Engaging in Culturally Sustaining Practices Through Translanguaging to Reimagine Assimilationist and Monolingual ESOL Classroom Practices

• In Event: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies Through Translanguaging Practices

Abstract

Using culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2014) and translanguaging (García & Li, 2014) as theoretical framework and pedagogical approach, this session will explore how a teacher and older adult Nepali-Bhutanese students from refugee backgrounds in ESOL classroom used translanguaging to engage in culturally sustaining classroom practices in order to re-imagine the traditional power roles between the teacher and learners, challenge the linguistic hierarchy that posits English speakers and their language practices as more powerful and prestigious than any others, and disrupt assimilationist and monolingual practices while perpetuating students’ linguistic and cultural practices.

Authors

• Koeun Park, University of Utah

• Veronica E. Valdez, University of Utah