Half-Baked: Successes and Challenges in Implementing Translanguaging in a High School Science Project

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 1:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Language as Power for Breaking Barriers in Science: Translanguaging and Multilingual Strategies (Table 12)

Abstract

This case study investigated the benefits and challenges of translanguaging practices for beginner emergent bilingual (EB) students in an extra-curricular science project at a Midwest urban high school in the United States. Our findings indicate that as a direct effort to remedy the harm and trauma that was done previously by the dominant monolingual policies, translanguaging supports linguistically diverse students’ academic and social needs and creates a more equitable science curriculum and diverse educational opportunities. Despite the challenges, translanguaging significantly improved students’ science learning experiences. It served as a practice of resistance and a critique of English-only contexts. The implication of this research suggests that translanguaging should be more widely and consistently adopted to support EB students in content learning.

Authors

• Jiahong Wang, University of Kansas

• Josh Hayes, University of Kansas