students speaking a minority language within the Spanish majority faced significant hindrances to accessing both content and instruction:
- Bilingual instruction was used in most classes, but it was made up of English and Spanish. As a result, the minority students struggled to comprehend and learn in not one, but two foreign languages
- In math classes, I observed two Yemeni students struggle very hard with Algebra. For them, the challenge was not just understanding the mathematical concept or the language, it was also the script. Compared with their Spanish peers, they were facing the added challenge of learning math and language in the English script (including numerals), which is completely different from the Arabic script that they learned to read and write in
- In science classes, I noticed the same Yemeni students struggling to make sense of the sheer scientific knowledge that they had to process and engage with. This was because their exposure to science was limited to only a few basic topics (such as parts of the body or environment) that were prioritized by the curricula they learned.
Overall, there was evidence of teachers (mostly ENL) building bridges between the Spanish and English languages through bilingual instruction (Nieto, 2018), but it disproportionately favored the linguistic group that dominated the classrooms; for the minority Arabic speakers, the classes functioned almost like a monolingual classroom.

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It all started when during an observation of an ENL (English as a New Language) class, I observed that in this multicultural classroom, there were two little flags of the Dominican Republic and Ecuador pasted right at the front of the class. Of 22 students, 20 were native Spanish speakers, while the two were not; one was a native Arabic speaker from Yemen, and the other was a French speaker from Guyana. The absence of a Yemeni and Guyanese flag compelled me to investigate if these minority students were being (un)consciously excluded by the Spanish-dominated majority within the classroom and school.

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In the last three months, I observed the classes in a multilingual, and multicultural school. A critical moment pointed towards the possible creation of Spanish hegemony within the school that excludes students of minority languages in the same manner that the hegemony of English exists outside of school in society, and excludes Spanish speakers as a minority.