ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the epistemological claims about the validity of certain kinds of knowledges as they relate to language and language policy. Although ethnographic and qualitative research operates within complex historical fields, we extend these methodologies to incorporate a moral discourse embedded in critical research focusing on equity and justice. We locate our methodological stance as an acknowledgment that language policy is not simply official, but that these governmentalities are the accumulation of circulating discourses around language, immigration, globalization, and nation-state formation. We examine these articulations in three arenas: (1) the imposition of structured English immersion (SEI) in our state as the default program for English-language learners (ELLs); (2) the formal and informal language policies that have evolved in the wake of state referenda and court decisions; and (3) the impact of antiimmigrant discourses on local-level school policy and practice, including the role of advocacy and activism among teachers of English-language learners. The interrelation between language ideologies and the specific circumstances in which some ideologies become hegemonical will be examined within these three arenas.
