ABSTRACT
This case examines parent activism for bilingual/bicultural education (BBE) at a public school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and we highlight parents’ consciousness-raising pedagogy. First, we summarize the foundational work of the City-Wide Bilingual Bicultural Advisory Committee, a Latina/o parent-led committee that helped propel the public schools’ adoption of developmental (as opposed to transitional) bilingual education as the districtwide model, and raised consciousness about Latina/o community concerns during Milwaukee’s federal school desegregation case. Next, we turn to the current historical moment. Sophisticated Latina/o parent and community activism continues, despite the neoliberal structuring that has shaped much of the contemporary education scene. Parents at La Escuela Bilingüe Foster’s (EBF, a pseudonym) remained vigilant and struggled for quality bilingual schooling. The collective work at EBF offers lessons to cultivate multifaceted critical consciousness and parent activism in dual language bilingual education across different scales. Finally, our discussion presents several ideas for teaching and organizing efforts that involve bilingual educators and language-minoritized communities.
