Family Histories With English Learners in Urban Elementary Social Studies

• In Event: Critical Pedagogies Across Subject Areas: Comparative Perspectives From Urban Science, Elementary, and Out-of-School Educational Settings

Abstract

Many immigrant Latina/o families share stories about their native countries and life experiences in the U.S. However, teachers may not adhere to or know how to build upon the everyday stories and cultural realities of their immigrant students. The purpose of this study is to explore one approach teachers can employ—family histories—to teach students that there are multiple sources of knowledge and resources within our families and communities (Delgado Bernal, 2001; Tuhiwai Smith, 1999; Yosso, 2006) and build upon these for academic and critical literacies. I examine my work with one teacher to implement a Family Histories Project with one group of predominantly Mexican English Learners in California’s Central Valley.

I draw upon Critical Pedagogy and Community Cultural Wealth as my theoretical frameworks. Critical Pedagogy aims to empower the powerless, advance social transformation, redefine the traditional student/teacher relationship, affirm students’ humanity and cultural heritages (Darder, 1991; Freire, 1970, 2005; Grande, 2004), and develop academic skills while raising critical consciousness (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008; Morrell, 2004; Freire & Shor, 1987). Yosso (2006) conceptualized six capitals within Chicana/o communities—aspirational, linguistic, navigational, social, familial, and resistant. Together these six capitals comprise Community Cultural Wealth defined as “an array of knowledge, skills and abilities possessed and utilized by Communities of Color to survive and resist oppression” (Yosso, 2006, p. 75). In addition to a conceptual construct, I use Community Cultural Wealth as a pedagogical tool within the Family History Project.

This is a qualitative study employing critical ethnographic methods. I developed and co-implemented the Family History Project with a Mexican teacher and her sixth grade elementary students in South El Valle Elementary School , a Title I school in Central Valley California. The study was carried out over the course of one year using participant observations, curricular implementation, interviews, focus groups, and document collection of student work. The Family History Project was comprised of several curricular elements including lessons about Community Cultural Wealth, a family timeline, family tree, and an oral history project.

The data showed that through our Family History Project students were able to draw upon their family and life experiences as Latina/o immigrants, to re-frame these experiences as strengths or Community Cultural Capital, and to engage their families as resources in their learning. Our pedagogical approach served to both affirm and leverage students’ experiential knowledge for developing a more critical awareness of their family histories as well as for developing language, literacy and social studies skills.

This study has several areas of scholarly significance: (1) it adds to the burgeoning research on K-12 classroom applications of critical pedagogy; (2) it explicitly focuses on English Learners, a group who often are subsumed within broader populations in Critical Pedagogy research; (3) it engages the potential of Community Cultural Wealth—primarily developed as a theoretical construct in higher education—as a Critical Pedagogy in K-12 settings; (4) it contributes to social studies education in elementary school, and specifically the use of family histories.

Author

• Rosa M. Jimenez, Arizona State University