Session Information
07 SES 15 D, Who Gets Heard? Family Knowledge, School Authority, and Student Attitudes in Multilingual Settings. Evidence from the U.S., Austria, and Germany
Symposium
Contribution
This qualitative study examines how in-service bilingual teachers reconceptualize “parental involvement” when they engage directly with Latine families’ multiliteracies in and beyond the home. Grounded in Funds of Knowledge (Moll et al., 1992), multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996; Kalantzis et al., 2016), and linguistic bricolage (Murillo, 2012), and read through a translanguaging stance (García & Wei, 2014), the project centers family practices as epistemic resources rather than peripheral supports. Nine practicing teachers in a graduate bilingual education course in a Midwest US institution conducted ethnographic-style case studies with Spanish-speaking households (semi-structured interviews, artifacts, and reflective memos). Reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022) was used to trace shifts in teachers’ language ideologies and professional identities. Findings showcase four intertwined transformations. First, teachers broadened “involvement” from school-visible, English-centric tasks (e.g., event attendance, email responsiveness) to relational, multilingual labor: coordinating routines, stewarding culture, and sustaining cross-language communication. Second, teachers documented rich home-based multiliteracies across print, oral, digital, musical, and religious practices (e.g., Bible reading in Spanish; WhatsApp voice notes; gaming/YouTube across languages), recognizing these as consequential spaces for biliteracy development and belonging. Third, families positioned bilingualism as a shared project and ethical commitment, with children’s language brokering reframed as cognitively demanding, identity-forming leadership rather than deficit or burden. Fourth, families articulated concrete recommendations for schools: trust-building, consistent bilingual communication across accessible channels, rigorous learning expectations, and structures that mitigate immigration-related chilling effects on participation. Teacher writing displayed polyvocal features (reported speech, code-switching, “we-statements”) that indexed shifting stance and responsibility, suggesting identity movement toward co-education with families. Importantly, teachers also encountered structural frictions: accountability policies, privileged English-only metrics and campus-auditable behaviors often render invisible the multilingual work occurring at home. These tensions emphasize that transformation requires organizational commitments (language access, flexible meeting formats, community-hosted events) alongside pedagogical redesign. The study contributes a practice-anchored account of how experiential, family-engaged preparation catalyzes movement from token acknowledgment of home practices to redesign of assessment, instruction, and communication (e.g., bilingual reading logs that accept audio/voice notes; student-family co-reflections as evidence of learning). This paper offers a US perspective on voice, authority, and partnership: Who gets heard, by which metrics, and to what institutional ends? By foregrounding family knowledge and multilingual ecologies, the author invites dialogue on reimagining “parental involvement” as equitable collaboration that sustains languages, identities, and learning.
References
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. SAGE Publications. García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137385765 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. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849209543534 Murillo, E. G. (2012). Bilingual bricolage: Bridging linguistic and cultural worlds in dual language classrooms. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 14(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v14i2.556 New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u Kalantzis, M., Cope, B., Chan, E., & Dalley-Trim, L. (2016). Literacies (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Update Modus of this Database
The current conference programme can be browsed in the conference management system (conftool) and, closer to the conference, in the conference app.
This database will be updated with the conference data after ECER.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance, please use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference and the conference agenda provided in conftool.
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.