Latino Children's Exposure to School Practices Through Older Siblings in Immigrant Families

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-16 - Building on the Strengths of Bilingual/Multilingual Students and Their Families: Considering Literacy Processes, Discursive Moves, and Agentive Possibilities

Abstract

This study examines young Latino children’s exposure to school practices in the home during interactions with their older siblings. Bilingual researchers collected audio, video, and field note data during a series of in-home observations. Analyses reveal that that the school practices around which siblings interact provide behavioral and academic models while also allowing older siblings to enact their expertise with younger siblings. Although the school-based modeling siblings enacted was primarily in English, enactment of expertise often drew upon syncretic practices from both languages and settings and achieved varying success, therefore indicating that older siblings play an important—though at times problematic—role in the school preparation of language minority children.

Authors

• Amanda Kibler, University of Virginia

• Natalia Palacios, University of Virginia

• Ashley Elizabeth Simpson Baird, University of Virginia

• Rebecca Bergey, University of Virginia