Critical Multilingual Language Awareness: Reflections on a YPAR Program in Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how two language educators of color developed critical multilingual language awareness (CMLA) in a combined youth participatory action research and teacher education program. Specifically, as a multilingual and diverse group of educators, we chose to use Latin@/o Critical Theory (LatCrit) as our methodology to align with the epistemological framework of YPAR. By sharing the lived experiences and insights of the two educators over the course of the program, our reflexive study demonstrates how multimodal ways of meaning making supported them in challenging deficient perspectives of minoritized languages and in changing their pedagogical practices to be more equitable. By implementing YPAR programs with a clear focus on CMLA, we become aware of our own language ideologies and grow to understand the socio-political discourses that inform our interactions with youth. Implications include the significance of incorporating multimodality and participatory pedagogies into teacher education and thereby facilitating opportunities for teacher candidates to gain awareness of the power dynamics in multilingual education.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical multilingual language awareness
• multimodality
• teacher education
• testimonio
• youth participatory action research

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. In this article, we define language as both verbal and non-verbal systems of communication that use a configuration of signs and modes to make meaning for a particular audience and purpose (Harman et al., 2022).

2. We use the term Latin@ in this article because our co-author Yamileth was adamant that this term best recognized the heterogeneous identities of this group. We also use the term Latin@/o to align with established LatCrit scholarship.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shuang Fu

Shuang Fu is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on developing more equitable learning opportunities for racially, linguistically, and socioeconomically minoritized students. She specializes in critical educational policy analysis, youth participatory action research, and culturally sustaining pedagogy and examines how language education policies and language ideologies inform teachers’ pedagogies in ways that both challenge and create affordances for multicultural and multilingual education.

Ruth Harman

Ruth Harman is a professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. Over the past decade, Dr. Harman’s research, teaching and service have focused on exploring how best to support the literacy and language development of emergent bilingual learners in and out of K-12 classrooms, especially in the current climate of high stakes school reform and xenophobic discourses. Since arrival at the University of Georgia, she has published on these issues in major peer reviewed journals, edited a volume and several special issues on social equity and bilingual learners, and published a book on embodied SFL praxis with youth. She also has developed courses in three overlapping areas that relate to this focus: systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and SFL-informed genre pedagogy; youth participatory action research in multicultural teacher education and K-12 education contexts; and critical discourse analysis (CDA).

Yamileth Aubain

Yamileth Aubain is a multilingual veteran educator in Atlanta, Georgia. She has over 20 years of combined teaching and leadership experience in diverse public-school settings. Her teaching credentials include teaching ESOL, English Language Arts, and Spanish to youth and adults. Currently, she serves as the Graduation Coach and ESOL Lead at a Title 1 middle school in Atlanta. She earned a Master of Education in Urban Teacher Leadership from Georgia State University and an Educational Specialist Degree in Language and Literacy Education with a TESOL concentration from the University of Georgia.