Yo tengo algo que decir: Emergent Bilinguals’ Use of Personal Narratives to Reach Conscientization

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching for Transformation and Conscientization

Abstract

This study was an action research study that examined how second grade bilingual children defined “the word and their world” (Freire & Macedo, 1987) during literature discussions; that world is structured by societal, school, and classroom constructions of race, culture and languages. Particularly, I was interested in how I, as the teacher, could help students engage in critical literacy practices around books that dealt with being bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural. In order for students to start discussing what it meant to be growing up bilingual in today’s political context. This study demonstrates how students used their personal narratives to reach critical consciousness and captures an educator’s commitment towards nurturing this development among her emerging bilingual students.

Author

• Sandra Lucia Osorio, Illinois State University