One voice: Supporting language rights
Diep Nguyen, president and CEO of the Center for Applied Linguistics, has had years of preparation to meet the current moment facing education policy through her journey as an English learner, world languages teacher, researcher and advocate. She shares her insights on how the Latino and AAPI communities can build a resistance movement together.
The Center for Applied Linguistics is a key partner in advancing education policy priorities on behalf of the nation’s 5.3 million English-learning students. UnidosUS and the Center for Applied Linguistics work closely together on two coalitions that UnidosUS leads: the National English Learner Roundtable and the Hispanic Education Coalition.
It’s been just under a year since Diep Nguyen took the helm at the Center for Applied Linguistics as its president and CEO. But in that short time span, there have been many drastic changes to education policy. As a former refugee and English learner from Vietnam, a world languages teacher, researcher and advocate for multilingual education, she’s had years of preparation to meet the moment.
In commemoration of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month Nguyen reflects on how she got to where she is today, her collaboration with UnidosUS, and her advice for how advocates, including but not limited to those representing the Latino and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, can build a resistance movement together.
Q. How did you know you wanted to work in education?
A. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. In Vietnam, I went to a bilingual school that taught French and Vietnamese, so I was bilingual when I came to the United States in high school. I wanted to go to college, and I got interested in world languages because even though I couldn’t speak English yet, I could speak these two other languages. West Virginia University was a place where I found a future in that. Because of my background, I chose to major in world language teaching with a certificate in bilingual education for English learners.
Q. Where did that initial degree take you?
A. I became a student teacher in Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. My students there taught me to speak Spanish. After I graduated, I taught French and Spanish for several years at the elementary, high school and college level, and then moved to Illinois to join the Illinois Resource Center as a teacher educator. Eventually, I obtained my PhD in education studies. I really wanted to see what impact bilingual education could have on a school, so rather than graduate and become a full-time researcher, I became a school administrator. In 1995, I started the state’s first dual-language program outside of the City of Chicago in the Schaumburg Elementary School District, and that program is now in its 30th year. I then served as assistant superintendent of curriculum in Des Plaines Elementary School District and the Evanston High School District.
Q. But eventually you did go back to research?
A. I did that hands-on work for a very long time, but yes, eventually I wanted to go back to research so I joined Northeastern Illinois University as an associate professor and chair. WIDA Consortium, a consortium of state departments of education, recruited me to work as their professional development director. When COVID-19 happened and the university allowed us to work remotely, I decided to move to the Washington, DC area to live with my son and his family.
When a CAL recruiter reached out to me in 2024 to see if I wanted my current position, I was honored. CAL has a very special place in my heart for two reasons:
The first is that when I was doing my dissertation in the 1980s, CAL was one of the few places in the country where I could find information and resources about refugee education.
The second is that when I graduated from Ohio State University and was working at the Illinois Resource Center as a consultant in the early 1990s, I met a CAL staff member who was working on establishing a program to help prepare Vietnamese refugee children in Thailand who would be heading into U.S. schools under the S.E.A. refugee resettlement program (United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). I explained to her that I had left Vietnam with my aunt in 1975, but that my parents and siblings had stayed behind. Because of his involvement in politics prior to the Fall of Saigon, my father spent 13 years as a political prisoner in re-education camps. By the late 1990s, there was a chance of getting all of us reunited in the United States, so the CAL staffer helped me to expedite the sponsorship application I’d need to help them immigrate, and from there Paul Simon, an Illinois Senator at the time, intervened to ensure we could bring everyone.
As a result of these two experiences with CAL and its staff, I felt that the call from their recruiter was like an invitation to give back.
Q. As you round out this first year with CAL, what have been the triumphs and challenges?
A. This is not what I expected! The U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies are among our main funding sources for language education. I knew that the election was happening and that a change in administration would lead to a difference in the way we collaborate. However, I didn’t anticipate this attack on immigrants and on all things multilingual and multicultural. The other surprise was these arbitrary executive orders. Not only is it a rhetorical attack; it’s real action that causes immediate harm to students and families, as well as to schools and classrooms. We have to pivot constantly in order to respond to these actions.
