War or Common Cause?

Anderson's timely, methodologically sophisticated, and compelling account surrounding the politics of bilingual education moves beyond instrumental notions of policy to advance the idea that mandates are themselves resources that may be vigorously contested as contending parties vie for inclusion in the schooling process. Her work artfully demonstrates how improving schooling for all children is inseparable from a larger, much-needed discussion of what we as a polity believe about whether and how we are interconnected, together with who should and does have a voice in the policy making and implementation process. -Angela Valenzuela, Professor, University of Texas at Austin, author of Subtractive Schooling and Leaving Children Behind Anderson shows the gap between clear-cut assumptions and ideologies informing education policy and legislation on language and immigration, and the complications that arise for teachers when they actually implement language legislation in the classroom. She also illustrates assumptions about language and being American, as these are both debated and shared by each side"" of the language and immigration debates in California and Georgia. Her chapter on California's Proposition 227 is a particular eye-opener, demonstrating in detail the embedding of local identities and oppositions in these debates. Above all, she makes quite clear the complex, often contradictory, web of relations among politics, language, race, and cultural citizenship. --Bonnie Urciuoli, Professor, Hamilton College, author of Exposing Prejudice