Brazilian Immigrant Children's Sense-Making of In/equality in Bilingual Education Classrooms in the United States

• In Event: Exploring Identity in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

Abstract

This presentation explores how Brazilian immigrant children made sense of im/material inequalities in their dual-language bilingual education classrooms (Portuguese-English) at one elementary school in the United States. This ethnographic study draws on field notes of classroom observations that center the daily practices, dialogues, and experiences of the children during instructional time in the minoritized language. Findings indicate that children’s sensemaking of inequalities occurred in the margins of their bilingual classrooms, engaged transnational social fields through comparisons of space and place, and generated funds of knowledge about complex themes, such as immigration. Findings bear implications for teacher education, highlighting the imperative of preparing DLBE classroom teachers to address issues of power and inequality with their elementary-school students.

Author

• Mariana Lima Becker, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author