Latina/o Children and Families' Cross-Cultural Repertoires: Learning From/With Each Other Through Multilingual, Multimodal Texts

• In Event: Addressing the Challenges of Early Literacy Teaching and Learning: Report From a Multisite, Multiyear Initiative

Abstract

Bilingual children and families possess unique funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & González, 1992), including complex language repertoires and cross-cultural sensitivities. This presentation reports on a three-year long research study that explores how children in grade 2, who were part of “Photos and Me” afterschool program (PMP), engaged in multimodal composing to inquire into their transnational experiences, family legacies, and related social justice issues. Our work pairs bilingual language and literacy frameworks with feminist theories. Scholars in bilingual education advocate for integrated perspectives regarding the learning of bilingual children (García 2009; García & Wei, 2014; Gutiérrez, Baquedano-López, & Álvarez, 2001; Lambert 1974; Williams 1996), who possess unique cultural and linguistic resources. Feminist theories underscore how individuals’ experiences derived from their identities can be a source of knowledge about our shared world (Alcoff, 2006; Campano, 2007; Moya, 2002), and illuminate the relationship between students’ particular experiences and more global dynamics (Mohanty, 2003).

This presentation focuses on the qualitative portion (Erickson, 1986) of a mixed methods study that documented bilingual children’s engagement with a photography-enhanced literacy curriculum that sought to attend to their cultural and linguistic resources. While year one consisted of a pilot study, a total of 376 second graders participated in the project during years 2 and 3; most were emergent bilinguals, whose families were immigrants from Latin America or the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Data sources consisted of: Children’s work (digital and paper-based), fieldnotes, transcribed audios from sessions, and student and teacher interviews. Data were analyzed thematically (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) and multimodally (Kress & van Leewen, 2006).

Findings surfaced three themes: Immigration histories/status: Children and their families made visible the social, economic, and political dynamics they face because of undocumented immigration status or by being interpellated as such because of their race/ethnicity, and used multimodal texts to reposition immigration as an epistemic resource. Children who had primarily been raised in the U.S. also learned from families about immigration and what life was/is like in Latin America/the Caribbean, which helped them cultivate transnational comparative frameworks. Enacting bilingual/bicultural identities: Children who teachers reported had initially resisted the Spanish language and their Latina/o heritage began composing bilingual texts and explicitly positioning themselves as bilinguals. Their inquiries also referenced the political implications of navigating multiple languages—such as choices of what languages to use in what spaces and the complexities of family relationships in multilingual contexts. Relationships to school(ed) literacies: We found evidence of bidirectional learning between home and school—for instance, children’s transnational experiences mediating deep cultural connections with texts, and at the same time tools for bringing into the classroom community-based knowledge not often included in academic spaces.

Multilingual children have important knowledge gained from their communities and their experiences in navigating multiple cultural norms, and it is imperative that educators find ways to honor and learn from their insights. We suggest possible ways of fostering learning opportunities where students’ community knowledge and linguistic practices are viewed as an epistemic resource and a form of agency within and beyond the curriculum.

Authors

• Maria Paula Ghiso, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Patricia Martínez-Álvarez, Teachers College, Columbia University