Talking Back as Linguistic and Cultural Capital in a Critical Literacy Community Engagement Space

• In Event: Mothers, Families, and Communities Enacting and Rethinking Pedagogies During COVID-19 and Beyond

Abstract

If equitable education could be conceptualized as “talking back,” what might our schools look like? In this presentation, researchers interrogate what talking back looks like when elementary bi/monolingual children in a low-income community after school club participate in reading and responding to texts that encourage bilingualism. Our research seeks to uncover what “talking back” looks like when children engage in conversations about critical bilingual texts in a dialogic space. Do children use their linguistic and cultural capital? We believe that “talking back” challenges power structures and presents opportunities for liberation and empowerment. Results from multiple transcribed and analyzed data sources from six dialogic sessions show that children are empowered to “talk back” but not in their native tongue.

Authors

• Gertrude M. Tinker Sachs, Georgia State University

• Ewa McGrail, Georgia State University

• Mawusi Akwokwo Kambui Pierre, Georgia State University