Toward Expansive Literacies: Teachers of Multilingual Learners Using Theory to Push Boundaries and Shape Practice

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Reimagining Multilingual Education Through an Asset-Based Orientation (Table 40)

Abstract

This paper explores the potential of translanguaging theory as a transformative force, not only for teachers’ perspectives and practice, but for expanding the boundaries of literacy education. This paper asks, “how have teachers’ theory-informed critical translanguaging stances helped them navigate their teaching of multilingual learners?” We draw upon a critical translanguaging perspective that incorporates understandings of raciolinguistic and other monoglossic, prescriptivist ideologies that locate deficiency in the languaging of minoritized people. We find that teachers who take up translanguaging as a guiding theory are able to navigate and buffer ongoing turbulences, such as the introduction of restrictive literacy practices, while carving out spaces for more expansive views of literacy pedagogies.

Authors

• Kate Seltzer, Rowan University

• Laura Ascenzi-Moreno, Brooklyn College - CUNY