Making Critical Concepts Comprehensible: Strategies for Teaching Elementary Language Learners

• In Event: 63.058 - Reassessments of Power, Ideologies, and Praxis: Toward a More Critical Elementary Education

Abstract

Objectives and Research Questions
With Ethnic Studies documented in improving educational achievement (Cabrera, Milem, & Marx, 2012; de los Rios, López, & Morrell, 2015; Sleeter, 2011) and quickly becoming a high school graduation requirement across California (Strauss, 2014), it is essential that research examine applications within K-8 education. Understanding that ethnic studies approaches center the experiences and resistance of People of Color within colonialism and imperialism, questions arise when examining the implementation of such practices in the elementary classroom since the passing of the Common Core: How do educators make critical concepts comprehensible for language learners amidst restrictive standards and curriculum?

The English language has been forced upon the colonized globally, yet it is critical for students to master the language because colonized peoples must negotiate colonial forces in their daily lives, and thus must “know, understand, and acquire the grammar of empire as well as develop the skills to contest it” (Grande, 2007, p. 330). The purpose of this study is to examine the practical realities of supporting student language development through decolonizing and ethnic studies pedagogies. The following questions guide this study:

1) How does an elementary educator apply Specifically Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) strategies to support students in acquiring the critical academic vocabulary necessary to challenge colonialism?

2) How does a critical academic vocabulary inform how students read their world?

Theory
This study weaves critical pedagogy (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008) decolonizing pedagogy (Tejeda & Espinoza, 2003; Grande, 2007; Paperson, 2010; Tuck & Yang, 2012) and ethnic studies pedagogy (de los Rios, Lopez & Morrell, 2015; Sleeter, 2011; Tintiangco-Cubales, et al., 2014) as a means to foster critical race theory’s notion of transformational resistance (Delgado-Bernal & Solorzano, 2001) within the elementary classroom.

Methods/Sources
Using a mixed methods approach incorporating autoethnography (Chang, 2008), and portraiture (Chapman, 2007; Lawrence-Lightfoot, 2005), the study highlights data collected from August 2008 to June in 2014, and consisted of observations, artifacts and field notes from public schools in Los Angeles. The elementary classrooms were in a low-income urban community of color, comprised mostly of Latino and Black students.

Findings
Multiple portraits of ethnic studies approaches challenging classical and internal colonialism were documented within language development activities, through the use of SDAIE strategies such as art, simulation, role-play, and the use of multimedia. The use of these language strategies supported students in developing a thorough understanding of critical concepts such as colonization and exploitation, to better read past and present colonial conditions.

Significance
According to the study’s findings, implications can be made for universities, school districts, and educators. Educators have room within the language standards to enact ethnic studies pedagogy, and must be supported and trained to do so within universities and district professional development.

Author

• Carolina Valdez, California State University - Fullerton