Multisite video-cued ethnography

Abstract: The purpose of this ethnographic study was to better understand how Latino immigrant parents describe, view and conceptualize learning in the early primary grades. I looked to answer the following questions: (1) What are the thoughts and ideas that Latino immigrant parents have about the education their children are receiving in U.S. schools and learning settings? (2) What are Latino immigrant parents’ thoughts and ideas about the type of teaching and learning best for their children? (3) What do Latino immigrant parents’ believe is important for their children to learn in school and what should be learned at home? I used three theoretical frameworks for this dissertation study, funds of knowledge (Gonzalez, Moll & Amanti, 2005), social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1977) and subaltern (Spivak, 1988) theories. Together, these theories helped me to listen and understand the Latino immigrant parents’ thoughts and ideas about the education of their children in the United States as they navigated and experienced the school system. This study was part of a larger comparative, video-cued, ethnographic project called the Agency and Young Children Project, modeled after Joseph Tobin’s research design. The research was conducted in two major phases. Phase 1 included selecting a site, observing and filming. Phase 2 involved taking the film to the new research sites for focus group interviews. This dissertation study involved data from Phase 2, which including conducting focus group interviews in schools located in urban and rural areas. Participants were then selected from convenience samples, through access gained from personal and professional networks. I used ethnography for this dissertation study to gather the cultural knowledge and perspectives of a social group. I used video-ethnography in particular because although the videos are not part of the data, the method uses the video/s to generate discussion and reflection about issues occurring in various contexts. My research study revealed that Latino immigrant parents articulate the rationale for the thoughts and ideas they hold about their children’s learning. Understanding the rationale immigrant parents hold about education is meant to aid in valuing the marginalized voices of Latino immigrant parents (Tobin, Arzubiaga & Mantovani, 2007).Curriculum and Instructio

Preparing Bilingual Pre-Service Teachers to Foster Equitable and Open Communication With Latinx Immigrant Parents en la Enseñanza de Matemáticas

We examine how bilingual pre-service teachers developed a practice of communicating to parents their children’s mathematical thinking and how the teachers invited parents to participate in instructional practices in the mathematics classroom. We argue that these practices are knowledge-intensive, in that bilingual pre-service teachers draw on both their knowledge of children’s mathematical thinking and their own experiences as bilingual students, and that communicating this to parents reflects this knowledge. We conceptualize this knowledge as situated in, and integrated with, the practice of teaching. We therefore consider it necessary to support the development of this knowledge early in pre-service teacher education

Reconceptualizing civic education for young children: Recognizing embodied civic action

Traditional conceptions of civic education for young children in the United States tend to focus on student acquisition of patriotic knowledge, that is, identifying flags and leaders, and practicing basic civic skills like voting as decision-making. The Civic Action and Young Children study sought to look beyond this narrow vision of civic education by observing, documenting, and contextualizing how young children acted on behalf of and with other people in their everyday early childhood settings. In the following paper, we offer examples from three Head Start classrooms to demonstrate multiple ways that young children act civically in everyday ways. When classrooms and teachers afford young children more agency, children’s civic capabilities expand, and they are able to act on behalf of and with their community. Rather than teaching children about democracy and citizenship, we argue for an embodied, lived experience for young children