Interrogating Discomfort and Privilege in an Ethnographic Study of Latino Families' Teaching Practices

• In Event: 26.080 - Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: 26.080-10 - Pivotal Uncertainties: Taking Stock and Taking Action in Critical Early Childhood Ethnographic Research

Abstract

My objectives are to 1) share findings from a critical ethnographic study of the developing literacies of two Latino children and the agency and expertise of their families as teachers; 2) discuss insights that emerged when I interrogated my discomfort with the parents’ teaching practices and my privilege as a white researcher, reframing the parents as “warm demanders”; 3) engage in a discussion about the messy, generative process of critical self-reflection and needed changes in teacher education.

A critical sociocultural perspective provided the theoretical framework. The activity of the participants was understood as situated in sociopolitical contexts while issues of power and privilege were made explicit.

This work is also consistent with research that frames Latino families as active agents, describing funds of knowledge and characteristic practices (Arzubiaga et al., 2000; Flores, 2005; Gonzalez et al., 2005; Hidalgo, 2005; Olivos et al., 2011; Valdés, 1996; Zentella, 2005). These studies challenge the pervasive discourse on Latino families grounded in a deficit perspective which identifies their alleged deficits as the cause of their children’s poor achievement. Bolstered by racist, classist, and linguicist generalizations, the alleged deficits mark Latino families as deviants from the norm and can be used by educators to absolve themselves of responsibility (Freebody et al., 2001), making them complicit with children’s lack of school success (Villenas & Deyhle, 1999).

Research methods were guided by an ethnographic approach. I used a multilayered analysis, engaging with the data recursively and identifying patterns and outliers within historical and sociopolitical contexts. Central to the method was critical self-reflection (Orellana, 2007) in which I interrogated my discomfort with the “pushy” parenting--distinct from the developmentally appropriate approach I advocated —and my privilege as a white researcher. This involved challenging unacknowledged biases, revisiting the literature, dialoguing with colleagues, looking beyond practices that were not “appropriate”, re-engaging with my ethnography by attending to what the families did and said, and beginning to unpack a clearer understanding of their perspectives and expertise.

Data sources included field notes taken during observation in the homes and communities; recorded interviews and conversations; photographs; literacy artifacts; and network and community maps completed with the parents. Latino co-researchers and the memoirs of Latina writers added layers of meaning.

The study’s findings present the children as co-constructors of literacies, working with their families’ expert mediation. For this presentation the focus will be on the parents’ “need for push” (Auerbach, 2002) and my identification of them as “warm demanders” (Gay, 2010) who required their children to work hard within loving contexts. They shared consejos, narratives about their deprivation and lack of demanding parents, to motivate their children and resist their own constraints.

This work is significant because it challenges the hegemony of normative practices in our field, deficit perspectives of families in marginalized communities, and ethnographic methods saturated with privilege as white researchers. It points to the need to teach teachers how to engage in relationships with families that privilege their practices, agency, and voices, learning from them about creating culturally relevant teaching practices.

Author

• Dinah Volk, Cleveland State University