promoting bilingualism and multiculturalism through powerful learning communities sonia nieto

Promoting Bilingualism and Multiculturalism

Through Powerful Learning Communities

Sonia Nieto

Loyola Marymount University

February 2009

Framework for understanding quality educationfor linguistic minority students

Sociopoliticalcontext of schools

and society(institutional/ ideological)

Comprehensiveschool reform

(collective)

Personal values and commitments

(individual)

Sociopolitical context [who has power? How it is used?

Who benefits? Who loses?]• Societal level:

– Who counts?• Who has access to education? health care? employment? housing?• Who can speak their native language in the community? at work?

– What counts?• Whose language is “standard”?• Whose lifestyle is “normal”?

• School level:– How do school policies and practices benefit some students over

others? (curriculum, pedagogy, disciplinary policies, hiring practices, parent outreach, etc.)

– Ex, Curriculum: Whose knowledge counts?• What knowledge does the curriculum reflect?• Whose perspective is represented?• Who benefits? Who loses?

Access Equity

Quality EDUCATION for linguistic minority students =

Asking “profoundly multicultural questions”

• Who’s taking calculus? physics? Are there enough labs for all students?

• Is the bilingual (ESL, ELL, or special education) program in the basement? (hall closet?under the stairway? next to the boiler?)

• What are our children worth?• Who’s teaching the children?

Asking “profoundly multicultural questions”:

Seven Basic Characteristics of Multicultural Education

• Anti-racist/anti-bias education

• Basic education• Important for all

students/people• Pervasive

• A process• Education for

social justice• Critical

pedagogy

Anti-racist, anti-bias education

Inclusive of biases other than racial (gender,language, social class, sexual orientation, etc.)

Not simply celebratory

Doesn’t automatically “take care” of racism

Anti-racist, anti-bias education

Pays attention to how some students benefit over othersin school policies and practices

Welcomes “dangerous discourse”

Teaches young people skills in combating bias

Confronts racism and other biases directly through content, approaches, and pedagogy:

Basic Education

• As necessary as reading, writing, arithmetic, and computer literacy

• Part of the core curriculum• A more representative, more truthful canon• Preparation for living in an increasingly

diverse, complex, and interconnected world

Important for all students

• Not just for “urban,” “minority,” “at risk,” “disadvantaged” students

• All students have been miseducated, although in different ways

Pervasive

o Not a specific subject matter, unit, class, or teachero Not just ethnic tidbits, holidays, festivals, or fairs

A philosophy; a way of thinking about the world

Pervasive: Permeates everything

o Curriculumo Pedagogical

approacheso Sorting practiceso Staff diversityo Reading materialso School traditions and

rituals

o Assembly programso Letters sent homeo Bulletin boardso Outreach to homes and

community at largeo Athletic programso Cafeteria food

Education for social justice

o Recognizes the injustice and inequality in the world

o Prepares students to be citizens in a multicultural and democratic society

o Focuses on the role that students and teachers can play in turning injustice into justice

o Puts learning into action o Is democracy at its best:

messy, complicated, and sometimes full of conflict

A Process

• Beyond curriculum and materials, textbooks and units• Dynamic, ongoing, ever-changing

• Involves intangibleso Relationshipso Communicationo Learning preferences

Critical pedagogy

o Recognizes that knowledge is neither neutral nor apolitical and that every educational decision is a political decision

o Teaches students to question, explore, and critique

o Helps teachers and students understand different perspectives

o Helps students and teachers move beyond their partial (and therefore) limited experiences

o Not about “political correctness,” but about affirmation and respect for all students of all backgrounds

promoting bilingualism and multiculturalism

• Teaching as solidarity• Teaching as advocacy• Teaching as sociocultural

mediation • Teaching as political work

Teaching as Solidarity

Mary Cowhey

At my undergraduate college, I was in the majority. That was mostly who was in the program: White women who were native speakers of English. But in the BEM Summer Program, out of 30 students, there were a handful of native English speakers…

Coming out of the closet as a Spanish speakerIn my work, I often act as a bridge between different cultures. Part of my evolution as a teacher has been in self defense: I have learned to make my life easier by making life easier for my students; but another, greater part of my experience has

been a deep curiosity and yearning to understand the lives of my students. In my struggle to understand, I have learned not only a great deal about my students, but also about myself…

Teaching as Solidarity Bill Dunn

Teaching as AdvocacyAmbrizeth lima

Teaching is about power. That is why it must also be about social justice.

I teach because I believe that young people have rights, including the right to their identities and their languages… This has meant that I’ve had to engage in many struggles to retain bilingual education {a right that was eradicated in 2002 when the voters of Massachusetts supported the elimination of bilingual education through a ballot initiative)…

Teaching as Sociocultural mediation

Mary Ginley

I'm a White, middle-class woman who grew up in a White, middle-class neighborhood and went to a White middle-class college. I know if I was really going to teach today’s kids, I had a lot to learn…

Teaching as Political work

Diana Caballero:

When I started teaching over 35 years ago in a second grade classroom of a New York City public school, I was motivated by a passionate belief in equality and social change. My commitment to educational change stemmed from my personal background as a working-class Puerto Rican growing up in the South Bronx in the 1950s.

“Teaching is always political” (Paulo Freire)

LESSONS LEARNEDFrom these teachers and from other research

• Diversity is a resource, not a problem• Students with previous schooling need more than language

instruction• Students do not need to be separated from same-language

peers to develop English language skills• Parents and community members need to be welcomed and

involved in the education of their children• Teachers need to confront their unexamined assumptions to

understand how racism and other biases operate in schools and influence both their teaching and their students’ learning

• Teachers can - and should - have high academic standards while at the same time affirming students’ identities

• Students are often our best teachers

Learning from students

Only as learners recognize themselves democratically and see that their right to say “I be” is respected, will they become able to learn the dominant grammatical reasons why they should say “I am.”

Paulo Freire, Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare Teach, 1998