Toward language justice: systemic dilemmas in the implementation of interpreting services in a California school district

Abstract

This ethnographic study applies a language justice (LJ) lens to the interpreting services provided to linguistically-minoritized families in a California school district. The LJ approach emerged out of immigrant rights organizing in the U.S. Southeast, and can be defined as systematic fair treatment of people of all linguistic backgrounds. In this paper, we examine how educators and parents envisioned LJ, along with systemic dilemmas highlighted by our ethnographic research on the district’s efforts to improve interpreting services. In our analysis, these efforts have necessarily made visible long-standing systemic inequities in the school district (of race, gender, and social class) which intersect with language, especially the crucial but undervalued role of bilingual staff members. Although we found discrepancies between the district’s LJ discourse and enactment of interpreting services, we note that these unfulfilled potentials provide fruitful space for praxis: reflection, analysis, and further collaborative efforts.

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