Linguistic Belonging and Dialogic Pedagogy in Two Elementary Classrooms

• In Event: 15.061 - MTCC Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: 15.061-10 - Language Socialization and Belonging: Fostering Pedagogies That Support Multilingual Learners and Speakers of Nondominant Varieties

Abstract

Our education system currently faces a crisis in which students who speak nondominant varieties at home—such as African American English, and countless varieties of languages that are not English—cannot succeed in school in the United States. Linguistic belonging: the degree to which one sees oneself as valued, included, and recognized based on interactions with peers and teachers about one’s language—is vitally important for students who speak nondominant varieties. As such, we must find pedagogies that enhance student linguistic belonging. This study examines dialogic pedagogy, which privileges students’ sense-making in textual discussion, in relationship to students’ linguistic belonging in two elementary classrooms. The findings suggest that dialogic pedagogy is associated with increased linguistic belonging.

Author

• Lisel Alice Murdock-Perriera, Stanford University