English language development jaulas: Latinx students’ critiques of ELD through confinement and resistance testimonios

ABSTRACT Understanding identity labels as jaulas [cages] and testimonios as theory and method, this article centers bi/multilingual Latinx students’ experiences in high school English Language Development (ELD) classes. We present how two teachers, now researchers, built long-term relationships with former elementary school students, affording confianza [trust] to share testimonios. Through a larger study, authors learned students’ critiques through confinement and resistance testimonios of how their identity and language abilities were negatively tested and classified. For these reasons, authors theorize ELD classes as jaulas, trapping students with unengaging instructional practices limiting and distorting their schooling experiences. We present findings through various vantage points within and outside of the ELD jaulas, establishing the following themes: 1) Low-Quality Education, 2) Obstacles to Learning Experiences and 3) Targets of Resistance. When including, listening to, and trusting students’ testimonios, there is an opportunity for change, liberating them from ELD jaulas. The educational system should reclaim assessment practices and embrace Latinx students’ identities and bi/multilingualism as beautiful and powerful assets for shifting and reimagining the language classification process.