Latina Bilingual Paraeducators and Their Participation Advocacy for Emergent Bi/Multilingual Youth (Poster 27)

• In Event: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research
  In Invited Poster Session: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research Poster Session

Abstract

This poster presents findings from a one-year ethnographic study in mainstream English-medium secondary school classrooms. Data analysis is focused on the ways Latina bilingual paraeducators mediate classroom participation in support of immigrant, newcomer, and Latiné/x emergent bi/multilingual students. Grounded in sociocultural theoretical approaches and using classroom discourse analysis, findings highlight paraeducators engaged in providing reassurance, facilitated entry into all-classroom dialogue, and employed language rehearsal and consecutive language interpretations. In response to students’ diverse ways of participating, Latina bilingual paraeducators serve as consequential sociocultural mediators for students. The language and literacy practices, and advocacy work, of bilingual paraeducators have the potential to contribute to humanizing, dignifying learning spaces for linguistically and culturally diverse students.

Author

• Elizabeth Castro, Central Washington University