Latina Immigrant Mother Perspectives from a Parent Literacy Class at a Bilingual Dual-Langauge Elementary School

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 9:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Paso a paso early experiences with language, literacy and identity.

Abstract

While research has long documented the ways that Latine/x parents care deeply about their children’s education (Valdés, 1996), structural inequalities can impact their engagement. For example, levels of English proficiency, socioeconomic and immigration status, rising rent prices, lack of knowledge about U.S. schooling, and quickly gentrifying schools are among the factors that impact Latine/x families' participation (Chaparro, 2020). Much of the growing body of literature on dual language bilingual education (DLBE) has illuminated language-centered issues and the racialized concerns with equity, power, and access (Cervantes-Soon et al., 2017). Less scholarship examines mothers’ perspectives as parallel learners enrolled in a Mother-Based literacy class at their children’s DLBE school. This presentation, co-authored/co-presented with immigrant mothers, provides perspectives of their after-school Mother-based literacy program.

Authors

• Reena Valvani, San Leandro Unified School District

• Cati V. de los Rios, University of California - Berkeley

• Sindy Quiroa, San Leandro Unified School District

• Dinora Cibrian Soto, San Leandro Unified School District

• Kelly Anabella Tellez Ortega, San Leandro School District