Pedagogía con cariño: Teacher Embodiment of Sociopolitical Advocacy Through Pedagogical Practices

• In Event: Con Respeto y Cariño: Sociopolitical Consciousness and Practices in the Education of Latino Students

Abstract

Multilingual children come to schools with particular ways of knowing, learning and talking about the world that can be leveraged to enhance their learning (González, Moll & Amanti, 2005); however, as educators, we have not yet maximized these resources. Many educators, instead. search for the best strategies or methods to incorporate in teaching, and while it is important to continue to examine strategies and methods in teaching and learning, these have proved insufficient in engaging children from minoritized languages and cultures in relevant and authentic experiences that maximize their opportunity to learn (Bartolomé, 1994). This paper presents findings from a study that examined teacher practices in multilingual spaces, in which multilingual children’s assets were at the heart of their teacher’s pedagogy, pedagogía con cariño. The paper conceptualizes pedagogía con cariño as a pedagogical approach as well as a tool for sociopolitical action.

This study builds on theoretical perspectives that view education as a sociopolitical act (Bartolomé, 1994, 2008; Freire & Macedo, 1987) and uses an ecological framework (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1993; Hawkins, 2004; van Lier, 2004) to study the complex relationships among, and language practices used by, students and teachers. The resulting lens, pedagogía con cariño, moves beyond relationship-building between educators and students that encourages student engagement (Anthrop-González & De Jesús, 2006) to also include a political and ideological dimension (Bartolomé, 2008) in the analysis of language practices in multilingual spaces.

This paper describes findings from a qualitative study that examined language practices in three 4th grade and two 5th grade multilingual classrooms during mathematics instruction. Main data sources include classroom observations, teacher and administrator interviews, classroom artifacts and family surveys. Each classroom was examined individually and as a collection of cases (Yin, 2006). Analytic tools included analytic memos (Miles et al., 2014) and iterative coding of interviews, artifacts and field notes to identify salient themes (Saldaña, 2009).

For multilingual children in particular, this study found that monolingual approaches to learning were often ineffective because they failed to leverage students’ language practices and sent implicit messages about the value of their life, home and community experiences. However, in spaces where teachers incorporated students’ multilingual resources as an additional tool to mediate mathematical thinking and problem solving, teachers and administrators reported that students were able to outperform their peers. Pedagogía con cariño as a tool for sociopolitical action, as conceptualized in this paper, provided a counternarrative to local language policies, resource allocation and the focus of assessment in this learning community.

While many educators seek the best program or instructional models, this research serves to reinforce the fact that it is not the program or instructional model that impacts learning the most, but the everyday interactions that educators have with students. For students in this study, those interactions had a focus on challenging content, but also included a multilingual focus. This study seeks to contribute to the body of research related to the education of multilingual students, teacher education and professional learning as they intersect with mathematics learning and teaching.

Author

• Mariana Castro, University of Wisconsin - Madison