Lau v. Nichols and Chinese American Language Rights: The Sunrise and Sunset of Bilingual Education

The book highlights the first-person narratives of key stakeholders of the landmark Lau v. Nichols case, which ruled that the failure to provide adequate and accessible instruction to Chinese students constituted discrimination on the basis of national origin. It employs a narrative policy portraiture approach to recenter the stories of the Chinese community involved in the case and invites readers to imagine the social futures and possibilities for what Lau v. Nichols means for the 21st century and beyond.

Format: Hardback
Length: 242 pages
Publication date: 13 August 2024
Publisher: Multilingual Matters

The book "Lau v. Nichols: A Narrative Policy Portraiture" employs a narrative policy portraiture approach to recenter the stories of the Chinese community involved in the landmark Lau v. Nichols court case of 1974. This seminal Supreme Court case ruled that the failure to provide adequate and accessible instruction to approximately 1800 students of Chinese ancestry denied them the opportunity to participate in public education and constituted a discrimination on the basis of national origin. While much has been written on language education policy changes for emergent bilinguals in the US, the perspectives of the key actors involved in the case are rarely heard. This book brings Chinese and Chinese American voices to the forefront, placing the participants within the retrospective social context as they reach their own conclusions about the process and outcomes of the case. It draws upon research in language policy and Asian American studies and invites readers to imagine the social futures and possibilities for what Lau v. Nichols means for the 21st century and beyond. The volume fills a significant gap in narration, representation, and retrospective research and will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in Asian American studies, bilingual education, educational policy and leadership, as well as teachers, school administrators, and policymakers.

Weight: 530g
Dimension: 234 x 156 x 14 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781800417069