K-12 Educators of Color Enact Multiliterate Curricula to Create Reciprocal Learning Environments for Multilingual Students

• In Event: Roots, Thorns and Shoots: Cultivating Teacher Perspectives to Reimagine Teaching for Collective Liberation

Abstract

In light of the urgent need for teacher diversity in the multilingual and multicultural contexts of the United States, this research collected insights from K-12 educators of color regarding their experiences with ethnically diverse students to illuminate various ways of knowing in language and literacy. Drawing on a multiliterate, sociocultural approach to teaching and learning for multilingual students, it demonstrates how multiliteracies can serve as a medium to empower them.
In this study, I draw on culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP; Paris & Alim, 2017) to understand the perspectives of educators of color and how their perspectives enabled them to enact multiliteracies approaches (Cope & Kalantzis, 2016) as asset-based pedagogies for diverse student groups. CSP centers and sustains the social identities of individuals from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, along with the ways of knowing and practices of historically marginalized communities.
I used the phenomenological method to collect and analyze data (Creswell, 2003). Through five individual semi-structured interviews, I explored the personal and professional experiences of K-12 educators of color, focusing on their pedagogical approaches with students. Each interview lasted between 60 and 90 minutes. This methodological approach, which enables data sources to be compared across different respondents, also allowed me to work with the educators to clarify and gain deeper insights from the initial responses of interviewees (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013).
Using interpretative phenomenological analysis to connect with the participants’ personal experiences, I listened closely to their voices and reviewed the transcripts (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. The data was analyzed using a hybrid approach. I started with deductive coding and inducted new codes based on the prominent themes within the data: (1) the identities of the participants, (2) their lived experiences, (3) teaching experiences, (4) aspirations, (5) beliefs, (6) multimodal presentations, (7) shifting power dynamics, and (8) educators’ self-reflection. These aspects served as thematic codes derived from my research questions.
Findings indicate that educators of color who bring their intersecting identities into their teaching and enact multiliteracies approaches to connect with students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds can foster their students’ agency and build reciprocal relationships.
The process of teaching students can be a transformative experience (Ladson-Billings, 1992). Through self-reflection, educators began to reimagine their classrooms as spaces for mutual learning and to humanize teaching practices. The reciprocal relationship with students contributed to the development of educators’ hybrid identities and evolving teaching philosophies.
This study highlights the essential perspectives that educators of color bring to both inside and outside the schools. Enacting multiliteracies approaches intertwines the knowledge, interests, and strengths of both educators and students. The role of a teacher transitions from being above students to collaborating with them. This method nurtures students’ identities and encourages collaboration among peers from different linguistic and cultural contexts. During a time when the field of teacher education lacks representation of teachers of color, this study advocates for an increased, diversified teaching workforce and ongoing reflection on teaching practices to align with the evolving landscape of 21st-century education.

Author

• Ying-Tung Lin, University of Texas at Austin