Listening to Multilingual Students’ Voices in Translanguaging Formative Assessment Co-Design

• In Event: Science Education With Multilingual Learners: Toward Equity as Transformation

Abstract

Objectives. Assessment practices often require MLs to demonstrate content-area proficiency using only English-language resources (Mahoney, 2017). Within this context, science education scholars are exploring translanguaging as an equitable classroom assessment principle (Fine & Furtak, 2020; Fine et al., 2023). In this presentation, we share research on 6th grade students’ perspectives about translanguaging in science formative assessment.

Theoretical framework. We adopt a dynamic view of multilingualism and understand translanguaging as the communicative norm of multilingual communities (García & Li, 2017). Teachers can adopt translanguaging stances and pedagogies that encourage students to draw on their multilingualism and multimodality for sensemaking (García et al., 2017). This study centers student voice as important for educational research, policy, and practice (Cook-Sather, 2020). By centering student voices, we seek to ensure that transformative and dignity-confirming research, policies, and practices actually sustain MLs’ languaging practices in traditionally English-dominant schooling systems (Valdés, 2022; Vea, 2020).

Data and methods. One university researcher and two sixth-grade teachers engaged in participatory design research (Bang & Vossoughi, 2016) over 7 months to co-design, enact, reflect upon, and modify science formative assessments that explicitly welcomed translanguaging (Fine, 2022). Fifteen students were involved as ‘expert witnesses’ (Busher, 2012), giving feedback on assessment designs and suggesting improvements. Findings are based on audio transcripts from eight student focus groups (two per assessment cycle) and 105 written responses to two student questionnaires. Data were analyzed using inductive and deductive qualitative coding (Miles et al., 2020) using a constant comparative method (Glaser, 1965). Findings were triangulated with co-design meeting minutes and audio transcripts from meetings where students’ feedback was discussed.

Results. Findings suggest that middle school students have complex and nuanced feelings about translanguaging on science formative assessments. Many MLs explained that science assessments presented bilingually allowed them to clarify task directions, word meanings, and to communicate with peers about the task. Additionally, MLs described the importance of welcoming translanguaging as ‘fair.’ For example, Noah valued making Flipgrid videos multilingually ‘so the kids that speak Spanish can understand it.’ Rachel agreed: ‘For the parents and friends that don’t speak English - it would be fair for them to hear it in Spanish.’
However, not all MLs saw value in the invitation to translanguage. Some stated that, while they were bilingual, they were not biliterate. Others expressed they will always communicate in English at school because they believed ‘English will help me more.’ Additionally, Mario shared: “I feel uncomfortable speaking in my language to people that I’m not close to.” Overall, findings hint at the savviness of MLs’ understandings of the power-laden values of schooling and the result of de facto English-dominant language policies on MLs’ languaging practices. Additionally, findings point to the importance of moving this work beyond individual science teachers toward larger school systems.

Significance. This research seeks to ensure MLs’ access to grade-level science assessments (equity as access). At the same time, this research elicits students’ perspectives on translanguaging as a step toward disrupting the traditionally monolingual nature of formative science assessment (equity as transformation).

Authors

• Caitlin G. Fine, Metropolitan State University of Denver

• Melissa Braaten, University of Colorado - Boulder