Volume 15 Issue 1 2021 AMAE Open Issue Editors Patricia Sánchez The University of Texas at San Antonio Antonio J. Camacho AMAE, Inc. Associate Editors Julie L. Figueroa Sacramento State Lucila D. Ek The University of Texas at San Antonio Managing Editor Christian Fallas-Escobar The University of Texas at San Antonio http://amaejournal.utsa.edu Association of Mexican American Educators Journal A peer-reviewed, open access journal ISSN: 2377-9187 http://amaejournal.utsa.edu/ Christian Fallas Escobar DOI: https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.15.1.442 De La Cruz Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2021, Volume 15, Issue I 150 MacSwan, J., & Faltis, C (2020). Codeswitching in the classroom: Critical perspectives on teaching, learning, policy, and ideology. Routledge. 290 pp. ISBN-13: 978- 1138225060. Paperback: $20.87 Terri De La Cruz University of Texas at San Antonio The book Codeswitching in the Classroom: Critical Perspectives on Teaching, Learning, Policy, and Ideology showcases a collection of essays by academic scholars who examine the history of the sociolinguistic foundations of codeswitching research and discuss how bilingual programs shifted over the years from English-only policies to support bilingual education policies, and back to English-driven policies. Using data from their qualitative research, the contributors examine how the inconsistencies in bilingual education policies affect how teachers define and implement bilingual programs into their classrooms, explicitly addressing codeswitching. The authors argue that teachers’ attitudes regarding bilingualism vary due to the contradicting language policies. They expound that some teachers view codeswitching as an essential part of student identity and a way to resist the hegemony of English. In contrast, other teachers believe that codeswitching hinders the process of English language proficiency. The contributors also highlight the lack of classroom resources for bilingual teachers that are necessary for teaching, nurturing, and understanding the cultural aspects of bilingual students. Finally, through their discussion on the vital role codeswitching plays within language policies and the classroom, the authors also hope to educate current and future bilingual teachers on the importance of codeswitching within their pedagogical approaches. The book is divided into three parts. Part one, Theory and Context, comprises two chapters, through which MacSwan and Faltis provide the theoretical foundations of codeswitching by examining its history. MacSwan focuses on codeswitching as language use, language structure, and codeswitching in education. He shows its beginnings as a systemized and rule-governed research approach that compared bilinguals to monolinguals. He also discusses current research that dispels past beliefs that disparaged and stigmatized language mixing. Faltis focuses on bilingual education and codeswitching as an instructional tool in public classrooms within the United States. Faltis frames codeswitching as a social construct where “its speakers De La Cruz Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2021, Volume 15, Issue I 151 need to recognize and use the two language[s] for distinct social situations, and not allow the dominant language to enter domains in which the minoritized language prevails” (p.41). He presents approaches on pedagogical codeswitching and explains the need for bilingual teachers to remain flexible in terms of pedagogy to expand the spoken and written skills of bilingual students. Although the authors primarily focus on codeswitching, they also discuss translanguaging as a separate languaging tool in bilingual education. Lead scholars within the field of bilingual education and bilingualism cover the remaining chapters of the book. Part two, Teaching and Learning, covers five chapters that discuss bilingual language practices within monolingual classrooms. Explored within part two is a successful reading program that designated Reading Buddies (peer tutoring) by pairing fourth graders with kindergarteners to discuss math, science, and technology. Tigert and colleagues look at how students incorporated codeswitching to discuss, explain, and give instructions which produced favorable outcomes for both the mentor and mentee. They found that the language switching tool helps promote dialogue among students and their teachers. The contributors within part two show the positive effects of codeswitching within the classroom and its great value when incorporated into curricula. Finally, they examine how educators use a funds of knowledge approach to help make lessons more effective and create a welcoming environment for multilingual children. According to the contributors, codeswitching helps conceptualize language use in the context of culture and community. Part two also examines the challenges that teachers experience when utilizing hybrid language practices in a monolingual setting. This section underscores the importance and usefulness of codeswitching research to expand bilingual student education and encourage them to use their home language to elevate their learning experiences. The contributors provide insight into the study of language within U.S. schools that assists with