Critical Translanguaging Literacies and Latinx Children's Literature: Making Space for a Transformative and Liberating Pedagogy

• In Event: The Transformative Potential of Translanguaging Spaces for Diverse Latinx Students

Abstract

Purpose
This paper examines how Latinx children’s literature with dynamic language use creates opportunities for educators to engage in critical translanguaging literacies pedagogy. We expand the ways translanguaging is defined, focusing on translanguaging within texts and how it allows for depth of study on topics related to Latinx children’s experiences. Studying the use of translanguaging in children’s literature provides ways for understanding how authors and readers can engage with topics such as (im)migration, borders, colonial relations, documentation, family, important Latinx figures, culture, language. This analysis has implications for text selections, curriculum development, and identity formation with the implementation of critical translanguaging literacies, as educators and students develop their ability to use their entire repertoire, regardless of the language of the written text, to critically examine their histories and lives in US society.

Theoretical framework
García (2009) has argued that translanguaging reflects the ways in which bilinguals engage their linguistic repertoires. Thus, translanguaging in children’s literature can affirm our dynamic language practices and their role in our identities. Pérez Rosario (2015) argues that translanguaging is often used in Latinx literature for literary effect in order to convey authenticity in the communication between characters in a book, emphasizing that translanguaging makes it possible for speakers to break free from conforming to monolingual norms. We particularly focus on how this literature can create opportunities for educators to engage in critical pedagogical practices that sustain (Paris & Alim, 2017) Latinx bilingual students by developing their critical translanguaging literacies. These perspectives help us understand the ways that translanguaging shows up in children’s literature and informs what it can mean for educators engaging with these texts.

Methods and materials
We conducted a literary analysis of Latinx children’s literature. Specifically, we examined the ways Latinx authors translanguage in their writing and how this practice helped develop important topics impacting the Latinx community.

Substantiated conclusions and significance
This paper highlights the importance of developing Latinx children’s critical translanguaging literacies, that is, their ability to use their entire repertoire, regardless of the language of the written text, to critically examine their histories and lives in US society. We argue that to do so, it is important to have textos that portray the temas that are important, and the translanguaging that is prevalent in Latinx communities. This would then encourage teachers to develop a critical translanguaging literacies pedagogy. This reveals the importance of supporting students’ varied Latinx identities that includes Black Latinx realities and translanguaging practices. This paper has implications for the ways we resist racialized linguistic hierarchies (Flores & Rosa, 2015) as we embrace children’s translanguaging and understanding translanguaging literacies. Critical translanguaging literacies pedagogy shifts curriculum and pedagogical practices as educators: (1) explore and make connections between the stories that students read and their families’ journeys; (2) affirm students’ community language and literacy practices; (3) sustain children’s complex and dynamic language practices, identities and cultures; and (4) critique unjust social structures and racism that dehumanize language minoritized students.

Authors

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

• Carla España, Brooklyn College - CUNY
  Presenting Author