‘I don’t speak any language’: exploring teacher language ideologies and linguistic hierarchies in a K-12 bilingual school

In recent years, bilingual education in Latin America has expanded under the dual pressures of global English dominance and local commitments to linguistic equity. This study explores how teachers in an elite K-12 bilingual (Spanish-English) school in Ecuador conceptualize bilingual education, with particular attention to the ideologies that shape their instructional practices. The study draws on interviews with four teachers, two monolinguals and two bilinguals, and employs a comparative case study design to examine how language ideologies intersect with institutional structures and classroom routines. Findings reveal a strong English-centric ideology in which English is framed as the key to academic success and employability, often at the expense of Spanish and Indigenous languages that are integral to Ecuador’s multilingual context. Teachers’ own linguistic biographies influenced whether they enforced monolingual norms or embraced heteroglossic pedagogical strategies. The study emphasizes how bilingual education, when driven by unexamined ideologies, can reinforce rather than disrupt linguistic hierarchies. We call for greater reflexivity around language policy and pedagogy to support more equitable models of bilingual schooling.