Growing Critical Bilingual Literacies: Counternarratives and Social Justice in Bilingual Education (Poster 6)

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

Abstract

Objectives: Educators across the country grapple with ways to create affirming learning spaces for children and youth in the face of racial and social injustice. This case study of a third-grade dual language bilingual education (DLBE) teacher teaching in a Latinx (im)migrant community in California, highlights the ways Latinx children’s families’ (im)migration narratives are described and how their language practices are perceived. This poster examines how a focal teacher’s critical consciousness develops when applying a critical bilingual literacies (Author & Author, 2020) framework that centers emergent bilingual students’ multiple literacies and translanguaging.
Overview: This poster session examines how a third grade bilingual Latinx teacher practiced critical bilingual literacies as she observed the impact of policies and anti-immigrant rhetoric on her students. In considering ways to resist harmful narratives and create spaces for her students to process harmful narratives, the teacher planned instruction with topics that were central to the community and texts that would support the learning of those topics and affirm students’ sense of belonging–their right to stay. Moreover, she also created intentional spaces for translanguaging (García, 2009). Students were encouraged to use their entire linguistic repertoires in the reading of culturally and linguistically sustaining (Paris & Alim, 2017) children’s literature that explored topics related to immigration, belonging, and intergenerational connections.
A critical bilingual literacies framework (Author and Author, 2020) calls for 1) ongoing self-reflection, we urge educators to grow their understanding of their ideas around language and literacy practices and how these impact their pedagogical approaches; 2) unlearning racialized language hierarchies to undo harmful narratives around students’ community language practices that position “standard” English as the only acceptable way to communicate in learning spaces; 3) analyzing the relationship between language, literacies, and power to recognize the importance of seeing our language and literacy practices through the lens of power and understanding how power can limit our ability to show up as our full selves in learning spaces; and 4) celebrating students’ translanguaging that disrupts the linguistic borders (García & Solorza, 2021).
Significance: This poster session has implications for the integration of a critical bilingual literacies approach (Author & Author, 2020) with bilingual curriculum and pedagogy; the use of translingual children’s literature; teacher education programs; and teacher professional learning opportunities to develop critical consciousness. The case study teacher disrupted language hierarchies by planning culturally and linguistically sustaining (Paris & Alim, 2017) learning experiences with children’s literature, which not only helped children process their ideas on immigration and belonging, but also provided opportunities for children to use all of their linguistic repertoire to discuss, annotate, and express their own ideas on these topics. This poster session will inform how teachers examine the language demands of their curriculum, the texts they use, and the ways they support the development of students’ writer identities that include dynamic language use and critical consciousness. The study also highlights professional learning community opportunities to consider school community issues, ways to engage thought partners, and strategizing on integrating translanguaging pedagogy to support a holistic approach to education.

Authors

• Luz Yadira Herrera, California State University - Dominguez Hills
  Presenting Author

• Carla España, Brooklyn College - CUNY
  Presenting Author