Negotiating power in language planning & policy: a case study of a 50/50 dual language program implementation in Florida

Dual Language (DLE) programs are equity-focused educational models that have expanded across the United States in recent years. These implementations occur within varied state and school district policy contexts that can be shaped by complex power dynamics. This study presents findings from a single case study, drawn from a larger three-year multi-case study, describing the inaugural implementation of a two-way 50/50 Spanish-English DLE immersion program in the US state of Florida. This qualitative case study explored the following overarching research question: How do educators in a Florida school district implement the policies of the DLE program? Findings show that institutional hierarchies, and educators’ positionalities within them, shaped opportunities for decision-making and hindered or fostered teacher agency. Notably, the findings extend Johnson and Johnson’s (2015) conceptualization of a primary language policy arbiter by revealing the presence of a secondary arbiter whose positional power intersects with, operates alongside, and challenges the primary arbiter’s disproportionate power in language policy implementation. This research responds to the call for further attention to the individuals and the processes that shape agency in language planning and policy (LPP) by looking at the collaboration between the meso and micro levels as they negotiated interpretations of the dual language policy and by providing an account of how interpretations and enactments of the policy influenced practice to different degrees. Overall, this study underscores the complexity of institutional power and provides implications for DLE educators working in uncertain times for bilingual education in the U.S.