Vol.:(0123456789) Language Policy https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-021-09580-6 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER “Now it’s all upper‑class parents who are checking out schools”: gentrifcation as coloniality in the enactment of two‑way bilingual education policies Lisa M. Dorner 1  · Claudia G. Cervantes‑Soon 2  · Daniel Heiman 3  · Deborah Palmer 4 Received: 14 March 2020 / Accepted: 11 January 2021 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature 2021 Abstract Bilingual education as a whole has been gentrifying, as more privileged students replace Transnational Language Learners (TLLs) in bilingual education spaces and policies (Valdez et al. in Educ Policy 30(6):849–883, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0895904814556750). We argue this is an extension of coloniality (Mignolo in Local histories/global designs: coloniality, subaltern knowledges, and border thinking, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2000/2012): as two-way bilingual education (TWBE) policies are enacted, they are shaped by globalizing, neoliberal, and mono- glossic discourses that have a history of dispossessing and erasing minoritized peo- ples and languages. Taking a critical constructivist grounded theory approach, this study brings together three unique data sets from the US Midwest, Southeast, and Texas to question: How does gentrifcation manifest in TWBE across policy scales and contexts? And how are stakeholders responding to or resisting gentrifcation and its underlying coloniality? Regardless of the varying state policy and local contexts, each TWBE program in our study experienced gentrifcation. Specifcally, TLLs and their Spanish language(s) were replaced or diminished as TWBE policy enactment intersected with district and state policies, particularly those shaping enrollment, transportation, course scheduling, and teacher and student recruitment. While the analysis focuses on gentrifcation processes through policy enactment, we also detail spaces of consciousness where stakeholders recognized and resisted them and con- clude with a discussion on how coloniality is both manifested and can be challenged in language policy enactment. Keywords Coloniality of power · Dual language · Gentrifcation · Policy enactment · Two-way immersion * Lisa M. Dorner dornerl@missouri.edu Extended author information available on the last page of the article