Latinx Siblings Reconfiguring Raciolinguicized and Spatialized Family-School Relations

• In Event: Spatial Justice and Educational Geographies of (In)Opportunity

Abstract

Purpose
U.S. schools are places where knowledge forms and ways of being are often imposed upon their members to uphold hegemonic whiteness (Leonardo & Zembylas, 2013). Still, racially minoritized families strategically resist their subjugation in schools as they support their children’s education. Notably, there are continuous calls (see Rodela & Bertrand, 2021) to center the perspectives of children within efforts to cultivate justice-centered and heterogeneous family-school relations. As such, this presentation focuses on how Latinx siblings contest oppressive, spatialized family-school relations. It showcases how siblings’ relations and experiences present liberatory possibilities of what relationships with families can be in schools.

Conceptual Framework
This paper is informed by raciolinguistic landscapes (Fallas-Escobar & Deroo, 2023) and funds of knowledge (Moll et al. 1992). Raciolinguistic landscapes highlight the relationship between language, race, and space/place and how sites/locales uphold white supremacy. With regard to family-school relations, it showcases how language, race, and space/place influence families’ access to rights and belonging in schools. In relation, Moll et al. 1992 argue that racially minoritized families leverage historicized, heritage knowledge traditions to navigate and resist matrices of oppression. As such, this paper notes how race and space/place operate through language and how this relates to Latinx siblings’ refusals to deficit-based and oppressive relations and material allocations in schools.

Methods
This presentation draws from a three-year ethnographic study of a bilingual program, a dual language bilingual program, in the Greater Boston Area. Focal informants are ten children, five sibling pairs. Data generation consisted of semi-structured interviews, artifacts, and observations. Data analysis was informed by Luttrell’s (2010) three-step analytical process. The first and second readings consisted of looking for recurring “images, words, phrases followed by coherence among the stories” that arose from siblings’ experiences (Luttrell, 2010, p. 262). The third reading considered patterns across the data and engaged in coding derived from the conceptual framework.

Findings
Despite the institution of schooling’s efforts to regulate children’s knowledges and interactions, the focal siblings reconfigured and critiqued the purposes of spaces within the school as forms of survival. For instance, two sibling pairs met in areas that were not designated for family engagement-related initiatives. One pair met outside of the school bathroom while the other pair met in the nurse’s office. In these interactions, the siblings took care of each other’s wellbeing, reflected on their learning, and asked for advice regarding teacher and student interactions. Across these interactions, focal siblings communicated with each other beyond standardized forms of English and Spanish to integrate language varieties connected to their families’ heritage traditions. Leveraging their dynamic language use, the focal siblings critiqued initiatives from official family-school groups and noted the exclusion of children/youth within these efforts.

Significance
This presentation attends to the 2024 conference theme by showcasing how Latinx siblings’ spatialized relations demonstrate the importance of leveraging the understandings and interactions of children to reconfigure schooling and learning. These children exemplify the necessity of drawing on fugitive relations already occurring in schools as foundations for liberation and self-determination.

Author

• Jasmine Alvarado, Brandeis University