Bridging Multilingual Families and Schools: Cultural Brokering as Social Justice Leadership Practice

• In Event: Supporting Immigrant and Multilingual Families

Abstract

This qualitative case study examines the role of multilingual counseling assistants (MCAs) in two large, diverse public schools. We use an integrated framework of cultural brokering, community cultural wealth and distributed and social justice leadership to position brokering work as social justice leadership practice. Our paper draws from a larger study of multilingual family engagement with two urban District schools; The primary data are transcripts of face-to face interviews with three MCAs from the Spanish speaking and Burmese school communities. Four themes emerged on the nature of MCAs’ bridging: families-to-schools; schools-to-families; families-and-community; and across families of different linguistic backgrounds. Our work expands social justice leadership practices to include the work of MCAs in establishing, cultivating, and facilitating family-school partnerships.

Authors

• Kristine Lewis Grant, Drexel University

• Vera J. Lee, Drexel University

• Barbara Hoekje, Drexel University