- Information Menu
Search Tips
Virtual Exhibit Hall
"Me he distanciado por el idioma": A case study of language (in)justice at bilingual parent meetings
Fri, May 24, 9:00 to 10:30am, TBAAbstract
Parental engagement helps to foster an educational environment where diverse students can thrive (Delgado-Gaitán, 2004), but language barriers complicate parents’ efforts to advocate for their children (Baquedano-López, et al, 2013). This presentation is based on an ethnographic study of the parent programs at a bilingual elementary school in California, where approximately half the families were middle-class English speakers, and the other half working-class Spanish speakers, primarily Mexican immigrants. Through observations of parent meetings and interviews with parents, the research sought to answer the following question: what programs and factors within programs facilitated bilingual participation (Wenger, 1998) and the construction of voice (Blommaert, 2005) for immigrant parents at the school? Results indicated that the school in many ways encouraged a climate of inclusion for diverse families (Piller & Takahashi, 2011); however, interpreting practices at English-dominant meetings (Inghilleri, 2017) tended to limit participation by Spanish-speaking parents (Wenger, 1998). To illustrate, this presentation focuses on the consistent attendance, but variable participation, of one highly active Spanish-dominant mother (pseudonym Imelda) at meetings conducted primarily in English. In offering a case study of Imelda’s experiences at parent meetings between January 2015 and April 2016, this paper shows the relationship between her (non)participation in particular meetings and the ways that interpreting was configured in these meetings (Inghilleri, 2017). The paper concludes by arguing for attention to language justice (Pérez, 2017) in interpreting services, as key to immigrant parents’ construction of voice (Blommaert, 2005) and thus full participation in their children’s education.