A Space for Us Between Stimulus and Response: Storying Choques at a Dual Language School

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Pathways to Multilingualism and Navigating Choques (Table 36)

Abstract

Dual Language educators cannot shirk difficult discussions that involve competing frames. The chaffing of small, uninterrogated incidents of perspectival dissonance–or “choques” as conceptualized by Gloria Anzaldúa (1987)--eventually leaves many educators, families, and children disillusioned with the model. For the survival and health of our community, we must make space for practitioners to dig into the often uncomfortable, messy, and painful stories that we would rather avoid. This study explores how educators at a dual language charter school in south central Pennsylvania are impacted by an ongoing professional development experience focused on collaboratively writing and processing stories of school-based conflict in a way which is action-oriented, relational, constructivist, and creative.

Author

• Elana Freedman Nashelsky, Vida Charter School