A Critical Look at Four Multicultural Reform Efforts in One Urban College of Education

The article describes multicultural reform projects at an urban college of education including analyses of student\u27s descriptions of their experiences in urban schools, the results of a faculty diversity self-study group and issues arising from culturally responsive pedagogy in an early childhood teaching class. The author\u27s assertion that diversity education is an essential part of teacher education is discussed, and the importance of continuous critical analysis of teacher education is emphasized

Questions in Lessons: Activity Settings in the Homes and School of Two Puerto Rican Kindergartners

This ethnographic study describes continuities and discontinuities between a bilingual kindergarten and the homes of two Spanish-dominant Puerto Rican children. The concept of activity setting was used to explore the relation of culture to question use in lessons taught in both settings. Findings highlight a complex web of continuities and discontinuities and the importance of the joint construction of a culture of teaching and learning by parents, teachers, and children

Contradictions, Clashes, Cominglings : The Syncretic Literacy Projects of Young Bilinguals

This article explores the concept of syncretism, its history, related concepts, and potential as a research tool. It proposes a critical syncretism for analyzing the syncretic literacy projects of three young Puerto Rican bilinguals with attention to their agency and creativity drawing on diverse languages and literacies and transforming them at home with family members\u27 support. The projects are also analyzed within the sociohistorical contexts of the families. Challenges for research and education are discussed

Collaboration in a Culturally Responsive Literacy Pedagogy: Educating Teachers and Latino Children

This article is an analysis of collaboration in a community center’s summer literacy tutoring program for 6–8 year old children, the majority of whom were Puerto Rican, Spanish–English bilinguals. The goal of the program was to increase the children’s motivation to read through engaging literacy activities with high quality, culturally relevant children’s literature. Reflecting a sociocultural perspective, the activities built on the children’s experiences at home with literacy as a collaborative practice. The program as a whole provided for multiple levels of collaboration among the participating adults and between the children and tutors, university students in a teacher preparation program. The focus of the article is on the ways the tutors collaborated and the benefits and challenges of that process. Implications for teacher education are shared, emphasizing the need for explicitly including collaboration as one important element of a literacy pedagogy for teachers of linguistically and culturally diverse children

Collaboration in a Culturally Responsive Literacy Pedagogy: Educating Teachers and Latino Children

This article is an analysis of collaboration in a community center’s summer literacy tutoring program for 6–8 year old children, the majority of whom were Puerto Rican, Spanish–English bilinguals. The goal of the program was to increase the children’s motivation to read through engaging literacy activities with high quality, culturally relevant children’s literature. Reflecting a sociocultural perspective, the activities built on the children’s experiences at home with literacy as a collaborative practice. The program as a whole provided for multiple levels of collaboration among the participating adults and between the children and tutors, university students in a teacher preparation program. The focus of the article is on the ways the tutors collaborated and the benefits and challenges of that process. Implications for teacher education are shared, emphasizing the need for explicitly including collaboration as one important element of a literacy pedagogy for teachers of linguistically and culturally diverse children

Challenging Myths of the Deficit Perspective: Honoring Children\u27s Literacy Resources

The article discusses the deficit perspective that often distorts teachers\u27 vision when interacting with children from marginalized communities. A deficit perspective attributes many children\u27s school failures to perceived deficits within the children, their families, and their cultures. In contrast, a transformational perspective identifies and values the rich cultural practices embedded in diverse communities. Also relevant is the concept of multiple literacies. As a practice affected by culture, literacy takes various forms, in and out of school: reading for pleasure, reading for information, reading silently or aloud with others, memorizing and reciting significant texts. Participating with families in their worlds and learning from them is key in understanding the wealth of knowledge in homes and communities. By reaching beyond taken-for-granted ways of teaching and learning in schools, deficit perspectives can be challenged. Schools can develop creative uses of time and energy so that teachers can be directly involved in children\u27s lives, attending religious or sports events, for example, or joining families for meals. These efforts can lead to broader visions of learning

Language Ideology and the Mediation of Language Choice in Peer Interactions in a Dual-Language First Grade

In this article we explore some of the ways that language ideologies - shared beliefs about language forms and practices embedded in social conflicts over power - mediated the language choices of 4 girls in peer activities. These activities took place in the Spanish and English first-grade classrooms of a dual-language program that enrolled children whose home language was English and children whose home language was Spanish, all learning in both languages. Our analysis was grounded in sociocultural theory and ethnographic methods were used to collect data in the classrooms. We argue that these 2 classrooms were distinct language-learning contexts and that patterns in the children\u27s language choices to speak English or Spanish were influenced by these contexts and, more particularly, by the mediating role of a dominant language ideology that privileges English. We also highlight the children\u27s agency in relation to this ideology as they negotiated language choice in the multiple contexts in which their language interactions were embedded

Reinventing Texts and Contexts: Syncretic Literacy Events in Young Puerto Rican Children\u27s Homes

Analyzes literacy events co-constructed by three bilingual, mainland Puerto Rican kindergarteners and the network of adults and children in their homes who support their developing literacy. Reveals and gives value to some of the many literacies in the children\u27s lives and communicates a respectful approach to the study of literacy in families from diverse backgrounds