Tom Stritikus

Stritikus examines restrictions on bilingual education in California, demonstrating complex relationships between educational practice and political and pedagogical ideaologies.

Stritikus examines the effect of CaliforniaÕs anti-bilingual initiative, Proposition 227, on the education of Latinos. He highlights the teachers' role in enacting the policy, studying two schools which developed their own Proposition 227 implementation plans. One ended its bilingual program and began a program of English immersion, and a second maintained its bilingual program through obtaining parental waivers.

Using sociocultural analysis of classroom observation data, Stritikus shows how Proposition 227 implementation legitimized questionable educational practice and made effective teaching more difficult. His research documents how teachersÕ actions under the policy were closely connected to their political and pedagogical ideologies.

Table of Contents

1. Teachers' Place in the local Enactment of Language Policy
2. Research Methods, Research Site, and Participants
3. Proposition 227 Policy Context
4. Proposition 227 and Teachers' Work: English Only and Open Court
5. Literacy Practice at Open Valley
6. Conclusion
   
Appendix
References
Index