Luis Ernesto Poza

Policies and pedagogical practice to support students classified as English Learners in schools often rely on deficit frameworks about bi/multilingual students and on mechanistic language learning paradigms. The proposed study advances more humanistic approaches by combining ethnographic research within a budding Ethnic Studies program with analysis of dignity frameworks across law and philosophy to expand understandings of educational dignity. From this analysis, the work outlines characteristics of dignity-affirming pedagogies and educational policies for English Learners in US schools.