Working Toward Biliteracy Family Night: Involving Latino Families in Academic Events?

• In Event: Supporting Immigrant and Multilingual Families

Abstract

As part of a National Professional Development grant entitled Strengthening Equity and Effectiveness for Teachers of English Learners, Tunis school district hosted a biliteracy family engagement event where Latino parents and children read books together in Spanish and English. This presentation describes the event through participants’ narratives gathered from semi-structured parent interviews. One questioned guided the investigation, “How did teachers and families perceive their transformation when they plan, implement, and assess immigrant family engagement activities collaboratively?” Combined with the interview data, teacher reflections and surveys completed by attendees were also gathered. Through qualitative analysis three findings emerged: situated identities; language ideologies; and teacher intentionality. In this presentation, we discuss our findings and implications for immigrant family engagement.

Authors

• Gregory Scott Child, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Kim Hyunsook Song, University of Missouri - St. Louis