Representations of Multilingualism in Science of Reading–Aligned Professional Development: A Critical Content Analysis of LETRS

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 4:20 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Ways to Support the Literacy Development of Multilingual Learners (Table 1)

Abstract

Proponents of the Science of Reading (SOR) assert that SOR will address the reading needs of multilingual learners of color (Burk & Hasbrouck, 2023). Conversely, several scholars have claimed that the SOR excludes entire strands of research that have been conducted to determine how to support multilingual learners of color (Goodwin & Jimenez, 2021). By leveraging critical content analysis (Huber et al, 2020) this paper enters the tension between SOR and asset-based multilingual pedagogies, considering how one program, LETRS, frames multilingual learners and multilingualism. Drawing upon culturally sustaining translanguaging pedagogy (Garcia & Kleifgen, 2020; Paris 2012), the author determines that LETRS, widely backed by SOR advocates, discusses multilingualism in ways that are incompatible with culturally, linguistically pedagogies for racialized multilingual learners.

Author

• Laurie Elisabet Hahn Ganser, University of Minnesota