Critically Conscious Family Engagement in a Virtual Dual-Language Kindergarten Class During a Pandemic (Poster 3)

• In Event: Case Studies of Critically Conscious Practice in Dual-Language Bilingual Education Schools, Classrooms, and Communities

Abstract

Objective
This presentation highlights how a kindergarten teacher in an urban dual language bilingual education (DLBE) program in Arizona incorporated family relationships and cultural practices to support children’s learning through online schooling during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nellie (pseudonym), a veteran teacher with deep roots in her community, navigated the sudden challenge of teaching online by partnering with the families and centering her pedagogy on their knowledge and experiences.
Theoretical Framework
Our analysis of Nellie’s instruction was guided by the notion of critically conscious pedagogy to examine how DLBE can promote sociopolitical consciousness while supporting cultural competence, bilingualism/biliteracy, and academic achievement (Cervantes-Soon et al., 2017; Freire, J., 2020; Author & Redacted, 2018). A ‘critically conscious dual-language teacher’ continuously reflects on their practices and beliefs about racially and linguistically minoritized children and families and re-examines how they might mirror and perpetuate deficit-oriented narratives (Alfaro, 2019). Such a teacher builds on their critical reflection to empower children and families as agents of educational and social change (Authors, 2019).
Methods
The study took place in a Spanish-English DLBE kindergarten classroom at a Title I K-8 urban public school in Arizona, United States that enrolls 90% Latinx students. Nellie was the designated English teacher. This case study utilizes critical ethnography (Madison, 2020), a qualitative research approach that focuses on participants’ viewpoints and experiences to interrogate inequities experienced by minoritized communities to foster social change (Author & Redacted, 2015). We analyzed the data using Saldaña’s (2015) two-cycle coding scheme.
Findings
As we observed Nellie in her virtual classroom during the 2020-21 year, we were struck by the powerful ways she centered connections with families as they adjusted to the constant changes imposed by the pandemic. Nellie’s critically conscious pedagogy involved viewing families as experts, positioning parents and caregivers as “co-teachers,” centering their lived experiences through multilingual family storytelling, and modeling the importance of community for children in early childhood education. These practices were rooted in her strong convictions about the essential role of families in children’s education. Nellie’s pedagogy also displayed consciousness of socioeconomic realities shaping the lives of racially and linguistically minoritized families, particularly during the pandemic.
Nellie’s critically conscious pedagogy also included critical listening and acompañamiento (Author & Redacted, 2021b; Nancy, 2007), founded in her caring approach toward families. Informed by these ideas, we define ‘critically conscious family engagement’ as a method of actively engaging racially and linguistically minoritized families as equitable partners and integrating their cultural and linguistic heritage as assets for building children’s critical consciousness. In doing so, critically conscious family engagement challenges dominant deficit narratives about minoritized groups and refutes conventional modes of family involvement.
Significance
Nellie’s case demonstrates a radical sense of criticality and loving solidarity with her community. Her critical consciousness is reflected in her equitable and transformative family and community engagement, present in her beliefs and practices. Nellie’s pedagogy guided us to interrogate the truth about the central, yet misunderstood, role families, particularly the racialized and minoritized, can play in children’s education.

Authors

• Yalda M. Kaveh, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Cory Alan Buckband, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author