Abstract
Linguistic Identity of Southern California and Its Consequences for Business
Track: Business GIS
Author(s): Marjo Mitsutomi
Southern California is home to millions of people with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Although the area seemingly provides an excellent context for multicultural and multilingual schooling for its future work force, the realities in public schools reveal patterns of geographic, socioeconomic, ethnic as well as linguistic isolation. After the passing of Proposition 227, the educational climate for bilingual programs became hostile and all instruction was to be given overwhelmingly in English. As a result, the presence of White teachers continues to dominate the instructional force in all school districts, including those composed primarily of English learners from Spanish-speaking homes.
This paper presents the geographical distribution of the linguistically and ethnically distinct student and teacher populations in Southern California. Discussion will follow about the human cost in the public school system and subsequent future work force in the global market.
Marjo Mitsutomi
University of Redlands
PO Box 3080
Redlands , California 92373
United States
Phone: 909-793-2121
E-mail: marjo_mitsutomi@redlands.edu