Multigenerational learning for expanding the educational involvement of bilinguals experiencing academic difficulties

ABSTRACT

Focusing on two bilingual children experiencing learning difficulties, I explore the scientific representations these students generate in an afterschool programme where they have opportunities to exercise agency. In the programme, children use a digital camera to document science in their lives and engage in conversations about the products they generate. Acting as agents in this context requires that these children undertake the responsibility of transforming the knowledge and practice of the afterschool community. Using cultural historical activity theory, I analyse child-generated multimodal data and conversations. Findings show that these two bilinguals acted as agents as they responded to the proposed curriculum in a process I call multigenerational learning. This process served to bring to the surface children's culturally relevant practices, allowing them to recognize science in their lives. As other students, teacher candidates and researchers in the afterschool programme engaged in analysing children's work and in conversations with them and others about the multimodal products, negotiations on what counts as science and science knowledge took place. These spaces assisted in generating a more complete “able” view of participating children. This study addresses concepts for expanding the educational involvement of emergent bilingual children perceived as potentially in need of special education services, including the importance of providing opportunities for children to negotiate family and community involvement in curricula and instruction.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual education
• parental participation
• learning difficulties
• science
• response to intervention
• multigenerational learning

Acknowledgments

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the offices of USDE, OELA.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Students who are still learning English, but have another language with which they learn and build the new language.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the Pedagogy of Social Imagination in Language Learning and Teaching (PSILLT), United States Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition, National Professional Development under the direction of Professor María E. Torres-Guzmán [grant number T365Z120187]. The PSILLT project is National Professional Development funded by the Office of English Acquisition, US Department of Education for 2012–2015 [grant number CFDA# 84.365Z].

Notes on contributors

Patricia Martínez-Álvarez

Patricia Martínez-Álvarez is an assistant professor in Bilingual/Bicultural Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr Martínez Álvarez is a former bilingual special education teacher. The unique contribution of her research lies in crafting transformative spaces for theorizing with technology in the field of disabilities as it relates to language, culture, and learning. Throughout her career, she has conducted workshops with teachers in different parts of the world. A 2013 early career award recipient from the bilingual special interest group at AERA, Patricia's work is featured in venues such as the Bilingual Research Journal, or the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.