Multilingual Engineering Learning Ecologies: Borderland Translanguaging Espacios in Dual Language

• In Event: Equity and Social Justice in Science and Engineering Education in Bilingual and Dual-Language Education

Abstract

In line with this symposium proposal, this paper focuses on Latiné students classified as English Learners (ELs), for whom systemic oppression includes, but is not limited to, language issues. Due to an overemphasis on learning English, Latiné ELs may not get opportunities to engage in meaningful S&E learning activities. They may also be positioned as lacking motivation or cognitive skills to engage in those activities (Authors, 2018). The National Academies (2021) recommends framing S&E “as part of justice movements” (p. 2) to confront systemic oppression. However, critiques of current standards-based reforms in S&E education (Rodriguez, 2015) contend that they are built on a foundation of neoliberal discourses (Hoeg & Bencze, 2017).
In this paper, our purpose is to explore the discourses that frame how Latiné ELs and their teachers make sense of engineering design practices. The setting for this study is a US-Mexico border school with a dual language bilingual education (DLBE) program, which adopted engineering design kits allowing a majority of Latiné students, including a significant number of ELs, to engage in meaningful S&E learning experiences.
In order to answer our research question, “What discourses frame engagement in and sensemaking of engineering practices among Latiné ELs?”, we draw on a sociocultural theoretical framework (Street, 1984), and translanguaging theory (García & Li Wei, 2014). Here, we employ a critical discourse analytical lens (Fairclough, 2013) to analyze instances of classroom discourse in which participants make sense of engineering activity.
This two-year (2016-18), ethnographic study was conducted at Ramos Elementary located in a semi-rural district minutes away from the international border. Fourth-grade teachers (N=3) and their students (N=66) participated. We collected various data: detailed field notes from observation during engineering kit use, photos, audio and video recordings, and teacher interviews. We conducted initial and focused coding (Charmaz, 2014). Next, we developed theoretical categories that emerged from recurring themes within literacy practices observed.
We found a range of discourses framing engagement in engineering design practices. Teachers framed activities drawing on the discourses of competitiveness, e.g., teachers framed the activities as a competition to find the “best design” to beat out the other teams, following suggestions in curriculum materials. However, teachers also framed the activities by explicitly making connections between a unit on earthquake-safe buildings to the 7.1 temblor that struck central Mexico in 2017. In the aftermath, Mexican media reports revealed how economic disparities impacted access to safe living conditions (Villanueva Gutiérrez, 2020). The teacher asked students to reflect on how their designs could keep people safe.
This paper is significant in its connection to current debates on equity and social justice in S&E education, in particular for Latiné students classified as ELs. Our findings suggest that, beyond issues of language, Latiné ELs and their teachers are subject to neoliberal discourses embedded in standards reforms. In addition, engineering design activities can be meaningful in the context of other social justice movements, such as the demands for justice circulating in the aftermath of the Mexico earthquake.

Authors

• Alberto Esquinca, San Diego State University
  Presenting Author

• Maria Teresa de la Piedra, The University of Texas - El Paso
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lidia Herrera-Rocha, University of Texas - El Paso
  Non-Presenting Author