Q. What gives you the strength to keep going?
A. Having grown up in a conflict zone and then having been uprooted as a refugee, the current situation triggers my survival instinct. But I am here to stay, and in fact, I feel more determined to help the organization do what it does best, which is support educators and students. CAL is an organization that works at the intersection of research, policy and practice. That’s our space, and we are really good at contributing to research, and then interpreting and curating the research to make sure that classroom practices positively impact students. We’re also really good at informing policy with that research, so during this time where non-facts are the menu du jour, our contribution is about bringing fact-based research to the forefront of policy discussions and helping teachers stay the course. They have to teach every day. They don’t get to take a break, so we need to hold the line for them.
Q. Right now, what does that look like?
A. It’s collaborating with organizations like UnidosUS and other organizations in the National English Learner Roundtable so that we can help each other to protect equal access to education. While I’m new to Washington, DC, I’m not new to collaborating and advocating for bilingual education. That’s something I’ve been doing for a very long time.
The National EL Roundtable is a crucial coalition of organizations supporting and informing each other so that we have coordinated responses to policy changes. As a new CAL leader, it’s great to be a part of that because I get to know and come together with leaders of other member organizations that advocate for multilingual education, immigration rights and language rights to take coordinated, timely action. Right now, it’s like a barrage. Every week there’s something new we have to react to, so we have lots of reasons to meet and support each other. If one of us finds a piece of news, we inform everyone. If one organization puts out a statement, everyone else signs on. These executive orders require us to pivot so that we come together as one voice and one movement, and to mobilize our constituents whom we need to amplify our message.
Q. What advice can you offer to people who are trying to advocate on Capitol Hill or in other spaces where some might not share the same values or even respond very well to the usual calls for equity and fairness?
A. The first thing I do is to try to find some commonality between us as humans. It can be anything. I might say, “you grew up in West Virginia? So did I.” It’s these little things that connect us and take away some of the resistance to talk about something they don’t believe in or just don’t see. It’s about appealing to their personal story and what they want for their children and their community. Through that angle, you can talk about how it is the same for other people who might look or think differently than them. You can ask them to look at the bigger picture and say “these actions don’t just impact me. They impact you as well. You might not see it now, but you’ll feel it later. I find that even though this may not inspire action or agreement right away, it actually helps that person think about the issue differently.
The slow tactic is one I have used throughout my career when I want to establish new and innovative educational programs. When I was the bilingual director for the school district in Illinois, I had to convince the community to adopt dual language education when it wasn’t popular. People were afraid their children were going to forget English or fall back on their reading. These are the moments when you work to establish relationships with parents, communities and school boards, proving to them that this plan will work for all students, and highlighting related successes as you move along. When the state tried to adopt the Seal of Biliteracy, which goes on the diplomas of all high school graduates who have earned a level of proficiency in two languages, we had to convince people that it would be good for all students in the state.
Q. While we’ve been speaking, President Trump signed an executive order dismantling the Department of Education. How, in moments like these do you shift gears to a more assertive approach?
A. Yes. We anticipated this. It’s a tragedy and a travesty, and above all, it is illegal. But we are looking at an administration that takes action and then deals with the consequences later. It’s more for the shock and awe, so we have to see it as that. But we must also be very upfront about where we stand. I’m hoping that the folks who work in the legal system step up and take legal action. Those of us who aren’t in that position should continue to use their megaphones, calling their representatives and writing statements of protest.
Q. In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. What are your parting words for the Latino community, which in some cases, encompasses people of both ethnic backgrounds?
A. All of us, not just Asian Americans, need to find a way to survive and thrive together. And to do that, we have to unite. Even if we come from different histories of immigration and fighting racism, the ultimate goal is to protect everyone’s human rights, to thrive as citizens in this country and to exercise our rights in a democracy when our rights as citizens and our language rights are being dismantled. It is time for the people who suffer most from these kinds of discriminatory actions to come together as one voice because if they divide us, they harm us. We already have the spaces and the coalitions to unite. That’s what the National EL Round Table is, so we have to get busy collaborating.