Latinx Families' Experiences and Perceptions of Collaborative Project-Based Learning in Their Children's Bilingual Classroom

• In Event: 18.039 - Critically Engaged Educational Research: Leveraging Creative and Collaborative Pedagogies for Transformative Change

Abstract

Purpose
This study analyzed families’ experiences and perspectives of engaging in the creation of family biliteracy projects in a first-grade bilingual classroom. Vista Elementary (pseudonym) is in a school district with a history of restrictive language policies and tumultuous changes with regard to their bilingual programs. The study took place during the first year bilingual programs were reinstated in the district following six years of English-only instruction, and an investigation by the Office for Civil Rights for complaints of hostility and discrimination toward Spanish-speaking families, students, and staff. This was the first time children received instruction in Spanish and had the opportunity to engage in creative projects with their families as part of classroom instruction. The purpose of this study is to understand families’ perspectives and experiences as participants in the family biliteracy projects, which consisted of creating a timeline of their child’s life with significant events and a storybook based on a family experience.

Theoretical Framework
This study draws from theoretical frameworks and pedagogical approaches rooted in critical race theory (CRT) (Solórzano 1997) that intentionally disrupt deficit-oriented ideologies of Latinx families. Branches of scholarship within critical race theory and sociocultural theory, such as community cultural wealth (Yosso 2005) and funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff & González, 1992) also contributed to the analytical lens to examine families’ experiences. The centrality of experiential knowledge (Solórzano 1997) and community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) question the value placed by institutions on limited forms of knowledge and practice, excluding the lived experiences of linguistically and culturally diverse families. This study examines the perspectives of Latinx parents engaging in a form of pedagogy that challenges these deficit orientations and offers spaces for counter-narratives.

Methods and Data Sources
This was a qualitative case study that used critical ethnographic methods (Casrpecken, 1996) during the span of five months when both projects were created. Although all twenty-two first-graders and their families participated, the main data sources for this paper are parent interviews from seven focal families, selected using a funneling strategy (Erickson, 1986) that considers influencing factors and variability across cases.

Results
Preliminary results indicate that parents perceived the creative projects as a positive experience and commented that these collaborative opportunities were unusual practices at the school. Families were eager to share aspects of their lives that generally remain on the periphery of school consciousness. However, some families also experienced anxiety when beginning the projects and uncertainty surrounding if they were “doing it right”. Parents also reported they were reminded of their own schooling experiences in Mexico and the project-based learning opportunities they had as children, such as making maquetas. Parents identified the collaborative time and deep engagement they observed in their children as the most valuable aspects of the projects.

Scholarly Significance
As the field advances efforts toward creative pedagogical methods with a social justice and a humanizing orientation, the need to better understand families’ perspectives and experiences participating in these methods is of utmost importance and can greatly inform future directions.

Author

• Adriana Alvarez, University of Colorado - Denver