“You’re a 6… that's low”: Monoglossic Ideologies, Racism, and Ableism in (Dual Language) Schooling

Special education and dual language/bilingual education (DLBE) programs originated to protect educational rights for students with disabilities and multilingual students. However, these structures require categorizing learners through standardized testing, which can reinforce ableist and racist practices. This ethnographic and discourse-analytic study examines educators’ perceptions of fourth-grade students’ language practices within an urban K-8 bilingual program as they inhabit an institutional perceiving subject position . Rooted in critical perspectives on race, language, and disability, findings suggest that all students were subjected to the white normative gaze , highlighting structural oppression in DLBE and special education while exploring implications for urban schooling contexts.