Tensions Between Education Policies and Standards and Educators’ Multilingual Practices: Two Case Studies from India and the United States

Through two case studies from India and the United States, we explore how educational policies and standards focused on multilingualism are interpreted and enacted within early childhood education classrooms. Recent education policies in both contexts are aimed at fostering culturally responsive and linguistically inclusive pedagogy for greater academic success for students whose home language(s) differs from the language of instruction. However, the policy implementation varies significantly based on educators’ language ideologies and cultural beliefs. We examine a critical gap between policy intentions and classroom realities. Our findings suggest that while broad educational policies provide important frameworks, their effectiveness relies upon educators’ interpretation and beliefs, highlighting a need for clearer guidelines to better implement policy to enhance emergent multilingual learners’ language acquisition.