Bilingual Education in the New York State Spanish Spelling Bee

"This paper explores the discourse surrounding the New York State Spanish Spelling Bee as a case of practice regarding language policies. In the current context of increasing emphasis on English-only policies in schools across the United States, this paper explores how the Spanish Spelling Bee organizers and keynote speakers rallied for bilingualism. Findings illuminated the Spanish Spelling Bee as a site where Bilingual education is used against backlash pedagogy. Spanish, seen as a marker for Latino dentity and linguistic hierarchies within Spanish, is evidenced. In the context of English-only movements, bilingual education emerges as an issue of social justice."