Roosters, Rivalries, and Relational Bonds: Translingual Children’s Stories as Intergenerational Gifts to Multilingual Children

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Sunday 11:45 am
  In Poster Session: Constructing Early Childhood Education: Ideologies, Influences, and Discourses

Abstract

This proposal presents La Casa de los Cuentos, a five-week translingual children's bookmaking project designed to affirm multilingual language practices, emotions, and belonging in the U.S-Mexico La Frontera region. Nineteen Latinx early childhood preservice teachers co-authored original books alongside elders and caregivers. The project rejects bilingual books that treat language as translation, instead creating stories that reflect how children live language. Centering children’s relational literacies (García & Wei, 2014; Murillo, 2024), the project responds to CPECE’s call by affirming family-rooted language practices and reclaiming multilingual childhoods. This paper offers implications for early literacy, teacher learning, and creating educational spaces that truly honor children’s languages and lives. This project directly responds to the CPECE SIG’s call for justice-rooted early childhood work.

Authors

• Youmna Deiri, Texas A&M International University

• Ximena Vidal, Texas A&M International University