Enacting Translanguaging Pedagogy through Informal Family Research: Preparing Elementary Preservice Teachers for Linguistic Justice with Refugee and Immigrant Children
Abstract
Teacher education needs to prepare preservice teachers (PSTs) to develop linguistic justice and support the multilingual needs of all students. This article describes a qualitative study in which PSTs enacted an informal multilingual family research project to implement translanguaging pedagogy, creating learning experiences where students can validate their identities through learning in their home languages. Translanguaging remains a challenge for PSTs who have been trained in monolingual instructional norms. In this study, PSTs took on the roles of both researchers and teachers in a literacy methods course: observing immigrant families in an informal setting (a children’s museum), reflecting on language use in home and community contexts, and designing lesson plans that incorporated translanguaging approaches. The study drew on field notes, reflective essays, and lesson plans to explore two questions: (1) How does engaging in a multilingual family research project shape PSTs’ understanding of translanguaging pedagogy and their views of home language and cultural practices as learning assets? (2) How do PSTs apply translanguaging strategies in lesson planning after participating in multilingual family research? Findings showed the study facilitated PSTs to perceive translanguaging as a pedagogical stance and see home languages as legitimate resources for learning. However, some PSTs still struggled to reconceptualize home languages as anything more than a support mechanism in instruction. The study provides evidence that raciolinguistic ideologies must be challenged within teacher education, and that PSTs must be supported to maintain translanguaging practices to advance educational equity for refugee and immigrant children.
Downloads
References
Baker-Bell, A. (2020). Linguistic justice: Black language, literacy, identity, and pedagogy. Routledge.
Banegas, D. L., Budzenski, M., & Yang, F. (2024). Enhancing pre-service teachers’ projective agency for diverse and multilingual classrooms through a course on curriculum development. International Multilingual Research Journal, 18(3), 274-289
Beauchemin, F., Shen, Y., & Zhang, G. (2024). Exploring teacher candidates’ discursive shifts in translanguaging pedagogies during literacy instruction. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 24(3), 578-604.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
Burton, J., Wong, W., & Rajendram, S. (2024). Translanguaging for critical multilingual language awareness: Preparing teacher candidates to support multilingual learners in classrooms. International Multilingual Research Journal, 18(3), 208–231.
Capstick, T. (2019). Language learning as psycho-social support: Translanguaging space as safe space in superdiverse refugee settings. Applied Linguistics Review, 11(4), 701–726.
Capstick, T., & Ateek, M. (2021). Translanguaging spaces as safe space for psycho-social support in refugee settings in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Journal of Multilingual and multicultural development, 45(2), p. 459-474
Cárdenas Curiel, L., Ojha, M., & Zang, L. (2024). “The best way to get to know a student is to know their community”: Fostering pre-service teachers’ critical multilingual language awareness through linguistic community walks. International Multilingual Research Journal, 18(3), 232–253.
Choi, M. S. (2022). A sojourning multilingual family’sense-making in a science museum: A repertoire approach, Linguistics and Education, 72,101025.
Choi, M. S. (2024). Translanguaging space through pointing gestures: Multilingual family literacy at a science museum. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 24(2), 245–267.
CUNY–New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals. (2021). Translanguaging and transformative teaching for emergent bilingual students: Lessons from the CUNY-NYSIEB Project. Routledge.
da Silva Iddings, A. C. (2016). Re-designing teacher education for culturally and linguistically diverse children. Routledge.
de Araujo, Z., Roberts, S. A., Willey, C., & Zahner, W. (2018). English learners in K–12 mathematics education: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 88(6), 879–919.
Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 149–171.
Frank, C. (1999). Ethnographic eyes: A teacher’s guide to classroom observation. Heinemann.
Galante, A., & Dela Cruz, J. (2024). The fall of bilingualism: Teacher candidates’ voices on the implementation of critical plurilingualism in English language teaching. International Multilingual Research Journal, 18(3), 254–273.
García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Wiley-Blackwell.
García, O., Flores, N., Seltzer, K., Wei, L., Otheguy, R., & Rosa, J. (2021). Rejecting abyssal thinking in the language and education of racialized bilinguals: A manifesto. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 18(3), 203–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2021.1935957
García, O., Johnson, S. I., Seltzer, K., & Valdés, G. (2017). The translanguaging classroom: Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Caslon.
García, O., & Kleyn, T. (2016). Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments. Routledge.
García, O., & Leiva, C. (2014). Theorizing and enacting translanguaging for social justice. In A. Blackledge, & A. Creese (Eds.), Heteroglossia as Practice and Pedagogy. Educational Linguistics (Vol. 20, pp. 199-216). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7856-6_11
García, O., & Li W. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Palgrave Macmillan.
González, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Routledge.
Helm, F., & Dabré, T. (2018). Engineering a ‘contact zone’ through translanguaging. Language and Intercultural Communication, 18(4), 418–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2017.1400509
Herrera, L. Y. (2023). Translanguaging in teacher education: Engaging preservice teachers in culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies. Language and Education, 37(5), 610–623.
Hornberger, N. H. (1989). Continua of biliteracy. Review of Educational Research, 59(3), 271-296.
Kwon, J. (2022). Parent–child translanguaging among transnational immigrant families in museums. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25(2), 436-451.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465-491.
Li W. (2011). Moment analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(5), 1222–1235.
Li W. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 9–30.
Lucas, T., & Villegas, A. M. (2013). Preparing linguistically responsive teachers: Laying the foundation in preservice teacher education. Theory into Practice, 52(2), 98–109.
Machado-Casas, M. (2012). Pedagogías del camaleón/Chameleon pedagogies: Identity and strategies of survival for transnational indigenous Latino immigrants in the US South. The Urban Review, 44(5), 534–550.
Mahalingappa, L. J. (2024). Development of linguistic critical consciousness of multilingual preservice teachers of color. International Multilingual Research Journal, 18(3), 290-308.
Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & González, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132–141.
Ojha, L., Burton, J., & De Costa, P. (2024). Critical teacher education for equitable learning in multilingual classrooms: A possible way forward. International Multilingual Research Journal, 18(3), 197–207.
Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press.
Rosa, J., & Flores, N. (2017). Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective. Language in Society, 46(5), 621–647.
Seltzer, K. (2022). Enacting a critical translingual approach in teacher preparation: Disrupting oppressive language ideologies and fostering the personal, political, and pedagogical stances of preservice teachers of English. TESOL Journal, 13(2), e649. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.649
Song, K. (2016). “Okay, I will say in Korean and then in American”: Translanguaging practices in bilingual homes. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 16(1), 84–106.
Stillman, J., & Palmer, D. (2024). Teacher educators’ critical language awareness: building toward transformation in critically conscious teacher education. International Multilingual Research Journal, 18(3), 317–326.