educational instruction. They also focus on dispelling misconceptions of semilingualism and deficit views that promote monolingualism and on challenging claims that academic English is the “correct” or acceptable form of language within the classroom. Part two shows how restrictive “correct” English ideologies promote racism and how language proficiency assessments result in racial segregation. The book also examines the debates of new and competing language ideologies. Lastly, it investigates different terms used in linguistic, sociolinguistics, and educational fields to refer to language mixing, such as codemixing and heteroglossia. De La Cruz Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2021, Volume 15, Issue I 152 Finally, part three, Policy and Ideology, contains four chapters on codeswitching policies and educators’ beliefs and professional development. Using field notes from classroom observations, contributors provide a critical perspective dialogue through an ethnographic approach that addresses classroom learning, classroom discourses, and professional development. They also highlight ongoing debates regarding new bilingual methodology and terminology such as translanguaging. First, Hopewell and colleagues examine teachers’ opinions on codeswitching to find that most think positively about it within their teaching approaches. However, many educators hesitate when integrating the languaging tool because of the lack of support by their school districts. According to Henderson and Sayer, classrooms can consist of varying bi/multilingual and bi/multidialectal students who create a mixture of their languages within daily discourse and interactions. The contributors also look at how educators respond to student language practices to find that educators’ principles, how a teacher believes a student should speak, sometimes contrasts with the way students speak. Although these educators are committed to students and their learning, classroom policies can contradict students’ use of language resulting in marginalization. Lastly, through an ethnographic discourse analysis in two kindergarten bilingual classrooms, Palmer looks at how the bilingual students were treated as monolinguals and categorized as English or Spanish speakers. Palmer shows how this practice can erase a child’s bilingual identity. This section highlights how vital it is for schools and bilingual programs to create policies that promote codeswitching, an essential language tool for understanding and shaping bilingual students’ identities. The book calls attention to inequities within bilingual education programs and the lack of pedagogical resources for educators. A recurring theme within the book is the topic of academic English, also referred to as the dominant language, a construct that promotes institutionally racist practices, such as English-only classrooms that favor White students’ learning. These concepts reflect the work of renowned scholar Jane H. Hill, the author of The Everyday Language of White Racism. Supported by Hill’s scholarship on White discourse, the findings in this book prove that “correct” English favors the dominant White language. Furthermore, academic English-only classroom practices systematically silence racially minoritized students by purposefully or inadvertently neglecting or disallowing culturally-based language tools for learning, such as codeswitching. De La Cruz Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2021, Volume 15, Issue I 153 Also discussed in the book is the importance of community-based language tools which are essential for exploring the agency that underpins the deciding factors of language, identity, and resistance. The book provides rich data from qualitative research and copies of fieldnote transcripts showing how the authors conducted their investigation. However, caution is advised against over-critiquing since its outcome could cause a rift throughout scholarly communities and result in “communities comprised of those only in agreement with one another” (p. 278). Caution aside, the authors contribute to the ongoing research and discussions of codeswitching and provide valuable insight for teaching, learning, policy, and ideology. This book is valuable for anyone interested in ethnographic studies on culture, literacy, and language through the lens of codeswitching. It is also an essential resource for in-service and pre-service educators and those interested in educational policy. The book offers a perspective that helps build empathy for students who, as history has proven, were silenced and marginalized through “correct” language pedagogy. In addition, it provides an understanding of how languaging tools, such as codeswitching, promote equity within the classroom and help build a stronger sense of purpose for bilingual students. References Hill, J. H. (2008). The everyday language of white racism. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444304732 MacSwan, J., & Faltis, C. J. (2020). Codeswitching in the classroom: Critical perspectives on teaching, learning, policy, and ideology. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315401102 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444304732 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315401102