Agentive Roles and Metalinguistic Negotiations: The Linguistic Capital in Interactions between Parents and Children from Mexican Immigrant Backgrounds

ABSTRACT

This qualitative case study examined the interactions between four Mexican parents from immigrant backgrounds and their children during the process of creating two biliteracy family projects that centered on their experiential knowledge. Informed by a theoretical lens of sociocultural linguistics and community cultural wealth, this study examined the kinds of linguistic capital in parent-child interactions that present a contrastive micro analysis within the macro context of a school district with a history of linguistic oppression and discrimination. The main data sources were the recorded interactions between parents and children that took place in their homes and classroom workshops. Findings demonstrate the ways that children’s agentive roles were produced through discursive patterns, and how parents and children engaged in metalinguistic negotiations and co-constructions from oral to written descriptions that followed a gradual increase in complexity. Findings revealed how these linguistic resources supported children’s learning, literacy and identities, a dire contradiction to the oppressive and racist structures and policies in the school district.

KEYWORDS:

• Community cultural wealth
• critical race theory
• emergent bilingual students
• families from immigrant backgrounds

Acknowledgment

My deepest gratitude to the children and families who participated in this study, and to my mentors and reviewers for their valuable feedback and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. All names are pseudonyms.

2. Full citation would violate IRB protocol.

3. Posada songs are traditional verses that are sung as part of the Mexican Christmas celebration of a Posada, which reenacts the pilgrimage of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.

4. Full citation would violate IRB protocol.

5. Full citation would violate IRB protocol.

6. Full citation would violate IRB protocol.

7. Llorona is a Mexican folktale female character said to weep for the loss of her children.

8. El Rey is a well-known ranchero song in Mexican culture.

9. Paje is a word to describe children participating in a wedding ceremony, similar to flower girl or ring bearer.