Countering Gentrification Through Critical Consciousness: Illustrative Cases for Dual Language Bilingual Education

• In Event: Overcoming the Gentrification of Dual Language Bilingual Education Programs

Abstract

Objectives & Theoretical Framework
Framing critical consciousness (Freire, 2000) as a fundamental goal and foundation for Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) offers hope for countering both literal and metaphorical gentrification. We will describe four primary actions of praxis for critical consciousness: historicizing, interrogating power, critically listening, and engaging with discomfort, and three related actions: translanguaging, affirming identities, and acompañamiento (Authors, forthcoming). Rather than report empirical research, this presentation shares four case narratives to illustrate how these actions function to transform K-12 practice and counter gentrification. Finally, we’ll discuss resources to support educators infusing critical consciousness in DLBE.

Freire (2000) puts critical consciousness at the core of emancipatory education. He centers learners’ experiences and knowledge as essential to “read the world,” and positions educators as co-learners in the process of dialogue. Critical consciousness is frequently conceived as a process for oppressed groups to liberate themselves. However, gentrification in DLBE creates a unique context that necessitates stakeholders from all groups, and perhaps most importantly from privileged groups, engage in actions toward critical consciousness.

Methods
To illustrate these actions, we present four examples of educators working deliberately to engage in praxis to counter both literal and metaphorical gentrification. Each case was composed by researchers working as critical ethnographers in DLBE schools.

Results/Findings
A New York City first grade teacher and her principal - and eventually her entire school - defend a unit on immigration against a white parent’s challenges. We learn that (1) leadership matters, and (2) praxis is collective (López & Kleyn, 2023).

A Hispanic school leader in the Southwest leverages several actions toward critical consciousness, demonstrating the potential of critically conscious leadership to gain community trust and support transformation (DeMatthews & Olana, 2023).

A fifth grade teacher in a rapidly gentrifying school in Texas acompaña Latinx students and families by centering their epistemologies in her pedagogy and curriculum. She designs a lesson on procedural texts with three madres/experts around tamale making (Author & Redacted, 2023).

In a school-based professional development session, teachers in a Title I DLBE school in a wealthy mountain college town read the words of their own fifth grade Latinx students, collected by university students as part of a university partnership. Teachers critically listen as their students interrogate power; they experience discomfort recognizing their kids’ experiences are not always positive (Author & Redacted, 2022).

Scholarly Significance
Critical consciousness in schools is not a product; it is a process, always incomplete. It is messy, complex, recursive, imperfect. Three cross-cutting ideas emerge from these cases: go beyond language, beyond the classroom, and beyond the individual.
To go beyond language: Embrace creative ways of speaking and being. Both lessons in the classroom and policies/practices that support them must reflect the cultural, racial, and linguistic diversity of the school community and beyond.

To go beyond the classroom: Leadership, policies, community dynamics and demographics all matter. Take a broad view to consider the actions needed to build a beloved community that centers justice.
To go beyond the individual: Organize, network, build a shared vision, take collective action.

Authors

• Deborah K. Palmer, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Lisa M. Dorner, University of Missouri

• Emily R. Crawford-Rossi, University of Missouri

• Dan Heiman, University of Texas - El Paso