Their Story, Their Voices: The Role of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Developing Bicultural Identity

• In Event: Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Research: Exploring Student Engagement and Motivation

Abstract

Using a theoretical framework based upon student voice, critical pedagogy, and multiculturalism, this paper examines the empowering potential of critical bicultural pedagogy (CBP) for bilingual (Spanish-English) students. Through qualitative methods, the voices and perspectives of bilingual fourth-grade students who had been placed in an English-only classroom are considered. The process of bicultural identity-making, in a school where bilingualism is not valued, is explored. Although the students had internalized larger social constructs of race, culture, and language ideologies, CBP encouraged these children to transform into critical individuals. While initially students had demonstrated identification with the dominant culture through the implementation of critical bicultural pedagogy, these same students took strong positions as emerging bicultural agents of change.

Author

• Rhianna Henry Casesa, San Diego State University