Translanguaging as Humanizing and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

• In Event: Pedagogies of Hope: New Trends in Bilingual Education

Abstract

1. Objectives/Purposes
While U.S. public schools are increasingly becoming diverse, policies like high-stakes testing and English-only mandates promote reductive literary practices that effectively erase the cultural and linguistic repertoires of emergent bilinguals (Molle, Sato, Boals, & Hedgspeth, 2015). Educational spaces for the development of bi/multilingualism have dramatically shrunk due to the hegemonic status of “standard English”, resulting in the prevalence of monolingual ideologies. To counteract this trend, our presentation explores ways to develop meaningful, heteroglossic contexts of learning across communities (Paris, 2012; Palmer, 2011).

2. Perspectives
The notion of translanguaging as pedagogy, in particular, provides a viable approach of building a linguistically inclusive space in multilingual classrooms in making standards-driven curricula more accessible to emergent bilinguals. Such pedagogy refers to the ways in which students and teachers engage in complex and fluid linguistic practices that strategically include the use of students’ full linguistic repertoires in order to (1) make sense of teaching and learning, (2) communicate and acquire subject knowledge, and (3) develop academic language practices (García, 2014). Importantly, such an innovative pedagogic move acknowledges and values multilingualism as a resource and challenges monolingual and “standard as best” language ideologies with a view to enhance the academic outcomes of emergent bilinguals (Wright, 2015; Collins, 2014; Rolstad, Mahoney & Glass, 2005; August & Shanahan, 2006).

3. Methods and Data Sources
We first report on an analytical survey undertaken of the current published research to date on translanguaging as pedagogy in U.S. K-12 context in order to identity the possibilities and challenges associated with using translanguaging as a tool to build up meaningful, heteroglossic contexts of learning for emergent bilinguals. Next, and guided by a social justice agenda, we draw upon empirical data from high school science classrooms to illustrate how translanguaging supports emergent bilinguals in meeting academic challenges.

4. Results
Our findings reveal that by making cross-cultural connections with students’ lives, translanguaging allows students and teachers to use various linguistic repertoires flexibly and strategically in different learning contexts (Mazak, 2017). Translanguaging as pedagogy creates safe spaces that scaffold emergent bilinguals’ content learning and language development. Additionally, translanguaging builds up a hybrid learning community where teachers are positioned as co-learners, and students are empowered to develop criticality and creativity (Li & Wu, 2009). In this space, students perform dynamic language practices, construct their identities, and transform their language ideologies (Li, 2011). Some challenges we encountered include the inclusion of students who only speak English, the lack of professional development or training for pre- and in-service teachers, and push back from school administration.

5. Scholarly Significance of the Study
Translanguaging as pedagogy fosters a heteroglossic space that legitimizes the use of all linguistic varieties to offer students access to while challenging the dominant and monolingual ideologies. As a humanizing and culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012), translanguaging has significant implications both in school and society: it not only enriches instructional practices for linguistically diverse students, but also ensures educational equity for these students.

Authors

• Zhongfeng Tian, Boston College

• Hima Rawal, Michigan State University

• Peter Ignatius De Costa, Michigan State University