Engaging Young Bilingual Children in Conversations About Poverty and Wealth: A Case Study

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Thirteen
  In Roundtable Session: Words Are Like: Language and Literacy at the Intersection in K–12 Settings (Table 11)

Abstract

This interdisciplinary study explores the intersections of economic equality, bilingual discussion, and early literacy instruction by examining Korean kindergarteners’ discussions about poverty and wealth during read-alouds. As part of a larger qualitative study, the current study was situated in a kindergarten classroom at the Korean Language School (KLS) in a Western city in the U.S. located in the Pacific Ocean. The data were collected for four months through multiple sources including audio/video recordings, open-ended interviews, children’s artifacts, and observational field notes. The finding suggests the potential of bilingual discussions about children’s books poverty and human equality in early childhood classrooms as medium to help children to develop critical perspectives about poverty, wealth, and economic equality from an early age.

Author

• So Jung Kim, University of Texas - El Paso
  Presenting Author