America Paradox: Multilingual Educational and Equity in the United States

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dc.contributor.authorThorsos, Nilsa J.
dc.contributor.authorRyan, Mark
dc.date.accessioned2025-10-19T21:20:11Z
dc.date.available2025-10-19T21:20:11Z
dc.date.issued2025-10
dc.description.abstractThe United States has always been a nation of contradictions. It is celebrated as a land of immigrants, yet it has often been hostile to newcomers. It proclaims liberty while constraining rights. And perhaps most paradoxically, it is one of the most linguistically diverse nations in the world, yet it has built institutions, policies, and cultural narratives around English-only monolingualism. This paradox is not incidental—it is woven into the very fabric of the American story. From the suppression of Indigenous languages in federal boarding schools to the Americanization campaigns that targeted European immigrants, and from the Cold War fear of linguistic difference to contemporary English-only initiatives, the United States has repeatedly enforced assimilation at the expense of linguistic diversity. Yet across every generation, families, educators, and communities have resisted—preserving heritage languages, nurturing bilingual programs, and affirming that multilingualism is not a threat to unity but its foundation.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11803/4868
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisher.institutionNational University (NU)
dc.subjectmonolingual
dc.subjectacculturation
dc.subjectassimilation
dc.subjectequity
dc.subjectEducational Leadership & Learning Lifelong
dc.subjectSanford College of Education
dc.subjectTeacher Education Department
dc.titleAmerica Paradox: Multilingual Educational and Equity in the United States
dc.typeBook
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