Language, Ideology, and Education: A Comparative Analysis of Bilingual Education Programs and the Question of Black English

This dissertation is an attempt to apply the tools of three disciplines (history, philosophy, and linguistics) to a general educational problem--the best way for public schools to cope with minority language children (and, specifically, with speakers of Black English). The dissertation is divided into three interrelated sections: the first deals with the history of minority language groups in the United States (from the Colonial Era to the present), with an emphasis on the educational responses to such groups; the second is an analysis and critique of contemporary bilingual education programs in the United States, in which it is argued that a significant component of such programs is actually little more than the Americanization ideology in a more sophisticated guise; and last, an analysis of the nature of Black English (from a linguistic perspective), the problems posed by the presence of Black English speakers in the public schools, and some of the solutions which have been devised to deal with them (most notably the King decision).

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Reagan, Timothy Gerald

• Education, Bilingual and Multicultural

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8218545

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/68804