Borders of Multilingual Family Literacy: How Clandestine Physical and Conceptual Borders Sustain Assimilatory Frameworks

• In Event: Situating Language and Literacy in the Navigation of Intersectional Identity

Abstract

This paper draws upon border theory to depict how a family literacy program in Nebraska designed for multilingual immigrant and refugee caregivers of color facilitated an interventional approach grounded in deficit ideology. Because the approach was esteemed as being strengths-based, its undergirding deficit ideologies largely went undetected. Spatial borders in the program’s layout resembled geopolitical borders. Separating children from parents to conduct “family” literacy paralleled longstanding, state-sanctioned actions to divide up families of color to impose whitestream goals. Depicting the structures that facilitated passing deficit ideology as “best” practices is a crucial step to dismantling interventionist approaches and constructing culturally sustaining family outreach models for multilingual, immigrant caregivers.

Author

• Jen Stacy, University of New Mexico