Dual language bilingual education for racial justice: Toward a (Re)rooted Vision

The surfacing of racial inequities in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) marks a departure from the race radical efforts for bilingual education during the civil rights era. In response, DLBE scholars call for critical conceptualizations that foster just spaces for students of color. In this paper, we introduce the (Re)rooted Vision, grounded in Critical Race Theory and ethnic studies pedagogies, as a pathway to re-envision bilingual education as a project for racial justice and collective liberation. We argue for a reimagining of DLBE that centers healing, mattering, unlearning and relearning, and transforming. A (Re)rooted Vision approach places the self-determination of communities of color at the heart of DLBE. This endeavor recognizes that reclaiming DLBE is an ongoing and multifaceted process – one that problematizes the reproduction of whiteness within schooling. We offer this vision as a call to action to co-create liberatory counterspaces that disrupt racial stratification and affirm the intersectional identities, languages, and epistemologies of students of color, advancing DLBE as a racial project for collective liberation.