Visualizing Dual Language Through the Eyes of Black Girls

• In Event: Visual Research Methods in Education: Recent Qualitative Dissertations Designed to Promote Social Justice

Abstract

While there are a variety of programmatic structures and target languages in Dual Language Education, the majority of programs have Spanish and English as their target languages. These programs have emerged as powerful platforms for maintaining heritage languages for Latinx students, accelerating bilingual development in emergent bilinguals and linguistic geniuses (Alfaro & Bartholome, 2018), and fostering biliteracy in white English speaking students. However, since inception, there has been a group that has been consistently overlooked and marginalized in the dual language space - Black students and specifically, Black girls. There is far too little research and understanding of how Black girls experience education, and almost no literature of their experiences within specialty programs such as dual language educational programming. This study explored the questions; 1) how do Black girls perceive their linguistic repertoires and multilingual experiences?, and 2) how do Black girls make sense of their dual language classroom practices?

Visual narrative inquiry was used to document how Black girls experience their dual language program and negotiate their growing linguistic repertoires. This study also utilized a participatory visual methods (Chaflen, 2020) approach as it allowed space for creation and meaning-making that could function outside of strict and set linguistic competencies. In using these methods of inquiry, participants were able to create and relay meaning through and across multiple modalities. Visual narrative inquiry was used as an integral storytelling tool, which combined photography and linguistic data. Thus, participants were able to use multiple modes to narrate their experiences in becoming multilingual individuals. To generate findings for this study, 20 Black girls currently enrolled in a Spanish-English dual language program, participated in a guided school tour as well as a multilingual photo interview where they reflected on the images they created. It was essential to use visual narrative inquiry, as this innovative methodology provided space for the complexities of becoming Black girl multilinguals, and afforded the girls to be the authors and creators of their own narratives, in whatever ways they could best tell them. Using visual narrative inquiry affords more equitable research practices which contrast the tendencies of society and traditional methodologies to limit the capacity and voice of young Black girls. By utilizing multiple data sources across multiple modes, I was able to capture more of the multifaceted intersectional nature of Black girls. It is imperative that Black girls be studied and centered in ways that allow their full selves to shine, and not be dimmed by the shortcomings of traditional methodology.

Author

• Reka C. Barton, California