Ebonics

Controversy erupted in 1996 when the Oakland Unified School District’s ‘Ebonics Resolution’ proposed an approach to teaching Standard English that recognized the variety of English spoken by African American students. With new demands for accountability driven by the No Child Left Behind policy and its emphasis on high-stakes testing in Standard English, this debate will no doubt rise again. This book seeks to better inform this next episode.

In Part 1, leading scholars place the debate within its historical and contemporary context, provide clear explanations of what Ebonics is and is not, and offer practical approaches schools can and should follow to address the linguistic needs of African American students. Part 2 provides original documents that accompanied the debate, including the original resolutions, legislation, organization position papers, and commentary/analyses from leading linguists. This book is written for all those whose work impacts the lives of Ebonics speakers in our public schools.

Dr. Terrence G. Wiley is Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University (ASU), where he served as Executive Dean of the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education and Director of the Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. He is also a Special Professor in the Graduate College, University of Maryland, and immediate past President of the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC, as well as Professor Emeritus in the College of Education at California State University Long Beach. Professor Wiley’s teaching and research have focused on educational and applied linguistics; language policies; the history of language diversity in the United States; literacy and biliteracy studies; and second, bilingual, and heritage-community language education. Professor Wiley co-founded the Journal of Language, Identity and Education and the International Multilingual Research Journal (both Routledge, Taylor & Francis), and he is co-editor of the Springer Series in Language Policy. Among his books are the Handbook of Heritage, Community, and Native American Languages (co-editor, Routledge); The Education of Language Minority Immigrants in the United States (co-editor, Multilingual Matters); Literacy and Language Diversity in the United States, 2nd Ed (author, Center for Applied Linguistics); and Ebonics in the Urban Education Debate, 2nd Ed (co-editor, Multilingual Matters). He is also co-editor of Review of Research in Education, Volume 38, “Language Policy, Politics, and Diversity in Education.” Professor Wiley has received numerous awards for scholarship, teaching, and service, including the American Association for Applied Linguistics Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award (2014), and the Joshua Fishman Award for Heritage Language Scholarship from the National Heritage Language Resource Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (2018).

Wayne E. Wright is Associate Dean for Research, Graduate Programs, and Faculty Development and the Barbara I. Cook Chair of Literacy and Language in the College of Education at Purdue University, USA. He is Co-Editor of the Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, Editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, and Co-Editor of the Bilingual Education and Bilingualism book series.