Elevating Educators' Local Knowledge and Expertise of Raciolinguistics and Educational Equity Through Collaborative Action Research (Poster 4)

• In Event: Advancing Raciolinguistic Equity for Emergent Bilinguals While Cultivating Grassroots Knowledge and Expertise

Abstract

Individuals, groups, and social networks learn by reflecting critically about their actions. Through collaboration and action, teams of bilingual educators provide the groundwork for the construction of a school culture grounded on disciplined inquiry deeply informed by evidence in biliteracy and multilingualism. In order to address educational inequities and gain an understanding of raciolinguistics this study examined the local knowledge and expertise of seven teams of bilingual education practitioners at the grass roots who are focused on collaborative action research (CAR) -social action in dialogue with their diverse communities of students, families, and colleagues. As collaborators the study’s participants emerged from their isolated locations and came together to understand, explain, and advocate for social action based on research evidence grounded in their local knowledge and expertise of raciolinguistics and educational equity. Their collaborative action research methods were determined by the questions raised and were not pre-determined. Findings included that often times the data used in the CAR was reclaimed by marginalized and mainstream language communities or collected from sources that had been invisible to dominant linguistic groups.

Through this collaborative action research any mix of teachers, graduate researchers, academics, policymakers, parents, preservice teachers, and students come together with the purpose of considering how utilize research evidence to support emergent bilinguals in their diverse schools and communities. Through their collective endeavors they build local capacity and drive the social action that reclaims the purpose of shared bilingual practices and thus resist standardized measures that prioritize a homogeneous social and political climate promoted from the top-down. They provide the ground up leadership in describing the challenges and determining who will benefit from their collaborative action research and inquiry-oriented teaching stance and raciolinguistic understanding.

Author

• Lyn Scott, California State University - East Bay
  Presenting Author