Challenging Linguistic Hierarchies in Dual-Language Bilingual Classrooms: Third Graders' Inquiry Into Their Community Language Practices

• In Event: Young Learners and the Promise of Bilingualism

Abstract

This case study focuses on how the implementation of an inquiry social study unit in which third graders from a dual language bilingual school engaged as bilingual language ethnographers interrogated students’ and teachers’ ideas about the language practices in their classroom, families and communities. This unit was the result of a collaboration between the school and university researchers interested in implementing a translanguaging transformative space (Sánchez, García, & Solorza, 2018) that fosters awareness and criticality of language itself. Analysis of field notes of planning meetings and classroom activities, interviews with teachers and teachers’ written reflections, suggest that students and teachers began to interrogate the need for including different language practices in the bilingual program.

Authors

• Maria Teresa (Maite) Sanchez, Hunter College, CUNY

• Ivana Espinet, Kingsborough Community College CUNY

• Gladys Aponte, Graduate Center, City University of New York

• Ashley Busone-Rodriguez, Dos Puentes Elementary School

• Diane Figueroa, Dos Puentes Elementary School